Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

šŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockinā€™ šŸŽµ

Weā€™ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

We still have time to mess this up!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now itā€™s Finnish-ed.

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

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Iā€™ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesnā€™t seem to do any good.

You canā€™t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but itā€™s not funny to me.

ā€œI never thought theyā€™d lock HIM up,ā€ sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

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110Comments

  3. 3.

    Tlachtga

    Sweet Jumping Jesus, is Bachmann really that stupid? Is it possible to get elected and be that completely stupid? Or has the “states rights” bullshit finally driven all talk of slavery and the Civil War out of her wispy head?

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    @Cris: The Founding Fathers wanted to end slavery so they fought Lincoln and the South, freed the slaves, then shot their guns in the air and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

    Jesus, don’t you all know anything about history?

  10. 10.

    pragmatism

    saw this today re: “our founding fathers endeavored to end slavery”:
    In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jaw–having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves.

  12. 12.

    hells littlest angel

    I’m beginning to be almost fond of Tweety lately. Sooner or later, though, he’ll kill it give it a boo-boo by making one of his grotesque comments stereotyping some racial or ethnic group.

  13. 13.

    askew

    Tweety, along with Snuffy, Wolff, and Brian Williams, all had lunch with Obama. I expect Tweety is going to be gushing mood tonight. However, Cenk’s appearance on the MSNBC panel will suck the life out of any intelligent discussion. Damn, is that man stupid.

  17. 17.

    Cris

    @MonkeyBoy: Thanks. God damn, Sal Russo comes off as a dumbass in that video. Confronted with fact, he giggles nervously like Brandt.

    CM: Sal, you know when slavery ended, right? It ended with the civil war, right?.
    SR: [long pause]
    SR: Well, [nervous giggle]
    SR: Some kinds of slavery ended after the civil war…

    It’s true that Matthews never really gives Sal a chance to talk, but in this case he’s right not to. It’s great when he passes the mike off to Joan Walsh — “Joan, you take over this witness, I find him hopeless.” Then Walsh picks him apart, talking about him in third person, like he’s a child unworthy of joining the conversation.

  18. 18.

    hells littlest angel

    @pragmatism: And yet, on January 1, 1863, shortly before his 132nd birthday, Washington wept with joy as he handed a quill to his young protege, Abe Lincoln, who used it to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Washington turned to his old friend Thomas Jefferson, who would soon turn 120, and said, “At last our struggle to free the slaves is ended. You’ll have to pay to fuck them now.”

  20. 20.

    someguy

    @pragmatism:

    In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jawā€”having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves

    My understanding is that it’s not a true story, but was a libel invented by a chap named Weems and repeating the story kinda makes you look like a loony black separatist guy, but hey, what the fuck, if it advances the narrative, why not. The Teatards like him so he must be an asshole, kinda like the reverse of the rationale for supporting Keith Olberman for the Senate in CT. Hey, didja hear the one about how Washington spent all his spare time during Spring Break murdering nursing students? Well, it’s true… I read it just now.

  23. 23.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    I really dislike Tweety most of the time, but the one thing that seems to get to him is when people try to retell big issues in history, and he just wouldn’t let this guy up.

    I’m also really glad he didn’t like Russo get going on that whole “some kinds of slavery” bullshit line, because it’s really offensive to even consider comparing tax rates and government spending to the actual owning of human beings. That’s like, I don’t know, worth of a public kick to the junk or something.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hells littlest angel:

    nd yet, on January 1, 1863, shortly before his 132nd birthday, Washington wept with joy as he handed a quill to his young protege, Abe Lincoln, who used it to sign the Emancipation Proclamation.

