Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

So many bastards, so little time.

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

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

T R E 4 5 O N

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

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

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    hey, where are all of creeps who kept saying all week long, “Lucy-football”, “Lucy-football”. “Lucy-football” ?

    Huh?

    Where are ya?

    Obama kicked that ball right down ya throat, didn’t he.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    Rachel really shouldn’t look giddy like that. Even if Newt does deserve all the mockery he can get. And kudos to Dawn Rizos for tearing this nonsense apart. I wonder how many other Washington grifters are running scams like this.

  3. 3.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about Rachel needing to simmah down naow. I was also wondering why Ms. Rizos is a Republican. She seems like she has a brain in her head.

    @freelancer (itouch): Yes. This is probably true. Good point. Especially if her establishment is of the more upscaled and kinky variety.

  5. 5.

    Dee Loralei

    @Yutsano: All.Of.Them.

    I giggled along with Rachel when I watched this the other night.

    Anyone have a recipe for meringue cookies with nuts and choco chips? My mom made them last year and gave away the mystery they were in and wants to make them again. LOL. She can’t remember the title or author though. Just that it was a holiday mystery with recipes…. I guess I could find her just a regular meringue cookie recipe at epicurious or Saveur, just for proportions.

  6. 6.

    Keith G

    Watching this saga play out on Rachel’s show over the last year has been a hoot. If Newt really thinks he has a shot at being president, I want some of his stash.

    Rachel is a joy to watch even if occasionally she hits the hyperbole afterburners. When she uses her snarky comic light touch, I think she is as good as anybody on that TV machine, or in my case a laptop.

  7. 7.

    Dennis SGMM

    That anyone, anywhere, gives Gingrich air time is incomprehensible to me. I’d guess that once he dies his corpse will be shoveled into the chair on various Sunday talking head shows. His supporters will chip in for bags of sachet to cover the stench – if they don’t do so already.

  11. 11.

    John O

    Obama’s critics on the left should shut up about this one. He got it done right. If he spends a good deal of the next two years explaining why you can’t be a deficit hawk and favor tax cuts for the wealthy at the same time, he may win that one, too.

    There are several things that drive me crazy about him, but he’s about the overall sanest POTUS of my lifetime.

    Meanwhile, I have a dying kitty (kidney shutdown and subsequent slow blood poisoning) and I’m having a helluva time putting him down.

    Just a great, fun, dickish, playful, cuddly boy. It’s killing me. I don’t know what his littermate and Siamese twin–they’re inseperable–is going to do without him. He’s Dweezil’s favorite, too.

    Argghhh.

  12. 12.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Just Some Fuckhead:
    It’s even more pathetic because it doesn’t seem to understand that the “Lucy-football” comments had everything to do with the behavior of the Republicans and nothing to do with Obama.

  15. 15.

    Elisabeth

    @John O:

    Hardest thing I’ve ever done was putting down a kitty, Jack, in kidney failure; knowing he was miserable made it bearable. It’s been five years and I miss him still. But, looking back, I know my final act was the right one.

    Best wishes to you.

  16. 16.

    Three-nineteen

    I’m looking forward to the media now referring to Newtie as “Lodge Strip Club Lifetime Member Newt Gingrich”.

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    @John O:

    Meanwhile, I have a dying kitty (kidney shutdown and subsequent slow blood poisoning) and I’m having a helluva time putting him down.

    Is it too late for subcutaneous hydration (sub-q fluid)? We’ve kept cats with failing kidneys going for another 18 months using this stopgap. Even though I’m pretty needle-phobic, I have been able to handle pumping Ringers solution into a cat’s shoulders if it means keeping them functional & not in pain longer….

  19. 19.

    John O

    @Anne Laurie:

    It’s an option, yes, but I don’t know what it costs, and he’s such a shell of his formal self (I’ve been through one round of sub Q fluids and been giving him a lot of syringe water) I just don’t know what to do.

    18 months seems impossible with the kidney function he has.

  21. 21.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @John O:

    Sometimes you just have to let them go. I know it is hard, and it is easier to hang on FOR YOU cause you don’t want to let go. One of the hardest things I have ever done was telling Lucky (who was hanging on to life cause he knew it would kill me to lose him) “it’s okay little man, I know it is time for you to go, I am fine with it, I am fine, you can go now, I will be okay” He died that night, tucked safely under the computer center where he always slept. I cried more giving him the speech than I did when he died, cause I knew that it was the right thing to do. You can do it. When you know it is the right thing.

  23. 23.

