Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

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

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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Reader Interactions

140Comments

  1. 1.

    Chyron HR

    The case against Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, by a longtime reader of the Daily Show.

  3. 3.

    c u n d gulag

    This would never have happened if Fred Hiatt was still there!
    What?
    Neeeeever miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind…

  5. 5.

    MeDrewNotYou

    @Chyron HR: That just means he paid $9.99 to this station* for the real transcripts (with kerning!). That’s what real fans do, so I know to take him seriously.

    *I was a bit young at the time, but wasn’t the line something like, “For a transcript of the program you just watched, please send $9.99 to this station.” I remember 60 Minutes doing it as a kid, but I haven’t heard a transcript blurb in ages.

  8. 8.

    WyldPirate

    Cheer up, Doug and go read the NY Times editorial page. Both Frank Rich and, of all people, Maureen dowd hit long balls way out of the park.
    Here’s Rich with“What Happened to Change we Can Believe In?”:

    The Obama administration seems not to have a prosecutorial gene. It’s shy about calling a fraud a fraud when it occurs in high finance. This caution was exemplified most recently by the secretary of housing and urban development, Shaun Donovan, whose response to the public outcry over the banks’ foreclosure shenanigans was to take to The Huffington Post last weekend. “The notion that many of the very same institutions that helped cause this housing crisis may well be making it worse is not only frustrating — it’s shameful,” he wrote.

    More from Rich:

    Well, yes! Obama couldn’t have said it more eloquently himself. But with all due respect to Secretary Donovan’s blogging finesse, he wasn’t promising action. He was just stroking the liberal base while the administration once again punted. In our new banking scandal, as in those before it, attorneys general in the states, where many pension funds were decimated by Wall Street Ponzi schemes, are pursuing the crimes Washington has not. The largest bill of reparations paid out by Bank of America for Countrywide’s deceptive mortgage practices — $8.4 billion — was to settle a suit by 11 state attorneys general on the warpath.

    “stroking the liberal base…” Truer words have never been spoken. The bastards on Wall St. should be facing charges under RICO statutes, because that is what they are an organized criminal racket.

    The problem is that they are some of Obama’s biggest contributors.

    +++++++++++++
    Then we have Maureen Dowd who I generally despise and wouldn’t usually insult dog shit by using her column as a target for a dogs bowel functions. Amazingly, whe goes off and gets it right, too.
    Here’s Dowd on “Supremely Bad Judgement”:

    Years later, some of the Democrats on that all-male, all-white Senate Judiciary Committee told me they assumed there must have been a consensual romance between the boss and his subordinate. McEwen assumed so, too, because Clarence took Anita with him when he changed agencies. Hill has made it clear she felt no reciprocal attraction.

    Joe Biden, the senator who ran those hearings, was leery of the liberal groups eager to use Hill as a pawn to checkmate Thomas. He circumscribed the testimony of women who could have corroborated Hill’s unappetizing portrait of a power-abusing predator.
    snip
    The 5-to-4 Citizens United decision last January gave corporations, foreign contributors, unions, Big Energy, Big Oil and superrich conservatives a green light to surreptitiously funnel in as much money as they want, whenever they want to elect or unelect candidates. As if that weren’t enough to breed corruption, Thomas was the only justice — in a rare case of detaching his hip from Antonin Scalia’s — to write a separate opinion calling for an end to donor disclosures.

    In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court chose the Republican president. In Citizens United, the court may return Republicans to control of Congress. So much for conservatives’ professed disdain of judicial activism. And so much for the public’s long-held trust in the impartiality of the nation’s highest court.

    The game is rigged and the supposed “good guys”–when they are not aiding and abetting the looting of America–look like the ineffectual eunuchs that they are.

    Wait till after the elections and the “Catfood Commissions” finding. Obama will be all about cooperating with the Rethugs and “reigning in the deficit and entitlement programs”.

    Get ready for Clinton Redux of 94-98 and the beginning of our own “Lost Decade”

    Note: Edited to fix blockquote from Rich’s piece.

  9. 9.

    DCPlod

    The case against Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity, by a longtime reader of the Daily Show.

    So Richard Cohen isn’t actually America’s Concern Troll, he’s just one part of the WaPo Concern Troll Borg Collective For Against America.

  10. 10.

    Linda Featheringill

    @WereBear (itouch):

    Propaganda:

    Yes. It is propaganda.

    Although I do think a lot of people on the Right are really eager to start on their agenda. That agenda includes starving the government [and the affected people], suppressing dissent and eliminating criticism, and revenge for whatever.

    Several days ago, a commenter on BJ mentioned a friend who thought the Right reminded him of Milosevic. They want a country with homogeneity of ethnicity, religion, and political thought. Milosevic was willing to use force. Some on the right are also willing to do so, although I don’t know how many.

    Edited for punctuation.

  11. 11.

    El Cid

    I think that fairly soon indeed we will learn something about the British austerity model. Pretty quickly it will be the part at how the US right and center-right will seize this as an opportunity — like their Conservative and Lib Dem party peers in the UK — to slash programs they long hated anyway.

  13. 13.

    Southern Beale

    Don’t have the sads, Doug! Here’s some good news:

    Fox News Viewership Plunges 21% While MSNBC Grows

    “Compared to the third quarter of 2009, Fox has lost 21% of their total viewers, and 26% of their younger viewers. The biggest loser on the network was Bill O’Reilly who saw his program The O’Reilly Factor lose 12% of its total viewers and 21% of its young viewers. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bret Baier, and Greta Van Susteren rounded out the top five cable news shows, and they each posted double digit declines.”

    The reason for this decline? Well let’s hope Jason Easley is right:

    “The answer I think is rooted in Fox’s shift to the far right. As FNC has become the Tea Party news network, and engaged in straight GOP propaganda, moderate and liberal Republicans along with conservative Democrats, and Independents fled.”

  14. 14.

    jwb

    @WyldPirate: Actually, I found that Frank Rich piece deeply depressing—far more depressing than the predictable drivel coming out of WaPo—and I really wished that he’d waited until after the election to publish it.

  15. 15.

    WyldPirate

    @El Cid:

    Obama’s already been making noises along those lines. He’ll willingly bend over for the Repukes just like Clinton did and aide them in the further decimation of the middle class and enrichment of his campaign donors.

    The game’s over. The best and brightest are just squabbling over the spoils now.

  16. 16.

