Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Come on, man.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Let me file that under fuck it.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

The lights are all blinking red.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You are here: Home / We’re #10!

Reader Interactions

248Comments

  4. 4.

    Zifnab

    /braces for flood of new visitors

    All hands on deck! Lurkers ahoy!
    I hope those server upgrades were worth their weight.

  6. 6.

    serge

    That’s great, John. Congrats. I like the opposing snaps of Jane Hamsher and She Who Must Not Be Named. I’d pay money to see that fight…

  7. 7.

    Maude

    BJ should be # 1.
    They left out Booman, Steve Benan, Kevin Drum and others that are far better than that tawdry list.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    @Zifnab: This.
    The trolls will be coming out of the woodwork.

    The list seems a little forced, like a dinner party, left/right, left/right, etc.

  10. 10.

    thomas Levenson

    With a bullet!

    Oh wait. No. That’s for the other side of the spectrum, right?

    (Run, in terror, as the ghost of Charlton Heston rises on this eve of dios de los muertos to school me for my presumption.)

  14. 14.

    Chat Noir

    Yay! I quote and link to B-J all the time. Can this rating be one of the reasons there’s been so many gawd-awful trolls lately?

    Good job, John Cole!

  15. 15.

    monkeyboy

    FTA:

    But which are the “best”?
    __
    This reporter asked research firms Hitwise, ComScore and Nielsen to rate 10 pre-selected blogs. The sites were subjectively chosen. The research firms’ rankings were based on their objective methods of counting traffic at Web sites.

    So the best of 10 preselected blogs is the one with the most traffic?

    John, didn’t you say you were going Galt for a few day just a few hours ago?

  16. 16.

    david mizner

    @Maude:

    Well, if we’re going to take a list like this seriously….Greenwald?

    Whatever you think of him, he belongs on any blogospheric top ten.

  17. 17.

    licensed to kill time

    Balloon Juice is Numero Uno in my book for sheer fun readability and the best Commentariat in the blogosphere.

    Benen’s always my next stop.

  18. 18.

    Chat Noir

    @John Cole: Amen. Balloon Juice and the Political Animal are the two blogs I read faithfully every day, and Benen doesn’t even post pet pics.

  19. 19.

    Maude

    @John Cole:
    When I first got online, his was the first blog I read.
    He puts a lot of work into his writing and finding information.
    I found you from a link about Russert.
    Addicted ever since.

  21. 21.

    jl

    But how does Balloon Juice rate among the ‘sports/food/cooking/gardening/pets/drinking/music/whining about random stuff’ blogs?

    And if Mr. Cole was not such a misanthrope and would be willing to schmooze a little bit, there would be some dish on the blog, like the others. But we have:

    “10) Balloon-Juice.com. The site was founded in 2002 by John Cole, a former Republican whose site is now identified as liberal.”

    How exciting that sounds.

  22. 22.

    General Stuck

    I thought we were centrist sockpuppets, you know, republican light, peasants to our progressive overlords and great traitors to the libtard cause. So confusing it all is.

  23. 23.

    John PM

    Congratulations?

    It is odd that the list contains five “conservative” and five “liberal blogs.” Clearly the rankings have nothing to do with how accurate/truthful the blogs are.

  24. 24.

    Maude

    @david mizner:
    Ooh, sorry I forgot him. When he was free, I read him.
    When I emailed him, usually about tech stuff, he was always replied and was so sweet and nice. I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t agree with him all the time, but he makes a huge effort.
    All the blog writers have such a commitment and put so much effort into their front pages.
    The obligation of owning a blog and writing every day is like having a pack of wild dogs doing the potty dance every morning.

  25. 25.

    matoko_chan

    Captain Stupid was #2? no one reads him…they go for AllahP.

    and….blogs! talk-radio for humans that can read!

    @Cole…..i thot u wer takin an emo break?

  27. 27.

    Nylund

    This is the only blog where I read every entry every day. Nice insights always mixed with good humor and cute pets. It can’t be beat.

    Funny that both women they show, right, and left, probably hate John equally.

    But we love ya buddy, so no worries.

  28. 28.

    Cris

    My primary beef with that list is the presence of TPM. Not because I disagree that it’s required reading, but because I consider it a class of its own — one that actually performs independent investigative journalism. I mean, Marshall actually talks to primary sources — can we say the same about Hindrocket, or DougJ for that matter?

    Also, too: three hours, 34 minutes.

  30. 30.

    BGinCHI

    When is Pack of Jackals magazine rating blogs?

    Our ratings are really high there.

    Agree with others on Benen. He’s the best. He does more solid reporting and opining than a whole WaPo cocktail party full of asskissing asskissers.

    I except Ezra and Greg Sargent from that crowd. Those two are good.

  31. 31.

    Ash Can

    You all know I love this joint, but…pre-selected by Investor’s Business Daily? The cheapest and tawdriest of the supermarket tabloids of the business world? Nice to hear about the hit counts, but make of the context what you will.

  32. 32.

    Poopyman

    ATTENTION ALL NEW READERS:

    To welcome you to Balloon Juice, please click on the “Pet Calendar” icon in the upper right of the frame. A minimum purchase of two is required for continued enjoyment of this blog.

