Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

In my day, never was longer.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

When I was faster i was always behind.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

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

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

People are complicated. Love is not.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

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

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  2. 2.

    Calouste

    Apparently the pimp-of-pimps, Andrew Breitbart is going to be commentating on ABC on election night.

  3. 3.

    General Stuck

    I’m wearing pajama bottoms and a bathrobe,

    Probly TMI, but ought to get a rise out of the wymin folk around here. I feel like I’m watching Edtv without the pictures.

  6. 6.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    I’m on my way to pick up two overactive 7-year-old boys, several large pumpkins, and some sharp implements to take to a party. What or who will get carved is entirely up in the air at this point.

    Colette +0 but happily anticipating mayhem
    Go Giants!

  7. 7.

    lamh32

    @Calouste:

    I read this somewhere else. Ain’t that some shit! Funny enought, ABC is the one network in which I watch the fewest shows of all. Forget about the national news, didn’t like it with Charlie Gibson, don’t like it with Diane Sawyer. Hell, I haven’t really watched ABC Nightly News since Peter Jennings. GMA, I’ll admit to barely watching even before Snuffleluffagous!

  8. 8.

    beltane

    @Calouste: If we were as committed to democracy as the French, there would be fun times outside of ABC studios right about now. Instead, we’ll all sign another MoveOn.org petition that will go unread and ignored. I’ve been boycotting ABC since 2008 so I can’t exactly double boycott them.

  9. 9.

    Kryptik

    @Calouste:

    Gee, wasn’t he supposed to be delegitimized and discredited after that whole flap a few months ago? I was assured the media would have blackballed him despite how successful his con was.

    Oh, that’s right, i forgot, he’s right-wing. Nothing can ever discredit a right-wing figure in the media. Ever.

  10. 10.

    morzer

    I am just glad we were spared the embarrassing drunken Great-uncle Cole rants about young folks and getting those pesky teenagers off my lawn. As for the absence of his “I Had A One Night Stand With A Non-witch From Delaware” story.. well, I for one am grateful.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gbear:

    Are they tight?

    Why, in the name of all that is good and right in the world, would you ask that? What the hell is wrong with you?

  18. 18.

    Jacel

    When you measured your serving of scotch, were the two fingers held horizontally or vertically?

  20. 20.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    Mountaineer football

    Now THAT’s a game I can get into. Watching the team that has to fight uphill get knocked back and roll off the cliff… that’s entertainment. Totally unfair, of course, but that’s the fun of it.

    What? Why is everyone looking at me funny?

    .

  23. 23.

    quaint irene

    Apparently the pimp-of-pimps, Andrew Breitbart is going to be commentating on ABC on election night.

    Dear God, why?

    Are they tight?

    A few more fingers of scotch and John might be.

    (gbear, are you referencing Madeline Kahn in ‘High Anxiety?”)

  24. 24.

    Mark S.

    David Brooks’ latest turd came up in some of the earlier threads, especially this line: “the public’s real anxiety is about values, not economics: the gnawing sense that Americans have become debt-addicted and self-indulgent.” I liked this response to it:

    This is really priceless. There are more than 25 million people unemployed, underemployed or who have given up looking for work altogether, but they are not concerned about economics. They are worried about values.

    I’m starting to worry that our elites might be out of touch. Nah, they really know what’s best for us.

  25. 25.

    morzer

    On the subject of craziness, there’s an amazing slate of 150 (!) candidates for the Alaska senate race, including a fine list of write-ins.

    http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_genr.php#uss

    The number of write-in Republicans is truly something to behold. I am however, mildly skeptical that there really can be such a person as:

    Lisa M. Lackey (Republican) write-in

    Still, I am sure this person intends no injurious reflection on the character of Lisa Murkowski (Republican) write-in

  27. 27.

    gbear

    @Omnes Omnibus: just quoting a scene from a Mel Brooks movie. I couldn’t find the video. If you’re snarking me with another movie quote, I don’t know what it’s from. Sorry if I ruined anyone’s evening…

    Time to go out and buy groceries and some candy for Sunday.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gbear: Missed the reference, sorry. I was just appalled by the question; still am, to be honest. I think the Mel Brooks excuse is a beard.

  35. 35.