    R-Jud

    @debbie:

    How are these 500,000 Brits who are about to lose their jobs supposed to survive?

    They’ll claim jobless benefits, naturally. Le sigh.

    What kills me are the huge cuts being made to HMRC (the British IRS). It’s well known that many, many big corporations are skimping on their taxes, to the tune of several billion pounds a year, and the Tories have taken an axe to the departments that could recover that money! Idiots.

    ETA: These job cuts will happen over the next three years– most of them next year, and the remainder to follow in phases. So some people will have time to try to line something else up before they’re cut off completely.

  17. 17.

    WyldPirate

    @jwb:
    I found it depresssing as well, jwb. But he is right on the money.

    All of Obama’s “let’s look forward, not back” is a huge mistake. They’re were heinous crimes committed by the Bush thugs, by mil-industrial complex and the highest levels of the DOD and by Wall St. Real honest to God crimes.

    Not only has Obama ignored them across the board, he is now going to face a 24/7 clown show from a Rethug congress of investigation after investigation.

    The thing I don’t get is all of the Obama butt lickers here at BJ. They are as fucking insane–and just as fuicking wrong– as the BushBot apologists were.

  18. 18.

    Bullsmith

    The WaPo’s decline… not that’s not a strong enough word… the WaPo’s willing embrace of evil has been a nauseating thing to watch. A microcosm the entire society’s deciding that truth doesn’t matter and that propaganda is the highest calling of the media.

  19. 19.

    Bill White

    UK is cutting defense spending and raising taxes.

    Since we need to get defense cuts and tax increases “on the table” that portion of the UK austerity plan can be praised.

  20. 20.

    D-boy

    DougJ

    Charles Murray is going to be chatting about his article on Monday, maybe you should ask him some questions?

  21. 21.

    mai naem

    I tried listening to Fox News yesterday(I have satellite radio hence the listen rather than watch.) It lasted for two fifteen minute sessions. I seriously don’t know how the Daily Show and Media Matters people watch this stuff. Also listened part of a Terri Gross interview with Jon Stewart. I am going to try and listen to the whole thing today. He talked about how Fox is so good at building a case for an issue all day long with no let up, almost like they’ve choreographed it, comparing it to MSNBC where Scarborough and Ed break an all day build up.
    Astute observation.
    Also too, I want Clarence Thomas to go through an impeachment trial. I believe it’s done through the Senate. Seems obvious to me that he committed perjury.

  23. 23.

    MattF

    The Broder article and the various “Jon Stewart, go away” articles are bad and stupid… but the Murray article rises to self-parody. I really, really, really, really don’t understand how anyone can take him seriously. And, yeah, I’m talkin’ to you, Sully.

  24. 24.

    b-psycho

    The 3rd one does have a point though. Wouldn’t it defeat the purpose of them having that rally if it just ended up like all the others?

  25. 25.

    Karen

    Isn’t Charles Murray the “Bell Curve” guy? You know that book than claims black people are inferior? How can anyone take such a racist author seriously? How can anything he writes be taken seriously?

  26. 26.

    Emma

    WyldPirate: So if I think Obama has done well in some things and terrible in others (which is, btw, the stance du jour in this place) I’m a butt licker. Thanks for the opinion. Now I can go back to ignoring you.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @mai naem: Thomas committed perjury and as the Republicans mentioned before, it is not the sex, it’s the lying. The impeachment hearings occur in the house and then the Senate votes whether or not to convict.
    Since the Republicans will probably take over the House, it’s not going to happen. Perjury is okay if you are a Republican.

  31. 31.

    Linda Featheringill

    @WyldPirate:

    The thing I don’t get is all of the Obama butt lickers here at BJ. They are as fucking insane—and just as fuicking wrong—as the BushBot apologists were.

    Guilty as charged. I am an Obot.

    Also, I won’t defend myself against the accusation of being insane as judgment of sanity is probably quite subjective.

    Am I wrong? Maybe. Wrong about what? Wrong because I believe that Obama is not as horrible as you think he is? Am I morally wrong because I have not personally assassinated the man? Or is my wrong-ness merely made up of the fact that I incorrectly think that Obama can still have an effective presidency?

  33. 33.

    WyldPirate

    @Emma:

    Fine, I ignore people that willingly rub shit in their eyes from a con man and you are one of the ringleader Obama butt lickers here.

    You haven’t anything useful to say and I never paid any attention to your worthless droppings in the first place.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Emma: Didn’t you know that the world has only binary choices? Everything is black and white. Also too, as an important election approaches, people will not emphasize the positive achievements of the the side they hope will win while, at the same time, minimizing the less positive aspects of that side. No, people would never do that.

  38. 38.

    Chyron HR

    @WyldPirate:

    I’m sure there are plenty of blogs out there devoted to political coprophilia fanfiction, but I’m afraid this isn’t one of them.

  41. 41.

    eric

    @WyldPirate: it is not a binary choice…..if there was a progressive House pushing legislation to the Left, then Obama would be forced to the Left; if there was a progressive Senate, then same dynamic. But, neither of those is true and the Senate is so “reactionary” as to be a right (not center-right) body at the moment. Obama is the President and he is serving varied interests, some of which are mine, some of which are “others”. that is normal. our collective problem is that the other institutions that could push things in a progressive direction (also including the MSM) are not so acting. So, I support Obama, while I criticize him with constructive rhetoric, so as not to undermine the good things he is doing.

  42. 42.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @jwb:

    If Wyld likes something you know it isn’t good for Democrats. Of course, whenever this is pointed out the typical Wyld response is:

    Obot!

    or some other lame utterance which is supposed to make you cry. Or something. I usually just skip any post by them because noting it is like noting that shit stinks.

    SSSODD

  43. 43.

    Emma

    Omnes Omnibus: Yep. And did you notice his reply to me? The poor little symp doesn’t even know I am probably one of the most sporadic commenters in this blog, as I usually don’t get to read it until late and by the time I do everything I would want to say has been said better by others. Reminds me of those folks who “weren’t going to watch” NPR anymore.

  44. 44.

