Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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

Let there be snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

He really is that stupid.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Good lord, these people are nuts.

“woke” is the new caravan.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

T R E 4 5 O N

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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Reader Interactions

263Comments

  1. 1.

    cyntax

    Yep, looks like she wants 4 more days of debates. TPM is saying it looks a lot more likely to pass now.

  2. 2.

    Allan

    Senator Esmerelda from Bewitched has lost her vote for DADT repeal. They’ve put in a call for Dr. Bombay to come help her locate it.

  3. 3.

    joe from Lowell

    Yes, and it’s not too bad.

    15 amendments (10 Republican, 5 Democrat) and 4 days of debate. She’s come out and given hard numbers.

    If Reid doesn’t take this deal, he’s an idiot or a traitor.

  10. 10.

    Hal

    Once again, John McCain is a morally bankrupt, flip-flopper extreme.

    I finally figured out why he hasn’t flipped back to being in favor of DADT. He times his flops one to two years apart. Since he just flipped on DADT, he has to wait.

    If he had one re-election say, two years ago, he would have probably supported repeal.

  11. 11.

    FormerSwingVoter

    @joe from Lowell:

    The reason for four days of debate, though, is that she wants the vote on this to be after the tax compromise vote.

    She explicitly stated that much, though not in the link provided.

  13. 13.

    Evil Parallel Universe

    Dear Toshiba:

    My issue isn’t with the tech support people. They were very very good – really tried hard to fix my problem. My issue is with the fact that my computer is a little over 30 days old and has a part (its Bluetooth) that doesn’t work. That I spent a day with the tech support people trying to fix it (for which they get a lot of credit for trying), but which they couldn’t fix, and now, I have to send my computer back to Toshiba to be fixed and will be without it for 2-3 weeks. That is simply not right – it is brand new.

    Further, the tech support case manager I spoke with after the techies couldn’t fix my computer was basically useless. I spend $903 on a new computer, it breaks after a month, and I’m told that I get nothing from Toshiba for my troubles. I really want a new computer that didn’t come broken (the fact that it took 30+ days for the Bluetooth to break, rather than breaking in 15 days is immaterial to me, the purchaser), but absent getting a new computer, it would have been nice to be offered something for the fact that I am going to be without the computer for 2-3 weeks and I’ve already spent a full day of my time trying to fix it.

    Basically, the situation makes me feel like all Toshiba ever cared about was selling me a computer, you don’t care about me as a customer (despite the fine efforts of your tech support staff), that my time isn’t of value to Toshiba (I assure you my time is valuable to me), that your tech support case manager really didn’t seem to care that I was shipped a defective computer (again, I’ve had the computer only a little over 30 days) and was more interested in reciting platitudes than trying to understand my position regarding this matter in any way (if that is what you pay her to do, you are getting your monies worth), or offering me anything to make up for my lost time or my loss of use of the computer.

    So, to sum up:

    1. I really liked the computer out of the box and when it worked;

    2. Your actual techies are very good and conscientious, and tried hard, were nice, and genuinely seemed interested in solving the issue;

    3. Your tech support case manager (or case support manager or whatever her title is) was, from my point of view, indifferent and perhaps even a little condescending (again, if you pay her to be that way you are getting your monies worth). She simply seemed to recite your corporate policies by rote, without any attention/understanding to my specific case (it’s not like I’ve had the computer for a long time, or did something to it to make it not work), so she was basically IMO not a case manager but a corporate apologist (at least change her job title to something that reflects what she actually does);

    4. A computer breaking in 30+ days is not that different from a computer breaking in 15 days if that is your new computer replacement policy. It was a piece of hardware that broke on the computer, not anything I did to it. It came that way from the factory:

    5. If you aren’t going to replace defective computers that you send customers, you really should offer me something for my inconvenience and lost time – both my time working with the techies to solve the problem and the time I will not be able to use the computer I just paid you for. I don’t care if it was a credit at the Toshiba store, but something to recognize that I’ve actually suffered a loss, I’m not happy about it, and I should be given some form of redress.

    6. I wrote a really nice review of the A660 I bought on the Toshiba Direct site (I’m EvilParallelUniverse if you want to go read it), and now all I can say is that I want that review retracted – because what was true after 1 month of ownership wasn’t true of one month and one week of ownership.

    So, to ask me now whether I would recommend Toshiba to friends seems to me a little out of place at this time. Sort of like the customer support manager telling me to have a nice day at the end of my phone call with her this morning. I’m not a very happy Toshiba customer at the moment, and you’ve given me no reason to be a happy customer – just the opposite.

  14. 14.

    tweez

    How much you wanna bet after the requisite 4 days she decides she can’t vote for cloture after all?

    Charlie Brown * Football * Lucy

  15. 15.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Hal:

    Once again, John McCain is a morally bankrupt, flip-flopper extreme.

    You make “maverick” seem so cheap and tawdry.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Jake

    I just want to point out that the fact this isn’t repealed yet is all Obama’s fault.

  22. 22.

    Moses2317

    I can guarantee you that the teabaggers are continuing to flood their Senators’ offices with calls during this delay. Let’s make sure we do the same.

    Call your Senators and those below, and ask them to vote for fairness, equality, and military readiness by repealing DADT.

    Olympia Snowe (Maine) – (202) 224-5344

    Susan Collins (Maine) – (202) 224-2523

    Scott Brown (Massachusetts) – (202) 224-4543

    George LeMieux (Florida) – (202) 224-3041

    George Voinovich (Ohio) – (202) 224-3353

    Jim Webb (Virginia) – (202)-224-4024

    Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) – (202) 224-6665

    John Ensign (Nevada) – (202) 224-6244

    Richard Lugar (Indiana) – (202) 224-4814

    Mark Kirk (Illinois) – (202) 224-2854

    Winning Progressive

  24. 24.

    joe from Lowell

    @FormerSwingVoter:

    The reason for four days of debate, though, is that she wants the vote on this to be after the tax compromise vote.

    So, her position hasn’t changed. Her statement from a few days ago, offering her support, was conditional on 1) a compromise on the tax cuts and 2) a “reasonable” number of amendments as time to debate them.

    Now, she’s put some numbers on “reasonable,” but her old condition still holds.

    They still need to do something about that tax-cut extension to get to the DADT vote. The whole lame duck calendar is connected.

  26. 26.

    joe from Lowell

    @soonergrunt:

    Any word on the nature of the amendments?

    I haven’t seen any, but I trust the Democrats will be forced to vote nay on the “Protecting Our Troops from Gay Sharia Taxes Amendment” and the like.

    And, for some reason, I get the impression that something else is going to be built in Maine. Just a hunch.

  27. 27.

    Bobby Thomson

    @joe from Lowell:

    15 amendments (10 Republican, 5 Democrat) and 4 days of debate. She’s come out and given hard numbers.

    Four days of debate pushes it till after the tax vote, forcing Democrats to put out. If they don’t, she has an excuse to vote against DADT repeal. The sole purpose of the posturing by Collins and Lieberman is to try to tie Democrats’ hand on the tax “compromise” abomination.

    The 10 Republican amendments introduce the poison pills that doom repeal. Then Collins votes against it anyway.

    Success has killed TPM. Hard to believe that Josh Marshall was one of the leading voices in defense of Social Security only five years ago.

  28. 28.

    JonathanW

    Is there an “on the fence” whip count in the Senate? I want to know which of my friends to harass to call the switchboard tomorrow.

    I figure it’s something like:

    Collins
    Lugar
    Brown
    ???

    Who else?

    edit: nm, saw the list above. Can we get a front-pager to add it to the top of a post?

  29. 29.

    Bobby Thomson

    @tweez:

    How much you wanna bet after the requisite 4 days she decides she can’t vote for cloture after all?

    A “bet” implies that the outcome is in doubt.

  30. 30.

    Alex S.

    @Hal:

    His flip-flop spell must be on cooldown.

    And now I am expecting the obligatory “allow guns in mental asylums”-amendment.

  31. 31.

    Delaware Doug

    You guys can forget about DADT repeal. It’s toast.

    Even if it weren’t, I’m sure Obama would find a way to throw it under the bus to get some bi-partisan Broder love!

  32. 32.