    Dennis SGMM

    @asiangrrlMN:

    That’s gorgeous and amazing. Some day, I want to stay here.

    Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just take all of the stuff out of your refrigerator and then curl up in it?

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @John O #11: I’m so sorry to hear that. You know just about everyone on this blog has gone through similar anguish at some point, and most of us will again. It never gets easier, but you and your kitty and everyone human and feline have all kinds of loving support and white light from the BJ crew to help ease the transition. Hugs.

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    @John O, @asiangrrlMN:

    Thanks. I’m just lucky I didn’t slip and break my back (the entire ground was just one big mass of ice, lightly covered by patches of snow…). Was certainly a pretty sight. I also saw a bunch of swans; pretty unusual for the area. About a half a dozen of them in a row, just calmly swimming through the nearly-frozen lake.

    dms

  27. 27.

    Anne Laurie

    @John O: Understood. If he’s past the point where sub-q can help him, all I can offer are my condolences.

    Be prepared to give his surviving littermate a LOT of extra attention. Last time we lost a cat under these circumstances, his “best girl” housemate went into a decline and succumbed to kidney failure within six months. (Sub-q was out of the question for Isis, a semi-recovered feral who stressed out when she was handled.) Isis’ littermate, who wasn’t as reliant on Figaro, is still going strong almost 5 years later (at the age of 18!).

  28. 28.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Mike Kay (Team America):

    There’s a big difference between someone who thinks the results will be the usual political stunt and someone who thinks it will easily pass. I thought someone would pull the ‘Lucy’ you reference but I am more than happy to be wrong about it. Due to the intransigence of this congress, can you blame anyone for doubting that something they really want to pass would actually stand a chance of doing so? You score some good ones around here but this one falls flat.

    Better luck next time! :)

    Obama kicked that ball right down ya throat, didn’t he.

    He only got the football because it was finally handed to him. Those assholes finally let the ball move and it’s about damned time.

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    We’ve kept cats with failing kidneys going for another 18 months using this stopgap. Even though I’m pretty needle-phobic, I have been able to handle pumping Ringers solution into a cat’s shoulders if it means keeping them functional & not in pain longer….

    We were able to keep a beloved cat going for 6-8 months doing this, too, but in the end I guess it just made us feel a little better about not losing him as fast as we would have otherwise.

  31. 31.

    John O

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I know. I was able to suck it up and put my last one down, a runt stray I picked up off a busy road, fairly quickly, and I’ve always felt bad about playing God, as much as I think I’d love the part. You’re right.

  32. 32.

    WyldPirate

    @John O:

    Obama’s critics on the left should shut up about this one.

    It seems awfully funny how Obama is getting loads of credit for the DADT bill–when he didn’t propose it or have a vote—yet he gets none of the blame when something goes against progressives in Congress.

    Funny how that works. Must be the teflon….

  33. 33.

    John O

    @Elisabeth:

    Thank you. Thank you to everyone. I love this place for its pet-friendliness.

    Dogs in my experience are even worse, and I have one of those too.

    Ah, enough of my relatively insignificant suffering. My other ongoing battle with our Corporate Masters is much more fun, and some of you may get a laugh. This is my latest missive to Mercedes-Benz, after they sold me and several thousand others a rust bucket, factory installed. (Do me a favor and don’t ever buy one, you rich BJ fans.)

    This is NOT a story of feeling sorry for Mercedes-guy. I was in over my head when I bought it, justifying it buy being single and thinking I could drive it for 20 years if I took care of it. I was an idiot “guy” and bought it because I loved the way it looked. Their legal dept. sent me a letter the contents of which you can probably glean from my response, but if you can’t, I can tell you it contained some not-so-veiled legal threats:

    December 20, 2010

    Ron Ronaldson (not his real name), Counsel
    Mercedes-Benz, USA, LLC
    One Mercedes Dr
    PO Box 350
    Montvale, NJ 07645-0350

    Dear Counselor Ronaldson,

    I received your letter. Thank you. There’s a lot to unpack in there. You probably should have my address correct, to start, and you don’t. Sloppy.

    Most of what you say is factually true, but lacks context, and you’re unaware of or ignoring a few additional details, most notably that it took me at least a year and a half to get you folks to lift a metaphorical finger, and that several independent body shops, including your own, either told me outright (the first ones) or agreed with me (the later ones) that the car was BORN defective where the sheet metal/finish was concerned. THAT’S how ridiculous the corrosion is. This is a big part of what makes me so profoundly tired of your Company Position that the car is (chronologically) old, and therefore should be rotting inside-out. Or something. That’s about right, no?