    Kryptik

    God, next Tuesday can’t get here soon enough. All the bullshit, all the retardation, the ridiculous amount of people who honest-to-god believe we’ve somehow become SUPER SOSHULIZT! and that Obama is some far-left maniac, all the people who honestly believe Republicans are the REAL grownups and are the REAL change and will create a new economic wonderland despite literally, literally saying ‘our new ideas are the old ideas, the same ones that got us in this mess’, all the fucking goddamn idiots who allowed 12 years of almost completely uninterrupted GOP control, 6 of those years with a GOP president, and yet 2 years of a Dem President and Dem Congress, and ‘OH NO, DEMOCRATS RUINED AMERICA!!!!!”, I just want to get this fucking thing over with now, just tear off the goddamn bandage and let it bleed.

    I’m just sick of this fucking all. It’s like punching myself in the face repeatedly, except at least the pain doing that literally fades with some time and ice.

  45. 45.

    jwb

    @WyldPirate: Of course, he’s on the money, that’s why it’s depressing. I still wish Rich had waited until after the election to publish it, as I don’t see any advantage to publishing it this week rather than two weeks hence.

    No one around here is defending Obama on the issues Rich raises. They’ll defend him on health care, on his approach on DADT, his approach on financial reform, even perhaps on the stimulus; but I haven’t heard anyone saying he should not have gone after the bankers. That’s one place Obama really misstepped, it would have helped the Dems in so many ways, and I blame Summers and Rahm for giving him really piss poor advice on that. Given the extent to which campaign money shifted in the banking industry to the Goopers this cycle, it was obviously a horrible political strategy even discounting the bad policy positions that came out of it. Not going after the illegal acts of the Bush administration was, I believe, a sensible political calculation, since if they had taken that route nothing would have been accomplished during the past two years.

  46. 46.

    xephyr

    Bought and sold motherfuckers. I wish I wasn’t an atheist, then I could imagine the reckoning all these sociopaths were going to face.

  47. 47.

    El Cid

    Brad DeLong notices the passive, ‘let-it-be’ side of class warfare.

    Does Washington care about unemployment?
    __
    in 1983 it was clear that the monetary and fiscal expansion trains were leaving the station. It was easy for politicians to call for bold and decisive action to fight unemployment, secure in the knowledge that such actions were already in motion and one could soon take credit for them.
    __
    But whenever I wander the halls of Washington these days, I can’t help but think that something else is going on—that a deep and wide gulf has grown between the economic hardships of Americans and the seeming incomprehension, or indifference, of courtiers in the imperial city.
    __
    Have decades of widening wealth inequality created a chattering class of reporters, pundits and lobbyists who’ve lost their connection to mainstream America? Has the collapse of the union movement removed not only labor’s political muscle but its beating heart from the consciousness of the powerful?
    __
    Has this recession, which has reduced hiring more than it has increased layoffs, left the kind of people who converse with the powerful in Washington secure in their jobs and thus communicating calm while the unemployed are engulfed in panic? Are we passively watching an unrepresented underclass of the long-term unemployed created before our eyes?

    Yes. SATSQ. And it’s not clear that there will be downsides for the super-wealthy and the heights of our economy, so, it might be this way for a loooong time.

  48. 48.

    Brendancalling

    I’ve been seeing this growing media hostility to Stewart’s rally (my whole family’s going). I think they are very much afraid of a “Colbert-at-the-press-corps-dinner” mockery, which is kind of what I’m hoping it will be. Our failed media experiment is strongly invested in the shriekshow/freakshow (the reaction to Colbert was furious, especially from Dicky Cohen), and I’m pretty sure Tucker-the-Fucker hasn’t recovered from his skewering at Stewart’s hands either.

    There’s lots of money to be made by pretending Glen Beck has something relevant to say, or by pretending the Teatards are a bonafide political movement. Next Saturday has the potential to tear that facade down, so they’re trying to discredit it on advance.

    As for Broder, why does that ancient man not die; as for Murray, he’s a racist, and no one with an ounce of brains reads him.

  49. 49.

    Kryptik

    @Brendancalling:

    as for Murray, he’s a racist, and no one with an ounce of brains reads him.

    Which is precisely why he will always have a job. Racism just isn’t en vogue here these days. It’s almost a necessity, especially during election years.

    And the clock keeps turning back….

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    Will anyone be surprised to hear that WyldPirate is, once again, talking out of his ass when he claims no one is being prosecuted for mortgage fraud and fraud isn’t even being investigated?

    Protip for ya, Pirate — the Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t investigate fraud. The DoJ and the FBI do. Therefore, not finding any information on the HUD website about fraud investigations doesn’t mean there are no fraud investigations.

  51. 51.

    PaulW

    The Democratic party voters need to remind themselves of one thing:

    The population statistics say they are in the vast majority. So all they need to do is for ALL of them to show up to vote and ensure the Republicans don’t gain control of the Senate. And the House. And the Florida Governorship, ye GODS RICK SCOTT COMMITTED 1.7 BILLION IN MEDICARE FRAUD, what the HELL is he doing even polling above 40 percent?! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, FLORIDA, DON’T VOTE FOR SCOTT!

  52. 52.

    WyldPirate

    @eric:

    I don’t disagree with you for the most part, eric. It’s just that we have different views of what Obama is doing right.

    I think Obama is wrong for not aggressively prosecuting crimes that have been committed. Not doing so is establishing a precedent that will allow them to continue (I think they are going to continue any way because the “game” of politics has been rigged even more firmly than before).

    I think Obama was idiotic for escalating in Afghanistan even though he said he would. There was clearly nothing to be gained from putting tens of thousands of more troops in that shithole and much too be lost in treasure, lives and enmity. I also think he escalated for purely political reasons which is something that I find depressingly craven and immoral.

    That said, I voted for him because he was far better than McInsane and the Wasilla Snowbilly. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to criticize Obama when I think he is doing something stupid or damaging to the country. Moreover, I’m certainly not going to defend what I think is idiocy because he is Obama or simply because he is on “my side” as the lesser of two evils.

    I don’t harbor any illusions that making comments on this blog are “harming” or influencing the Obama administration in any way. I argue and comment primarily for stress relief. Some here obviously feel differently, but they’re the types that think winning a medal at the Special Olympics is an astounding, world class athletic achievement.

  53. 53.

    Kryptik

    @PaulW:

    How?

    Because obviously the country hates Democrats and liberals more than they care about actual policy or anything. After all, we keep getting reminded that ‘this is a center-right country’, and apparently, anything Dems do is tantamount to RAMPANT SOSHULIZMS!!!! So no wonder they want a proven crook or fraud. After all, at least he’s not a Democrat!!!