    Alex

    Don’t think this has been discussed yet…anyone notice what a disgusting fucking anti-semite Helen Thomas is? I mean this as a separate issue from the merited criticism of her forced departure from the White House Press Corps. Can she possibly be defended personally? She was one step away from chortling about how all the Jews left the WTC right “on time.” An absolutely revolting human being.

  33. 33.

    freelancer

    @Alex S.:

    And now I am expecting the obligatory “allow guns in mental asylums”-amendment.

    Too late, they’re already legal in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arizona, and Alaska.

  34. 34.

    joe from Lowell

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Four days of debate pushes it till after the tax vote, forcing Democrats to put out. If they don’t, she has an excuse to vote against DADT repeal. The sole purpose of the posturing by Collins and Lieberman is to try to tie Democrats’ hand on the tax “compromise” abomination.

    But we already knew this. She made the passage of a deal on tax cut extensions a condition of her support days ago.

    The 10 Republican amendments introduce the poison pills that doom repeal.

    They’d have to pass. They’re amendments.

    Success has killed TPM. Hard to believe that Josh Marshall was one of the leading voices in defense of Social Security only five years ago.

    Or maybe, he’s exactly the same reporter he was five years ago, and you aren’t so much skeptical – looking for more information before coming to a conclusion – as kneejerk cynical – thinking you don’t need any information to invariably draw the most negative conclusion.

  36. 36.

    Mr. Furious

    Why the fuck weren’t votes on START and DADT part of the tax cut deal? The GOP got all the tax-related shit they wanted, they couldn’t even pony up a fucking up or down vote?

  38. 38.

    calling all toasters

    Jesus fucking Christ Obama! Just don’t appeal the fucking case! Do you need a pat on the head from David Broder every time you make a decision?

  40. 40.

    lamh32

    I know there is more important political news and flame-throwing to do, but damn if the news that Aretha Franklin may have pancreatic cancer (5-10% survival) just makes me said.

    Whatever power you believe in, or deity, or nature, whatever, best wishes and hell yeah, prayers go out to The Queen of Soul.

    Aretha Franklin – I Say A Little Prayer

  41. 41.

    Martin

    Jerry Brown had a budget summit today. Pretty painful. Here’s his slides (PDF).

    Bottom line, $28B budget shortfall to close – or about what the state spends on K-12. So, we could close every public K-12 school in the state (3,000 of them); or close the UC and CalState systems, the prisons, the courts (what’s the point of them with no prisons), and lay off all the police and probation officers (what’s the point of them with no courts or prisons); or we could raise taxes. It seems apparent that Brown isn’t going to just kick it down the road to next year, nor should he. This is the best shot we have to fix it for real.

    Refreshing seeing someone not try and perpetually bullshit us. The budget is worse than I realized, but we’re still a $1.9T economy, so the money is there. We just need to yank it out of the greedy fuckers in OC.

  43. 43.

    Turgidson

    Can someone explain to me why Mark Kirk has already taken his spot as IL Senator? What happened to Burris exactly? I missed this.

  45. 45.

    Mike in NC

    John McCain is a morally bankrupt, flip-flopper extreme. I finally figured out why he hasn’t flipped back to being in favor of DADT.

    He’s also a supreme petulant asshole who’ll always vote against whatever the Obama Administration is in favor of. It’s just how the old bastard rolls.

  46. 46.

    Martin

    @lamh32: Buck up, camper. Steve Jobs had pancreatic cancer as well and survived. Where there’s a will (and 99 bazillion dollars) there’s a way.

    My guess is she’s getting a phone call from him soon – he’s turned into something of a soft touch on that front, and he’s a fan of hers.

  51. 51.

    Turgidson

    @lamh32:

    I was under the impression Burris would fill out the rest of Obama’s term. If a special election was necessary, why didn’t it happen sometime in ’09 rather than the usual election day ’10?

    Clearly I wasn’t paying attention at some point.

  52. 52.

    joe from Lowell

    @Turgidson: There were actually 2 elections in Illinois for the Senate.

    There was a special election to fill the remainder of Obama’s term, which ends in January. Burriss, as per Illinois law, was only appointed to fill the seat until the special election. They scheduled the election for the next general election day, which was November 1010. Kirk won this, so he’s seated immediately.

    The other was the regular election for the next Senate term, 2011-2017. Kirk won that, too, so he will begin a new term in January, with a little bit of seniority over the rest of the Class of 2010.

  53. 53.

    fraught

    “If he does that I will do all that I can to help him proceed to the bill. But if he does not do that, then I will not,” she added.
    whaaa, whaaa, whaaaaaaa

  56. 56.

    Joseph Nobles

    Burris was only an appointee until a special election could be held to fill the seat. That election was held and now Kirk is the junior Senator from Illinois and Burris has one final line to etch on his mausoleum.

  57. 57.

    beltane

    @Bnut: Really? China may be kicking our ass on the economic front but we are rapidly closing in on them in the oppression department.

  58. 58.

    Turgidson

    @joe from Lowell:

    Ah, OK. Thanks. I thought the November election was just the standard practice and Kirk would be sworn in with the rest of the incoming class in January.

  60. 60.

    Calouste

    @Martin:

    F#$%. 67% of the California state payroll goes to corrections? Who are you guys trying to make jealous? Pinochet? Stalin? Pol Pot?

  62. 62.

    fraught

    @joe from Lowell:

    you aren’t so much skeptical – looking for more information before coming to a conclusion – as kneejerk cynical – thinking you don’t need any information to invariably draw the most negative conclusion.

    Nicely done!

  63. 63.

    Darkrose

    I just had an emeritus professor tell one of my co-workers that he didn’t want to talk to me because I “sound colored”. I honestly am more boggled than anything else.

    They do not pay me enough for this shit.

  64. 64.

    BombIranForChrist

    I’ve definitely been on a bit of a personal journey these last couple days re: Obama, and if DADT manages to pass, I will personally feel a little better about how things are going.

    I’ve been reflecting a lot about Obama’s comments yesterday, and about Greg Sargent’s argument that, unlike Clinton, Obama isn’t arguing for these tax cuts because he believes in them, but because he thinks it’s the best he can get…

    On the one hand, I think this argument is bullshit. On matters where Obama has a lot of control (Guatanamo, civil liberties, the Treasury Department’s love affair with Wall Street, etc.), Obama has quite simply and emphatically failed. Period. He’s full of shit on all of these issues. I am going to laugh when he tries to blame Congress for his moral failings on these issues.

    So I don’t think it’s a big leap to then say that, just as he is full of shit on issues where Congress is not involved, he is also full of shit on issues where Congress is involved. If he runs the Treasury Department like a Clinton, it’s not a stretch to say that he manages his relationship with Congress in the same way: 1) punch the hippies, 2) make a deal with the GOP, 3) go to Blues concerts in Harlem, proving that he’s no bigot, he has many black friends … and gay ones … but I digress …

    Still, I can appreciate Sargent’s point. And if these guys can somehow pull off a repeal of DADT, it would go a ways towards proving that Obama is not just another hippie punching Clinton, and that will personally mean a lot to me. And, you know, if he wants to close Guatanamo, I would appreciate that too …

    Cuz I don’t like getting punched. It makes me angry. And it makes Obama an asshole.

  65. 65.

    Delaware Doug

    @joe from Lowell:

    One of the Conservadems or the Snow Queens will pull the football away at the last minute as usual.

    The banksters and Christian Taliban have ruined this country and the Democrats have enabled them.This country is doomed, many are expatriating to places with more equality and better economies. Read this:

    http://tinyurl.com/2amo629

  66. 66.

    Mark S.

    The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email. Hackers in London apparently affiliated with “Operation Payback” – a group of supporters of Julian Assange and Wikileaks – have tried to shut down SarahPac and have disrupted Sarah and Todd Palin’s personal credit card accounts.

    link

  68. 68.

    trizzlor

    @BombIranForChrist: Can’t help but be reminded of this:

    Madrak asked, “I’m a blogger, and I don’t know if you know this term, but are you familiar with the term hippie-punching?”
    There was about a 15-second pause. “Go ahead,” said Axelrod.

    If only I could get a recording of that 15-second pause.

