Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

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Reader Interactions

105Comments

  3. 3.

    El Tiburon

    90% of what I watch is on the DVR. I never watch a program as it airs. If it is not scheduled, I’ll record it then go off and do something else, or watch another recorded program while it is recording.

    Otherwise I would go bat-shit crazy having to watch commercials, especially this time of year.

  4. 4.

    Hunter Gathers

    On the plus side, the clusterfuck known as the 2012 GOPer POTUS primary starts on Wednesday.

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    Political commercials are making me hostile.

    I think you’re confusing political commercials with genetics.

    .

  7. 7.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I am happy that Lady Smudge is safe and lecturing me about letting plumbers into the apt., so all is well with the world at the moment. Well, in the confines of this apartment, anyway.

  9. 9.

    Cacti

    You never had it so good Cole.

    I get to watch endless commercials of Ben Quayle (aka Tater tot/little skippy silver spoon) talk about the endorsements of John McCain and John Kyl like they’re a good thing.

  10. 10.

    Admiral_Komack

    GOP Leaders: Sarah Palin Must be Stopped

    Updated 6:24 p.m. Eastern Time

    Last night, Politico posted an anonymously-sourced story reporting that advisers to top potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates are united in their desire to stop Sarah Palin from winning the presidential nomination out of a fear that she would lose badly in the general election.

    “There is a determined, focused establishment effort … to find a candidate we can coalesce around who can beat Sarah Palin,” someone described as a “prominent and longtime Washington Republican” told Politico. “We believe she could get the nomination, but Barack Obama would crush her.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20021350-503544.html?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain

  11. 11.

    Oscar Leroy

    There’s a rumor at the campaign office that if you get a robocall and press # over and over, it makes the robot caller machine go haywire. Anyone know anything about this?

  12. 12.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    T’other weekend I went to the Yam Festival in Tabor City, NC. First there is a parade throught the town (City) then there is a band competition (where DHs band placed first in their category BTW – brag) The first half of the parade was pretty much like watching political commercials on TV, it was car upon car upon car of political candidates. A guy behind me said “I could have stayed home and watched the political ads on TV rather than watch this” and I agreed with him. Thankfully the Beauty Queens followed, and the “Bog Off Queen” and “Shagging Queen” had me LOL. Surprisingly R. C. Soles actually had the balls to appear in the parade. I was gobsmacked at his audacity.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._C._Soles,_Jr.

  13. 13.

    JGabriel

    El Tiburon:

    90% of what I watch is on the DVR.

    100% of what I watch is downloaded or streamed. I don’t even own a TV set.

    There are still commercials on some streams, but fewer, and they are blessedly shorter. And they provide handy breaks to go to the bathroom and/or check up on blogs.

    .

  15. 15.

    choper

    lol, here in nyc we see ads for like three markets. on saturday i swear during the news at 6 i didn’t see a single non-political ad.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    Apparently Meg fucking Whitman did a campaign appearance at my favorite bakery. I guess I have to wait for them to have it fumigated before I buy from there again.

    (Yes, the place is run by Cuban immigrant Republicans, but when Florida figures out how to get their Cubans to vote Democrat, I’ll apply it to ours here in California, okay?)

  23. 23.

    Mary G

    If I never hear the name “Meg Whitman” again, it will be too soon. Thank God for Netflix streaming. My TV is off. One more day of a mailbox full of expensive paper I won’t even read because I sent in my absentee ballot ten days ago.

    Carly Fiorina, also, too. She is a however-old-she-is teenage Mean Girl. First she was caught on an open mike mocking Barbara Boxer’s hairdo and now she has been running ads with a picture of Boxer looking old and tired and haggard in a hearing. She looks tired because she has been WORKING A LOT OF HOURS, not sitting in a spa or on a $1 million yacht.

    It reminds me so much of my mom, after my dad died, busting her ass to give me everything I needed to get through high school and college. She died peacefully on Oct. 22 after four and half weeks at home in hospice. She would be 87 today. Thanks to everyone here who supported me.

  26. 26.