    SIgh…where the fuck is the alcohol.

  54. 54.

    PaulW

    @Mnemosyne:

    My question about the mortgage fraud investigations of 2009-10 is, what happened to the investigations that were supposed to cover the fraud that took place around 2006-07 when the market collapsed? THAT I haven’t heard a peep from.

  55. 55.

    max

    Scenes from today’s Kaplan editorial page:

    I like how David Broder thinks a deal to ‘rollback’ the welfare state would be bipartisan instead of, of course, a straight up Republican objective. Extra bonus points for calling the ‘reform’ radical. Isn’t it great how we’re have a conservative party that supports radicalism?

    You also missed out of Grep Ip gleefully hoping the economy goes into the tank because of deficits. Maybe the markets will raise interest rates because of deficits (never mind that we want the economy to be going well enough that interest rates will rise). Maybe we’ll be just like Mexico or Brazil or Korea (countries we don’t have anything in common with). Maybe the markets will decide the US is going to default! In 2012! During the election! And if not, then wait til 2016!

    I swear there’s a whole bunch of economists (and pundits!) who would enjoy the bloodletting (of austerity, of default or whathaveyou) and can’t wait for it to happen. Finally! Some excitement!

    max
    [‘Pardon my eye roll.’]

  56. 56.

    Bill White

    @ El Cid “However, the fees on banking, much touted as tough love, can be waived for a huge list of reasons.”

    Then they are morons. Sigh . . .

    A refusal to increase taxes on the wealthy and on the bankers only assures bigger public debt, down the road.

    Okay, uncle. I am depressed.

  57. 57.

    jwb

    @Brendancalling: What they are really afraid of is that Stewart and Colbert will far out do Beck’s rally in terms of size. Then where will the media narrative be since you’ll have side by side comparisons of the crowds to go by (and I have to imagine that Stewart and Colbert were smart enough to have pictures taken of the Beck rally)? Since Beck’s rally was in the neighborhood of 60-80K but most of the media outlets insisted on applying the wingnut multiplier, the “consensus” numbers reported came in somewhere between 300-500K. Well, what’s the media going to do if Stewart and Colbert’s rally clearly looks larger than Beck’s after having devoted all that space to covering Beck and talking about how important it was? And, for once, the news media doesn’t have the luxury of ignoring it without consequence because Stewart and Colbert have sufficient media power to force the news media to eat their shit and the rest of the media knows it—that’s why they are so angry about it. I do think, however, that the rally is coming at least a week too late to do much good as far as the election is concerned. But it would make me very, very happy if they got a million people there.

  58. 58.

    El Cid

    Thomas Friedman, once again a bullshitter who thinks we treat our middle classes too generously, fetishizes cutting Social Security, and believes that jobs are created by the dedication of spirit and maybe by telepathy.

    We will have to adjust some services, like Social Security, while we invest in new infrastructure, like high-speed rail and Internet bandwidth; the U.S. ranks 22nd in the world in average connection speed…
    __
    …I think Lawrence Katz, the Harvard University labor economist, has it right. Everyone today, he says, needs to think of himself as an “artisan” — the term used before mass manufacturing to apply to people who made things or provided services with a distinctive touch in which they took personal pride. Everyone today has to be an artisan and bring something extra to their jobs…
    __
    …[J]ust doing your job in an average way — in this integrated and automated global economy — will lead to below-average wages. Sadly, average is over. We’re in the age of “extra,” and everyone has to figure out what extra they can add to their work to justify being paid more than a computer, a Chinese worker or a day laborer. “People will always need haircuts and health care,” says Katz, “and you can do that with low-wage labor or with people who acquire a lot of skills and pride and bring their imagination to do creative and customized things.” Their work will be more meaningful and their customers more satisfied.

    Okay then. We’ll just tell people to become ‘artisans,’ so that we can once again return to the thriving pre-industrial economies we once enjoyed? How many people does Friedman think are going to, say, flock to ‘artisan’ barbers who charge $50 / cut versus a chain barber who does it for $8? ‘Yeah, I spent that much getting my hair cut, but he was an artisan!’

    And that bit about ‘adjusting’ Social Security in order to speed up internet bandwidth? Tough love, AARP, but YouTube will be awesome.

    Dean Baker:

    Friedman argues by example of course. He argues for rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, which would of course be a great thing. However, he wants the country to pay for it with more taxes on the middle class and cutting Social Security benefits.
    __
    A skilled columnist would know that the U.S. Social Security system is already among the least generous of the OECD countries. A skilled columnist would also know that most near retirees will have almost nothing to support themselves in their retirement other than Social Security because the people who Friedman thinks of as experts (economists) are not very good at their jobs (i.e. they allowed the housing bubble to grow to a level where its collapse would inevitably wreck the economy and destroy the savings [mostly home equity] of near retirees).
    __
    A skilled columnist would suggest a tax on the people who have profited from and caused the economic decay of the last three decades. Specifically a financial speculation tax, which could raise more than $150 billion a year while discouraging financial speculation and reducing the drain of resources that the financial sector imposes on the economy.

    The World is Phat!

  59. 59.

    tomvox1

    Should be fun (i.e. nausea inducing) to watch Sully’s wet dream unfold in the UK. So much we can learn from the Tories….

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/world/europe/21britain.html?_r=2&hpw

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39818623/ns/world_news-europe/

    …I’m sure it won’t turn out to be a big ponzi scheme for the rich with the working class and poor getting it in the neck. If so, Sully will just decry the imperfect execution of what should have been perfect Big “C” Conservative policies.

  61. 61.

    WyldPirate

    @Mnemosyne:
    nice strawman, dickhead. I didn’t say that.

    Not surprising coming from you, though. What are you, President or VP of the Obama Ass-Kissing local of the BJ Apologists for Democratic Ineffectualism?

  62. 62.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @eric: Exactly. As long as we have a Congress that is more conservative than the rest of the country, there are only so many progressive things that will get through it.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @WyldPirate:

    nice strawman, dickhead. I didn’t say that.

    You were outraged because the head of Housing and Urban Development isn’t investigating mortgage fraud cases, even though that’s not what HUD does. I pointed out to you that, despite your claims, mortgage fraud cases are being investigated.

    Any other imaginary outrages you want to tell us about today? Maybe you’re having a hissy fit because the Department of Energy isn’t investigating salmonella outbreaks?

  66. 66.