  69. 69.

    joe from Lowell

    @BombIranForChrist:

    And, you know, if he wants to close Guatanamo, I would appreciate that too …

    Gitmo really is Congress’s fault. They passed a bill forbidding the executive branch to spend any money moving the detainees to another facility, and Congress controls the purse strings.

  72. 72.

    freelancer

    @BombIranForChrist:

    if these guys can somehow pull off a repeal of DADT, it would go a ways towards proving that Obama is not just another hippie punching Clinton, and that will personally mean a lot to me. And, you know, if he wants to close Guatanamo, I would appreciate that too …
    __
    Cuz I don’t like getting punched. It makes me angry. And it makes Obama an asshole.

    Got coherence?

  75. 75.

    Tom Hilton

    @Mike Kay (Team America): And the difference between real-life Obama and the imaginary Obama Firebaggers want him to be is that real-life Obama has put in the work necessary to get the support of the people who actually have to implement repeal, while imaginary Firebagger Obama would have somehow unilaterally repealed an act of Congress (without going through Congress) while telling the military brass “fuck you, I’m the PRESIDENT!”

  76. 76.

    Dee Loralei

    @BombIranForChrist: Obama tried to close Gitmo. The funds needed for that were denied by congress. It failed in the Senate something like 90+ <10. Gitmo still being opened is ALL on Congress.

  78. 78.

    The Dangerman

    @Calouste:

    67% of the California state payroll goes to corrections?

    CA prison guards (and an wardens, etc.) have some of the best contracts around. I forget the details, but if you’re willing to put up with potentially getting shived, a prison job in CA is fucking gold.

  79. 79.

    mr. whipple

    @Darkrose:

    I just had an emeritus professor tell one of my co-workers that he didn’t want to talk to me because I “sound colored”.

    WTF?

  80. 80.

    Delaware Doug

    Who needs closing Gitmo when he gave us Dick Nixon’s healthcare plan!

    The only industrialized country in the world without single-payer, or even universal healthcare. Just embarrassing.

  81. 81.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    @joe from Lowell: the thing is, the firebaggers, like the teabaggers have no self awareness. They simply are unable to comprehend that they’re the ones throwing 99.99% of the punches.

  83. 83.

    WyldPirate

    NY Times Senate whip count on Obama’s tax deal
    12 for 30 opposed

    Demint says he will filibuster unless UI paid for and
    “death Tax” taken back to zero.

    Biden talks to House caucus–chilly reception

    White House is blaming the Congressional Dems for failing on the tax issue. They ccan’t take any responsibility it seems as responsible leadership is a lost art.

    Obama toss copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People” he used to brush up for negotiations with Rethugs and gets Machievelli’s The Prince to deal with his “friends” on the Dem side of the aisle.

    good times!

  84. 84.

    mr. whipple

    Madrak asked, “I’m a blogger, and I don’t know if you know this term, but are you familiar with the term hippie-punching?”

    Imagine having the honor and responsibility of being invited to a WH Q&A, getting the chance to show you can act much better than the MSM, and then acting like a childish left version of a Fox shithead. Well played!

  85. 85.

    Violet

    @Darkrose:
    Jeez, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. Is this emeritus professor perhaps very old and his mental capacity somewhat in question? That wouldn’t excuse what he said, but perhaps he’s not firing on all cylinders. Still…ugh. What a bad day. Do you have to interact with him on a regular basis?

  87. 87.

    kdaug

    @Darkrose: Wow.

    Although a person who uses the word “colored” in this age is likely not to be around much longer – the “emeritus” in his honorarium would tend to confirm this. (I’m guessing 65+)?

    Understandably unacceptable, but take small, cold comfort that his kind won’t be around for long.

    To steal a phrase, “It get’s better”.

  92. 92.

    Nick

    @freelancer:

    You know what time it is now; Ben “Human Monkey Wrench” Nelson is about due for his scheduled appearance.

    don’t need him, if we got Snowe, Collins, Brown, Ensign, and Murkowski

  93. 93.

    John O

    I finally watched the presser.

    I can’t help it, I think President Obama lays out a pretty rational case for the deal within the constructs of his political reality, which I assume he knows a bit better than I do, and is one hard-core pragmatist, and I think he did about as good as he could being such a pussy about his initial demands and public whipping of those same demands. Case in point: It would appear both the far left and far right of each party hate it about the same.

    Tax cuts for zillionaires ARE the GOP’s Holy Grail. And the POTUS does not have 60 votes. It’s not that complicated.

  95. 95.

    The Dangerman

    @The Dangerman:

    CA prison guards (and an wardens, etc.) have some of the best contracts around.

    Need to correct myself; they HAD some of the best contracts around. They didn’t want to deal with Schwarzenegger and donated a pile to Brown.

    That should be interesting; again, their old contract was sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

  96. 96.

    WyldPirate

    @Mike Kay (Team America):

    Maybe you should toughen up, and take off that skirt.

    It will be fun seeing you figuratively explode on here making excuses if Obama’s giveaway to the GOP gets punked by Congress and he looks like a fool.

  98. 98.

    Delaware Doug

    California is basically a preview of what awaits the US in a few years after Obama’s millionaire/bankster tax cut giveaway and his back-door pillage of Social Security and Medicare.

    We’re well on our way to becoming Colombia with nukes.

  99. 99.

    Suffern ACE

    @Dee Loralei: Well he could have just defied Congress and by the time they had impeached and convicted him over that, the public would see what a principled actor he was and we’d now have single payor.

  102. 102.

    Alex

    @TooManyJens: I was referring to her latest remarks about how “propagandists against Arabs” own Congress, the White House, Hollywood, and Wall Street. Maybe I’ll save it for another open thread. Just seemed relevant.

  107. 107.

    MikeJ

    @Alex S.:

    And now I am expecting the obligatory “allow guns in mental asylums”-amendment.

    I came up with a great bill that should get support from liberals and conservatives.

    The solution to school bullying of gay kids is simple: arm them. People should be less likely to pick on an armed person.

    As a bonus, you can assume that every person you see with a gun is gay.

  108. 108.

    Mnemosyne

    @Delaware Doug:

    Who needs closing Gitmo when he gave us Dick Nixon’s healthcare plan!

    Don’t forget to demand that Obama disband the EPA. After all, it was created by Tricky Dick, so it must be a horrible Republican plot.

  110. 110.

    Darkrose

    @Violet: He’s 80 and started off the initial call by explaining he can’t hear very well. I’m mostly boggled, because seriously, I *never* get that. I have a rather nasal Midwestern voice that’s pretty much American Standard Received.

  111. 111.

    Darkrose

    @mr. whipple: Usually, people assume I’m white over the phone. Years ago, this black woman called my office and would not believe that yes, I’m black, and yes, I know damn well where the park by the 95th St. El station is.

  112. 112.

    WyldPirate

    @Mike Kay (Team America):

    Right…and you aren’t Mr Reflexive Excuse-Maker, either.

    My track record on predicting the way this tax debacle has played out is way better than you apoologists.

    drive on with your excuses, though. You would be lost without them.

  113. 113.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    @And Another Thing…: ya know, you make a good point. firebaggers constantly invoke misogyny (if that’s how you define it) whey they say obama should “buy a pair of balls”, to “man up”, that he has “no balls”, etc.

    Ironic, considering their leader is a female.

    hope you call them out .

  114. 114.

    MaineDem

    Know what’s going on with Collins? She’s afeared of the Tea Partiers. Here’s the guy elected to the Maine governorship, showing his esteem for the Constitution.

    “I am going to be sitting with our attorney general and asking him to join the (health care reform) lawsuit against the federal government,” he said, adding he just learned that if 35 states join the suit, the law “dies, automatically.”

    http://www.pressherald.com/news/confront-cooperate-lepage-set-to-do-both_2010-12-05.html

  118. 118.

    Lisa

    Darkrose, I was raised in Northern California. My dad was in the airforce and spent many years in Europe. He spoke six languages beautifully (including English). My mom was raised in Utah (the .00000002 percent of black people in Utah are all related to me) and sounds like the voice-over for a 1940s soap flakes commercial.

    For the reasons described above, my diction and elocution are very precise and news anchor bland with maybe a hint of valley girl. People always think I am white on the phone and they sometimes say the darndest things to me about black people. Which is shocking/appalling/infuriating/amusing.

  119. 119.