    Cat Lady

    @Admiral_Komack:

    Dismounting that tiger is going to be impossible, but it will be the only fun thing to watch in the next two years. We think this cycle has brought out Teh Crazy – this time will be remembered as the good old days of SS uniform wearing anti masturbation muslim hating harmless Republican hijinks.

  28. 28.

    JGabriel

    stuckinred:

    Dumped the landline in August and have not had one fucking call! YAY!

    So far I’ve only had five calls, which is surprising considering that I’m both listed and live in a major metropolitan area.

    Three from Dems.

    And two from the GOP, which I listened to all the way through because: I know I’m not voting for them, so the longer people like me listen, the more money they’ll spend less effectively, and the fewer voters they’ll reach. Remember, every time you waste a Republican’s time and money, an angel orgasms.

    .

  29. 29.

    Zam

    Yea commercials suck, I’ve stopped turning on the radio at work making for a very boring night. On the topic of political annoyances if a volunteer comes to your door, even if you are supportive, give them the 15 seconds they are asking for. Don’t be an asshole and snap at them. It is really disheartening and can make the difference between them giving up or coming out more. Be nice if you already support their cause let them know nicely don’t just shoo them away. I would even go as far to say this should hold for opponents as well, these people are volunteers giving up their own time for something they believe in and should be respected for their involvement in the process.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Koz:

    You have something against choice for Americans?

    Republicans are finally supporting a woman’s right to choose after opposing it for 40 years?

    It’s about time you guys came around.

    Oh, that’s right, when you say “Americans,” you mean “white Christian men over 40,” and not actual Americans.

  31. 31.

    salacious crumb

    is it me or has the whole world gone fuckin crazy man? even Bill Maher is afraid of the evil Mooslims taking over Europe

  34. 34.

    John Bird

    @efgoldman:

    And the Robo-Callists will figure out how to get to your I-phones and Droids, and their successors, eventually.

    Which is one reason why local number portability for mobiles (keeping your phone number when you switch your provider) was feasible for the FCC to institute – because it’s commercially beneficial to countless companies if their lists stay accurate as people move off landlines.

  36. 36.

    Politically Lost

    Ya know…I was thinking that since bombing Iran will fix the economy and bring all of our disparate electorate together in one long happy orgasm…

    A commercial celebrating the uplifting and heartwarming bombing adventure could begin the healing process for our damaged economy.

  37. 37.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Political commercials are making me hostile.

    Note to self: get new dvr before 2012 election season starts in January. I will. not. survive otherwise.

  38. 38.

    lamh32

    I know JC has already announced his planst for tomorrow, but what’s everyone else’s plans for tomorrow?

    I’ll be working most of the day, and when I get off, most of the polls will be closing. While I’m at work, I’ll be checking the blogs for any last minute updates.

    Once I’m off, I’m gonna come home, maybe watch a DVD, call my nephew who will be 11 years old tomorrow. I also plan to decide what I’m gonna do this Friday Nov 5th, when I’ll be turning 1 year older (34y.o.). Maybe I’ll catch up on some TV episodes online.

    Missing from all this: election coverage. I do not plan to catch any election coverage this will be easy since I don’t have cable. I don’t even plan on reading any of the blogs once I get off from work either.

    I’m seriously contemplating completely ignoring any an all political news until my B-Day this Friday.

    So what are ya’ll plans for tomorrow?

  41. 41.

    FlipYrWhig

    @salacious crumb: I remember Bill Maher doing bit after bit about Casey Martin the disabled golfer who was seeking an exemption from the PGA so that he could use a golf cart… and how terrible that was, because “not everyone has to be able to do everything.”

    He’s basically a libertarian hedonist douche like Dennis Miller, only Maher went left and Miller went right.

  42. 42.

    fucen tarmal

    the political commercials this year, for the first time, make me understand why people tune out completely.

    i’m not saying they are right in any way for doing so, when the message is tune out, that is the time to double your effort to tune in.

    but these ads kill me, i try to imagine the people who actually might be influenced, and it scares me, they must be worse than the wingnuttiest wingnuts .