    WyldPirate

    @jwb:

    . Well, what’s the media going to do if Stewart and Colbert’s rally clearly looks larger than Beck’s after having devoted all that space to covering Beck and talking about how important it was?

    They will ignore it just like they do everything that doesn’t conform to their pre-approved narrative. To do otherwise would be an inconvenience.

  69. 69.

    nancydarling

    @WyldPirate: I confess to being beyond an Obot. I love our president like a mother loves her son. I feel a deep kinship with Stanley Anne Dunham. Like her, I am originally from Kansas and we are the same age. I regret that she didn’t live to see her son become president. She was a much braver soul than I—she paddled her board out and surfed the big waves.

    That said, I don’t agree with everything he has done and I do get frustrated at times. I can try to understand the tasks that face him every day although I cannot really imagine the weight of the job. Yes, he wanted it and knew what a meltdown he was facing in so many areas. Being born of old Kansas populist soil, I wish he had been harder on Wall Street and the banksters. I wanted single payer, or at the very least a public option. Most of the time politics is about the art of the possible and settling for a half a loaf rather than nothing at all.

    My parents clawed their way into blue collar lower middle class and all four of their kids achieved a solid middle class life style. I worry about the grandchildren though. Right now they are all ok, but who knows what the future holds. I trust President Obama’s motives totally. He is the very best chance we have to put the brakes on and stop hurtling toward the edge of the cliff.

    Let’s stop carping and get our shoulders to the wheel and help him. First thing is to vote. I am voting Monday evening (yes, I will vote for Blanche) then Wednesday I am heading out to DC with my daughter for the Sanity Rally.

  73. 73.

    gbear

    @Mnemosyne:

    Why should the government investigate salmonella breakouts when that’s the consumer’s job in a free market?

    It really never occurred to me that right-wing Republicans would start running on a pro-salmonella platform, but Jesse Kelly and his Tea Party allies have a surprisingly twisted worldview. Kelly seriously seems to believe that laws to enforce food safety are unnecessary, and may ultimately make matters worse. Just let the free market work its magic, and everything will be fine…..A few years ago, Rick Perlstein even coined a phrase to capture this ideology: “E. Coli Conservatism.”

  74. 74.

    WyldPirate

    @nancydarling:

    Let’s stop carping and get our shoulders to the wheel and help him. First thing is to vote. I am voting Monday evening (yes, I will vote for Blanche) then Wednesday I am heading out to DC with my daughter for the Sanity Rally.

    I’ve already voted. I voted for the “good guys” on Obama’s side across the board.

    I’m not doing what I’ve done in the past–no GOTV. No phone banking, no giving people rides to the poles.

    why? Obama’s “hopey-changey” BS devolved into “more of the same” SOS.

  75. 75.

    eric

    @WyldPirate: to be fair, i was not referring to yrou comments as destructive of obama, but there is a more vocal, more visible spectrum of the left that criticizes him in ways that undermine him, in what I believe is not constructive.

    I have my issues too, but can you imagine ANY republican doing an It Gets Better video. we had two of the highest profile dems do it and it was a non-event. that tells me that we are winning the culture wars on matters of equality, but we are actually losing them when it comes to valuing facts and education. the undermining of climate science is the worst threat we face — even with the looming attempts to privatize SS. We may have to fight Obama a bit on the latter (for the same reasons he punted on the Banks), but we dont have to fight him on climate science.

    Right now I am hoping for a massive volcanic eruption that causes no tsunamis, lowers world temperatures, and has the good sense to shoot hot ash all over the senate.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    This is a really depressing thread.

    Why don’t some of you step away from the computer and use that energy to get out and knock some doors today? Canvass and tell people how much it matters to vote in these midterms.

    The Republicans have “almost” won the House. But they have not won yet.

    Larger than usual non-GOP voting could make a big difference there.

    I think the Stewart rally might remind some people why it’s important they turn out to vote on election day.

    I am sick of the “it’s already over and the Democrats fucked up again” narrative.

    Turn it around.

  77. 77.

    WyldPirate

    @Mnemosyne:
    No, but I’ve read enough of some people here to arrive at that opinion independently of whether or not we have had a disagreement in opinion.

    FWIW, people that simply make shit up and put words in others mouth fall into my incurable asshole category. Moreover, I noticed that this is a very nasty habit that you seem to have acquired long before we ever had any sort of exchange.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @eric:

    Right now I am hoping for a massive volcanic eruption that causes no tsunamis, lowers world temperatures, and has the good sense to shoot hot ash all over the senate.

    It’s better than the Republican plan. Who knows, it could even happen.

  79. 79.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Are you capable of responding to disagreement without acting like an asshole?

    Fix’t and Yes.

    @gbear:

    Jesus. Just. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

    Fix’t and no, they won’t.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    @WyldPirate:

    What a principled stand. No GOTV at all from you.

    Meanwhile, planet Beckistan is calling and emailing its associates furiously; they cannot wait for November 2 and revel in the media coverage on how this election is over. Even the New York Times says the House is lost.

    Wyld, where would we be without patriots like you?

    Although I wonder if you’d piss off more people than you’d motivate in a face to face encounter.

    Hard to tell.

  81. 81.

    valdivia

    @Elizabelle:

    This. I can’t tell you what a difference phonebanking made for me. I am trying to get as much free time doing it from now til election day and getting other people involved.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @WyldPirate:

    Moreover, I noticed that this is a very nasty habit that you seem to have acquired long before we ever had any sort of exchange.

    Still not prepared to admit Frank Rich was wrong when he claimed the administration isn’t investigating mortgage fraud because the head of HUD isn’t doing the investigation, huh? It must be embarrassing to buy into his bullshit like that and then find out five minutes later that he’s wrong.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @valdivia:

    Good on you valdivia.

    But then I already knew you were one of the smart — and active — commenters here.

    People: stay off the blogs for a day.

    Call some voters, or volunteer for one day with a local campaign or with Organizing for America.

    (www.mybarackobama.com)

    See how you feel after.

    It’s tonic, I tell you.

  88. 88.

    Nellcote

    @El Cid:

    We’re in the age of “extra,” and everyone has to figure out what extra they can add to their work to justify being paid more than a computer, a Chinese worker or a day laborer.

    And Friedman’s “extra” is what exactly? He’s less useful than a day laborer.

  89. 89.