    Mike in NC

    @The Dangerman:

    CA prison guards (and an wardens, etc.) have some of the best contracts around. I forget the details, but if you’re willing to put up with potentially getting shived, a prison job in CA is fucking gold.

    Reminds me of when I was stationed at Mare Island Shipyard in 1980 and went to visit an acquaintance who was a guard at San Quentin. It was a creepy place, and a pretty unpleasant experience listening to his stories, and I left thinking I wouldn’t trade places for a million bucks. I think he had to take early retirement from all the job-related stress.

  122. 122.

    Martin

    @Calouste: Our employee structure is… odd. Some of us are state employees, but not really. Some are accounted for in other areas. In an apples to apples comparison with other states, those charts would look very strange. In an internal state budget discussion focusing on what the legislature has direct budgetary control over, it makes perfect sense.

    What’s missing in the budget is property taxes. These are set at the state level (our bane – Prop 13) but all the money goes to local government, but the state determines the allocation. One of the concepts is to shift a lot of those K-12 costs and some of the others to cities and counties, and then give authority to cities and counties to dick around with their tax structure. Want to keep taxes low? Fine. Just close all of your schools. Want good schools? Fine. Just raise local property taxes. Essentially, it punts one of the biggest structural problems entirely to the cities. Easy peasy. Get the fuckers in OC from holding the rest of the state hostage and let them fuck up their own cities.

    It’d be a major change in how the state is run, but local control for local things is not a bad approach if done right. We already have the downsides of it (cities already fuck up their schools plenty), so we might as well go for the upsides as well.

  123. 123.

    Unabogie

    @Delaware Doug: You know, if you would just avoid this kind of hyperbole and manichean thinking, your mind would grow.

    It’s true.

    Ask Glenn Greenwald, he wrote a book about the dangers of thinking in black and white terms.

  128. 128.

    Bob Loblaw

    @mr. whipple:

    Imagine having the honor and responsibility of being invited to a WH Q&A

    See, now that’s funny.

    I expect this is simply a generational thing, but nobody under the age of 35 has any innate respect for the government anymore. The President, sure. That still counts for something. But the White House as an institution? Please.

  129. 129.

    Martin

    @MaineDem:

    Know what’s going on with Collins? She’s afeared of the Tea Partiers. Here’s the guy elected to the Maine governorship, showing his esteem for the Constitution.

    Duh. Snowe/Collins are going to get primaried to hell and back. They’re fucked. Their only hope is to jump to the Dem party.

  133. 133.

    Unabogie

    @Lisa:
    I can relate. I’m Jewish but I apparently don’t “look Jewish”. So when I worked in movie set construction back in my twenties, people would unload on me about all the Jooz and how they run Hollywood and look out for their own.

    So I’d say “heloooo, if we all run this thing, how come I’m lifting heavy shit all day?”

  134. 134.

    MikeJ

    @Martin: Nah. They’ll run as indies. They can win in Maine as independents. I don’t think they could pull it off as dems. It would look to Spectorish.

  136. 136.

    Anya

    @Mark S.:

    “No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange’s antics,” Palin emailed. “This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts.”

    Someone should really explain the First Amendment to this dummy!

  137. 137.

    Suck It Up!

    Man, Obama really struck a nerve. This post could have been about Tunch or tomatoes and some of you will find a way to bring up how Obama hurt your feelings.

  138. 138.

    Suck It Up!

    @Anya:

    I really wish they hadn’t hacked her account though. It just gives her a reason to play victim. Can you imagine how much she will milk this?

  141. 141.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Martin:
    For the past several years the California state legislature has papered-over our lack of revenue with strategies that amount to check kiting and/or paying the minimum on credit card “A” by charging it to credit card “B,” Our requirement that a super majority is necessary to accomplish anything to do with money leaves the Republican minority in a position to reduce us to a banana republic.

    My last shreds of optimism about my adopted state’s future rest with Jerry Brown, How he might sort out this mess is beyond my comprehension. OTOH, he’s a fuck of a lot smarter than the legislature, collectively.

  144. 144.

    Alex S.

    Obama should have cloned himself by pure willpower alone to replace himself in the Senate – and DADT would be repealed by now.

  145. 145.

    The Dangerman

    @MaineDem:

    …adding he just learned that if 35 states join the suit, the law “dies, automatically.”

    OK, what’s that horseshit?

  146. 146.

    WyldPirate

    @Unabogie:

    You might not be laughing. The munibond market might have a little problem soon. It’s got the potential to to really hurt states and municipalities if it goes down.

  147. 147.

    Suffern ACE

    @goblue72: Nah. Mike Kay claims to represent “pragmatism.” Which apparently is an insulting philosophy. WyldPirate is a realist, which is a depressing world-view, but at least has some merit. Neither actually are authoritarian. WyldPirate actually would like you to share his sorrow, and thinks you’re a fool if you don’t. Mike Kay actually wants to make people cry. I don’t know what kind of pragmatism that’s supposed to be. No wonder there are so few pragmatists left.

  148. 148.

    LikeableInMyOwnWay

    @Evil Parallel Universe:

    I will probably be struck by Japanese lightning for this.

    Twenty years ago I worked for Toshiba, right at headquarters on Irvine Blvd in California (Orange County). They built laptops right there in the plant I worked in, and the national service department was next door.

    So … you might be screwed. Toshiba makes great products and has great technology resources. Some of their consumer and business electronics are world class. But, their customer service and customer satisfaction methods were …. let’s just say, lacking. I could tell hair raising stories about how lacking. They just didn’t really care and didn’t like dealing with end user customers. It sounds like nothing has changed over there since I worked there. They are such a gigantic worldwide company that the screams of a few mistreated customers just don’t create a sense of urgency in them to do better. They are reporting over 200k employees as I write. Huge, bureaucratic and heartless.

    Sorry, wish I had better tidings. I had to get out of there, they started treating us workers the way they treated their customers and I decided to seek my fortune elsewhere. I seldom buy their products even though they are excellent technically.

  150. 150.

    Suck It Up!

    @Mnemosyne:

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Ya’ll remember the rest of what she said?

    Blogger Susan Madrak of the website Crooks and Liars reportedly retorted, “Have you ever heard of hippie punching?” Madrak was referencing a phrase thrown around by bloggers who think the Obama administration has treated its liberal base with disdain.

    “You want us to help you, the first thing I would suggest is enough of the hippie punching,” she said. “We’re the girl you’ll take under the bleachers but you won’t be seen with in the light of day.”

    yes, let’s take them seriously.

  151. 151.

    Jules

    @WyldPirate:

    White House is blaming the Congressional Dems for failing on the tax issue. They ccan’t take any responsibility it seems as responsible leadership is a lost art.

    How is this NOT the fault of the Congressional Dems.
    They refused to deal with the tax issue before the Nov election and on Saturday could not even get the House bill pass a cloture vote.

  153. 153.

    goblue72

    @Unabogie: well, there is historically a bit of truth to that slur. Warner Bros. Metro-Goldwin Mayer (MGM). Columbia Pictures. 20th Century Fox. Paramount. Universal Studios. All founded by Jews, mostly all Central/Eastern European immigrants – most of whom came of age in the vaudeville/nickelodeon industry in New York. Personally, I always thought it was cool that a bunch of scrappy immigrants from an almost globally persecuted ethnic group went to L.A. and essentially founded one of the great American industries and the one who’s primary product is the creation and selling of dreams and fantasies.

    Pretty frickin’ awesome. You shoulda turned around and said “yeah, and if weren’t the JOOOZ there’d be no Hollywood, you’d have no job, and you’d be stuck watching Masterpiece Theater every night on TV!”

  155. 155.

    LikeableInMyOwnWay

    @Jules:

    The louder those sniveling shits in congress bitch about the tax bill, the more sure you can be that they are covering for their own epic failures and cowardice.

    I could be king of the Democratic Party for one day, the first thing I would do is purge every blue dog and about half of the other congresscritters with a D after their name.

    There isn’t a member on either side that puts any principle or issue above the all important goal of getting himself or herself reelected. Not one that I can see.

  156. 156.

    Nick L

    By the way, the House passed the DREAM act. It hasn’t gotten as much attention as DADT repeal, but it’s still good news.