    I had two Nissan Sentras for 16 or 17 years before I took a big step up (!) to my C240. Both of them were exposed to FAR worse conditions and less attention, and neither of them displayed any corrosion by the time I sold them both in great condition to family members.

    I also apologized sincerely for calling one of your reps a “whore,” as I don’t know nor care about her sex life. You should have that on tape someplace. And I would like to apologize again, formally, for the anger I displayed when talking to your helpless help.

    I was one proud Mercedes owner when I bought that car. Then I busted my ass in terms of time, money and elbow grease, “work,” taking care of it, so you can imagine even with your legal training how disturbed I was to find that it had rusted THROUGH by February of ’09, meaning of course the corrosion started far earlier, particularly considering the attention the finish got. And then my further discouragement when I brought it to multiple body shops only to hear what I’ve been trying to get you folks to admit since Day 1: You had a production problem between ‘00-’02 when it came to the finish on your otherwise lovely cars. Two of the body guys simply asked me what year it was, with barely a glance at the car. A quick narrow Google search of “Mercedes-Benz+rust+2000-2002” revealed a mere one-hundred-eighty-five-thousand (185,000) hits, including several from your own forums, right there at the top.

    EVERYONE who has bothered or been asked to look at the car has admitted I did my part in maintaining a beautiful finish. Your people included.

    For now, let’s just say I was amused by your petty withdrawal of your “good will” gesture to fix the ADDITIONAL corrosion that was found when taking the car apart to fix the VISIBLE rust. One place you always find rust on automobiles, garage kept even largely at work, meticulously maintained, and low mileage, is on the ROOF PANEL. As we say on the internets, LOL.

    Had you behaved like a proud and responsible corporate citizen when I first brought the problem to your attention, none of the preceding would’ve transpired. But I gather you’re just not.

    I don’t have the car back yet, but even your dealer has been unwilling to look me in the eye and tell me I’m not justified in my anger, and quite fair, and I believe I’ll be reasonably satisfied when it is returned to me. So I’ll stop bothering your poor hacks, I already have as I’m sure you know, assuming that is the case. Oh, and the time and inconvenience and money I have spent trying to get you to admit the simple truth, Counselor, and without my car? No charge, my man. Happy to help you out. And thanks sincerely for the doors. Cars look great when they’re only rusting in three (3) other places (that we see so far) besides all four (4) doors.

    I’ll give my opinion of MB customer service and automobiles, and will share my own experience with whomever I want for the rest of my life, and if more rust appears I may even decorate the car a bit. I have every expectation that this will cost you more than even replacing all the sheet metal would have on the rust bucket you sold me under the guise of a quality, long-lasting automobile, over time. Really, just how many people do I have to talk out of buying one? I like hanging out in your showrooms. Mercedes’ (Corporate) handling of the matter has been an embarrassment. It has apparently never crossed your minds that I had a point.

    At least I know from your letter the problem is structural as well as personal.

    In the meantime, I hope you don’t consider this courtesy correspondence “further oral or written communications” that I must “cease and desist.” If you could, would you please explain to me what further legal action could be taken, on what grounds, just in case you consider this to be harassing and upsetting to your delicate fee-fees? I’m not an attorney. But I did work in Customer Service for a long time; my call sequence was child’s play.

    Seriously, you should just man up and admit you sold me a crappy car where the finish is concerned, and that it shouldn’t have cost me a dime nor minute without a loaner to have it handled. It will do your conscience good, and I’d think much higher of MB, and include that part in my lifetime story. Just admit it, and I’ll be done with you as you are with me.

    You can’t be a lawyer all the time.

    Sincerely yours,

    P.S. I myself have been a whore for my corporation. I’m simply much more expensive and conscious of the long range cost where my customers are concerned when the problem under review was ours.

  34. 34.

    John O

    @WyldPirate:

    Well, he’s not the only one who deserves credit, that’s for sure, but if you get the blame, you get the credit. The buck stops there.

    Which is why I think he’s been a relative failure on anything even remotely related to civil liberties, and hated his cave on tax cuts for Bill Gates and Paris Hilton. Still, he was dealt the crappiest hand of my 50 years and I think he’s done good, and I think he approaches things rationally, and despite having issues with some of his policies give him the benefit of the doubt.

  35. 35.

    jrosen

    I kinda sorta agree that Rachel got a little over the top on this one. But Jeez…how could anybody deliver that story (all of which is new — or Newt — to me) with a straight face? Ms. Rizos sounds like my kind of gal….I roared at the “membership” card.