    Uloborus

    @jwb:
    I’m actually saying he shouldn’t, because he can’t, because they haven’t broken any laws. That’s the POINT of deregulation. They got to do all that bullshit that should be illegal, but it wasn’t. They’re allowed to sell those CDOs knowing they’re garbage and bet against them. It’s completely legal. Although last I heard the DOJ is investigating (Goldman, I believe?) because they did fail to disclose one piece of information about who was betting against what that they’re obligated to provide.

    But that’s all we’ve got on them. They screwed the entire world, but they didn’t break the law doing it.

  90. 90.

    WyldPirate

    @Mnemosyne:

    goddamned, you’re a dishonest piece of shit Mnemosyne.

    Here’s what you said in the post linked above:

    Still not prepared to admit Frank Rich was wrong when he claimed the administration isn’t investigating mortgage fraud because the head of HUD isn’t doing the investigation, huh? It must be embarrassing to buy into his bullshit like that and then find out five minutes later that he’s wrong.

    Here is what you said earlier:

    Will anyone be surprised to hear that WyldPirate is, once again, talking out of his ass when he claims no one is being prosecuted for mortgage fraud and fraud isn’t even being investigated?

    .

    I never said either of the things that you try to claim. And, like I said earlier, you’re an asshole. Now we can add fucking liar to your personality traits.

    Don’t you have some Obama droppings to gobble up somewhere?

    Nice try at moving the goalposts, though.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @WyldPirate:

    So you weren’t agreeing with Frank Rich when you posted? You were just putting up random words for the heck of it?

    Like it or not, when you post something, people assume you agree with it. Are you now arguing that you don’t agree with Rich, or has that come only now that you’ve found out that Rich was talking out of his ass?

  92. 92.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    they’re the types that think winning a medal at the Special Olympics is an astounding, world class athletic achievement.

    This has to be the most douchey thing I’ve ever heard you say.

    This is also proof you’re a troll, a true progressive would never say something like that, ever.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kryptik #44

    God, next Tuesday can’t get here soon enough

    And then next Wednesda we move full steam ahead into *Election 2012*. Sigh.

    I know it hasn’t always been like this, but — in the sense of “we have always been at war with Eastasia” — nowadays it seems that “we have always been in campaign mode.”. And I don’t recall exactly when that became true, but certainly in my adult lifetime.

    I enjoy the Inside Horseracing aspects as much as anyone does, but even the FSM rested hirs noodly appendages occasionally.

  94. 94.

    John S.

    @Mnemosyne:

    Aargh, there be stupid in them thar waters. Especially with WyldPirate manning the SS Firebagger. No parlay for him, matey!

  95. 95.

    morzer

    @John S.:

    I suspect he just likes to reenact battles fought by the SS Firebagger division in full uniform – after all, he only does it to accompany his son…

  97. 97.

    Nick

    @jwb: Why? You don’t think his overlords at the NYT asked him to write something to depress turnout on the left?

    Frank Rich is so clueless as not to realize most Americans hate Obama not because he didn’t drag bankers away in chains, but because they’ve been led to be afraid that he will and they’d be next.

  98. 98.

    Karmakin

    @El Cid: Thomas Friedman, like 99% of the rest of the elite, have absolutely no idea how the labor market actually works. It’s as simple as that.

    Providing “extra”, in most instances results in the loss of jobs. Either you end up costing the company more, and you lose your job, or you end up being more efficient, and as such the company needs less labor so jobs are lost. On a macro scale there’s nothing at all wrong with the first, but the second is a nightmare.

    And the reason I say 99% of the elite have no idea, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, most people think that education is a “solution” for the macro economic issues, instead of understanding that it’s the scarcity of degrees, not the value of the work they do that keeps them valuable.

    You can create, and it’s happened before a situation where even non-educated labor is scarce. You see wages and working conditions go up in such an environment, across the board. It’s just that the powers that be on purpose prevent that from happening, because OH NOES, INFLATION.

    I LIKE Obama. But he’s the wrong person for the times. In fact, the problem is that there’s no realistic right person for these times. Austerity or no austerity..whatever, the problem is that productivity gains have been soaked up by the rich at the cost of the poor and the middle class.

    You can have austerity measures to balance the budget and at the same time have labor and wage policies that would negate much of the damage done. The problem isn’t austerity, the problem is that we’re too damn efficient at what we do.

  99. 99.

    WyldPirate

    @Mnemosyne:
    Came back for more, huh?

    Too bad you didn’t read Rich’s article.

    The latest example is Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide and the godfather of subprime mortgages. On the eve of his trial 10 days ago, he settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges for $67.5 million, $20 million of which will be footed by what remains of Countrywide in its present iteration at Bank of America. Even if he paid the whole sum himself, it would still be a small fraction of the $521 million he collected in compensation as he pursued his gambling spree from 2000 until 2008.

    Frank Rich is raging at the tiny number of prosecutions underway and the pittance of the fines that they are paying, NOT as you claim that no one is being prosecuted.

    Like I said, you make shit up and you’re a fucking liar. You made up shit and claimed I said it and then you make up shit that you claim Rich said.

    Put down the shovel and quit digging, asshole.

  100. 100.

    fasteddie9318

    @Southern Beale:

    “The answer I think is rooted in Fox’s shift to the far right. As FNC has become the Tea Party news network, and engaged in straight GOP propaganda, moderate and liberal Republicans along with conservative Democrats, and Independents fled.”

    I don’t think Fox losing viewership over this really matters all that much. Rupert is running that network to push a viewpoint, not to make a profit, and the fact is that no matter how large Fox’s viewership is, they drive the media narrative in this country on every other outlet. I don’t see that changing.

  102. 102.

    Angry Geometer

    “Fine, I ignore people that willingly rub shit in their eyes from a con man and you are one of the ringleader Obama butt lickers here.”

    The words of a gentleman, a scholar, and a patriot. Thank you, random Balloon Juice commentator, for taking accusations of coprophilia in strange, random directions.

    With a mind like that, how could anyone ever get the better of you? We should probably just do whatever you say — armed with both the facts and a keen wit, clearly you’re our intellectual superior. And that homophobia! How could anybody question your bona fides as a progressive with that kind of commitment to homophobia?

    However, most experienced butt lickers know how to do it without getting shit in their eyes. I would be happy to forward you an instructional video, if that would help, but basically for future reference, if you’re getting it in your eyes you’re doing it a bit too enthusiastically.

