Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We still have time to mess this up!

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

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

After roe, women are no longer free.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I was promised a recession.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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Reader Interactions

258Comments

  1. 1.

    schrodinger's cat

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster…

    May I suggest Tunch? BTW how is his majesty? Any new photos for his fans?

  5. 5.

    suzanne

    Do we really need one? “Fair and balanced” isn’t anything to strive for when the other side sucks so much ass.

    Sorry. My stoner neighbors ordered five boxes of Girl Scout cookies from my daughter, then moved out in the dead of night. I’m a bit disenchanted with humanity right now.

  8. 8.

    soonergrunt

    Compared to the rest of the commentariat here, I’m “right-leaning.”
    That’s funny, in a fucked up, sad, pathetic way.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    Maybe Megan McArdle wouldn’t mind some extra moonlighting. Also, too, Sarah’s twitter person might not be needed if she doesn’t run.

  16. 16.

    Violet

    With your track record of conversions, perhaps you should invite McMegan to post here. One conversion at a time.

  20. 20.

    Ecks

    I believe it’s traditional to get Mr. Doutthat under these circumstances.

    O’course, tradition ain’t always what it’s cracked up to be…

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    The ‘convert them one at a time’ plan seems promising, except that it appears that the production rate of new wingnut pundits is vastly higher than any practical conversion rate. Maybe after we pass Peak Wingnut.

    dms

  22. 22.

    gex

    This is an interesting experiment though. Can a right wing blogger be challenged on their opinions the way it goes down on BJ and remain right wing? So far it hasn’t gone well. Perhaps if we moved to Sullivan’s “no reader comments” format we might be able to keep a conservative around. Which kind of tells you something.

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Seriously? You got about a half dozen right leaning front pagers right now. How about a socia1ist?

  28. 28.

    asiangrrlMN

    @gnomedad: No. But I can buy one! Then I can do the LOSER cheer AND cheer on Wisconsin at the same time. This could be my practice for my big conversion to the right. So I can make mad monies.

  29. 29.

    Svensker

    looking for a right-leaning front page poster

    Get a fancy dancer and a hard headed woman, and yer all set.

  30. 30.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Seriously? You got about a half dozen right leaning front pagers right now. How about a socia1ist?

  31. 31.

    Delia

    They’re probably all afraid to come here now. You’d better just repost the photo of the going-Galt puppy in the bucket.

  32. 32.

    soonergrunt

    @asiangrrlMN: But can you do a flailing cheerleader impression? You can’t really do Malkin unless you can do that.
    h/t tbogg
    @asiangrrlMN:
    I see you have addressed this. But I still want video of you in a cheer-leading costume inspecting some 10-year-old’s counter tops.

  36. 36.

    lamh32

    damn, is this blog like an AA or NA meeting for conservatives. You come here and begin the 12 step program to a new and better life without being held down by “right-leaning” vices.

  39. 39.

    pragmatism

    althouse. but she has to provide free booze to all and not that franzia crap. i would get even less work done with her as a fp’er.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @Svensker:
    Yeah, I didn’t really think it was a good idea. I was more thinking ahead to the fun we could have if she posted here and had to take comments. Heh.

    How about that Conor Freezefrieddoofus, or whatever his name is, that filled in for Sully during the Great Airway Illness of ’11. I didn’t read his stuff but did notice that he got quoted here a few times in an “OMG, Conor is making sense!” type of way. Perhaps there’s hope for him. Or is he already not a conservative? I really have no idea.

  46. 46.

    cathyx

    @gex: I have to agree with you on this one. Once a right leaning blogger is confronted with a barrage of facts and explanations, they will change their opinion on many subjects.
    But we need to keep recruiting them in order to do that. This might take a while though, there’s a lot of them.

  48. 48.

    Suck It Up!

    Oh. Is that what happened? I didn’t read the post because the e.d. vs. b.j. posts/comments don’t interest me.

  49. 49.

    Splitting Image

    Well, I’m an opinionated asshole, if that helps. And I got called a “right-wing extremist” once for supporting national day care too stridently.