    Somehow I am reminded of an occurrence in the early days of the French Third Republic, a great instance of the deflation of a pompous ass: He was a general named Boulanger (Baker!), the original “man on horseback” , a member of Parliament who was being encouraged by a mob (and of course a few conniving politicians) to lead a coup d’etat. A journalist who was also an MP (and a doctor, BTW) named Clemenceau, who later earned his own rather large place in history, addressed him thus: “Do not give yourself airs, M. le General; at your age, Napoleon was dead!”. The general thereupon challenged the journalist to a duel….and lost!

    Looks like that pompous as Gingrich lost this one too.

  36. 36.

    Triassic Sands

    You’ll dine privately with Newt.

    Jeebus, that sounds worse than dining privately ON newt. (Especially since newts can be very poisonous to eat.)

  37. 37.

    Linda Featheringill

    @John O:

    How miserable is your kitty? If life is still good, I would postpone the end. But if he feels bad and is only going to get worse, go ahead.

    I will warn you, though, that there is no guilt-free way to do this. It’s going to hurt no matter what you do.

    Good luck. And I am sorry for your loss.

    hugs [[ ]]

  38. 38.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @dmsilev: Beautiful photographs; impressive ice formations. Thanks for sharing. I lived on E. 55th St. and Hyde Park Boulevard in the early 80’s — one Christmas it was so warm we went wading in Lake Michigan. But most years it was COLD, so as southerners, we moved back home.

  39. 39.

    Michael Bersin

    My favorite batshit crazy right wingnut Twitter message sent to Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for her yes votes today: “your through”

    Maybe. And only because there are no longer literacy tests for voters.

  41. 41.

    WyldPirate

    @John O:

    Don’t get me wrong, John O. I’m not being critical of you or what you said–just making a general observation. I probably should have specified that.

    That Obama has been dealt a shitty hand is undeniable. In many ways, I think he has done a remarkable job. In many others, particularly regarding Afghanistan, civil liberties, coddling of the banksters and party leadership, he has been pathetic to mediocre IMO.

  43. 43.

    dmsilev

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Yeah, it’s pretty cold right now. The lake actually isn’t frozen (yet), but it was chilly enough that spending an hour carefully inching my way around on the ice trying out different viewpoints got kind of uncomfortable towards the end. Glad you liked the pics.

    dms

  44. 44.

    MattR

    @jwb: Liar. We all know it is completely impossible to think that this was going to be another Lucy moment AND to think that this was worth giving a try anyway.

  45. 45.

    John O

    @WyldPirate:

    Agree 100%. Which is why if he spends the next two years explaining the contradiction between tax cuts and deficits, and wins that one, I’ll have to consider my criticism to be ignorant bogosity.

    We’ve been catching an awful lot of bad guys, who is to say that were we in that position we wouldn’t enable a surveillance state, too, assuming there are a lot of bad plans for us?

    Not me. I would hope I would have the stones to tell the American public that we’re going to suffer some casualties to keep our privacy and freedoms, but I sure don’t know I could.

  46. 46.

    amk

    Talk about brainless rethugs rewarding their corrupt and bamboozling leaders. Looks like newt, the thug gets to enjoy the stupidity of his own inept team and idiotic morans like this dame.

    Obama would have been better off in Kenya than leading this bunch of nincompoops.

  48. 48.

    Peter

    @Yutsano: Why shouldn’t she look that giddy? If one of my favorite funny stories about Newt Gingrich had just made a surprise reappearance a year later, I’d be downright exuberant!

  51. 51.

    Dennis SGMM

    @srv:
    This just in:

    “Irony found dead in apparent suicide. Anonymous sources stated that Irony left a note saying that it was no longer able to keep up with events and that it was going to hang itself rather than try.”

  52. 52.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    BREAKING NEWS

    CNN is reporting that there has been a nation wide run on crow.

    bon appetite

    This is a bitter, bitter day for the Professional Left™

  54. 54.

    Mark S.

    It sometimes scary seeing what goes on in the mind of a fundie. Here’s Bryan Fisher of the AFA:

    The armies of other nations have allowed gays to serve openly in the military. The reason they could afford to do this is simple: they could allow homosexuals to serve in their military because we didn’t allow them to serve in ours. They knew they could count on the strength, might, power, and cohesion of the U.S. military to intervene whenever and wherever necessary to pull their fannies out of the fire and squash the forces of tyranny wherever they raised their ugly heads around the world.

    Because no one else could have stood up to the mighty armies of Grenada, Panama, Serbia, and Afghanistan.