  43. 43.

    Keith G

    My brother sent me a bottle of Highland Park 18 y.o. single malt, which I dutifully savored. Now I would love to re up, but I do not have my bro’s budget.

    May I please get some suggestions for a single malt suitable for the slush fund of a proletariat?

  44. 44.

    John Bird

    @salacious crumb:

    Yeah, I’m generally with Bill Maher around 50% of the time, as he appears to be a shameless and largely unexamined iconoclast, but that was one of those things where I thought he’d agree with me, or at least realize how stupid it is to get spooked by one of the world’s most common traditional names.

    Kind of unsettling, and even worse than Williams, as Williams was at least freaked out (pointlessly and stupidly) by what he perceives as purposefully religious dress, while “Mohammed” as a name doesn’t tell you in any way how religious someone is or how religious their parents were, just that the person is likely to come from certain regions of the world.

    Hell, there are Christians from the Middle East named Mohammed, same as you have Jews named after (non-Judaic) Christian saints in America. If everyone in that region renounced Islam, they’d still name their kids Mohammed.

    Your daddy’s Mohammed and your granddaddy’s Mohammed. What’re you gonna do, file papers to make Bill Maher happy?

    Whether Maher realized it or not, he sounded outright racist in a way that Williams did not. The name “Mohammed” is more likely to predict your country of origin than it is your religiosity.

  45. 45.

    gbear

    So what are ya’ll plans for tomorrow?

    Getting up, going to vote before work, working, coming home, feeling helpless for the rest of the evening, going to bed.

  46. 46.

    lamh32

    So someone elsewhere said that the Dem “strategy” of “they would be worse backfired”. I contend that this may be true when it comes to white voters who voted for Obama in ’08, and who are less enthusiatic or more inclined to vote GOP this round, but in the Afr Am community, strategy of “they would be worse” may well/might already have, work (ed) within the African American community.

    When you’ve always voted for the “better of the worse”, then of course it works. the added bonus, is that yes POTUS is the first Afr Am president. I’ll let ya’ll in on a little secret; the fact that “white voters have turned their backs” on Obama ((meme being heard all over black radio and blog, news, etc..) was a sadly, kinda foregone conclusion in the minds of a good number of Afr Am, so not surprisingly, the ads you hear on urban radio, tv programming, etc are calling on Afr Am to vote because “our President” needs us (I’ve heard this ad on urban radio for the last almost month and a half).

    President Obama was on one of the nationally syndicated urban radio shows this afternoon (this one is heard in 75 markets, which are in cities/states with large and/or significant Afr Am communities). I have anecdotal evidence (in my own little sphere of the world) that leads me to believe that the Afr Am vote will be larger than in past midterms. Which from my understanding means a good chance of keeping the Senate.

    Isn’t the problems with the House that it will take more than an increased Afr Am vote to win the contested districts. Aren’t most of the districts that are in play conservative leaning with a small percentage of Afr American voters? So even with a large AFr American push, that still won’t be enough to hold those seats?

  47. 47.

    lamh32

    @lamh32:

    BTB,

    I’m a bit of an optimistic pessimist, so I “hope for the best, but expect the worst”, so my personal predictions: Dems lose the House, but keep the Senate. I’m not even gonna try to be savvy enough to give exact numbers, but I have the sense, that Afr Am are gonna vote in larger numbers than any other midterm election, which will help keep the Senate, but I believe that the majority of the contested seats in the House are for Conservative-leaning districts and districts that do not have a large enough or significant enough Afr Am (or black and brown) population to make up for the less enthusiastic Dem white voter.

  48. 48.

    John Bird

    @lamh32:

    Bureaucrat school, vote, walk to work downtown which is like a block from the county Board of Elections HQ, come home, go to trivia night, do homework, ignore everything.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Keith G: Macallan 12 y/o is pretty good and not as pricy as the 18. On the other hand if I am trying to be budget conscious (or if consumption will be massive), I stick with Famous Grouse which I find to be a nice blended scotch.

  50. 50.