    Can’t we just get DougJ to post in character as a front-pager? It would save having to find a real nut willing to post here.

  51. 51.

    ppcli

    (OK, try again, this time without the s-word)

    Don’t bother. The Overton window is rocketing to the right so fast that anyone you chose would be counted as a crazed söcialist within six months, without altering a single position.

    I mean, Chalis de Tabernacle, as my people say: We are calling someone a leftie for supporting the rights of public workers to collectively bargain, supporting public libraries (like that loathèd Marxist Andrew Carnegie) and taking the time to make a few Googles and punch a calculator when Paul Ryan spews out a few obvious bullshit numbers. Barry Goldwater already looks like a Democrat – how many months before he will start looking like a “left-wing” Democrat?

    Must stop raving. I can’t get used to the idea that what is happening in Wisconsin might actually happen.

  53. 53.

    Svensker

    @asiangrrlMN:

    We definitely want video of the cheerleader flailing tryout, with MORE countertops. Also jumping.

    Balloon Juice: where libs go to die of happiness.

  54. 54.

    suzanne

    @freelancer:

    So we can call that person a dipshit and a hack until they move leftward?

    Well, that’s always been how I roll. It’s kind of amazing that I have friends.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    My dog has shown no love of broccoli and appears to denounce Stalin every time she sneezes. She is a noisy and frothy enemy of socia1ist squirrels. So I’m throwin’ that out there.

  60. 60.

    lamh32

    Can we get a little eye candy for the ladies in our new right leaning FPer?

    Are there any REALLY hot Conserv guys? I mean if the next FPer is a hottie who looks like Hugh Jackman (with his Wolverine build), I would read every thread (that included a phots of said FPer shirtless).

  61. 61.

    eemom

    @Svensker:

    And if he finds his right wing poster, he knows the rest of his life will blessed, YES it, YES it will.

    Great tune. I loves me some Cat. Yusuf, whatever.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster…

    How about Sarah Palin? With her new PR flack in tow, she’s starting to make more appearances. Just the other day, she was facing Real Americans(tm) in a semi-public arena. Ya know, the kind of ordinary folk who hang out at country clubs.

    The appearance was something of a departure for Palin. Over the last six months, she has rarely ventured beyond the friendly confines of Fox News, with which she has a lucrative contract, other conservative cable outlets and audiences that align closely with her political base, including pro-gun, evangelical and anti-abortion advocacy organizations.
    __
    The event, in the dark wood-beamed and heavily draped ballroom of Crest Hollow Country Club, was a fund-raiser for the LIA, which calls itself New York’s largest business organization.
    __
    Tickets ranged from $300 for members of the business group to $50,000 for corporate VIP sponsors, who received 50 seats and four invitations to a private champagne reception with Palin.

    Palin clearly enjoys pallin’ around with oligarchs.

  65. 65.

    asiangrrlMN

    @eemom: The vid I posted is an interpretation of a Cat Stevens’ song. Ooooh, spooky.

    @Svensker: That sounds like a sushi joint.

    Ahem.

    It’s difficult in these tough times to make the hard decisions. No one wants to hurt one’s neighbors or friends or family. But, when we are in tough times, we ALL have to tighten our belts. So, tax cuts for the riches and suck it everyone else. Jobs will be lost? So be it.

    How’d I do?

    Cole, this is my actual submission to be the right-leaning front-pager.

    http://www.angryblacklady.com/2011/02/01/its-my-party-bitchez/

  66. 66.

    toujoursdan

    Can’t help you on this request but if you ever need a non-Stalist communist I’m your guy.

  68. 68.

    Violet

    @asiangrrlMN:
    So far so good. But you forgot the “Why should those people who have worked harder than others and made more money have to pay higher taxes? It’s penalizing achievement!”

  69. 69.

    lamh32

    Hmmm…a little buyer’s remorse.

    Elections do matter!