    Those days are now gone. We will no longer be able to bail out these other emasculated armies because ours will now be feminized and neutered beyond repair, and there is no one left to bail us out.

    Who would have guessed the secret to world peace was for every country to allow homosexuals to serve openly?

  56. 56.

    bkny

    i once worked for someone who was on newtie’s mailing list and recall seeing one of these for ‘honors’ for sale invitations. it’s so clearly a scam, i can’t believe he gets people to forward the money — esp in those freakin’ amounts.

  60. 60.

    amk

    @Mark S.: Going by that teh gay logic, the bearded muslin homophobes in eyerack and afghanistan must be kicking the butt of manly amurikkkans….oh, wait…

  62. 62.

    Barb (formerly Gex)

    Y’all gotta help me bitch about this. Was debating with a tea bagger (friend of a friend) about the environment. When I expressed concern about potable water shortages his answer was that potable water isn’t an issue because most people buy bottled water.

    Here’s some of my theories.

    1) he thought “potable” was “portable”
    2) “most people” is most people in the U.S., not globally
    3) he honestly thinks that if you can’t afford safe clean drinking water than you don’t deserve any

    I feel despair. I hope our Chinese Overlords learn from our mistakes and find a way to become people-friendly. More despair.

  64. 64.

    Barb (formerly Gex)

    @Mike Kay (Team America): I wasn’t one of them, but I can sympathize with that view of the GOP… I can see believing that the GOP will find a way to screw everyone. They usually do.

    But hooray Obama and the Dems! I am very glad that we have Obama and Pelosi.

  65. 65.

    Tattoosydney

    @Mark S.:

    As I mentioned in the other thread when this came up, Mr Fischer’s interest seems a little, um, sweaty palmed.

    What young man wants to voluntarily join an outfit that will force him to shower naked with males who have a sexual interest in him and just might molest him while he sleeps in his bunk?

    ETA: To which the correct answer is, of course: “Me! Oh please sir, pick me!”

  66. 66.

    eco2geek

    That makes two things I didn’t think I’d see (this early) in my lifetime: a black man elected POTUS, and gays allowed to serve openly in the military. Wonders never cease.

  67. 67.

    Svensker

    @amk:

    Going by that teh gay logic, the bearded muslin homophobes in eyerack and afghanistan must be kicking the butt of manly amurikkkans….oh, wait…

    Well, actually…

  68. 68.

    Tattoosydney

    @Barb (formerly Gex):

    I can see believing that the GOP will find a way to screw everyone. They usually do.

    Part of me is still waiting for them to pull the football away. It’s not signed or implemented yet.

    ETA: Please note, this is a not a complaint. This is a frabjous day, and if your ears were better you could hear my calloohing and callaying (and yes, chortling in my joy) all the way from Australia. Everyone involved did what was needed (including many more republicans than I had expected) and John McCain got screwed. What more could you want?

  69. 69.

    suzanne

    @John O: Hugs. I lost my Nico (the cat by which all other cats have been, are, and will be measured) to kidney failure, and putting her down was one of the most awful things I’ve ever done. But I couldn’t stand watching her in pain like that.

    You and your kitteh are in my thoughts.

  71. 71.

    Ross Hershberger

    @eco2geek:

    That makes two things I didn’t think I’d see (this early) in my lifetime: a black man elected POTUS, and gays allowed into the military. Wonders never cease.

    Lots of people said that they were surprised to see a black man elected, but I really wasn’t. For some reason, and without anything behind the belief, I’ve always EXPECTED to see a black man elected. I first voted in 1980 and expect to have voted in 15 or more Presidential elections in my life. It just didn’t seem possible that with all of the intelligent, passionate, dedicated and charismatic black politicians that they would get shut out for another 60 years. Probably I was being naive, but I never stopped believing that.
    Two of my closest friends are black, on a Republican and one a Union Dem. Neither said they ever expected to see a black man elected POTUS. Possibly their viewpoints were more realistic than mine.

  72. 72.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Tattoosydney:

    It’s not signed or implemented yet.

    The signing part is easy, the implementation will take some vigilance and a lot of follow up. While openly gay service members will not be subject to disciplinary action for being gay, they can be harassed, side tracked for promotion, and given every last shit detail there is. The military has myriads of ways to make life hell without ever formally punishing you.

  73. 73.

    srv

    It’s time to stock up on popcorn. Bachmann on Intelligence and Ron Paul on the Monetary Policy committee. C-SPAN should have a spring season ad with “All Crazy, All the Time!”

  74. 74.