    Violet

    @Mary G:
    So sorry for the loss of your mom. That her passing was peaceful must be some small comfort.

    What to make of the supposed record numbers of voters in this election? Shattering records everywhere, apparently. Is that good or bad for Dems?

    I feel like the polls are all over the map in this election. The cellphone thing is definitely an issue. I wonder if this is the year it becomes an issue for pollsters.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh32:

    Isn’t the problems with the House that it will take more than an increased Afr Am vote to win the contested districts. Aren’t most of the districts that are in play conservative leaning with a small percentage of Afr American voters? So even with a large AFr American push, that still won’t be enough to hold those seats?

    As I understand it, because of the amount of gerrymandering and district-drawing along racial lines, it will be a lot harder for African-American voters to affect House races because they’ve already been grouped into majority-black districts and the white people have been grouped into majority-white districts.

    Demographics can change — here in California, areas of Orange County that were solidly white/Republican have gone Asian and Latino — but the problem still remains.

    But the Afr Am vote can have a HUGE effect on the Senate and governor’s races, so get out there and save us white folks from ourselves! :-)

  53. 53.

    John Bird

    @Keith G:

    Glenmorangie is fine, as long as you’re not looking for something 25 years old (they do that too but it’s a lot more, naturally). Snobs will howl at this suggestion because they (gasp!) advertise heavily, but don’t listen.

  54. 54.

    bjacques

    I’m going to hope my vote made it to the Harris County clerk in time. I’m going to hope the locomotive doesn’t pull every car off the cliff with it.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    Tomorrow: if I can get my butt up early enough, I’m going to be a good lefty and ride my bike to the polls before riding it to work. Otherwise, I take the car. Then work work work, come home, and work on my novel for NaNoWriMo. I have an opening sentence, at least.

  57. 57.

    Suck It Up!

    @lamh32:

    Staying away from the blogs until either midnight or early Wednesday morning.

    I don’t think you’ll be able to stay away until Friday. You’re going to hear about it somehow so just rip the band-aid off and get it over with.

  58. 58.

    JGabriel

    Mary G:

    First Fiorina was caught on an open mike mocking Barbara Boxer’s hairdo and now she has been running ads with a picture of Boxer looking old and tired and haggard in a hearing.

    Wait, Fiorina is mocking Boxer’s appearance?

    You’d think a recent cancer survivor would know better. A politician who, only a few months ago, looked like the female crossbreed of PeeWee Herman and Max von Sydow, is not in a position to be mocking anyone else’s appearance.

    And, forget her appearance, we haven’t even touched on the real ugliness of Fiorina’s politics yet.

    .

  60. 60.

    stuckinred

    KO will explain why they are suspending worst person. My money is on, “after tomorrow there will be too many of them to fit”!

  61. 61.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Ooooooh lookie! I found a Youtube!

    DHs band at the Stallion Classic. The show was NC Stars, starts with Mayberry, then James Taylor, Cherokee Butterfly, Aretha Franklin, Kerry Pickler, Carolina Girls, South’s Gonna Rise Again (btw DH and I had a VERY heated discussion about how he should not use that last piece – I lost). The audio is crap and they sounded alot better live than they do on the Vid (cause if they sounded like they did in the vid they would never have got first place). I thought it was a great show (DH is known for ALWAYS having his band dance at some point during the show) which is why his female players are wearing skirts (as opposed to their regular white pants so they could change into the shag dancing outfits). Sorry, bragging on the hubby again. Anyhoo, enjoy, out there in the US are kids who are willing to work hard, get good grades (all of his kids are in the top percentile) and are willing to put time in after school. It gives one hope.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQfcb7MBUTU

  62. 62.

    lamh32

    @Mnemosyne:

    I don’t even wanna touch the Governor’s races. I’m in Dallas, Texas, and everybody seems to complain about Perry here, but in the po-dunk little town the line the larger more liberal areas of Texas, those buggers seem to be the enthusiatic ones here.

    I would love to see Bill White pull it out, but I don’t believe he will. I do hear maybe some big things can happen in Georgia and of course Florida.