    AhabTRuler

    @Tattoosydney: Can’t sell out completely on Robyn completely (but I do like several cuts of of her s/t album), but I have decided I like The Gossip, which I think you put up some time ago, very much.

    I have also been picking up some of the old Hed Kandi comps fer cheap of Amazon.

    U?

  41. 41.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    Oh, and as long as I’m here spreading joy:

    Here’s HaAretz’s response to the fact that Israel coldly calculated how much food it could let into the Gaza Strip without inducing starvation:

    http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/formulas-for-siege-1.321727

    Blood-curdling calculations were made over the suffering of a civilian population numbering 1.5 million individuals. This inhumanity was also expressed in the cynical wording of the documents.

    So, yeah. Shabbat shalom to one and/or all!

  42. 42.

    slag

    Yglesias has the best quote on Goldberg I’ve seen yet:

    Jonah Goldberg, well-known critic of liberal fascism, wonders: “Why wasn’t Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?”

    You know who else makes fun of people who criticize liberal fascism?

  45. 45.

    change

    Four days until we have Speaker-Elect Boehner, along with Senators-Elect Toomey, Paul, Rubio, Angle, Buck, and Miller!

  46. 46.

    marcopolo

    @morzer: Heh, I just read the piece at TPM on this outpouring of civic minded Alaskans putting themselves forth to serve their state in the US Senate. I have to admit that I rarely can’t say I have ever found an action sponsored by the Palinistas that I have approved of, but I do approve of this. I do hope it helps give McAdams a better chance of pulling out the race. I’d like to believe that there is now an equal 33% chance for any of the candidates to win it, but I guess we will see. And I can tell you as someone who lived in Alaska for a decade and voted in every election that I never received a list of write-in candidates to vote for in any election for any office.

  48. 48.

    debit

    Oh yay. Arianna Huffington is on my tv machine telling me how badly Obama has fucked us all over recently.

  49. 49.

    marcopolo

    @change: Don’t forget the guy in Wisconsin, Johnson. But between Toomey, Angle, and Buck, I think there are even odds we only see one of them elected, most likely Angle. I am seeing Sestak pull it out in PA, think CO is a crapshoot and have Reid losing right now. I also don’t see Miller winning–Alaska has a long history of the Republicans nominating unvetted candidates and then repudiating them at the last minute as they become well-known. That is how we wound up with Tony Knowles, a Democrat, for governor for 8 years.

  51. 51.

    change

    @marcopolo:

    Keep whistling past the graveyard…are you at least ready to admit you’ve lost the House?

    The writing is on the wall on that one, baby!

  52. 52.

    Jade Jordan

    have two fingers of scotch in my hand

    I’m guessing Mr. Cole has found a scotch called “Two Fingers” and drinks a pint every night.

  54. 54.

    morzer

    @marcopolo:

    I think Reid will just squeak home. The Democrats seem to be ahead after early voting in Nevada, and the polls have pretty consistently failed to account for cell-phone voters. I suspect Buck will narrowly lose out. Toomey, however, I would guess is going to win by under 2%. In Alaska, Miller seems to have disintegrated completely, and Murkowski will probably slither home – but one never does quite know, and I could see enough disgusted right wing crazies just not voting and so giving McAdams a real shot. I wish I thought Feingold was going to win, but….

  57. 57.

    debit

    @J.Kevin: Isn’t it awesome? I keep wanting to sing it under my breath at work, which would be funny right up until the time I was fired.

  59. 59.

    marcopolo

    @change: Well, considering the fact you are a troll, that I still responded to your post seriously and added in that I thought another nutjob in Wisconsin that you hadn’t even mentioned would probably win, I’d say I wasn’t whistling past the graveyard but actually providing some reality-based comments on possible outcomes in the Senate. But I forgot you folks don’t understand reality as a construct outside your own heads. My bad and I won’t make that error again.

    And I reiterate MIller does not win in Alaska. Here’s a bit on the 1998 Governor’s race:

    Knowles won the 1998 election in a landslide, defeating Republican John Lindauer 51%-18%. Knowles margin of victory in this race was due largely to a collapsed campaign from Republican John Lindauer, controversy surrounding Lindauer and his misrepresentation of facts on campaign finance documents, and questions about Lindauer’s state residency.[citation needed] Republican Robin L. Taylor, who was defeated in the primary by Lindauer, garnered 20% of the vote after announcing his write-in campaign only one week prior to the election. .