    Thank you very much.

  33. 33.

    Quicksand

    Well, I rank investors.com #1 in unflattering looks up Malkin’s nostrils, among pages I have viewed today.

  35. 35.

    jharp

    I think you did good. Congrats.

    It still befuddles my fucking brain how michelle malkin and powerline are even remotely considered serious.

    My top blogs in no particular order would be digby, steve benen, kevin drum, juan cole.

    And americablog and thinkprogress.

    Righties is a tie for last. The Gateway Dumbshit, Jim Hoft, is so fucked up that I stop every now again to witness crazy. Ace has plenty of stupid. Ditto townhall.

  36. 36.

    Ross Hershberger

    4 hours to the minute.

    It’s nice to know that a cranky, idiosyncratic personal blog can be influential.
    Being a cranky, idiosyncratic person hasn’t worked that well for me.

  38. 38.

    BGinCHI

    I bet Treacher was steamed that his lord and master Satan’s Tucker Carlson’s blog didn’t get on the list.

    Keep fuckin’ that chicken, Jim.

  40. 40.

    david mizner

    @Maude:

    I’m partial to bloggers who participate in their comment threads. Cole does. So does Greenwald. DIgby, for example, doesn’t.

  42. 42.

    slag

    You’re #1 in my book, JC, but you did notice that Michelle Malkin was on that list? You’re not going to start stalking people’s countertops now, are you? Because, really, there are only so many places left on the internet worth visiting.

  43. 43.

    schrodinger's cat

    @jl: Tunch does not approve of schmoozing. If his minions schmooze, who will pay attention to the needs of the lord and master?

  46. 46.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Hate to rain on the party here, but Lady Smudge appears to be missing. A plumber came to the apt today to fix something while I was at work. She hasn’t come out in 20 minutes I’ve been home, and I have looked everywhere.

    I don’t even begin to know what to do now.

    ETA: I did call the landlord’s office to make sure plumber didn’t let her out, but haven’t heard back from them yet. Searched around and called outside in the immediate vicinity.

  47. 47.

    jl

    I feel bad about not congratulating Cole and the other front posters.

    But, Investor’s Business Daily? dotcom?

    Is congratulations appropriate or desired? Please inform asap.

    Or, whatever. Congratulations.

    When’s the party? Free drinks, right?

  49. 49.

    Laura W.

    @Poopyman:

    Come over here. I’m gonna kiss you.

    BIG Thanks to everyone who bought when the calendar launched last weekend! As it turned out, a big chunk of the money got into the pot before October closed so Charlie’s Angels will see some of it late December (I think/hope?) October may even beat out the store’s grand opening month last February by a small amount. Very exciting. But November is gonna be even more exciting because, you know, a bunch of you have pets in there and don’t even know it yet!!

    Go here to see all twelve pages crammed full of over 600 darling faces.

  53. 53.

    licensed to kill time

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Probably the best immediate thing you can do is put out a saucer of tuna or whatever her favorite treat is. If a stranger barged into her space today, she might be freaked out and hiding somewhere. Maybe the tuna smell will lure her out. I hope she comes back quickly!

  54. 54.

    schrodinger's cat

    @DougJ: What happened ? Were you demoted? I noticed that you are no longer the business and economics editor.

  55. 55.

    Maude

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    She’ll come back. I had a girl cat that would get out a lot. She always came back.
    Once, I had her in the car sans carry case and I got out to get coffee. I came back to the car and she was nowhere inside.
    Several hours later, I saw this black paw stretch out from underneath the driver’s seat.

  56. 56.

    gbear

    @Chat Noir:

    Benen doesn’t even post pet pics.

    He rarely posts pictures, which makes him the most safe-to-sneak-at-work blog, along with being the most informative. I agree with John that Benen has the best site around.

  58. 58.

    jl

    @BGinCHI:

    “tour bus party?”

    I thought that went without saying.

    Edit: Need to schedule a party for when Balloon Juice gets the best Otterblog award.

  60. 60.

    El Tiburon

    What about that old adage, something about the “company you keep”?

    I mean, Michelle Malkin? Powerline? Red State?

    In that the aforementioned are highly-regarded by the right, then congrats are in order.

    Toss in FDL and DKos for the haters here and BJ seems a bit out of place on that list.

    Factor in LGF, all but TPM, DKos, C&L and TPM are or were right-leaning blogs, or 60% of that list.

    Otherwise, no doubt, BJ belongs in the discussion for prominent blogs. And snark. And continued threats to go Galt.

  61. 61.

    Chat Noir

    @arguingwithsignposts: My cats have the ability to hide in the weirdest and smallest places. There have been numerous occasions when I couldn’t find one of my cats and I was sure I looked in all the possible places and I was freaking out because I couldn’t find them. Then, I looked in a spot they normally didn’t frequent and there was the missing cat! They are usually hiding in plain sight and give me a look like, “What? I was here the whole time. You just didn’t look.”

    Please let us know when you find her. She likely didn’t go far.

  62. 62.

    BR

    @Chat Noir:

    Same happened to me. I freaked out but a friend found her in a hole under our dishwasher. She wouldn’t come out for a day.