    MikeJ

    @John O:

    Another guy to put on the likely repressed gay list.

    No. Hating himself that much would make me feel sorry for him. I think he’s just evil.

  75. 75.

    Mark S.

    @Tattoosydney:

    Whoops, didn’t see that earlier.

    The all time classic in the genre of creepy fundie gay talk is the Reverend James Dobson:

    Meanwhile, the boy’s father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son’s maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a pen1s, just like his, only bigger.

  76. 76.

    Ross Hershberger

    While openly gay service members will not be subject to disciplinary action for being gay, they can be harassed, side tracked for promotion, and given every last shit detail there is

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Sure, and there is/will be some of that. But I think there’s safety in numbers. The more people come out the harder it will be to treat them all as second class citizens. It’s hard enough to get people to serve in wartime. The military has to welcome everyone who wants to be there.

  77. 77.

    Tattoosydney

    @Dennis SGMM:

    While openly gay service members will not be subject to disciplinary action, they can be harassed, side tracked for promotion, and given every last shit detail there is. The military has myriads of ways to make life hell without ever formally punishing you.

    This is true, but at the same time, the experience of my and many other countries suggest that in two or three years no one will even notice.

    Recruitment and retention rates have not suffered as a result of the policy change. As Commodore R. W. Gates of the Royal Australian Navy states in the report, “There was no great peak…where people walked out, and there was no great dip in recruiting. It really was a non-event.” Current debates in Australia related to the policy change are now focused on extending equal benefits to the partners of gay servicemembers, rather than on the policy itself.

  80. 80.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @srv #48:

    Michelle Bachmann to serve on House Intelligence Committee.

    It’s a no-brainer.

    (Some jokes just write themselves.)

  81. 81.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    They have a poll up at RedState asking who you favor for the presidential candidate for 2012. I had to vote for my absolute favorite, Palin.

    She’s in the lead by a long shot now, let’s keep her there! What’s really funny is that Jeb Bush is tied for last with Gov. Goodhair of Tejas.

  82. 82.

    blink

    Something surprising came up while looked at memeorandum. Apparently, Confederate Yankee actually supports repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and actually wrote a post criticizing some AFA member for declaring it the end of American civilization.

    I know, broken clock and all but I tend to think of those types of far-right blogs as broken clocks permanently stuck on 25:61.

  83. 83.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Ross Hershberger:
    @Tattoosydney:

    I’m confident that, for the majority of our armed forces, discipline and common sense will prevail. I’m also confident that there will be some commands, as well as a (hopefully) small number of commissioned officers and NCO’s who just won’t get it at first. When I was in the Navy it was axiomatic that there were always four percent who didn’t get The Word. I doubt that things have changed that much since then.

  84. 84.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    this is the President’s victory. The President took a lot of criticism, a lot of abuse, a lot of skepticism from his otherwise most loyal supporters on this. But this is an issue on which the President did not waver. He continually insisted that this was possible. That it would get done.

    It, in fact, was not possible for the President to do this through Executive action. This is something that had to happen legislatively if it was really going to happen in a definitive way.

    The President did not waver. He DID work on the Senate to get this to happen. He insisted that this was possible against a lot of people, including me, saying it was not possible.

    This is a difficult promise kept. It’s not just a promise that was kept. It was one that was hard to keep, that cost a lot of political capital and a lot of work and this is the President’s victory today and his base will reward him for it.

    Dr. Rachel Maddow – MSNBC

    Heh!

    Tell it Rachel, tell it!! You go girlfriend!

  85. 85.

    Anya

    @WyldPirate: Many people deserve kudos for fighting for the repeal of DADT, but President Obama is at the top of those who deserve an unadulterated THANK YOU. I am gonna let Steve Kornacki explain it

    Obama, it should be said, played this issue remarkably well. To listen to his liberal critics (at least before today), his handling of DADT has encapsulated all that’s wrong with his presidency. He’s lacked, in their telling, both a meaningful strategy and the stomach for a fight with Republicans. But the course he pursued actually made a lot of sense, as Saturday’s vote attests. Obama took pains to get Pentagon and military leaders aboard, commissioning an exhaustive study of the issue and promising them he wouldn’t preempt it with an executive order or legal fight.
    _
    While it was slow, the beauty of this process was that the final report, released three weeks ago, completely and authoritatively dismantled every rationalization that opponents of repeal could offer. The few moderate Republicans in the Senate who were open to repeal — either because of their own consciences or because of political dynamics in their home states (or both) — had nothing left to hide behind. Remember, it was only after the report’s release that Scott Brown and Lisa Murkowski finally came on board. (The same, for that matter, was true for conservative Democrat Mark Pryor.) For the past two years, Obama has loudly insisted that he was working toward repeal. Saturday demonstrated that there was a method to the madness.

    blockquote fail. The rest of it is all from Salon.