  60. 60.

    Tattoosydney

    @AhabTRuler:

    Hello there.

    Can’t sell out completely on Robyn completely (but I do like several cuts of of her s/t album)

    I like her voice a lot, even though some of the production is too cheesy for my taste, and she does some really shit rappy r&b stuff. I like this remix a lot, in a 3am second pill kicking in kind of way.

    The Gossip, which I think you put up some time ago, very much.

    Speaking of which…

    I have also been picking up some of the old Hed Kandi comps fer cheap of Amazon.

    Mmmmmm. Cheese.

    U?

    I bought Seaman’s GU the other day, and it’s pretty good. I haven’t listened properly yet, though…

  62. 62.

    joe from Lowell

    How do they manage to play football on a mountain?

    It’s not really fair to the team that has to go uphill.

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tattoosydney: Much better than “Like a G6” which has been stuck in my head since DougJ posted about it earlier this week. (No link because I don’t hate you guys)

  73. 73.

    Svensker

    It’s all very well for you folks to talk. The hubster is listening to old crappy live recording Grateful Dead on his really bad computer speakers — VERY LOUD. It’s sweet that he’s enjoying it so much, but ow, my ears. I’m working and can’t escape, he’s got it on so loud that he can’t hear my anguished cries to turn it down.

    Sigh.

    So, JC, plaid, solid, or little trucks?

  74. 74.

    AhabTRuler

    @Tattoosydney:

    I hope life is treating you well.

    Very. Many positive occurrences. @ yahoo dot com for details if u are interested.

    I like her voice a lot, even though some of the production is too cheesy for my taste, and she does some really shit rappy r&b stuff.

    That is my impression, too.

    Mmmmmm. Cheese.

    Hey, I like cheese. Sometimes even that fake nacho shit you get at movie theaters or kwikiemarts. I’m not proud.

    I bought Seaman’s GU the other day, and it’s pretty good. I haven’t listened properly yet, though.

    I recently picked up Renaissance: The Masters Series #2, but I thought it didn’t compare favorably to the #13 set, again your fault. Did you ever check out the knife?

  76. 76.

    Svensker

    @morzer:

    I guess Change doesn’t read many books on US history in his underground lair in Yemen.

    Isn’t it great, these guys cheering for the return of the Bush years, only worse?

  77. 77.

    morzer

    @Svensker:

    I just wish the GOP could afford some better trolls. One simply doesn’t find an acceptable level of quality these days among the lower life-forms. I blame our poor standard of bridge construction.

  78. 78.

    J. Michael Neal

    End of two. Gophers 2, Bulldogs 1 in a grudge match-up of two of the only three teams to ever win an NCAA women’s hockey title. We need this after that ugly North Dakota series two weeks ago.

  80. 80.

    Calliope Jane

    @Calouste: If it’s ABC –does that mean we get Christiane Amanpour to smack him around all night long? ‘Cause that might almost get me to watch.

  83. 83.

    marcopolo

    Here’s a shot in the dark–I have been trying to find a piece (I think it was a blogpost) I read a few months ago talking about how banks have shifted over the past 3 or 4 decades from making money from taking in deposits, paying crappy interest on those deposits and relending the money at higher interest rates to businesses to now earning most of their money by charging their depositers/customers fees for using the money they have on deposit as well as gambling on things like derivatives with those deposits since they make more doing that than then by relending it. At least that is what I remember being the main thrust of the piece. I had thought it was something Matt Taibbi wrote but just looked through his archives and couldn’t find it. If anyone has any memory of this I would love to be directed to it.

    I did find an interesting RSA animated lecture about the “Crises of Capitalism” while poking around though if anyone wants a 10 minute explanation of why we keep experiencing financial blow ups.

    Now I need to go out for a drink and conversation at the local pub.

  88. 88.

    freelancer

    @morzer:

    I just wish the GOP could afford some better trolls. One simply doesn’t find an acceptable level of quality these days among the lower life-forms.

    me, two nights ago:

    An idiot can’t enumerate or elaborate on what he believes or why, just that he heard it from the high priests of AM hate radio. “Show your work” is an elementary level requirement, but they can’t do this. In many ways, those adults that are part of the conservative movement are dumber than their own children. They appreciate the prestige and status of a political movement, but not the discipline of policy or addressing dissent. They are fed lies on top of half-truths to form a funhouse mirror worldview that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Probe past that just the slightest bit and you get confusion, anger, yet everpresent, ignorant certainty.