    I was commented last week on the Bill C/Kendrick Meeks/Crist fiasco, but I decided to give up talking about it, but I will say that the reaction that I heard on urban radio, blogs, and from voters NOT dialed in to politics was anger at Clinton and Crist, NOT Meeks. So I think in Florida, Crist may have given Sink a boost, but by seeming so conniving, may have sunk his own ship with Afr Am voters. So Florida is a real possibility I hear

  63. 63.

    Suck It Up!

    So no one saw the anti-obama infomercial?

    http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/01/breaking-point-infomerical/

    Using clips from Townhall.com, World Net Daily, Fox Business, CNSNews.com, and Glenn Beck, narrator E. W. Jackson invokes the boogeymen of ACORN, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the New Black Panther Party, Hamas, and Mao Tse-Tung to paint President Obama and the Democratic Party as “extreme,” “treacherous,” “socialist,” and “with hostility” towards America:

  64. 64.

    John Bird

    North Carolina still holds our unbroken Helms-era streak as having the nastiest political commercials. I realize people may want to ignore them but to me, talking about the most egregious offenders defangs them, and in this state, we HAVE to do it, because the ads are like “Kay Hagan is a double-secret atheist”, etc.

    So far, the nastiest commercial I’ve seen this year is Elmers’s
    bit against Etheridge in NC’s 2nd District.

    1) It’s bigotry produced in the style of a history video for an evangelical home school. You know those fliers you get in your newspaper (LOL) that ask you to send away for a free video about Christ’s plan for America? It’s like twenty seconds of one of those.

    2) It’s all about Cordoba House, which is:
    a) an issue outside of the power of the U.S. House,
    b) an issue outside of the power of anyone in North Carolina,
    c) an issue where Etheridge, unpleasantly, agrees with Elmers on every point – that they have the right to build but should refrain because 9/11 means Muslims should act like they don’t exist when in Lower Manhattan.

    So, a terribly produced commercial that depends on the viewer’s preexisting bigotry to muster opposition to a candidate over an issue that isn’t in dispute in the election, and wouldn’t be even if the candidates’ positions mattered.

  65. 65.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Violet:

    What to make of the supposed record numbers of voters in this election? Shattering records everywhere, apparently. Is that good or bad for Dems?

    Record numbers of voters for a midterm.

    Somewhere out there a Republican candidate is telling old, white America, the America that votes in midterms, that…

    He’ll let them keep their guns.
    He’ll make sure every knee bends at Jesus’ name — and he’s a ‘libertarian’.
    He’ll make sure foreigners live in fear of us.
    From time to time he’ll try to have some of them blown up.
    He’ll make sure that that colored people, and those gays, and those Mexicans, all know their place.

    But most of all,

    He’ll piss liberals off.

    And in reply, old, white America has said that it doesn’t care if it’s hungry, that hate is a perfectly satisfactory diet, it’s going to die soon anyways.

    It has said that it doesn’t care if its grandchildren ever see the inside of a college, because they’re a bunch of ingrates who never call and what did America ever need college for, it did fine without it.

    2006 was an aberration, and 2008 was a miracle. I’m 53 and I’ll never live long enough to see its equal.

  68. 68.

    Linda Featheringill

    @lamh32:
    White voters turning against Obama:

    White males vote with their pocketbooks. When times are tough, they switch their vote to “the other guy.”

    White women, not so much.

    Remember guys, there are not enough AA folks in the country to swing the election. So all the votes over a certain figure come from people who are not black.

    Just like it happened in 2008.

  70. 70.

    Maude

    @lamh32:
    I am excited about voting tomorrow.
    Dem all the way.
    HB on Friday, I think there’s a Flash Player update then.
    I’ll be interested in seeing how NJ votes.
    Hope you’re online tomorrow night.
    I do think that if Obama were white, some of the lefties who proclaim that Obama has Failed Them, wouldn’t be so vitriolic.
    He was supposed to do what They told him to do.
    These same people still make a lot of excuses for Bill Clinton.