    Like some demented modern-day stained glass window, if Thomas Kincaide did a giant, metaphorical mural for homeschooled Jesus Campers. leaving out Thomas Jefferson’s fucking and adding in Martin Luther King chatting warmly, probably listening deferentially, to Ronald Reagan, and I think you’ve got the mental cartoon that plays in Michelle Bachmann’s head when she hears the words “American HIstory”

  25. 25.

    freelancer

    I get sofa king annoyed at Tweety because his is the old school style of political analysis through biography and personal story. The personal narrative of a politician always always always trumps their ideology or their public statements. In the case of Bachmann, you can tell that Tweety finds her personal story to be such that he readily acknowledges her to be a whackjob.

  26. 26.

    Tsulagi

    Looking forward to Bachmannā€™s rebuttal tonight. If sheā€™s on meds, hope she passes on them today so she can really let it rip making the jump to 11D batshit loony.

  28. 28.

    Alex S.

    There must be some kind of central conservative messaging hub where a whole conservative world history has been made. Independence War = the war against taxes, Civil War = the war against the government, Great Depression = caused by FDR and too much government and so on and on…
    There’s probably some kind of score system for using the right vocabulary, like “some kinds of slavery” or “states’ rights”. If you score high you get a ride on the conservative gravy train. You probably lose points for words like “3/5th” or “representation”.

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    @someguy:

    repeating the story kinda makes you look like a loony black separatist guy

    Oh, yeah, US News and World Report is a hotbed of black separatist activity. Especially the really hardcore black separatists with names like “Ulrich”.

  30. 30.

    Cat Lady

    The first people out of a job if the teabaggers succeed in rewriting history and making reality obsolete are the frontline mainstream media pundits like Tweety and Fluffy and Stephanopolous, who operate under the assumption that history and reality have been established, and that they’re an essential part of the established Establishment reality. They’ll pimp for Republicans, but I don’t think they’re willing to pimp for crazy fucktards who make outrageous new shit up on the fly every day – let Fox play with that fire, cuz they’ll end up getting burned, if teh crazee don’t get us all first.

  31. 31.

    demkat620

    Where was all this angst prior to the election when he could have pointed out to people what a bunch of cracked heads these clowns were? They haven’t changed.

    Tweety is not amused anymore?

  32. 32.

    JPL

    Recently I had a friend who leans to the right explain to me that History is nothing but an opinion. I pointed out that there was a difference between non-fiction and fiction and said one had a paper trail. Is there a new movement to paint History as just an oped piece and nothing to take seriously?

  36. 36.

    pragmatism

    @someguy: i am wearing a dashiki and am typing this one handed because my other hand is permanently clenched in a fist and raised above my head like carlos in ’68 mexico city. you got me. my plan was: take down george washington…..??????…….profit!……..black utopia

  37. 37.

    jl

    What kind of monsters want to cover up the glorious charge, led by Jefferson and Tom Paine at Petersburg, where they cornered the filthy liberals who were holding the blacks in bondage, with welfare!

    It’s all true, sheeples!

  38. 38.

    Calouste

    @JPL:

    It’s another example of using Nineteen Eighty-Four as a manual: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

  39. 39.

    JPL

    @freelancer: Extremely wealthy intelligent black whose father was military and she was raised overseas. Husband is a big repub. but somewhere along the way they lost the ability to use critical thinking.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @demkat620: I am guessing that Villagers think that the Teahadists are just sound and fury, but are actually well controlled by the PTB Republicans. As a result, they (Tea-types) are seen as amusing and fun to watch. As they start to see that the lunatics may have gained control of the GOP, I think they will start to become concerned.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    @JPL:
    The odd thing about the idea that history is just an opinion is that it’s exactly the kind of thing that right wingers deride when it’s coming from a postmodernist academic. I guess it’s just part of the general trend of accepting any theory that will strengthen your argument, no matter how incoherent it makes your overall philosophy.

  42. 42.

    lamh32

    Slightly OT, but relates to MSNBC. I know we’ve had enough talking about Olbermann, but the Black Snob uses the Olbermann “release” to discuss the lack of diversity in MSNBC primetime lineup, especially considering that the last (and only) Afr Am in MSNBC long primetime history was Alan “freakin” Keyes…LOL.