  90. 90.

    morzer

    @freelancer:

    Of course they are dumber than their kids – and that’s why they resent and fear them, and have no compunction about fucking over future generations as hard as they can. They know that their kids look at them and pity and despise them for being mean-spirited, ignorant troglodytes who had every chance at making a better world and who pissed it away for a mediocre golf handicap, a gut the size of Oklahoma, and a belief that fate had cheated them through the agency of people who looked different to them.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @debit:

    Well, the clean version uses “forget you” instead and it’s still pretty damn catchy. I end up singing it every time it turns up on the radio.

    How did someone as young as Cee-Lo Green get that voice?

  95. 95.

    J. Michael Neal

    Fuck. Duluth 3, Minnesota 2. Goddamn it. We had a goal waved off because of a really quick whistle with the puck clearly loose.

  96. 96.

    Cain

    @Mark S.:

    I’m starting to worry that our elites might be out of touch. Nah, they really know what’s best for us.

    Well hopefully, he’ll run into one of the commoners at the salad bar when he’s next eating at Applebees.

    cain

  97. 97.

    Alex S.

    I’ve just decided that I will no longer rail against special interests, because democracy was constructed with special interests in mind and aims to make those interests co-exist with each other. If there are no special interests the only interest left for democratic institutions will be the lust for power. And that will lead to the excesses we see right now, with the GOP using the Trotzkyite measures of their neo-conservative thinkers.

    +4

  100. 100.

    flukebucket

    When you give Connecticut 7 points and the game goes into overtime you might as well turn the damn thing off.

  102. 102.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney: @asiangrrlMN: Happiness is thinly sliced breaded baby cow with spaghetti rigate in a light cream sauce with mushrooms and asparagus. Impulse buy at the store, it was on sale and I refused to let a good calf die without good cause.

    Buona sera mi famigila. Come stai tutti?

  104. 104.

    Tattoosydney

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:

    I have, if I may, a question to ask.

    I am reading Robert Alter’s translation “The Five Books of Moses” – despite my atheist status I have a bit of a fascination with religion.

    Having read most of it (in all its glorious weirdness) I’m looking for a good secular history of the Jewish people that doesn’t just parrot the ahistorical/myth parts of the bible as inerrant fact (as many seem to do).

    Any ideas?

  107. 107.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney: @asiangrrlMN: Dinner was quite nom, now I’m avoiding doing the remaining housework in preparation to head out to the ranch tomorrow for my birthday. I got another evaluation today, scored one of the highest in my training class. The Samoan said I was actually being too hard on myself. I was kinda puffed up after that.

  108. 108.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Cool! On all accounts. I hesitate to ask, but what about your creepy coworker? He bother you today?

    Anyway, I hope you have a fabu birthday tomorrow. 38 or 39? And, then it’s TS’s birthday in a couple weeks. And his first anniversary!

  109. 109.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: The smaller number. It always gives me such pleasure that my older brother hits 40 before I do.

    And creepy co-worker may have had a revelation today, but I’m not yet ready to declare a full-fledged epiphany just yet. Sunday night in no uncertain terms I plan to tell him to back the fuck off. Truth be told I’m hella hard to get to know.

    Oh, one other question: if a guy goes out of his way to catch the same bus as you two days in a row, is that just serendipitous? Or the FSM fucking with me?

  110. 110.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Ha. My brother is older than me as well.

    Co-worker: It’s just inappropriate. Work is not the place for getting all touchy-gropey. And, I know you pride yourself on being professional at work–which is as it should be.

    Last bit: How about Door 3? He’s interested. Important question–is he cute?

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: He’s rather tall, very nice blue eyes, he shaves his head but if he didn’t he’d be a blond, close to my age (late thirties to early forties) and no ring. Yes that last detail matters. He could possibly be Canadian but that would just be too perfect. We’ve only exchanged small talk so far. I’m not looking into it any further unless another piece of the puzzle falls into place.

  113. 113.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Oh shush. If anything I’ll more than likely never see him again after this week. Remember: guys have a fascinating habit of dropping out of my life.

Comments are closed.