    Anyway, I’ll go make some popcorn so we can watch it die slowly in the Senate.

  157. 157.

    The Dangerman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Horseshit. Just like you said.

    In which case, I have a modest proposal; I say that we make an amendment that says if you can’t pass the Civics questions on “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader”, you can’t run for office. Hell, it could be a new reality show; what’s Jeff Foxworthy up to these days?

  158. 158.

    burnspbesq

    @Martin:

    The answer to California’s fiscal problems is simple: secede from the Union.

    If California residents didn’t have to pay Federal income taxes, we could raise the state income tax rate to 30 percent, and it would like like a tax cut for most Californians.

    US military? Who needs it? We could enter into a mutual defense agreement with Canada, and give them Pendleton as a place to hang out and train in the winter.

    Once we’re out from under Federal law, we can legalize weed and bring the growers and sellers into the income tax net. Also reduces our need for jail cells.

    Best part of being an independent country? We get rid of the fucking TSA.

  159. 159.

    LikeableInMyOwnWay

    “We’re the girl you’ll take under the bleachers but who won’t be seen with you in the light of day.”

    Just a slight edit.

  160. 160.

    burnspbesq

    @Anya:

    “Someone should really explain the First Amendment to this dummy!”

    Not sure whether that would be Quixotic, Sisyphean, or both.

  161. 161.

    The Dangerman

    @burnspbesq:

    The answer to California’s fiscal problems is simple: secede from the Union.

    I’m all for it, but don’t we need to take Las Vegas, too?

  162. 162.

    LesGS

    @Omnes Omnibus: Well, there was that Catfood Committee that Obama put together. Maybe John never explained to Tunch that it wasn’t actually all about cat food, and therefore our Overlord is all upset at Obama because it didn’t provide him a pony steak. Extra rare.

  163. 163.

    Anya

    @Suck It Up!: I agree! I don’t understand why they even bothered with her.

    Speaking of Palin and hacking what happened to that kid who hacked her email? If this woman had any heart she would have asked the court to go easy on him, but she is a vindictive cold hearted witch.

  165. 165.

    goblue72

    @Martin: That slide is depressing. Especially the bit how we have one of the lowest number of state govt employees per capita of any state, the most # of students per teacher ratios (a very bad thing), and revenues raised per capita income that is acutally pretty low considering our size and level of urbanization (and thus demand for services)

    Which basically leaves the asshats Republicans in the OC and Central Valley having screwed us due to their cult-like frothing selfish insanity over raising taxes.

  168. 168.

    FlipYrWhig

    @burnspbesq:

    Not sure whether that would be Quixotic, Sisyphean, or both.

    It does some analogous to a guy eternally charging an ever-receding windmill.

  169. 169.

    goblue72

    @The Dangerman: Well since Nevada basically started as the gold & silver mining territory of California, I say we get Las Vegas and we give them the O.C. or some other useless county.

  170. 170.

    Mark S.

    @TooManyJens:

    Probably from one of Glenn Beck’s one-day Constitution seminars. He’ll probably switch Maine over to the gold standard in his first one hundred days.

  172. 172.

    WyldPirate

    @Jules:

    How is this NOT the fault of the Congressional Dems.
    They refused to deal with the tax issue before the Nov election and on Saturday could not even get the House bill pass a cloture vote

    First, it’s simply bad form out of Obama and poor leadership just as bashing your supporters which he and his staff have both done.

    Secondly, in strategy meetings last year reported here, neither the PResident, nor the house, seemingly had the intestinal fortitude to lead on the tax reform issue:

    And a vicious circle took hold, according to interviews over past months with Democrats in the administration and Congress: Mr. Obama largely deferred to Democratic leaders — the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, was among those in tough re-election races — while Democrats looked to the president to take the lead and make the case against extending the tax cuts for high incomes.

    Leaders have to lead. Obama failed to lead on something he talked about as being one of his main priorities for a year on the campaign trail. He either didn’t take control of the issue or he made a serious political miscalculation and teh nation is going to pay for it to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

    The buck stops at his desk on this tax cut issue. It’s not like it snuck up on him.

    Sucks for America….

  173. 173.

    celticdragonchick

    @tweez:

    How much you wanna bet after the requisite 4 days she decides she can’t vote for cloture after all?
    Charlie Brown * Football * Lucy

    I put it at 3 to 2 she will pull the football…

  175. 175.

    Nick L

    @Anya: Dude got a year and a day in prison, 3 years of probation, but the jury recommended that he serve his prison sentence in a halfway home.

    He got a year because of obstruction of justice, having erased the evidence of the hack from his hard drive. A serious charge, but a year in prison still seems harsh. It’s a shame to fuck up a young life so much over something so harmless.

    (Palin, by the way, compared the hacking to Watergate. Really.)

  176. 176.

    Delia

    @burnspbesq:

    US military? Who needs it? We could enter into a mutual defense agreement with Canada, and give them Pendleton as a place to hang out and train in the winter.

    Hell, the Canadians are producing a lot of the good TV shows since rents in Hollywood got too high to deal with, anyhow.

  177. 177.

    Dennis SGMM

    @burnspbesq:
    I’ve been in favor of California secession for a few decades. This state has become an ATM for political candidates and a source of transferred tax revenue to the Red States. Enough is enough.

  178. 178.

    celticdragonchick

    @Anya:

    Speaking of Palin and hacking what happened to that kid who hacked her email? If this woman had any heart she would have asked the court to go easy on him, but she is a vindictive cold hearted witch.

    There are good reasons why the Republican Party (as in party officials) in Alaska loathes her. She has a well deserved reputation as a back stabbing viper who turns on friends and allies on a moments notice.

  179. 179.

    burnspbesq

    @goblue72:

    “give them the O.C. or some other useless county.”

    I might be willing to think about throwing Imperial County under the bus, but we will need the sales tax revenue from South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island.

  180. 180.

    celticdragonchick

    @Nick L:

    (Palin, by the way, compared the hacking to Watergate. Really.)

    I heard 4chan is after her again…and they will not be gentle.

  183. 183.

    Violet

    @Anya:

    Speaking of Palin and hacking what happened to that kid who hacked her email?

    He was found guilty and recently sentenced to a year and a day in prison, although the judge recommended a halfway house. Link.

    That trial was a travesty. Both Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin lied on the witness stand and there were so many inconsistencies in their stories that made them look like the biggest victims. Bristol Palin told about being afraid because she had to give up her cell phone and there she was, home alone, without a phone! Except the house she lived in (her parents’ house) had a land line, and she wasn’t living alone (Levi was there at a minimum), and Levi’s mom gave her a phone to use. Plus, just how hard is it to get a new cell number when your mom is the Governor and/or running for Vice President of the United States? Can’t be that hard to get someone to set that up for you.

    David Kernell’s lawyer did a terrible job of cross-examining the Palins and as a result they looked like much bigger victims than they really were.

  184. 184.

    Anya

    @burnspbesq:

    Not sure whether that would be Quixotic, Sisyphean, or both.

    I think Quixotic is endearing and a bit romantic. Two things I would not associate with the snowbilly grifter, so I would go with Sisyphean.

  186. 186.

    hildebrand

    The House passed the Dream Act! Time to call the Senate to go and do likewise. This would be an outstanding present for a good number of my students.

  188. 188.

    Anya

    @Violet: Is he appealing? That jury must’ve been a jury of Palin’s peers, instead of his. Sometimes, I really hate this country. People like Palin can hoodwink so many people and get away with so much. He was a kid doing dumb kid stuff. These stupid jurors should have known better.

    I hope the governor gives him a pardon. Pardons were made for things like these.

  189. 189.

    FlipYrWhig

    @WyldPirate: To me that passage means that Obama didn’t want to take a position that left Democrats whose elections were in doubt taking the heat. It might not be “leadership,” but showing more “leadership” would have resulted in Boxer, Murray, Reid, et al feeling up against the wall.

    That’s the dilemma: some Democrats wanted Obama to be out there making the case more forcefully, and other Democrats wanted Obama not to be out there making the case more forcefully, including some of the major players in the party like Reid, Murray, and Boxer. “Lead” and risk losing some big Senators and maybe the whole damn Senate. If Obama’s “leading” gave rise to Senator Sharron Angle, what would you be saying? Probably not that Obama did a bang-up job of showing leadership. But that was the scenario they feared.