  86. 86.

    jcricket

    Believe me, the DADT repeal is great. And I’m no firebagger, but I’m still bitterly disappointed in the Dems.

    ACA was great, but it should have happened faster (both in execution and implementation). DREAM act was a big fail. The tax cut vote should happened a year earlier and been used to bludgeon the Republicans (i.e. we could have achieved keeping the $250k and under cuts and gotten rid of the $250k and up cuts, while portraying Republicans as out of touch and budget busters). But we waited to long. Etc and so forth.

    I know we would have lost seats no matter how much stuff we passed, but it would have been fewer seats and I could think more fondly of the Dems “time in the sun” had we accomplished more. I don’t specifically blame Obama, although I do think his bipartisanshipfulness fetish encourages tools like the “Gang of 6” to waste time in the Senate.

    Anyhoo – Dems have a long way to go before they’re a party that, as a whole, I can really be proud of. But I know there’s no way in hell the Republicans in charge or a Republican president would have ever passed anything like this.

    And if I want ENDA passed, the ACA expanded (public option/Medicare buy-in), DOMA repealed, etc. It’s going to take re-electing more Democrats. Everything from the laws that get passed, to the judges who get appointed, depends on it. Gotta play the long game, even if it means swallowing some bitter pills in the meantime. But I reserve my right to complain ;-)

  87. 87.

    jcricket

    I will admit that in this issue it appears Obama’s strategy was actually right.

    But the opposite is true, as I pointed out, for the ACA. The endless negotiation provided nothing but opportunity for Republican talking points (“death panels”, “gov’t takeover”) to flourish. And being more “deficit neutral” may have helped it past, but it delayed implementation (2014) and makes benefits less tangible and our success less immediately felt. That’s death in political terms.

    Sure, as long as we can prevent repeal and de-funding, it’ll eventually be expanded like Social Security was – but there’s a real danger with Republicans in charge.

    I don’t think “long ball” is always the way to go.

  89. 89.

    Triassic Sands

    There’s a new article up at the NYTimes claiming that enough Republicans have expressed support for the 9/11 health care bill to allow it to pass. That would be a spectacular gift to first responders.

    Can it be that the weight of such blatant hypocrisy is too much for a few Republicans? Or is it just that they figure with the GOP set to take over the House this is their last chance for at least two years to vote for something they can actually feel good about?

  90. 90.

    General Stuck

    @Mike Kay (Team America):

    this is the President’s victory. The President took a lot of criticism, a lot of abuse, a lot of skepticism from his otherwise most loyal supporters on this. But this is an issue on which the President did not waver. He continually insisted that this was possible. That it would get done.

    Thank you from me too, Rachel. Unqualified kudos. Your stock, for me, just went up a bundle as a pundit/anchor.

  92. 92.

    jcricket

    @John O: Oh yeah. First they’d elect me President, having no previous elected experience and overlooking all the skeletons in my closet. And then they’d immediately embrace my vision.

    My point isn’t that Obama or the Dems could make 100% of the American public happy. I simply think they could pass more Democratic legislation (which I would support) and keep the base more in line (also a good thing) without actually pissing off anyone who has a chance of voting for them (left and center-leaning “independents”).

    Instead I think Democrats, including Obama, fritter away many chances at moving the country in a moderately leftward direction b/c they have the mistaken belief that being “moderate” and “bipartisan” will somehow convince massive swaths of the public to vote for them. It doesn’t, and it depresses the turnout amongst natural allies.

    If Obama and the Dems had more victories like DADT, the differences between the Dems and the GOP would be more obvious, and I think it would benefit the Dems anywhere they had any chance of winning to begin with.

  93. 93.

    Mark S.

    Walnuts wanted to change the Preamble of the START treaty (which isn’t binding) so we could go back and renegotiate the whole damn thing with the Russians. I’m so glad McCain, who is not up for re-election for six years, is putting country first and not trying to play stupid political games with our country’s foreign policy. He is an inspiration to us all, that goddamned maverick.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    @John O: John, I am so sorry to hear about your kitty. I lost my sweet kitty to kidney failure just a year ago this week, and it was heartbreaking.

    I waited until I felt that quiver told me it was time and then I had him put to sleep, feeling that helping him to go peacefully would be my final act of love. But it did not go smoothly and the events of that day haunted me for a long time.