    Anyway, here is Black Snob:

    The State of the Union On An Olbermann Free TV

    …I was chatting on-line with my friend, author Amy Alexander, about MSNBC’s diversity issues and we discussed how unlikely it would be to have a black host (or any minority host) get their own primetime slot, BUT also get to be as openly partisan and champion a favorite left-wing cause. Like Maddow was in the bullpen, swinging away against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But could a black pontificator get a show, grab the microphone and rant for hours about fighting racist elements in both our political parties? Or grab the mantle for police brutality or racial profiling or Affirmative Action or job discrimination? Could a black host rail against the prison industrial complex and the inconsistent drug sentencing like Olbermann went nuts on violent anti-abortionists or Bill O’Reilly? Could a black host do a humorous “That’s Racist!” segment akin to Olbermann’s “Worst Person?”

    As I said to Amy, what different political consequences would a black host have to deal with if he or she were overly partisan and a lefty? If you’re a black conservative, that can potentially be kind of fun (for FOX News), because black conservatives are often treated like unicorns by TV news networks (but even they don’t get shows very often.) But there are so many black left-leaning partisans and none are like Keith, or get the chance to do what he did. Why is that? Are people afraid of the show turning into some “Al Sharpton Tells White People Why They’re Wrong” for an hour? Sure, my mother would watch the HELL out of that show, but will MSNBC chief Phil Griffin ever allow THAT on the air? Could you have someone who has Tim Wise on once a week to complain about racism and civil rights issues? And if so, would “Black Panther Growl Time with Rev. Jeremiah Wright” be the only show you’d ever watch…

  43. 43.

    JPL

    @JPL: I do need to add something to my previous comments, in the south there is a movement to downplay slavery as the reason for secession and I even pointed out to this Northwestern grad to read the state’s secession papers.
    The John Birch society went after Science and now the Tea Party is rewriting History.

  45. 45.

    stuckinred

    @JPL: The “movement” you speak of has always been here IMHO.

    Also, as much as I enjoyed Tweety screaming at that moron I still want to know where that was with John O’Niell and the Swift Boat fucks?

  47. 47.

    j low

    @pragmatism: If the dentists of the 1770’s could transplant teeth into a fricking jaw, how come my stupid dentist can’t give me that transplant right now. Conspiracy by dental adhesive conglomerates maybe?

  49. 49.

    Andrew

    @lamh32:

    I think Eugene Robinson could get a show if he left the Post, but I’m not sure he would. He’s more a shake your head in disbelief kind of guy.

  50. 50.

    MonkeyBoy

    @Steve:
    @someguy:

    @pragmatism:

    In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jawā€”having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves

    My understanding is that itā€™s not a true story, but was a libel invented by a chap named Weems and repeating the story kinda makes you look like a loony black separatist guy,

    PBS Frontline:

    Slaves of the eighteenth century sometimes turned to the perfectly acceptable means of making money by selling their teeth to dentists. Since at least the end of the Middle Ages, poor people had often sold their teeth for use in both dentures and in tooth-transplant operations for those wealthy enough to afford the procedures. Sometimes the teeth were perfectly healthy; others were diseased and needed to be pulled anyway. In 1780 a French dentist named Jean Pierre Le Moyer (also called Le Mayeaur, Le Mayeur, and Joseph Lemaire) came to America, possibly as a naval surgeon with the French forces commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, and over the next decade treated patients in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alexandria, and Richmond. He seems to have had an extensive practice in tooth transplants,
    …
    The following year, in May of 1784, Washington paid several unnamed “Negroes,” presumably Mount Vernon slaves, 122 shillings for nine teeth, slightly less than one-third the going rate advertised in the papers, “on acct. of the French Dentis [sic} Doctr. Lemay [sic],” almost certainly Le Moyer. Over the next four years, the dentist was a frequent and apparently favorite guest on the plantation. Whether the Mount Vernon slaves sold their teeth to the dentist for any patient who needed them or specifically for George Washington is unknown, although Washington’s payment suggests that they were for his own use. Washington probably underwent the transplant procedure–“I confess I have been staggered in my belief in the efficacy of transplantion,” he told Richard Varick, his friend and wartime clerk, in 1784–and thus it may well be that some of the human teeth implanted to improve his appearance, or used to manufacture his dentures, came from his own slaves.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I have a newsmax ad at the top of the page that is asking this question, “Repeal Obama?”; when did misusing the word repeal in this way become fashionable on the right?