    Our trick was to just wait and make sure we made noise with her Greenies bag periodically so if she was ready she’d come out.

  63. 63.

    Dennis SGMM

    In keeping with this blog’s newly acquired status I feel that it’s fucking incumbent on all of us to moderate our motherfucking language.

  64. 64.

    gogol's wife

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I hope she’s just hiding where you can’t find her (they are really good at that). If she was scared by the plumber she probably didn’t venture out while he was there, so the chances that she went out are smaller than that she’s somewhere in the house.

    The evening of the day we got a sewer line put in, we couldn’t find one of our cats. It turned out she had been hiding in the basement (we usually keep the door shut so she can’t go down), even though they had had the trap door open all afternoon and she had several hours to run out if she’d wanted to.

    Fingers crossed.

  66. 66.

    jl

    @El Tiburon: The list was preselected using the subjective standards of some distinguished member(s) on the Investor’s Business Daily staffl.

    So, the company blogs keep on that list is IBD’s problem, not anyone elses’. IMHO.

    Edit: Where are the trolls? We were promised giant planet killing megahyper trolls! Cough ’em up!

  67. 67.

    arguingwithsignposts

    UPDATE: She has been found! I am about to spit nails at the plumber though. She was in a space behind the bathtub in the wall! He must have unscrewed the covering, and then screwed it back later without checking to see if there was a cat inside! Fuck!

  68. 68.

    BGinCHI

    @Dennis SGMM: Agreed.

    I wanted to moon the lurkers from RedState and Malkin’s House of Dumbass, but I just don’t feel like taking any pictures of my butt and posting them.

    So, lurkers, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

  74. 74.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I could not believe that. I heard a couple of weak meows and thought she might be under the bed, but no way for her to get there. Kept thinking: surely she wouldn’t be in the tub access area, it’s sealed with four screws.

    Luckily she didn’t get caught in the wall space anywhere. GRRRRR.

  82. 82.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Svensker:
    Yes. The screws were all in tight. I doubted it at first because I could barely pull the board away a tiny bit. After I unscrewed the top screws, I saw her peering out at me and then I unscrewed the rest and let her come out, took a minute for her to stick her head out.

    ETA: I am very glad she didn’t get out the front door, because even though there are stairs in the hallway, the downstairs weather door doesn’t have a latch. She could have pushed it open like nothing and been gone for a while. whew.

    But that tiny meow was so small it took me a few listens to get where it was coming from.

  85. 85.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Polish the Guillotines:

    Congratulations. I’m sure what gave BJ the edge over #11 is the awesome array of clever commenter handles.

    Nah. #11 is based in New Jersey. I heard that they fucked up their paperwork on the application.

  86. 86.

    dmsilev

    @arguingwithsignposts: Yikes.

    When I was growing up, we had something similar happen to a kitten. Not a plumber, though. Somehow, she managed to find a hole in the wall somewhere. My parents were woken up by muffled meows which appeared to be coming from the wall. Once they convinced themselves that that was what it was, out came the hammer. My dad had to knock two or three holes in the plaster before the kitty was within arms reach.

    dms

  88. 88.

    Chat Noir

    @arguingwithsignposts: I know the feeling of pure relief. So glad you found her so quickly. A picture of her after her in-wall adventure would be greatly appreciated. She has a fan base here, ya know.

  90. 90.

    Anne Laurie

    @arguingwithsignposts: Oh, thank heavens! The ‘hidden bathroom access hatch’ was going to be my first suggestion — cats find the dark spaces inside the walls irresistable. Don’t be too hard on the plumber, it’s possible he never even saw Lady Smudge, if she hid when the landlord let him in (probably), she could’ve bolted into through that panel when he wasn’t watching & then been too scared to let him know she was there when he screwed the cover back on.

    I seriously damaged a postcollege friendship, many years ago, when my beloved cat disappeared while Friend, I, Friend’s Boyfriend, and two cats were moving into a new rental together. Since Boyfriend had been loudly averse to sharing his space with felines, I assumed he’d “accidentally” let Asmo escape while we were bringing stuff in. It was almost three days before Asmo crawled out from a fist-sized hole behind the bathroom sink… to use the litter box. And if I hadn’t been in the bathroom at the time, I don’t know that he wouldn’t have crawled right back into the wall, the little fiend!

    You might want to put up some kind of “Do Not Let the Cat Out” sign next time you’re expecting the landlord to let someone in, so they’ll know in advance to be more careful.

  93. 93.

    Paris

    In the new economy, you don’t need to make money to be fabulously wealthy – just look at Facebook. JC could be an imaginary rich person, on paper.

  94. 94.

    Countme?

    Congratulations, John.

    As others have noted, if I found my name on a congratulatory list that contained Michelle Malkin’s name, I’d find a new list.

    But, Christ …. the absurdity of bloggers or media satirists like Stewart being considered or considering themselves as those who keep mainstream journalism accountable in some way is … what? …. horseshit.

    If mainstream journalists are more accountable now than they were 30 or 40 years ago, measure it for me. We have a 24-hour news cycle of howling, blithering, meaningless crap. We have an electorate of angry fucktards electing shitheads even dumber than the fucktards. We have dysfunctional government at every level and the more it accounts for its dysfunctionality, the more dysfunctional the electorate wants to make it. And if it is functional, that piece of news of nowhere to be found.