    The process had gone smoothly with my dogs in the past, so I had no idea that with kitties it is not always so peaceful at the end. I was completely unprepared for that possibility.

    A few weeks later someone else here posted about not having had his kitty put down, and his kitty’s death was not at all peaceful, and that haunted him.

    I would highly recommend WereBear’s website for posts related to decision making at the end, what to expect, how to handle it if things do not go smoothly, etc. Had i found her website before the end, instead of after, I would have known better how to handle things that final day, and I would have known how to make the process less stressful for quiver.

    I will send good thoughts your way.

  96. 96.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @jcricket:

    I think that DADT passing the way it did was easier in the sense that it was pretty much one issue, gays serving openly in the military, making it harder to attack from different angles. Polling was pretty straightforward, are you for it or against it? The ACA was a multifaceted bill that could be attacked from many directions and the Repubs were glad to do it, asking ‘questions’ and making statements that were flat out baldfaced lies in an attempt to kill it. Since they could not kill it they decided to try to throw every monkey wrench into it that they could. If you think that if only ‘Obama had used the bully pulpit!’ it would have given you everything that you wanted then you are deluded. There were never the votes for a public option. Obama could have beat that horse to death, making it his hill to die on, but he knew that the blue dogs would never budged.

    One final point: Agree with their tactics or not, the DADT supporters got out in front of their reps and let them know what they wanted. The HCR/Public Option supporters phoned it in online and let the teabaggers mug all they wanted in front of the cameras at those town halls.

    They should remember this the next time they want to make a push for something they want: If you phone it it then all they have to do is just hang up on you.

    @jcricket: “and keep the base more in line…”

    A Democratic base will never get in line.

    Never. Pure dreaming.

  97. 97.

    James E Powell

    Happy as I am about DADT repeal, I am not feeling the love of Holy Joe. I have a feeling that Senator Lamont would have been as good or better.

  98. 98.

    John O

    @WaterGirl:

    Thank you.

    To all, I know. It’s just one of those calls that you have to make as best you can.

    I have hilarious inside scoop from an old pal visiting. H.S. classmate of Rahm. Says Mom wanted him to be a dancer, and that his finger accident did not occur at a “deli” as Rahm’s camp claims, but Wikipedia has it right by “reminding us” that Rahm’s finger was cut off at an Arby’s.

  99. 99.

    burnspbesq

    DADT repeal passes, and Carolina snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

    For a Dookie, it doesn’t get much better than that.

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ross Hershberger: __

    Two of my closest friends are black, on a Republican and one a Union Dem. Neither said they ever expected to see a black man elected POTUS. Possibly their viewpoints were more realistic than mine.

    This is gonna get me flamed, but: Thank Hillary Clinton. She looked like a potential winner, and there is a small but significant number of voters who decided gender trumped skin color. And not all of those particular ‘swing’ voters were elderly teabaggers, either.

  101. 101.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    @WyldPirate:
    .
    .

    It seems awfully funny how Obama is getting loads of credit for the DADT bill—when he didn’t propose it or have a vote—-yet he gets none of the blame when something goes against progressives in Congress.

    Wyld, I give him full credit for the Presidentin’ he did on the issue of ending DADT. I always credit results.

    And fortunately, President Obama declared unequivocally that he would never again be rolled this way by the Republicans, and roared that he would force them to kill the hostage next time and take all the blame and suffer all the consequences. I think they heard him loud and clear, and now understand that he’s the most powerful man in the world, and that they’ll be extremely sorry if they try to fuck with him again on any issue.

    The man doesn’t have a non-fierce bone in his body!

    Funny how that works. Must be the teflon….

    One of my favorites, peterbcollins.com (free podcasts), coined the term “Leftlon” for President Obama…
    .
    .

  102. 102.

    agrippa

    The economy.

    In Jan 2009, the conomy must have been front and center. We needed a much stronger stimulus; we needed a stronger financial reform bill.

    It is fine that there was a laundry list of “honey do ‘s”; but, those two were first and second. The rest come later.

    If those two matters had been handled well, the loss wold have been 35 to 35 seats. There were not done well, and the loss was 63 seats.

    A working majority in the USA is never large, and does not last for long. The Dem majority in the House was only 29.

    It is, still, the economy.

  104. 104.

    4jkb4ia

    Phil Carter, ex-Obama Admin, got married! Mazel Tov! (Very slow with newspaper today)

    (This gentleman was originally in charge of closing Guantanamo and quit in the middle of the negotiations over the Illinois prison)

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