  105. 105.

    Karen

    @b-psycho:

    I worked at AEI from 1997-1998, back when it was more libertarian, Heritage was the far right and Brookings was the left. I can tell you stories….

    Charles Murray was a scholar at that time and was in every way as arrogant, entitled and patronizing as you’d think.

  106. 106.

    gbear

    @WyldPirate:

    Came back for more, huh?

    Umm, Mnemosyne came back with a reply to your comment in less than four minutes. Now after a half hour of digging around for your reply you start out with that weak shit?

    Please just quit.

  107. 107.

    Ripley

    Firebagger political strategy:

    1. Hate on Obama (excrement references encouraged)
    2. Insult mentally retarded people
    3. ????
    4. Progressive utopia!!!

  109. 109.

    Nick

    @Ripley: You mistakenly think firebaggers want a progressive utopia. it’s pretty clear they don’t, they just want to bitch about how awful the world is.

    How can they do that if people actually make it better?

  110. 110.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Mumphrey:

    If I just shot David Broder, could I claim justifiable homicide?

    Shooting won’t be enough. You need to drive a stake through his heart, cut his head off, stuff his mouth full of garlic and bury him at a crossroads with his head tucked under his knee. And before you have a chance of doing that you need to find the coffins full of his native soil and destroy them all.

  113. 113.

    jwb

    @WyldPirate: But they can’t ignore it because Stewart and Colbert will be merciless in their response. That’s the difference here, Stewart and Colbert are themselves media outlets, outlets with a reasonable amount of clout, so the media can’t get away with its usual strategy and they know it. That’s why they are so angry. But it still depends on the rally itself being a success. That’s where the rest of us come in.

  114. 114.

    jwb

    @Elizabelle: Don’t listen to everything the NY Times says, especially when it comes to horse race reporting. All the media outlets are using the same Rasmussen-influenced numbers and are presuming that likely voters in 2010 are more or less the same as they always have been. Just moving that likely voter model a couple of points will radically change the results, which is why GOTV is absolutely crucial.

  115. 115.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Mnemosyne:

    You were outraged because the head of Housing and Urban Development isn’t investigating mortgage fraud cases, even though that’s not what HUD does. I pointed out to you that, despite your claims, mortgage fraud cases are being investigated.
    __
    Any other imaginary outrages you want to tell us about today? Maybe you’re having a hissy fit because the Department of Energy isn’t investigating salmonella outbreaks?

    WyldPirate’s too busy to respond because he’s watching NPR right now.

  116. 116.

    Alan in SF

    The Firebaggers sure got that whole “Democrats’ policies will cost Democrats control of Congress” thing wrong, huh? What a bunch of dopes!

  118. 118.

    jwb

    @Uloborus: Yes, well, I conflated a lot things in that comment. When I said Obama should go after the bankers, I meant he should have gotten ahead of the anger and been leading the charge to hold them accountable in some fashion. As President, there is of course only so much he could do, but he never gave the impression that he was doing all he could, because it never seemed particularly high on his priority list. Even with the latest foreclosure mess and an election going on, it still doesn’t come off as high on his priority list. That’s quite odd coming from a Democratic President.

  120. 120.

    Nick

    @jwb:

    As President, there is of course only so much he could do, but he never gave the impression that he was doing all he could, because it never seemed particularly high on his priority list.

    You know, I’ve heard everyone say their issues weren’t “high on his priority list” which leads to me to wonder, how can the most successful two years of legislation and policy in decades end with no one thinking their issues were “high on his priority list”

    What I hear here is “he hasn’t demagogued enough” which is funny because when he actually does try to demagogue, he gets accused of being all words and no action.

  121. 121.

    Chyron HR

    @Alan in SF:

    The Firebaggers sure got that whole “Democrats’ policies will cost Democrats control of Congress” thing wrong, huh? What a bunch of dopes!

    Oh, is THAT what the they were on about? And here I thought they claimed that the Tea Partiers were noble independents who would join forces with liberals to bring about a new era of Progressive government.

    Hence, you know, the whole reason why people pointed and laughed and called them “Firebaggers”.

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    @Nick:
    Being president right now is like volunteering to be the pilot on that exploratory ship to the sun. You could leave at night to avoid the heat but because the trip takes more than 10-12 hours and daylight does come, you’ll burn up.

    IOW no matter what you do you’re fucked.

  123. 123.

    jwb

    @Nick: I think Rich has a better grasp of the underlying dynamics here than you do, though his political timing is horrible. From the beginning of Obama’s term, it’s been the anger against the bankers that has been the engine that’s been driving the politics. That’s where the teabaggers got their foothold, and the conservative activists and media were smart enough to recognize it and turn it to their purposes. Meanwhile, the administration, the Democrats in congress, most of the leftist activists simply tried to ignore it, hoping that the anger would dissipate when the economy turned around. Well, if the economy had turned around, then we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation, but since it hasn’t, here we are with the voters wanting a scapegoat. The Dems, because they didn’t get ahead of the anger, have become the scapegoat. Ironically, the only thing that has kept the Dems in this is that the anger has made the politics especially stupid. Whether that’s enough—we’ll find out soon enough.

    I also see little evidence that the NY Times is purposefully working to drive down turnout. Actually, the paper itself seems fucking clueless when it comes to the larger issues of media politics, rarely aware of when they are being played from any side. Personally, I think the editor and owner just aren’t very politically astute, are desperately chasing circulation, and so make the paper an easy mark.

  124. 124.

    Nick

    @jwb:

    it’s been the anger against the bankers that has been the engine that’s been driving the politics. That’s where the teabaggers got their foothold, and the conservative activists and media were smart enough to recognize it and turn it to their purposes.

    The teabaggers?!?!?1 the “Obama is destroying capitalism” teabaggers? Do you KNOW any teabaggers?!?!?

    Who, in this world, is stupid enough to believe teabaggers are strong because of the hatred of BANKS?

  125. 125.

    jwb

    @Nick: Go back to the origins of the teabagging movement in the spring of 2009 and see what they were talking about. It was hostility toward TARP that was motivating them.

  126. 126.

    matoko_chan

    Stratification by IQ has a been a large concern for the ‘conservative’ leadership since at least 2008 when Grand New Party came out.
    94% of scientists are not republican, atheists are higher IQ and nearly uniformly liberal, 75% of post baccs vote democratic, 18-34 votes democratic, ESPECIALLY college students.
    Now, in midterm 2010, it becoming gobsmackingly and visually apparent that the conservative slate is mighty thin on intelligence and education; Palin, Bush, O’Donnell, Angle, etc.
    So the elite bashing is going to reach a new frenzy.