  53. 53.

    hells littlest angel

    @j low: The true science of the 18th century has been suppressed by the liberal/socialist conspiracy. Lightning rods and leyden jars provided unlimited electric power, and the steam-powered dental equipment of the 1780s makes “modern” dental tools look like instruments of torture — which were also perfected in the 1780s. It’s a shame that so few remember the great pyramid that stood across the street from Independence Hall, with its gigantic eyeball that was used to broadcast Washington’s very first State of the Union address… TWO HUNDRED TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY!

  55. 55.

    shortstop

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think since they got their feelings hurt when the nation ignored their best advice for keeping a “strong” and “cohesive” military.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    Is Bachmann’s “21 generations” since the founding of America some fundegelical dog whistle I’m not familiar with? I just don’t understand why she feels it necessary for generations to be 11 years long unless she’s got some sort of weird numerology hoodoo working.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I got home about 5 minutes into the Tweepeat. He was interviewing Robert Gibbs and played the Bachmann clip and asked Gibbs for “an official White House response.” Gibbs was great, he didn’t miss a beat, said this would be the moment for President Obama to lean on education reform.

    /paraphrasing

    LOL, I’m gonna miss Gibbs. Didn’t much care for him at first, but he’s smart, he’s droll, and he grows on you.

    @APL: Ask me sometime about the wonderfulnessdomhood of going to the “Eggs and Issues” breakfast this morning featuring the Gov, the Lieut Gov, and the Spkr of the GA House. At oh-dark-thirty, First Sparrowfart.

  60. 60.

    FlipYrWhig

    There’s actually a centuries-old tradition of using the word “slavery” as the antithesis of “liberty,” so that anyone who is at the mercy of absolute and/or arbitrary sovereign power is a “slave.” In the 1730s there was a whole political movement in England dedicated to complaining that higher taxes on consumer goods were “slavery” because the government would compel you to pay them. There’s that kind of “slavery”–domination by government, race unimportant–and then there’s the plantation/chattel kind that we all accept is more the entire frakkin’ point of the word.

    I personally find it offensive when some freeloading white dude insists that he’s a “slave” because of the tax rate on his investments, but white dudes have been making versions of that argument since the Roman republic.

  61. 61.

    Geeno

    Actually, they used real teeth to make false teeth back then – at least if you had money. Usually, they were “recovered” from dead soldiers off the battle field – waste not, want not after all, but I could believe slaves being used for similar purposes by wealthy slave owners if they need a couple teeth to complete a set.

  62. 62.

    shortstop

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Ask me sometime about the wonderfulnessdomhood of going to the ā€œEggs and Issuesā€ breakfast this morning featuring the Gov, the Lieut Gov, and the Spkr of the GA House.

    “Eggs and Issues”? Is that a shoutout to zygotes?

  63. 63.

    sloan

    Watching it right now.

    Needs more cowbell Reagan.

    Sal can’t answer: “What is the history of slavery in America?”

    Rock on, teabaggers.

  64. 64.

    quaint irene

    Looking forward to Bachmannā€™s rebuttal tonight. If sheā€™s on meds, hope she passes on them today so she can really let it rip making the jump to 11D batshit loony.

    We can only hope. Well, hey. If chosen GOP anointeds (see: Gov. Jindal) can crash and burn in their SOTU rebuttals, buttinskies like Bachmann can only do him one better.