    The more Stewart/Colbert et al satirize journalism, the more journalism looks like satire. The more bloggers report their version of the factual truth, the harder the factual truth is to locate.

    Nobody knows anything. Lies are facts now, and the bigger the fucking lie the more proud and electable the liar becomes.

    Paddy Chayefsky prophesied in “Network” what’s happened since 1975, not that journalism was ever perfect, natch.

    The Faye Dunaway character in “Network” put Howard Beale on the air. Sybil the Soothsayer took over. Then the Dunaway character and the suits had Beale shot to salvage the ratings for the bottom line. All that has happened since in journalism is the camera has moved ever closer to get the best shot of Howard Beale’s dead carcass.

    Look, it’s dead. Doesn’t that piss you off? It makes me mad as hell! Ad infinitum.

    Beale taught us all to go to the window and shout “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Take “what anymore? When the hell is someone going to shoot us to salvage the ratings?

    And that’s all we’ve done. And that has become the news — mad as people interviewing other mad as hell people about nothing but their fucking anger.

    Nothing is better, let alone accountable.

    Still, if “mad as hell” is the benchmark, John Cole’s pretty good at it.

    Ah, fuck it!

  95. 95.

    Anne Laurie

    @dmsilev: __

    My dad had to knock two or three holes in the plaster before the kitty was within arms reach.

    He got off lightly. I knew someone who had to have their furnace professionally dismantled after their kitten crawled into an open flue and couldn’t find its way out again. Cats take their exploration mandate very seriously… or maybe it’s the “keep the humans anxious & poor” mandate? Hmmm, much as I love them, most cats probably would vote the Republican ticket…

  101. 101.

    Anne Laurie

    As to the topic of this post, I’m kinda assuming that IBD told their researchers “Pick the five conservative blogs and the five liberal blogs with the most hits, after subtracting those with generally NSFW content”. The writer specifically exempted blogs “tied to mainstream media outlets or foundations”, and Steve Benen posts under the Washington Monthly masthead, which explains why he (and probably Tom Scocca & no doubt other worthy candidates) weren’t included.

  104. 104.

    morzer

    Clearly what John Cole now needs to do is sign Randy Moss off waivers. Our offense will have even more Tunchdowns!

  105. 105.

    El Tiburon

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I do believe cats are the true libertarians.

    Double-Ha!

    My cats are the biggest welfare queens ever. All they do is sit around and wait for me to put food and water into their bowls. I even have to cart their poo out.

  108. 108.

    JGabriel

    El Tiburon:

    arguingwithsignposts:

    I do believe cats are the true libertarians.

    Double-Ha!
    __
    My cats are the biggest welfare queens ever. All they do is sit around and wait for me to put food and water into their bowls.

    Which is all paid for, not be the gov’t, but by the sweat of someone else’s brow, not theirs.

    So, libertarians after all.

    .

  109. 109.

    gwangung

    Sorry, folks, but I’m gonna post quotes from a contrarian rich guy:

    On wasting money in public education: “Every rich person in Seattle sends their kids to (private) schools that cost about $20,000 per child. They have absolutely, completely made up their minds that $20,000 is about the amount you should spend to give your child a world-class education. If you are thinking about creating increasing returns and you are determined to do it, asserting that the $9,800 we are currently spending (per child in public education) is ludicrous. It is wasteful? What do you want to cut it to? You can win if you invest. If $20,000 is the right number for my kids, why shouldn’t we spend $25,000 on the poor kids.”

  110. 110.

    gwangung

    “Show me one place that has cheaped out to success. I mean Silicon Valley is in Silicon Valley because of Stanford. If cheaping out were the way, then Silicon Valley would be in fucking South Dakota. It would. Find me one tiny counter example on Earth. You show me great prosperity, and I’ll show you great investment. It is this completely naive view that we can somehow cheap out to prosperity. You can’t. It has never been done. Invest, aggressively and strategically. And over invest. Error on the side of over investment. What’s the worst that can happen? Maybe you waste a few bucks. But if you can create one of those virtuous cycles, if you can create the moral educational equivalent of a hurricane, my God. Nobody can stop you.”

  111. 111.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @arguingwithsignposts: Oh god, I love Lady Smudge, aws. I’m sure she’s fine — remember a few weeks ago when Tunch got out and returned the next day looking a bit sheepish? Cats are smart and clever, and she’ll take good care of herself, but I know you’re worried sick right now. We’ve all been there. Thinking good thoughts to you and Her Smudgeness, and keep reporting in.

  112. 112.

    gwangung

    And another quote:

    On being a contrarian: “The problem with being comfortable in running against the grain is that there is a very fine line between being a brilliant entrepreneur and being a complete sociopath. This is what criminals do too. They run against the grain and do awful things…. I’ve told some people that (Jeff) Bezos calls me a high functioning contrarian. I think it is a great way to characterize my personality. The problem is if you are a low functioning contrarian you are in prison. And there is a very fine line.”

  113. 113.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @arguingwithsignposts: Ah! Saw your update after I posted @SiubhanDuinne:

    Relieved! And yeah, I’d be spitting mad at the plumber, too. (It wasn’t Joe the Plumber by any chance . . . . ?)