    Dr. Manzi– an excessive belief in the capacity of intellectual elites to have valid expertise that transcends common sense and practical experience concerning the organization of human society (translation commonsense= more burkean bullshytt and practical experiance concerning the organization of human society = more socon bullshytt).

    Noah via Sully–But one thing we should all be pretty clear on by now is that they hate, hate, hate anything that smacks of elitism. The spectacle of affluent 18-to-34-year-olds blanketing the Mall to snicker at jokes about wingnut ignoramuses and Bible thumpers will, I fear, have the effect of a red cape waved before a bull.

    Palin, the end result of conservative selection for stupid.

  127. 127.

    matoko_chan

    @Nick: its really kind of sad…..the teabaggers are just fundies that want to go back to a time when we could be proud of America.
    they are reactionaries.

  128. 128.

    Nick

    @jwb:

    Go back to the origins of the teabagging movement in the spring of 2009 and see what they were talking about. It was hostility toward TARP that was motivating them.

    No, it was Rick Santelli’s tirade on CNBC about potentially rescuing homeowners who were underwater and forcing big banks to eat the losses that motivated them.

  129. 129.

    matoko_chan

    Evil elites–the wingnut talking point du semaine.
    The stratification by IQ that Ross and Reihan feared in Grand New Party has come to fruition in the dismal slate of conservative candidates being forced on the GOP by the conservative base (aka the teaparty).
    That is why Ross has been desperately searching for some meritocratic values that conservatives can still compete at.
    IQ Bussing for Redstates

  130. 130.

    Suck It Up!

    Wyldpirate is a thread bully. You don’t have anything meaningful to say, you just want to call people names while bashing the president. There is a disturbing and gleeful tone in your posts. I don’t think you are ready to have a grown up conversation. The fact that you call people obots and butt lickers shows that you don’t honor and respect dissent as liberals like to claim. Apparently, to you, dissent is only meant for the powers that be, but all others in the group must agree on everything or else you are a butt licker.

  132. 132.

    Kyle

    94% of scientists are not republican, atheists are higher IQ and nearly uniformly liberal, 75% of post baccs vote democratic, 18-34 votes democratic, ESPECIALLY college students.

    The teatard response is clear — destroy public education, promote homeschooling, elect the proudly-ignorant, hate intellectuals, hate books.

  133. 133.

    Cacti

    @tomvox1:

    But it was not clear what the impact of shedding 490,000 of them — about 8 percent of the total — would have on unemployment. Mr. Osborne has continually said that the private sector will take up the slack, employing more people as the economy emerges from the doldrums.

    Sounds like they’re banking on a healthy sprinkling of free market fairy dust…

    Add 500k to ranks of unemployed + decrease job turnover by raising retirement age + cut corporate tax rate + ????? = PROSPERITY!!! and more jobs

  134. 134.

    liberal

    @Karen:

    I worked at AEI from 1997-1998, back when it was more libertarian, Heritage was the far right and Brookings was the left.

    Brookings hasn’t been “left” since the 1980s, when it turned centrist.

  135. 135.

    matoko_chan

    @Kyle:

    elect the proudly-ignorant, hate intellectuals, hate books.

    except that isnt worrrrrrrking.
    That is why the evul elites meme is getting airtime now.
    the candidates the tea party (aka low information conservative base) is currently forcing on the oligarchs are simply unelectable in a meritocratic republic.
    For example…Palin and O’Donnell are unelectable….Romney is a mormon, Huckabee is an televangelist and Chris Christie is fat.

    Epic whine from the “Secular Racists Right Blog”.

    2012 pieces are now being written. GOP mega-donors look toward 2012. The GOP plutocrats are obviously worried that someone with mass grassroots support like Sarah Palin might come to the fore. I’ve been skeptical about this in the past, but Barack H. Obama did it in 2008 with a combination of Wall Street money and the online fundraising component. I’ve said that the ads for Mitt Romney from the Right are just going to be too easy, so perhaps someone else will arise to take the establishment mantle?

    they got nuthin.
    and…..did i mention? Chris Christie is mad fat.
    :)

  136. 136.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @matoko_chan:

    It sounds like what Chunky Bobo, the man with the pubic chin is advocating is affirmative action for teatards. Well no, it wouldn’t be affirmative action, it would be geographic diversity.

    Of course if the media were any sort of meritocracy other than one that’s concerned with afflicting the afflicted, comforting the comfortable and kissing ass it’s doubtful that Bobo, Chunky Bobo, McMegan McArdle, et al would be employed at all.

  137. 137.

    Catsy

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Are you capable of responding to disagreement without acting like an asshole?

    Balloon Juice became a lot more enjoyable to read again once I added that purity-troll jackass to my pie filter. The text that WyldPirate bleats out vaguely resembles the English language and can actually be parsed in a way that has semantic content. But there is not a shred of cogent argument, original thought, rationality, or other content of any value in their words. You’re not missing anything, and in the unlikely event WP ever produces anything worth reading, you can glean it from where it is quoted by other people who actually are worth your time.

  138. 138.

    Karen

    @liberal:

    Compared to Heritage, Brookings was to the left.

    Now compared to the New GOP, Heritage is to the left.

    My job was to send thank you letters to the people and businesses who sent AEI checks. Everyone in my department (Administrative services) did not agree with AEI’s politics. Today I never would have been hired.

  139. 139.

    matoko_chan

    look…the stewart/colbert rally is GOTV for 18 to 34.
    if we dont vote, we deserve what those grey fuckers are planning for us.
    Obama to be on Daily Show.
    now the butthurt screams of unfairness will begin.

    if Palin can be on FOX, if Huckabee can be on FOX, then Obama can be on Jon Stewart.

    even Sully is noticing ” the massive rush to the exits of the GOP by most people with something higher than a college degree.”
    Stratification by IQ is what Douthat and Salam call it in Grand New Party.

  140. 140.

    matoko_chan

    @Wile E. Quixote: its IQ bussing.
    That is what the current rash of anti-elitism is all about….its simple IQ baiting, like conservatives use race-baiting on the low information base.
    Ross and Reihan call it stratification by IQ in their book.

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