  71. 71.

    lamh32

    @Suck It Up!:

    You’re probably right. I’m sure I’ll hear it on my ride in to work on my usual radio programming (Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey, Rickey Smiley, Michael Baisden), that’s reason number 1,999.555,444 that I’m glad that I have an IPhone/IPod.

    Plus, I really don’t have cable at all. I don’t even have basic. I’ve been without since at least September, but alas, my fasting didn’t last long, I’m gonna get it back on Friday as a b-day present to myself. Not for the political tv shows, but because I really miss some of my fav programming from HGTV!

  73. 73.

    John Bird

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Thanks for this. Taylor did a performance at UNC around Election Day in 2008, and Griffith’s word has done a lot for this state.

    It’s so weird to see the new, young left wing mingle with the Civil-War-era Democratic Party power structure here, but both benefit, and it’s what put NC on the right side of history in 2008.

    I cannot communicate the overwhelming joy, and relief, I felt when I knew that when the 2008 electoral map pops up in the next hundred years of history textbooks, we’re officially in the “will vote for a black guy” column, even if it was by less than a percent of voters.

  75. 75.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    BTW if you watch the vid you will see a band on the visiting team stands in the back waving and dancing to the show, at the shows end they all stood up and applauded. When the band starts rocking the watching band does too. They are Whiteville City High School, the absolute #1 foe of my DHs band. They hate us and we hate them with a passion. This year WHS got on their feet and cheered their most hated rival. As a response to that, my DH decreed that his entire band (and all of the band boosters) would be up on the visiting team side and cheering on Whiteville as they performed their show. They did. There is something to be learned from that I think.

  76. 76.

    General Stuck

    Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

    Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

  79. 79.

    John Bird

    @General Stuck:

    The Civil War has always been the best example of when the the rhetoric that “both sides are too extreme” fails, and fails horribly.

    A policy of careful moderation between the two camps contributed to the war instead of preventing it; Lincoln’s wisest transition during the war was in deciding that peace could not come at any cost – that a resolution of the war not only required the South acknowledging that it was part of the Union, but also required the abolition of slavery.

    Sometimes, acknowledging opposition as the right tack over compromise defines goals clearly and allows for necessary action.

  81. 81.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @John Bird:

    The Obama campaign used our office as an HQ for the primaries and then the General, we had armies of phone bankers camped out in my office almost every day. Boss and I bought Pizza, lots of pizza! I will never forget a) watching Michelle speak (thanks to a special invite from the campaign to attend the event) and b) the day after the election when I was STILL crying and Jason (the Obama rep) stopped by to give me back the keys, I threw my arms around him and said “you turned NC Blue Jason!” and we both sobbed in each others arms for a while. Thanks to Obama’s coat tails we got Senator Kay Hagen instead of Libby Dole. I am not at all hopeful for tomorrow, but I am more optimistic than some, methinks that the reports of the Democratic party’s demise is premature.

  83. 83.

    Ross Hershberger

    Hey, I quit watching TV in the ’70s. Commercials these days are an insult to even my moderate and diminishing intelligence. Never paid a cable bill in my life.
    So get off my lawn.

  84. 84.

    Kat

    $40 million worth of campaign ads are still airing in Colorado.

    As we tried to watch a movie on tv this weekend, there was a pleasant surprise during one commercial break. It was so unusual, we both simultaneously said, ‘Oh look — a car commercial!’

    Thank the gods for our local PBS stations, and their commercial-free airings of Rainman, Sherlock, Robin Hood, etc.

  87. 87.

    BruceFromOhio

    Watching Peyton Manning get sacked by the Texans has relived most of my annoyance at all the Gaia-damned robocalls, and ESPN has had ZERO political ads thus far.

    ETA: Started with Chuck, but fell into WS and now MNF.

  88. 88.

    General Stuck

    @John Bird:

    Sometimes, acknowledging opposition as the right tack over compromise defines goals clearly and allows for necessary action

    At some point it does, but is also necessary the effort to compromise, to claim the high moral ground when politics by reasoned discourse fails, and politics by other means is all that is left.