  65. 65.

    hells littlest angel

    @j low: The true science of the 18th century has been suppressed by the liberal/socialist conspiracy. Lightning rods and leyden jars provided unlimited electric power, and the steam-powered dental equipment of the 1780s makes ā€œmodernā€ dental tools look like instruments of tortureā€”which were also perfected in the 1780s. Itā€™s a shame that so few remember the great pyramid that stood across the street from Independence Hall, with its gigantic eyeball that was used to broadcast Washingtonā€™s very first State of the Union addressā€¦ TWO HUNDRED TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY!

  66. 66.

    Joseph Nobles

    Does anybody remember that alt history movie (miniseries) where citizens of the triumphant German Empire begins to discover the truth about the Holocaust? One of these days the homeschooled heads that are Glenn Beck’s bread and butter will have their own similar epiphany with regard to American history. We hope.

    Oh, damn, Godwin out of the gates.

  68. 68.

    Nellcote

    I like the way Tweety says Bachmann “pals around with Scalia” the same way LaPalin says “pals around with terrorists”.

  69. 69.

    Calouste

    So Rand Paul has written up a Teaparty slash-and-burn budget to cut $500 billion this fiscal year. It includes that eternal favorite, defunding the Department of Education, along with defunding some other things like the Affordable Housing Program and the Bureau for Indian Affairs. Got to keep them coloreds down.

  71. 71.

    bkny

    not gonna question his motives, but tweety really has been doggin’ the teatards over right to carry — esp to political rallies — and now this truly stunning bachmann statement. i think it’s finally clicked with him what a threat they are to the country; as opposed to a ratings generator.

  72. 72.

    alwhite

    @Tlachtga:
    Sterns County and the grounding area is the heart of darkness in Minnesota. It is a hyper-religious, ignorant, black hole of humanity. This is Batshit Bachmanns home turf and she plays those fools like a drum. She has had two close calls in the last two elections so it is not an entire lost cause but it is 51%stupid morans.

  73. 73.

    cathyx

    Somebody needs to send Bachmann a copy of “Roots”, probably not the book but the miniseries because she doesn’t sound like she reads too much.

  76. 76.

    Southern Beale

    Funny when Tweety gets a bee in his britches about something. Bachmann making shit up about history is one of them. He just asked Robert Gibbs about it, Gibbs was like “what do you expect me to say?” Then he made a joke about education reform.

  78. 78.

    PTirebiter

    Hilarious when the guy just kept repeating his talking point and Matthews asked him if he was hypnotized.

  80. 80.

    alwhite

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Not to go all goodwin on the thread but you know that the German industrialists thought they were using the brown shirts to block the labor unions & communists. Meanwhile the Austrian paper hanger was well aware that he was using the industrialist to fund his work.

    The future is not yet history but, if the future unfolds in certain ways, it could easily be instructive.

  83. 83.

    The Other Chuck

    I don’t care if Tweety is on my side here: you can’t make me watch that blathering screaming pompous lardball and actually get me to have any respect for him or his profession.

    Tweety needs a moderator to cut mics on both sides. But then I guess the show wouldn’t be entertainment, would it.

  84. 84.

    Mike M

    I am seldom surprised by what I read anymore — certainly not the nonsense that comes from blowhards on the right — but I’m astounded by the notion that dentists transplanted human teeth at the time of the Revolution. According to an old article in Time magazine, 4 guineas a tooth was the going rate in NYC at the time. I’m guessing they must have boiled the donor teeth to remove all the soft tissue before the transplant, otherwise the ensuing infection would have quickly dispatched the recipiant. Still, rejection was apparently a problem in even the best of cases.

    Our ancestors sure were brave or foolish or maybe just desperate. I guess they’ll say the same about us in a few years.

  85. 85.

    Midnight Marauder

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I personally find it offensive when some freeloading white dude insists that heā€™s a ā€œslaveā€ because of the tax rate on his investments, but white dudes have been making versions of that argument since the Roman republic.