    Welcome back, Lady Smudge. Ask your guy for some extra tuna and scritches.

  114. 114.

    Martin

    @dmsilev: That happened to the people that previously owned our house. According to the story, the neighbors cat got onto the 2nd floor roof, climbed in one of the eve vents, walked along the attic and then fell down into one of the walls of the master bedroom closet. They were out of town for the weekend and came home to a VERY PISSED OFF CAT screaming from within the walls of the house. In there hours, two days, nobody is quite sure.

    Because of how the walls come together they couldn’t exactly figure out where the cat was, so a handyman punched a bunch of holes between the studs until the sound got louder. No sooner than they got a hole open big enough that the cat raced out, attacked everyone in the house with full claws including their dog, and just ran bonkers all over the place until they could convince it to run outside through an open door. A few days later it came home looking fairly calm but it would never come near our property again.

    We learned that in response to ‘Why are the bedroom closet walls a completely different color than anything else in the house? Who goes out of their way to pick colors and paint a fucking closet?’

    The cat’s owner who came to help with the extraction still has the scars from the escape.

  115. 115.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    Somebody’s operating a blog called Balloon hyphen Juice and using your name. You ought to sue.

  117. 117.

    JGabriel

    Nick Hanauer via gwangung:

    Show me one place that has cheaped out to success. I mean Silicon Valley is in Silicon Valley because of Stanford. If cheaping out were the way, then Silicon Valley would be in fucking South Dakota.

    To be fair, Gateway started in the Dakotas.

    Although, I’m not entirely sure whether that data point undercuts or supports Hanauer’s assertion.

    .

  118. 118.

    jwb

    @gwangung: Man, that guy is one shrill dude. He clearly does not belong to the Very Serious People. Maybe he wants to take some of his money, buy a network, and offer counter programming to Fox.

  119. 119.

    Martin

    @gwangung: He’s got it right. Economic growth comes from spending your wealth. If you’re sitting on a mountain of cash, it means you’re too fucking stupid or lazy to find a good use for it. In that case, we might as well tax it and put it to some use.

    wealth == wasted economic growth

  120. 120.

    gwangung

    @BGinCHI: Because those dinks don’t know the first thing about economics. Private investment don’t mean squat unless there’s also public investment in educational and social infrastructure. See Silicon Valley and Boston; the areas of biggest economic growth is around good to great universities.

    (And Nick Hanauer is one of the mega-rich that started off from family money. At least nine figure net worth).

  121. 121.

    JGabriel

    @BGinCHI:

    Can someone please tell me why GOPers never use the word “investment” when they are talking economy?

    Because investments are what profit me, and sociaIist handouts are what profit thee — you commie!

    .

  122. 122.

    demkat620

    @Maude: I came here during the Schiavo affair. And I have never left.

    John was still borderline at that point. But we’ve grown on him. :) Love this place. Congrats John, Tunch, Lily and Rosie!

  125. 125.

    Bnut

    My sister’s cat got caught in the neighbor’s chimney. It was bricked over at the bottom, so we had to rig up a bucket to lower through the top and hope the cat got in and then stayed in during his 40 foot ride up the thing. I hated that damn cat, so of course the rescue was a success.

  127. 127.

    Emerald

    Congrats!

    After tomorrow’s debacle (I’m pessimistic) I think I’ll be spending more time here than on DKos.

    Tell ya why, John & Co, I’m not here more: the DKos engine is much better.

    There you can reply directly to other comments and see the whole thread. You also can go to your own page and see if anyone has answered you.

    I don’t care about the recs and such, but a better ability to reply to comments and get some real dialogues going would, I think, bump this site up even higher.

    Any thoughts on changing the engine?

    Because you really do have the best folks here!

  128. 128.

    morzer

    @gwangung:

    I fear that comrade change doesn’t know the difference between his start up hub and his ass. Which is why he trolls here for pennies rather than being a Master of the Universe.

  130. 130.

    El Cid

    It doesn’t make any sense for a government to invest in things which might help out in the future because the future is not now.

  132. 132.

    BGinCHI

    @change: See, there’s exactly what I mean.

    From this shitheal it’s not snark. I think the right really doesn’t understand fundamentals.

    Or, to put it differently: they like to enjoy the fruits of investment and collective action, but they just don’t want to bear any responsibility or take any risks.

  134. 134.

    morzer

    @Emerald:

    The rec list is one of the necessary evils at DKos. It tends to get taken over by over-excited or mediocre diaries, but it’s one of the competitive elements that gets people in the door, so to speak. That said, far too many comment threads there tend to devolve into name-calling and howls of “Troll” “Am not” etc.

  135. 135.

    change

    Low marginal tax rates and de-regulation made the growth and success of firms like Intel, Apple, and Microsoft possible.

  136. 136.

    change

    Low marginal tax rates and de-regulation made the growth and success of firms like Intel, Apple, and Microsoft possible.

  137. 137.

    Martin

    @JGabriel: Actually, they started in Iowa and then moved to SD. They later moved to La Jolla, which is where UC San Diego is, then to Irvine, which is where UC Irvine is. Ultimately, it proved the rule.