    Scott rebuked by 26 senators over high-speed rail funding

    A bipartisan, veto-proof majority of Florida’s legislature just sent a letter to Secretary LaHood asking for that high speed rail money back…

    The letter was partly authored by one of Scott’s first senate backers, Republican Paula Dockery of Lakeland, who argued that the newly created Florida Rail Enterprise could act independently of Scott because the state’s share of the rail money — $300 million – was already approved last year by a previous governor, Charlie Crist…

  75. 75.

    Comrade Dread

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster…

    Hmm… well, I can do crazy right-leaning posts pretty easily.

    For foreign affairs, I can give you such gems as “Why Egypt is Obama’s fault.” and follow that up with a post about “Why Obama isn’t doing enough to promote democracy in Egypt” and one more after that about “Why Obama isn’t doing enough to stop the Muslim Brotherhood from taking over Egypt”

    For economics, I can explain “Why tax cuts are imperative to stopping the out of control deficit”; then explain why “Grandma shouldn’t be afraid of eating cat food (Spoiler: It’s quite delicious, nutritious, and better than what the poor people in China have, you ingrates)”; also, I can let you know why it’s acceptable to subsidize major corporations and provide tax cuts to the upper 1% while cutting subsidies to pay for heating oil for the poor. (Answer: We all have to sacrifice. Those upper 1% folks make a sacrifice by feeling really, really bad about cutting your heating subsidies while they’re having sex with hookers on a pile of cocaine and money.)

    In short, Ayn Rand is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen.

  76. 76.

    DougJ®

    One of you wrote the other day that describing Dennis Prager as right-leaning was like describing Elton John as gay-leaning.

  79. 79.

    JimPortlandOR

    B-J.com needs a right-leaning poster like Mubarak needs another 5 year term as Egypt’s dictator.

  80. 80.

    Turgidson

    Can we please please please somehow get Bill Kristol to post here, just so we can give him wedgies?

  81. 81.

    Guster

    @Alex S.: @suzanne: The problem is, those don’t make me feel nervous, they make me feel smug. I want someone to confront my bullshit with numbers and charts, not stale leftisms that were old when I heard them in the 70s.

    There’s gotta me someone willing to make a rational case for a rational leftism that’s farther left than I’m comfortable with. Instead of making a huge effort to find a non-frothing voice on the right, Cole should look the other direction.

  82. 82.

    matoko_chan

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster…

    no you are not.
    EDK just acknowleged he is a “libertarian”. libertarian in America means the third leg of the three legged conservative stool. the other two legs being the jesushumpers and the bankstahs.
    sure its a shaitan bargain, but EDK still leans right.
    no need.

    Are you relly this fucking stupid, Cole?
    get back to me when EDK retracts FETUS=SLAVE, comes up with ONE SINGLE FUCKING GOOD CONSERVATIVE IDEA, and decides that he is a liberal instead of a libertarian.
    until then its kanly, bitches.

  83. 83.

    Pooh

    @matoko_chan: wat?

    Suffice to say, I don’t think any of this puts me in good standing with conservative or libertarian camps, and frankly that’s fine. I have no interest in being either, though I do consider myself a civil libertarian. In other words, I’ve changed my mind.

    Fucking sentences, how do they work?

  84. 84.

    Cat Lady

    @Guster:

    But that wouldn’t be any fun, since most of us here would likely agree by the end of the first thread. I’ve given up my far leftism for pragmatism, not because it didn’t appeal. I can tell you right now that every comment from the B-J commentariat in a far lefty’s post would end with … and a pony.

  85. 85.

    WyldPirate

    @Pooh:

    Fucking sentences, how do they work?

    haha….c’mon now, Pooh. m_c is living proof that English is an evolving language.

    Hell, I love reading m_c just for the challenge of trying to decipher what she is saying along with the fact that some of what she says makes sense.

  87. 87.

    matoko_chan

    @Pooh: libertarian LEANINGS dumbass.

    I do consider myself a civil libertarian.

    in america that means sukking bankstah cock while holding the socons jackets while they beat the crap out of civil liberty and minorities and try to impose chattel slavery on women an children.

  88. 88.