    Did Obama defer to them? Yes. Was it the right call? Maybe yes, maybe no, but if Obama had gone in with guns blazing that his tax cut plan was the best thing ever, and the Republican campaigns tagged all Democratic candidates as tax-hikers, my guess is that the story after the election would be that Obama committed a massive blunder by promising to raise taxes. “On the rich!” you’ll say. That’s not how it would have played in the ads.

  190. 190.

    Nick L

    I haven’t been following the secession of California conversation too closely, since I have shit to do tonight, but have you guys heard of “The Nine Nations of North America?”

    It’s a neat idea – according to the author, Joel Garreau, socioeconomic and cultural conditions imply a more natural division of North America into nine separate nations (ten including Mexico). For example,

    – New England, consisting of most of the US New England, along with Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, etc.
    – The Breadbasket: the US Great Plains, with chunks of Ontario and the Prairie Provinces

    The wiki is worth a read.

  191. 191.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anya: Camus says Sisyphus is probably happy. Would explaining the 1st Amendment to Palin make anyone happy?

  192. 192.

    agrippa

    very interesting.

    The politics of the 1960s, not being nostalgic or anything, seemed to be actually about something. There seemed to be real issues, such as civil rights, vietnam, the cold war, etc.

    What do we have now? Teabaggers, firebaggers, hippie punchers, etc, etc. I am reminded of the joke about two bald men fighting over a comb.

    Someone needs to writea comic operetta [ a la Gilbert and Sullivan] about this last two years.

    Somehow, I think many would not understand it.

  195. 195.

    Violet

    @Anya:
    I don’t know if he’s appealing or not. I’d think he would be, but perhaps he just wants to get it all over with.

    That jury must’ve been a jury of Palin’s peers, instead of his.

    The Palin appearances were a sideshow. Tons of media, lots of gawkers. The locals were thrilled she really showed up. I can’t imagine that kind of celebrity treatment of Palin helped David Kernell’s case.

    Sometimes, I really hate this country. People like Palin can hoodwink so many people and get away with so much. He was a kid doing dumb kid stuff. These stupid jurors should have known better.

    Exactly. He should have gotten a slap on the wrist. If he’d hacked anyone’s account except a Palin that’s what he would have gotten.

    I hope the governor gives him a pardon. Pardons were made for things like these.

    Don’t hold your breath. It’s Tennessee.

  196. 196.

    celticdragonchick

    @burnspbesq:

    As long as you partition it somewhere east of Indio, so I don’t need a passport to go to the Stagecoach festival.

    LOL.

    I was thinking of the scrubby area between Moreno Valley and Winchester on the way to San Diego. Does anybody need that area?? Maybe that crazy dangerous stretch of the Ortega Highway into Lake Elsinore. We don’t need that either.

  197. 197.

    Mike M

    If so-called progressives have their way, the Democrats will finally achieve their long sought Pyrrhic victory when Sanders and Demint team up to filibuster the Obama tax deal. Millions of unemployed worker will face a penniless Christmas, while the Senate adjourns sine die without putting DADT or START II to a vote.

    Obama’s compromise may look like capitulation today, but next year when Boehner takes the gavel in the House the bad deal will be seen as yet another lost opportunity. Some stimulus would have been better than none. No progressive legislation is going to make it to Obama’s desk in the next two years, and his veto pen may be his only effective tool left.

  198. 198.

    WyldPirate

    @FlipYrWhig:

    That’s the dilemma: some Democrats wanted Obama to be out there making the case more forcefully, and other Democrats wanted Obama not to be out there making the case more forcefully, including some of the major players in the party like Reid, Murray, and Boxer. “Lead” and risk losing some big Senators and maybe the whole damn Senate.

    Oh, I agree Flip, it’s certainly a dilemma. That and he looks as if he has made a serious political miscalculation and ended up in the worst circumstance for it. All without changing the debate, all without making the Rethugs pay any sort of price and in a manner that made him look like a poor negotiator that got taken advantage of all without making the Rethugs pay any price.

    It wasn’t good for him and it certainly doesn’t inspire confidence in many of his supporters and it wasn’t great outcome for the country.

  199. 199.

    SIA

    @lamh32: That is sad news. I love her voice and spirit. And that fabulous hat she wore at the inauguration. Sending a blessing to you Aretha.

  200. 200.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @burnspbesq: I see where you are going with this, but couldn’t they just get positions in German scat pr0n instead; it would be more rewarding and they probably would be less ashamed to talk about it during career day at the elementary school.

  201. 201.

    celticdragonchick

    @WyldPirate:

    Oh, I agree Flip, it’s certainly a dilemma. That and he looks as if he has made a serious political miscalculation and ended up in the worst circumstance for it. All without changing the debate, all without making the Rethugs pay any sort of price and in a manner that made him look like a poor negotiator that got taken advantage of all without making the Rethugs pay any price.

    I agree. It was a shocking miscalculation for somebody with his supposed political instincts.

  203. 203.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Violet:

    If he’d hacked anyone’s account except a Palin that’s what he would have gotten.

    He didn’t hack anything, he guessed Palin’s password. Being a stupid person, Palin chose an obvious and easily-guessed password. This isn’t hacking, it’s guessing. If anyone but Our Lady of Perpetual Assholery had been the target a court would have told her to choose a stronger password.

  204. 204.

    Darkrose

    @kdaug: He’s 80, so yeah.

    My mother was really unpleasant in the last few years of her life, so I’m chalking it up to that.

  205. 205.

    Darkrose

    @Lisa: Some days you just have to shake your head and quote the MST3K “Girl in Gold Boots” episode:

    “Whatever, white people.”

  206. 206.

    celticdragonchick

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I see where you are going with this, but couldn’t they just get positions in German scat pr0n instead; it would be more rewarding and they probably would be less ashamed to talk about it during career day at the elementary school.

    When I left Southern Cali back in 1992 in the height of the great defense recession in California, the San Bernardino County Sun newspaper was taking classified help wanted ads for porn movie actors and actresses.

    It was actually that bad.

  208. 208.

    Violet

    @Dennis SGMM:
    You are right. I misused the word “hacking” and he did not “hack” her account. The media has consistently misrepresented it too. I think what he guessed was her security questions (“Where did you go to high school?”) using information readily available on her Wikipedia page. Once he got those right, he was into the account and changed the password.

  209. 209.

    WyldPirate

    @celticdragonchick:

    I agree. It was a shocking miscalculation for somebody with his supposed political instincts

    Yeah. It’s easy for us to play Monday morning QB. But I don’t see how if he had tried that it could have played out any worse than it did.

    Lately, I’m left wondering if this wasn’t really dthe sort of outcome he wanted. He has foils in Congress on the right and foils on the left to play against…all to get the big squishy middle while knowing the hippies on the left don’t have any other choice.

  210. 210.

    Darkrose

    @Violet: This is why we tell people to choose security questions that someone can’t answer by looking at your Facebook page.

    And they rarely listen.

  211. 211.

    SIA

    @Martin:

    Duh. Snowe/Collins are going to get primaried to hell and back. They’re fucked. Their only hope is to jump to the Dem party.

    __
    We don’t have to take them, do we? I’d much rather get real Democrats and put those two passive aggressive…..Ladies…..out to pasture.

  213. 213.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Violet:
    No worries: the media in general has yet to discern the similarity between using an idiot-simple password and leaving the key in the ignition while you shop at the mall.

  215. 215.

    Suffern ACE

    @Darkrose: Yikes. I customized my sections to include “Favorite Pet”, “Mother’s Maiden Name” and “Last Four Digits of My Social Security Code”. I thought my high school classmates would want to know that, as well as the 2,000 players in my Mafia.

  216. 216.

    Violet

    @Darkrose:
    Yep. But then you kind of have to create an alternate identity for yourself. In RL my first pet’s name might have been Spot and my high school mascot was the Lions, but in my alternate online identify-theft-avoiding life, my first pet’s name might be Einstein and my high school mascot was Dante’s Circles of Hell. Or something like that.

    For me it’s hard to remember answers to questions that aren’t true. And unless I use those questions all the time I’m not going to remember fake answers very easily, especially under stress, which is when I expect I’d have to answer them (“Dammit, I forgot my password and now it wants to know who my favorite sports player is.”)