  138. 138.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Emerald:
    FWIW, John could use the Disqus comment engine, which would thread replies, and I’m sure there’s a wordpress plugin that would do so as well. But honestly, that DKos comment system doesn’t do it for me when you get four or five levels deep on a reply thread and it’s all meta meta “fuck you with your hide rate” stuff.

  140. 140.

    JGabriel

    Congrats, John Cole!

    I think.

    I mean, the article itself is pretty reasonable, but it’s published by Investors Business Daily, who are completely whack. So, I’ve got kind of mixed feelings about this…

    .

  142. 142.

    jl

    That is our troll? What a rip off.

    I thought we were going to get galaxy devouring giga trolls from HHHHEEEELLLLLLL.

    BJ needs a new item in the store: My blog won a blog award and all I got was this lousy troll.

  143. 143.

    JGabriel

    Martin:

    Actually, they started in Iowa and then moved to SD.

    Thanks for the correction, Martin. I did not know that about Gateway starting in Iowa, I always thought it SD.

    .

  144. 144.

    jl

    @arguingwithsignposts: glad you found your cat. Poor thing must have been scared. Cats can pull of that kind of trick with surprising ease.

  146. 146.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @change:

    Low marginal tax rates and de-regulation made the growth and success of firms like Intel, Apple, and Microsoft possible.

    Man, you are an idiot.
    Apple: founded 1976. Top marginal tax rate: 70 percent.
    Intel: founded 1968. Top marginal tax rate: 75.25 percent.
    MS: founded 1985. Top marginal tax rate: 50 percent.
    Link

    You really need to clap louder, troll.

  147. 147.

    Martin

    @change: Um, I know more about what led to the success of those companies than anyone I’ve ever met. They all pay among the highest corporate taxes in the US and did throughout their greatest growth periods. They’re also in the most heavily regulated states in the US, and have remained there even though they could easily afford to move operations elsewhere.

    There are significant strategic opportunities where they are located. Opportunities that they cannot buy elsewhere. The day you see one of those companies move their headquarters into cheaper states is the day you should short their stock.

  148. 148.

    El Cid

    The government had nothing to do with the development of computers or the internet. Reagan never wasted any money funding anything which had spinoff developments in either field. It was all low taxes and deregulation.

  149. 149.

    JPL

    Congratulations John on the ranking. My TV will be off tomorrow and Wednesday due to pundit bloviating and this site will be the only place I check for updates.

    @arguingwithsignposts: I’m so happy that you found Smudge.

  152. 152.

    morzer

    @BGinCHI:

    I suspect our troll is surplus stock from the Carly Fiorina failathon. Most likely it has red eyes and white wool and doesn’t print worth a damn.

  153. 153.

    Ross Hershberger

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Thank you for getting to that first. And nice summary.

    It’s not a coincidence that Silicon Valley really took off during the Reagan administration.

    I’ll take this one.
    Bubbles and the GOP go together because the only ones who actually make money in an irrational market are those who move it from place to place.

  154. 154.

    change

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I said “success and growth”. Not “founding”.

    They didn’t REALLY take off until taxes were low in the later Reagan administration, and during the Republican balanced budgets of the ’90s.

  155. 155.

    Martin

    @JGabriel: I’ve got some family connections with Gateway stemming from when they were in Iowa, so that’s a front-of-the-brain bit of knowledge for me.

  157. 157.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @change:

    during the Republican balanced budgets of the ‘90s.

    hahahahaha.

    C’mon, dude. see the ball, connect with the ball.

    ETA: if you honestly believe fucking Apple was thinking about marginal rates and deregulation when developing the Macintosh, OS X, iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad, I can’t help you. I suggest brain surgery – perhaps a transplant.

  161. 161.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    Congratulations John. I think. Seeing Michelle Malkin’s face at the site you linked to gave me the willies.

  164. 164.

    dmsilev

    @change:

    Low marginal tax rates and de-regulation made the growth and success of firms like Intel, Apple, and Microsoft possible.

    Founded in 1968, 1976, and 1975 respectively. By 1980, Intel was one of the biggest semiconductor companies around, Apple was a major player in the nascent personal computer industry. Microsoft’s rise came with the selection of MS-DOS for the PC, circa 1981 or so.

    Yes, *clearly* due to Ronald Reagan’s ineffable presence as President.

    Sheesh.

    dms

  165. 165.

    Jay

    I love this website, but I am not at all a fan of Investor’s Business Daily. As TBogg once wrote, “It is the Wall Street Journal for those who need ‘Marmaduke’ explained to them.”

  166. 166.

    Martin

    @change: Reagan had fuckall to do with Silicon Valley growing. It was 100% a function of when technology hit certain key points. Apple’s emergence coincided with when semiconductors were more powerful than the calculators that HP was making and could be applied to more general purpose problems. Microsofts emergence coincided with the next leap in technology that allowed for more abstracted software and reliable removable storage. Apple’s re-emergence coincided when very lower power semiconductors and display technology allowed for highly portable computing.

    Taxes didn’t have a fucking thing to do with any of it. And they’ve been important enough milestones that billions of dollars were dumped into them – money that would have been dumped in even if it needed to be borrowed. Apple spent 3 years developing the iPhone in one of the most expensive labor and tax markets in the country. How the fuck did government policy help or hinder that in any way?