    Hey, those are the perks of being a white dude.

    Since, you know, forever.

  87. 87.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Notice how they don’t say a word about John Adams giving women the right to vote, ending the Great Depression and passing Civil Rights? Fucking idiots need to learn history.

  89. 89.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike M:

    Our ancestors sure were brave or foolish or maybe just desperate. I guess theyā€™ll say the same about us in a few years.

    Yeah, it’s not as though we’ve worked out all the kinks of tissue transplants even today. Recipients are usually stuck with nasty anti-rejection medications for the rest of their lives, even though that means they’re severely immune suppressed. If/when we work out something better, the current methods will look really primitive.

  90. 90.

    Angry Black Lady

    But could a black pontificator get a show, grab the microphone and rant for hours about fighting racist elements in both our political parties?

    i can’t even get some folks here to listen to my concerns about racism on the left without being called emotional.

    so i’m going to say: no.

  91. 91.

    LLeo

    Just for everyone’s enlightenment, there is a convincing theory that the slavery compromise was squeezed into the constitution because many believed it was dieing out on its own. No new slaves were being imported into the US in the early 1800s.
    The unspoken truth is that technology gave slavery a second life in the USofA. The development of steam power allowed for the worsening of bi-polar division of the North vs. South. Railroads allowed the South to increase the production of raw materials without developing a manufacturing base to exploit the cotton. Before you couldn’t transport cotton to mills and refineries far off in the north because the cotton would rot. Steam power & Railroads allowed the north to refine the raw material and increase the commerce and financing institutions (banks) to exploit the south. Slavery was the key element of cheap labor that made this state of affairs flourish.
    The population of slaves was declining until railroads, then slave populations boomed.

  92. 92.

    SteveinSC

    @PTirebiter: Well all the fireworks kind of obscured the Pat Buchanan Confederate view of the history of slavery, which was way worse than Russo. I don’t know why they keep Buchanan on that show, he’s to the right of Bill Donohue as a right wing Catholic. If they felt they needed someone younger, but with similar views they could invite someone from Storm Front. Tweety is like the blind pig on his tears, but in general he is scatter-brained, faux equivalence-infected and brings a new dimension to the word obsequious.

  93. 93.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    for the record Michelle, John Quincy Adams was a student at Harvard when the Constitution was ratified, and spent his teen years educated in socialist Europe. Jesus woman don’t make me get Paul Giamatti go medieval on your backside.

  94. 94.

    MonkeyBoy

    @LLeo:

    the slavery compromise was squeezed into the constitution because many believed it was dieing out on its own. No new slaves were being imported into the US in the early 1800s.

    Somewhere around 90% of the slaved delivered by the slave trade went to areas around the Caribbean. That area needed a lot because they kept dying and sugar was insanely profitable.

    In the U.S. it turned out that slaves lived longer and bred better, but with the lack of imports their price went up and were very expensive. Some people made lots of money breeding and selling slaves. The prohibition of slavery in the new territories upset them because they needed more plantation to sell their slaves to because the market was saturating.

  95. 95.

    Midnight Marauder

    @LLeo:

    Just for everyoneā€™s enlightenment, there is a convincing theory that the slavery compromise was squeezed into the constitution because many believed it was dieing out on its own. No new slaves were being imported into the US in the early 1800s.

    The problem with this statement is that it casually overlooks the fact that, during the time period you reference, the United States was actively engaged in a debate over whether new states into the Union would become free or slave states, which indicates that slavery was far from a fading institution in American life.

    Let’s just look at the actual numbers that slaves represented in America during the time period you are describing:

    by 1860, there were more millionaires (slaveholders all) living in the lower Mississippi Valley than anywhere else in the United States. In the same year, the nearly 4 million American slaves were worth some $3.5 billion, making them the largest single financial asset in the entire U.S. economy, worth more than all manufacturing and railroads combined. So, of course, the war was rooted in these two expanding and competing economies – but competing over what? What eventually tore asunder America’s political culture was slavery’s expansion into the Western territories.