  218. 218.

    magurakurin

    Fuck it. The whining is too much. Lead, lead was the cry. So the White House led. They went to the Senate and made a deal. Biden just went to the House and told them, according to Waxman, “This is the deal, take it or leave it.” Now the Dems on the Hill are crying but it sounds like they just don’t like where the leader led them. Oh well that’s what happens when you don’t do it yourself. The Democrats in Congress have had four fucking years to deal with this. They controlled both houses of Congress from 2006 on and then had Obama in the White House from 2008. But they couldn’t get it together enough to even vote on this as late as this August 2010. Now, with less than a month to go, they want to do some tough negotiating. For fuck’s sake, are they all taking the piss?

    One thing that has struck me in all of this is how some don’t seem to get the reality that will strike real, living people with all this. Republicans, yeah, I get that they don’t give a shit. But when I watched that interview on O’Donnell’s show with Jane Hamsher, Ezra(who gets it) and two other douche bags I didn’t know, I was struck by how the “liberals” excluding Ezra Klein, really couldn’t get their mind around the fact that the Congressional Democrats don’t take this deal people, real people, are going to get kicked out of their apartments, miss house payments, have no money for heat, etc …just in time for Christmas. But the four of them insisted that the White House should play chicken with the Rethugs. I am sure that none of them have ever faced the genuine specter of having NO money. None. Zero. Tapped. Utterly Fucked. It really sucks. It’s really scary. They are just as out of touch as the rich assholes on the Right.

    Yeah, the rich won’t get fucked on this deal. But the rich weren’t going to get “properly fucked” on this deal either way. If the tax cuts expire, for the rich it really won’t even be an annoyance. You know, they’re rich. But for the lowest tax bracket a fifty percent raise in their tax bill next year will be fucking brutal in this economy. And for the two million people who will lose their UI this month if the deal doesn’t happen, well, they will be properly fucked. Preventing that is a better outcome than taking a swipe at the wealthy assholes in the US, who actually won’t be all that bothered by the tax increase or decrease either way. The cuts for them is shit policy, but letting folks go without is just plain shit.

    I wish more people would keep focused on who the real assholes are, Republicans.

  220. 220.

    Anya

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes! If she really understood it, she would stop making stupid statements. But who am I kidding? This is Palin we’re talking about. She’ll probably continue to make asinine remarks.

  221. 221.

    Darkrose

    @Violet: That’s why we ask questions like, “What color was your first car?” and “Who did you want to go to prom with?”

    Not that it matters, because inevitably, the users write their password down on a sticky note and tape it to their monitor–then forget it or type it in wrong. This is why I have a job.

  223. 223.

    WyldPirate

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Now who’s talking 11-d chess?

    OO, I’m just trying to figure out how it happened and why.

    I’m sort of mystified by the whole situation and bummed out by it at the same time. I thought this was perhaps one of the best opportunities in 30 years to push back hard against the fucked Reaganomics “trickle down mantra”, but I’m afraid to take out Occam’s razor because I might slit my wrist with it if the Dems and Obama cocked it up because of shear cowardice, stupidity and political miscalculation.

    I usually hate MoDo with a passion, but she nailed it today:

    The president said he couldn’t stick to his guns, even though most Americans agreed with him, because Republicans feel that this is their holy grail: “the single most important thing that they have to fight for as a party.” But isn’t helping those in need rather than gilding the rich a holy grail for Democrats? Does he think for a second that the Republicans will relent and be more reasonable in two years? If he believes he can go out in 2012 and attack the Republicans when the political stakes are much higher, why couldn’t he do it now?
    It’s not that hard to explain to Americans in distress that the protection of vast fortunes should not be the priority of government.

  225. 225.

    WyldPirate

    @magurakurin:

    I was struck by how the “liberals” excluding Ezra Klein, really couldn’t get their mind around the fact that the Congressional Democrats don’t take this deal people, real people, are going to get kicked out of their apartments, miss house payments, have no money for heat, etc

    This stuff is happening every week and will continue to happen every week irrespective of whether this deal gets done or not. Tens of thousands are exhausting ALL UI benefits every week. This bill wouldn’t help them much at all.

  226. 226.

    And Another Thing...

    @magurakurin: Well said.
    Congress chose not to vote before the election. Whether or not that was the smart decision or not is now irrelevant. Congress kicked the can down the road to the lame duck session, and now they’ve got their knickers in a twist cause they don’t like Obama’s deal. Well, put up a deal or shut up. I thought O’s presser yesterday was one of his best. He’s crisper when he’s irritated. Lots of people complain about him not “being tough enough” and the moment he shows some steely glint the whining goes full blast. He cuffed the Repub’s for taking hostages and said some on the left are sanctimonious. He’s correct on both assertions.

  227. 227.

    FormerSwingVoter

    @Violet:

    You could just use the same irrelevant answer for every question, and pick a different question for each password. Like:

    Q: Where did you go to high school?
    A: Minnesota

    Q: What is your pet’s name?
    A: Minnesota

    Q: What is your favorite color?
    A: Minnesota

  228. 228.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    Tens of thousands are exhausting ALL UI benefits every week. This bill wouldn’t help them much at all.

    Actually, if you’re UI benefits are expiring soon, this bill would help you immensely. That’s sorta the whole point.

  229. 229.

    MikeJ

    @Dennis SGMM:

    : the media in general has yet to discern the similarity between using an idiot-simple password and leaving the key in the ignition while you shop at the mall.

    And yet if you steal a car, even if somebody left the keys in the ignition, nobody tries to claim you didn’t really steal it. They may (rightly) call the owner an idiot, but they don’t try to excuse your dumbfuckery.

  230. 230.

    WyldPirate

    @Nick:

    I meant the 99 week exhaustion of benefits. This compromise package does nothing for those people. I’m 99% sure they are SOL.

  231. 231.

    Karen

    “Obama needs to lead and take charge” in LINO speak translates to: “Fucking over the Republicans is more important than any deal that can be made to help the most vulnerable.”

    LINOs like Hamsher and her ilk will never live paycheck to paycheck. They will never know what it’s like to bankrupt themselves because they have no insurance which means the hospital charges them much more than they would if they have insurance.

    It’s easy to go for all or nothing when you have everything. The whole loaf for them or nothing.

    Well when Sarah Palin becomes President for Life since she has declared that’s what the Consitution says and no one challenges her, you’ll not only get nothing. You’ll get less than nothing. But then again, what do you care, LINOs? You have everything.

  232. 232.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    Does he think for a second that the Republicans will relent and be more reasonable in two years? If he believes he can go out in 2012 and attack the Republicans when the political stakes are much higher, why couldn’t he do it now?

    I’d like to know why people seem to think if we let taxes expire, the Republicans are suddenly going to respect Obama and make life easier for him?

    To answer MoDo’s question, they won’t be reasonable no matter what happens, ever, because they’re not reasonable people. But if we liberals really believed that we could win this battle in the court of public opinion, we’d welcome the chance to fight this again in 2012.

    But I don’t think liberals believe they can win this with the public.

  237. 237.

    magurakurin

    More arguments in abstract. Some people won’t be helped so it doesn’t matter about the people who will. What part of “2 million people will have a check to cash instead of fuck all” can’t be understood? 2 million people. That’s like everybody in Seattle. But it doesn’t help everyone so we shouldn’t help anyone? I can’t get my mind around the uncaring that goes into that sort of logic. It comes from privilege as far as I can tell.

  238. 238.

    Glinda

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Four days of debate pushes it till after the tax vote, forcing Democrats to put out. If they don’t, she has an excuse to vote against DADT repeal. The sole purpose of the posturing by Collins and Lieberman is to try to tie Democrats’ hand on the tax “compromise” abomination.

    Perhaps you now might have an inkling about why Obama “caved” … to use the jargon of the guys mesmerized by the shadows on the wall of the cave.

  240. 240.

    Glinda

    @Dennis SGMM: Being someone who spent a number of years in the security software space, I can say unequivocally that the guy who “figured out” Palin’s password is definitively a hacker. That he is a dumb hacker hacking an even dumber woman is irrelevant. His motivations are hacker motivations, even if his methods are lame but successful against a lamer target.