  168. 168.

    Lolis

    Is this change’s new full-time job? In that case, more power to you. It is hard out there for a wingnut.

  170. 170.

    BGinCHI

    While we’re on the subject of Reagan and how he didn’t do half of what the right thinks he did (to be generous).

    The guy did engineer selling weapons to Iran to fund a right-wing group intent on toppling an elected government in a sovereign nation.

    Just think about that.

    If Obama sold weapons to Iran to fund the actual coming of Christ, he’d be the greatest monster in American political history.

    Amazing what the GOP can get away with. It’s mind-blowing.

  173. 173.

    El Cid

    If it hadn’t been for lower taxes and a ‘balanced budget’ (balanced in the sense of the correct priorities, not balanced in the old fashioned sense of taking in something like what you spend) under Reagan, Apple computers could never have come out with the Apple II in 1977, nor could Jobs and Wozniak have been invited to check out Xerox’s Alto in their Palo Alto center in 1979 nor begun work on Apple’s Lisa in 1978, nor could Apple have had a monstrously successful IPO in December of 1980. In fact it was Ronald Reagan himself who developed the MacIntosh.

  174. 174.

    El Cid

    @dmsilev: Intel suspected that Ronald Reagan would soon be President given his 1976 campaign, and therefore had the freedom to be successful by 1980.

  175. 175.

    Bnut

    @BGinCHI:
    When Ollie North visited my base on my last deployment, I had to explain to everyone in my platoon and later a very pissed off LtCol that I refuse to shake hands with someone who lied to Congress about selling weapons and funding revolutions.

  177. 177.

    jl

    Burt wait, what they did they just pick ten blogs and then rate them? And Balloon Juice was… number ten?

    Are we supposed to congratulate Cole, or express our sympathies, or are we supposed to snark?

    Cole trolls his own blog, but when we need him, where is he? Probabaly trying to get tix for exclusive theatrical performances at Mitchell Brothers, for his trip.

    If Balloon Juice is going to run with the big boyz like DKos, we need to receive orders from the Great Powder Blue Satan.

  178. 178.

    dmsilev

    @El Cid: No, that’s not right. Clearly, 2010 Intel has developed time travel, and they’ve sent a Terminator back to 1976 to kill Sarah Connor explain supply-side economics to the Intel executives of the time. What, you think it’s a coincidence that Ahnold is leaving the governorship right now? No. Soon, he’ll be reprogrammed and sent on his way.

    dms

  179. 179.

    sven

    the Republican balanced budgets of the ‘90s

    ‘change’ can’t be for real. Internet rule 27(4)(b) clearly states that any individual faux-trolling must admit the gambit when correctly identified by another contributor to the thread. A game is only fun if we all play by the rules.

  183. 183.

    General Stuck

    Sarah Serendipity goes megaton on Politico’s sorry ass.

    Palin also mocked Politico’s use of anonymous sources, saying, “I suppose I could play their immature, unprofessional, waste-of-time game, too, by claiming these reporters and politicos are homophobe, child molesting, tax evading, anti-dentite, puppy-kicking, chain smoking porn producers…really, they are…

    “anti-dentite” Haven’t googled this, and don’t think I will, but am stealing it to confound the trolls here on bj. Sounds like somebody didn’t brush their teeths.

    You big anti dentite pro lefter

    fairly catchy, dontcha think.

  193. 193.

    El Cid

    @The Grand Panjandrum: Sumerian prophesies heralded the arrival one day of a God-King who would lower taxes, cut regulations, and bring Morning to Ur, and that this would by more generations into the future that all of Sumeria had oxen, and thus they had the Freedom to develop civilization within the Tigris-Euphrates.

  195. 195.

    dmsilev

    @General Stuck:

    “anti-dentite” Haven’t googled this, and don’t think I will, but am stealing it to confound the trolls here on bj. Sounds like somebody didn’t brush their teeths.

    Hell, I’ll Google it…

    …first hit is Wikipedia, which says it was a term used (invented?) in a Seinfeld episode.

    dms

  202. 202.

    El Cid

    @morzer: No, but it was his deregulaton of the Mesopotamian accounting industry which gave scribes the freedom to invent cuneiform.

  204. 204.

    stuckinred

    David Hackworth on Ollie

    LET ME TRY to describe Oliver North in a few fast bursts. He’s a jackass. He is so preposterous that there is a temptation to laugh at him. He’s smarmy, a flatter, a brownnoser. He’s also a twisted impostor, a drugstore Marine with an apparent compulsion to bullshit just about all the time. But while he tries to fool people with his fantasies, he is also very easy to fool. He boasts that he was an can-do guy when he was in the White House, but the record spells no-can-do. North did terible damage to the U.S. until he was caught. One thread runs through his performance–getting conned. The Iranians conned him, the contras conned him, the crooked arms dealers conned him and even Manuel Antonio Noriega conned him.

  206. 206.

    General Stuck

    @Calouste:

    calling the press “child molesters” would make even Nixon blush, I suspect. She might could be president of the gamma quadrant someday. someday.