    The Great Civil War was commenced over the great issues of the day, and that was abolition of slavery, but it was about more than that. It was about the shape and movements of desired society with which to live by and deal with the world.

    That has never changed, not since before the founding, and the great rift we have now is the promise of a truly multicultural society fixing to blossom into reality. That is the new divided house, where it will have to be all one thing, or all of the other. IMHO>

    What the right wing based in the south wants is too high a price to pay, just like before the GCW. White superiority. Practiced within the union borders, flaunting the enlightened promises made in the constitution the founders left us. History is overtaking the status quo, and nothing can stop it but a return to the strictures of old south aristocracy and it’s evil caste, the one that was defeated on long ago battlefields, but never conquered.

    The dance to bring them around to the coming change needs to be made first. They will make their own choices, and we go from there.

  90. 90.

    Koz

    “As we tried to watch a movie on tv this weekend, there was a pleasant surprise during one commercial break. It was so unusual, we both simultaneously said, ‘Oh look—a car commercial!’”

    How the hell are people gonna know to vote for Ken Buck as US Senator from Colorado then?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF_cftQJvmM

    What the hell, I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

  92. 92.

    hilzoy

    The ads are bad, but I can always not watch TV — which is mostly what I do anyways. But the robocalls — !!

    I mean: I live in Maryland. Barbara Mikulski will be reelected by double digits. My congressman will be reelected by double digits. My governor will be reelected by an unknown margin. We have no hot initiative questions — there’s something about raising the level at which you’re guaranteed a jury trial, and a few bond issues. Whee.

    But does that mean I don’t have to bother with robocalls? No. Several times a night I have to run to the phone, only to hear: Hello, this is Elijah Cummings/Barack Obama/some guy from the AFL-CIO (most recent one) …

    Quite annoying.

  94. 94.

    PsiFighter37

    Tonight’s episode of Chuck was fantastic. They’re definitely layering on more of the drama (and lightening up on the humor), but it was great.

    I can’t believe I have to wait 2 weeks because Dubya is preempting the show to promote his book next week. Bastard.

  95. 95.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    @hilzoy: Oh.My.God. The robocalls!

    I would like someone to do a study on how often those damn calls even get listened to. Surely there’s a good way to build such a study (“Hello, sir or madam, how quickly do you hang up once you discern that your number was dialed by a computer looking to scare up votes ?” might be a good place to start), and then SURELY, when the answer is found to be “97.5% of all robocalls are never heard in their entirety; of the 2.5% that are, 70% are only listened to by pundits and their interns” — they would stop! Dear FSM, may it only be so.

  96. 96.

    IronyAbounds

    SWEET, the Rangers lose. I couldn’t stand seeing Bush’s face rooting them on. Maybe San Francisco’s win presages Pelosi retaining the speakership (yeah, I know, fat chance).

  98. 98.

    New Yorker

    San Francisco Giants!

    A long-haired stoner from the Fakest of Fake American cities makes George W. Bush and the wingnut blogosphere cry. I am happy.

  100. 100.

    shortstop

    @New Yorker: jye-ANTS! jye-ANTS! So beautiful to see Timmy and Brian at work. So tasty to watch Texas lose. Get on home with your freaking Lone Star flags.

    I’m not sure Laura knows they lost, though. The Valium haze was thick tonight, my friends.

  104. 104.

    fucen tarmal

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:

    if 2.5% of the people who actually answer, which is a much smaller number than they call, listen, even long enough to hear the candidate’s name, they would consider it a smashing success.

    its about how cheap it is to buy or actually rent an autodialer, record a message, buy a phone list, and boom, cheap easy, faux personal contact with the custo-constituent…cheaper than direct mail even if only 1 in 1000 get through….

    the only way to stop it without legislation, is to start a no robocalls party, and document who is calling and how often, and commit to the candidates who don’t do it, or do it the least…and that only works in close elections with two major party contenders…

  105. 105.

    JPL

    @RedKitten: This was definitely the best Chuck IMO. Timothy Dalton looked like he was having fun as the wimpish leader Volkoff. The Sarah, Chuck bickering during the fight scene was laugh out loud funny.

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