  241. 241.

    LarsThorwald

    @BombIranForChrist: He issued an executive order to close Guantanamo, and early in his first year. Then a bunch of NIMBY Senators said not just no but Hell No. That’s one disappointment you can definitely move from the Blame Obama category to the Blame Pussy Democrat Senators category.

  242. 242.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Glinda: Oh, I know why. That doesn’t make his decision right, or any less shameful. Republicans aren’t going to come through on the back end on this one, or on anything else, and we’ll just go through this again in March on the debt ceiling, again in another year’s time, and at various points in between when Republicans find another hostage. Not to mention Obama’s use of the veto will be extremely rare.

    Meanwhile, Obama has voluntarily created a fiscal crisis for the Social Security trust funds where none existed, opening the door to the foxes.

    So, while I understand the short term thinking, it fails to think even two steps ahead.

  244. 244.

    Martin

    @Zuzu’s Petals: That’s a very good question. I’m not sure, but the only revenue alternative of any scale that I could see the taxpayers going for is a local one. We just got a 2/3 requirement for fees, so I don’t think any state income or property solution would work.

    I’m not sure how far from the current scheme they could freely drift before they run into that again. From what I can tell, CAs funding model is virtually unique nationally. There’s got to be workable alternatives.

  245. 245.

    2liberal

    attn: burnspbesq
    greetings and welcome back. I hope you watched the Jets lose to the Patriots on Monday night. Ryan did not have a good night coaching his team. The Patriots are in a good position now –

  246. 246.

    Glinda

    @Bobby Thomson: I respectfully disagree with what you think was accomplished/lost here. He has made the Republicans concede yet again: on unemployment benefits; on the “Death Tax”; on all of Obama’s programs that target tax relief for lower and lower-to-middle income people. He caved to the principle that “the rich aren’t paying enough taxes” for major concessions to the unemployed and poor. Not ideal, but I can swallow the compromise based on the concessions.

    Most importantly, he wants to get it done before the House turns over to Tea Party idiots.

    I don’t like it much either. But without more backbone from the Senate (thank you, Mr Reid) and frankly after Pelosi decided to defer the tax votes until after the November elections (I love you dearly Nancy, but that didn’t work out as you expected) we have to get this vote through now during the lame duck Congress.

    Am I off base here? Can we afford to wait and do it in January? I think not.

    I’m looking for an argument that I can sink my teeth into, rather than some lame name-calling invective.

  247. 247.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Glinda:

    Perhaps you now might have an inkling about why Obama “caved” … to use the jargon of the guys mesmerized by the shadows on the wall of the cave.

    Gives a whole new meaning to The Allegory Of The Cave.

  248. 248.

    Glinda

    @FlipYrWhig: It’s the old meaning. But I have to admit I liked playing with the wordplay.

    … circular in referential that last sentence may be.

  249. 249.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    @Alex: First I’ve heard about that. Is that all she said? She is Arab-American (Lebanese descent).

  250. 250.

    Uriel

    @BombIranForChrist:

    On matters where Obama has a lot of control (Guatanamo, civil liberties, the Treasury Department’s love affair with Wall Street, etc.), Obama has quite simply and emphatically failed. Period. He’s full of shit on all of these issues.

    Umm.. what? Really? Are you serious about that first one? ‘Cause if you are, either you haven’t been paying attention, or you are the one that’s full of shit on the issue.

  251. 251.

    Glinda

    @Glinda: Where the f*** did the “integrity” in “referential integrity” go?

    Okay I admit I’m a long-time geek and no one else here is likely to get the geek humor in my failed humor attempt. Double FAIL on my part. Oops.

  253. 253.

    Uriel

    @WyldPirate:

    Obama toss copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People” he used to brush up for negotiations with Rethugs and gets Machievelli’s The Prince to deal with his “friends” on the Dem side of the aisle.

    Normally you irritate the hell out of me, but that? Pretty god damned funny. Lol and such.

  254. 254.

    Catsy

    @Darkrose: Whenever possible, I make a habit of requesting that those “what school did you go to?” security questions be disabled or disallowed on my account. If I must use them, I tend to put bizarre but memorable stuff in them so that they can’t be guessed.

    I really wish that sites would stop using that kind of authentication method altogether.

    Oh, and that professor is a fucking racist douchenozzle.

  255. 255.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Glinda:

    I’m looking for an argument that I can sink my teeth into, rather than some lame name-calling invective.

    I called you nothing in that post. I called the president nothing in that post. And if your primary motivation is fear over what the incoming Republican House will do, guess what? This deal ties their hands for one year, tops, on a handful of issues, and less than that on others. Nothing in this deal prevents them from passing all manner of stupid shit over the next two years, and they will. Time for Democrats to shift their emphasis from “getting the best thing done possible” to “stopping terrible changes to legislation and federal programs.”

    Here’s what we “got” out of this deal.

    1. UI extension for people who hadn’t already become ineligible. Admittedly a benefit, and the only one in this entire deal, but this is a huge gamble. If the job situation doesn’t improve measurably in another year (and most people believe it will take a minimum of 4-5 years for that to happen – take another look at that job recovery graph from Calculated Risk), things get very bad. The precedent has been set, and in another year, people start agreeing to Social Security privatization in exchange for another extension.

    Here’s what we gave up.

    1. Defunding Social Security. Some people actually promote this as a benefit of the deal. It’s not. Republicans are pinching themselves that they actually got a Democratic president to propose it. Those payroll tax cuts will never be reversed, and Social Security will be privatized or eliminated within the next 20 years. This alone is reason to oppose this deal. The destruction of the central anchor of our social safety net to buy another year’s time for some folks is just.not.worth.it.

    2. A reduction of the estate tax (aka the Paris and Nicky Hilton tax) top rate. Here’s the point where you say “But he got the Republicans to agree to keep the ‘death tax’!” (Democrats should be fined for using that term.) If he had done nothing, it stays at 55%. Republicans can talk about eliminating it again, but Democrats do have the filibuster and the veto for another two years. And if they don’t, it will happen anyway. The problem is that Obama isn’t willing to use the veto, and Democrats generally aren’t good at standing up for themselves. But caving into terrorist demands certainly doesn’t fix that problem.

  256. 256.

    celticdragonchick

    @WyldPirate:

    but I’m afraid to take out Occam’s razor because I might slit my wrist with it if the Dems and Obama cocked it up because of shear cowardice, stupidity and political miscalculation.

    I’m going to keep that one for future use…

  257. 257.

    chopper

    @magurakurin:

    One thing that has struck me in all of this is how some don’t seem to get the reality that will strike real, living people with all this. Republicans, yeah, I get that they don’t give a shit. But when I watched that interview on O’Donnell’s show with Jane Hamsher, Ezra(who gets it) and two other douche bags I didn’t know, I was struck by how the “liberals” excluding Ezra Klein, really couldn’t get their mind around the fact that the Congressional Democrats don’t take this deal people, real people, are going to get kicked out of their apartments, miss house payments, have no money for heat, etc …just in time for Christmas.

    the fact that the GOP held unemployment hostage during winter (seriously, it’s 25 degrees outside here in new york) just goes to further demonstrate how little they care. the fact that some dems and self-described liberals also want to use it as a political football as well tells me all i need to know about them.

  258. 258.

    Paul in KY

    @Evil Parallel Universe: Toshiba was complicit in selling our secret submarine propeller technology to the Soviets back in late 80s. I have always thought they were a POS company (that occasionally has excellent products).

  259. 259.

    Paul in KY

    @Nick L: Fuck. We’re in ‘Dixie’ You know, we stayed in the Union. Can’t we be the Southernmost part of ‘Rustbeltia’?

  262. 262.

    pattonbt

    @WyldPirate:

    I think the reason this happened is simple. The Republicans knew they had the upper hand and they knew they didn’t have to do a damned thing to get what they wanted (and more importantly they knew they would pay no political price for being obstinate). Thus, the choices left for the Dems were all awful.

    I want to blame someone, but I don’t really know who to blame. Or more aptly, I do not think there is “one” person to blame (or blame more than others). I really, really, really can only come up with “institutional” barricades as the reason this happened.

    And it bums me out because it reinforces my opinion that the US is really far away from, in my opinion, meaningful policy and modern reform.

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