  208. 208.

    change

    @gbear:

    You still watch cartoons, child? Why don’t you go to bed and let the adults talk politics, you can play some video games tomorrow.

  211. 211.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Just the tonic for my day. B-J at #10 in some bogus poll. Lady Smudge lost and found. Lots of snark, some great cat-in-the-wall stories, and one really lame troll. Just another day of hot air and ill-informed banter.

  212. 212.

    change

    @gbear:

    Perhaps when you grow up and are more mature you can discuss politics with the adults. Until then, run a long and watch your cartoons.

  213. 213.

    morzer

    @gbear:

    Well, you have to remember that change spends long hours rogering himself with an enormous leek, so it’s not really surprising that he walks funny.

  217. 217.

    General Stuck

    @change:

    and let the adults talk politics

    Adults?

    hahahahahahahhahahhahhahhahhhhaaaa

    Silly wingnut, everyone knows there are no adults in politics.

  218. 218.

    General Stuck

    A win is a win.

    not always. once i thought i won a lottery, but ended up in the Army instead.

  221. 221.

    gwangung

    You still watch cartoons, child?

    Only kids think “cartoons” are beneath them. Y’all need to grow up.

    BETTER.

    TROLLS.

    PLEASE!!!!!

  222. 222.

    BGinCHI

    @morzer: I’m trying to decide whether my Welsh friends will think this leek thing is funny.

    Probably come down to how many pints we’ve had.

  224. 224.

    MikeJ

    What bizarre methodology. Preselect some number of blogs (how many?) then average their traffic ratings.

    If traffic is such an important determinant, then why notjust go through the top 1000 sites on each of their three lists and toss out everything non political, then average those traffic ratings. Yes, you still have somebody deciding what’s apolitical blog and what isn’t, but at least they aren’t pre selecting and it’s easier to see that it’s just ratings.

  229. 229.

    Annie

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Thank God! While I am truly proud of JC for this blog, and the entire awesome team, I admit that I scrolled rapidly down the comments waiting to hear about her return.

    Poor Lady Smudge. Bad day. Lots of love and tuna and love and tuna. And, hopefully she will give us another of her back leg shots — the FU to the plumber.

  239. 239.

    Ash Can

    This is pretty hilarious: Change says something ludicrous, said idiocy gets roundly debunked by people who very obviously know far more about the subject than change does, then change reappears to…throw around puerile ad hominems. I detect a pattern here — when change starts calling people “child” or some variation thereof, the white flag is waving.

  240. 240.

    kdaug

    @Bnut: Agreed. Col. Hackworth railed against the “perfumed princes” in command until the last dying breath.

    RIP, Col. We need more like you.

  241. 241.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @arguingwithsignposts #230:

    Wait, what? I thought makeweewee and pancake and change were *all* the same troll. Can’t tell the fuckin players without a fuckin program any more.

    @aws #235: I was *just* trying to remember his name! Michael Gassbagg, to be sure. Helicopters, credenzas . . . . good times, good times. But I never thought of him as a troll. Full-blown batshit crazy? Fo’ sure! But not a full-blown batshit crazy *troll*

    The way I can tell, Michael Gass never so much as mentioned his favorite kind of pie. Whereas change, pancake and makewee can’t shut about about pastry crusts, filling, lattice tops and 3.14.

  243. 243.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @morzer:

    Cello? I keep hearing about how change is still rogering away at it with that leek. If they are indeed taking up the cello at the same time I would have to say that is some talent for multitasking. The fact that they would be doing both while running around with their head up their ass would truly be impressive!

    Ok, hilarious.

  244. 244.

    Tsulagi

    @Bnut: When I was at Quantico for a bit in the late 90s Marines there wouldn’t have shook North’s hand either. Most thought he was a dilettante and a political hack. Really pissed the hell out of them he lied to Congress under oath while wearing a Marine uniform.

  245. 245.

    Cain

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I don’t even begin to know what to do now.

    As a person who lost his cat 3 weeks ago today, I feel for you, more than you can ever know. My face gets still screwed up in sadness, especially with all the rain. I miss my buddy and companion.

    I hope you find her! Crossing my fingers for luck!

    cain

  246. 246.

    Cain

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    UPDATE: She has been found! I am about to spit nails at the plumber though. She was in a space behind the bathtub in the wall! He must have unscrewed the covering, and then screwed it back later without checking to see if there was a cat inside! Fuck!

    Doh! Yay!!

    cain

  247. 247.

    asiangrrlMN

    @arguingwithsignposts: Holy shit. I take this to mean that Lady Smudge was missing for a bit. Glad you found her!

    @Cain: Aw. I am so sorry that Kit Kat has not returned. My heart goes out to you and your loved ones.

    Cole, congrats. However, MM1 is #2? Ugh. I agree with everyone who says Benen should be on the list. I would also put TNC on it, but that’s just because I get so engrossed in his posts and the comments left over there.

  248. 248.

    Andy K

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Yeah, definitely TNC, too. IMO, he seems to put more of himself out there than anyone. He’s uniquely insightful.

    And WOOHOO! I post on #6 (okay, not often, and mostly just music) and love hanging out, reading and commenting at #10!

Comments are closed.