    Are you trying to make a serious argument that slavery in the United States would have taken a different course were it not for railroads and railroads primarily?

  97. 97.

    virag

    matthews seems liberated and quite frisky since olbermann went bye-bye. a very good week for tweety.

  98. 98.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @shortstop 7:38 p.m.

    It’s a really creepy title, I admit, but a long tradition in GA politics. It’s usually held very early in the legislative session, but the BLIZZARD OF 2011 ™ postponed everything a couple of weeks.

    The high point of the Gov’s speech, I am *not kidding* here, was an incredibly tortured analogy between the scrambled eggs on our plates and the scrambled issues facing legislators, and while you can’t unscramble an egg you need to unscramble the issues and if you can do that then maybe next year we can all come together and unscramble the eggs.

    Jesus have mercy.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Buck 7:46 pm

    *I’m dying here…*

    I wish it were original, but I stole it from someone, years ago, and fraudulently made “First Sparrowfart” my own.

  100. 100.

    Woodrowfan

    @someguy:

    “but was a libel invented by a chap named Weems”

    You really are a fool. Parson Weems thought Washington the greatest American who ever lived and he wrote the 1st President’s biography as a lesson for young people as a model of how to live.

    As for the teeth, while I do not know if Washington used real teeth, if he did they would not have been implanted in his jaw, but fit into a set of dentures along with some animal teeth…

  101. 101.

    vtr

    There are scholars who argue that the Second Amendment, with it’s guarantee of arms and militias was a Southern slave state insertion into the Constitution to make sure there was a means of suppressing slave revolts.

  102. 102.

    fasteddie9318

    @MonkeyBoy:

    The following year, in May of 1784, Washington paid several unnamed ā€œNegroes,ā€ presumably Mount Vernon slaves, 122 shillings for nine teeth

    See? If that story is true, it just shows that Washington was a capitalist. He knew that the spare body parts of the slave/peasant sub-human ought to be available for purchase by the wealthy elite full human. That’s the kind of social reform that the modern Republican Party is fighting for!

    slightly less than one-third the going rate advertised in the papers

    Oh, well…um, so he, uh, got a bargain! The man was like freaking Warren Buffett! Woo-hoo!

  103. 103.

    MonkeyBoy

    @vtr:

    There are scholars who argue that the Second Amendment, with itā€™s guarantee of arms and militias was a Southern slave state insertion into the Constitution to make sure there was a means of suppressing slave revolts.

    Well we have made some progress. Modern day survivalists – those who stockpile food, guns, and ammo for when society collapses – now imagine that they will be defending their women and stuff from Negros AND Mexicans.

  104. 104.

    LosGatosCA

    In the Teabagger/Hale Bopp SOTU response, Michelle Bachman is going to share her version of how the War for Treason in defense of Slavery was really a shining moment for Ben Franklin who led the charge up San Juan Hill to avenge Pearl Harbor!

    Go Michelle, go. Making the case that some women don’t even belong barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen without a minder.

  106. 106.

    Admiral_Komack

    Well, now we know why the Republicans didn’t read Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution when they gained control of the House of Representatives; it would have ruined their narrative.

  109. 109.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @MikeJ:

    I know. Geeze, my ancestors came over on the Mayflower and I’m only 13th generation American.

    Is she perhaps praising the founding of the Iriquois Nations or something? Oh wait, that was after the Pilgrims.

    Who knows what that idiot is talking about?

  110. 110.

    twf

    Toussaint Lā€™Ouverture is a prominent slave in the history of the slave trade. He rose up and fought the French oppressors. You can see a clip of his last moments in prison from the film ā€œThe Last Days of Toussaint Lā€™Ouvertureā€ ā€“ a short film ā€“ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2468184/

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