    Loneoak

    @trollhattan:

    We have a running joke that our dog is a Republican, also. She’s obsessed with borders, must have arbitrary rules, doesn’t like people who look kinda weird, and is fairly dumb.

  89. 89.

    taylormattd

    Why?

    You need somebody to post stupid, poorly-reasoned, falsehoods and defenses of morally bankrupt ideologies on the front page?

  90. 90.

    vegjean

    Did we ever hear more about Rosie’s eyes or Tunch’s, uh, issue? I haven’t had time to read all open threads. Inquiring minds…

  92. 92.

    kdaug

    @Cat Lady:

    I’m thinking of not renouncing Stalin today, and maybe not tomorrow either.

    Careful now, let’s back away from the ledge. Don’t want to do anything rash.

  93. 93.

    slag

    I kind of feel bad for being such a jerk to Kain for so long. I’ll make it up to him now by suggesting that anyone who thinks they “converted” him is pretty much a pompous ass. (Being a jerk to other people for a change is kind of like being nice to someone, right?)

    Kain has shown more ability for insight and self-reflection than I, for one, have given him credit for having. So, I agree with AhabTRuler that, to whatever extent he’s “converted”, he’s converted himself.

    Also, I agree with others who say what we really need is a hardcore lefty. Righties are a dime a dozen and generally aren’t in a place, intellectually, to change anyone’s mind here. We’ve heard all their arguments before and none of them have gotten many of us any closer to their positions. You’d have better luck bridging the Grand Canyon with toothpicks.

  96. 96.

    Gustopher

    Perhaps you could reward a random RedState.com commenter with front page access here — a new one each week. I think it would be a lot of fun to watch them actually be confronted with conflicting opinions such as “evolution is real”.

  97. 97.

    Calouste

    @lamh32:

    that included a phots of said FPer shirtless

    I think there is a former Congressman in New York who has experience in that area, who might be considered right-leaning, and who is looking for new opportunities.

  98. 98.

    Guster

    @Cat Lady: You’re probably right. It just strikes me as weird that I am basically as far left as it gets in this country. I’m a middle-aged middle-class straight married guy with centrist impulses who lives in a nice house in the suburbs. There’s no convincing, rational room to my left?

    I just want to be challenged from the other direction. And as you say … a pony.

  100. 100.

    Bob

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster…

    You know some of the chops needed for that gig. Go ahead, get back on the crazy train.

    Could be fun, kinda.

  103. 103.

    Linda Featheringill

    @toujoursdan:

    To the non-Stalinist commie:

    Sounds good to me.

    Seriously, why can’t we really-left lefties get together or take turns or whatever and do the occasional post?

    Maybe some stuff on the ecology. Profits are derived from taking more than is given. And the only way to restore/save the earth is to give every entity what it needs in order to thrive and take from it only what it can afford to give.

    Like that.

  104. 104.

    Pooh

    @slag: It depends on what you mean by “hardcore lefty” – I don’t think a “heighten the contradictions” firebagger would be especially productive from any standpoint other than popcorn consumption.

  107. 107.

    matoko_chan

    @taylormattd:

    You need somebody to post stupid, poorly-reasoned, falsehoods and defenses of morally bankrupt ideologies on the front page?

    EDK and mistermix already do that.

  109. 109.

    Teri

    As a recently converted Republican, I can attest that the Republican Party is doing a fine job in converting people from calling themselves conservatives.

  110. 110.

    Splitting Image

    @Comrade Dread:

    For foreign affairs, I can give you such gems as “Why Egypt is Obama’s fault.” and follow that up with a post about “Why Obama isn’t doing enough to promote democracy in Egypt” and one more after that about “Why Obama isn’t doing enough to stop the Muslim Brotherhood from taking over Egypt”
    __
    For economics, I can explain “Why tax cuts are imperative to stopping the out of control deficit”; then explain why “Grandma shouldn’t be afraid of eating cat food (Spoiler: It’s quite delicious, nutritious, and better than what the poor people in China have, you ingrates)”; also, I can let you know why it’s acceptable to subsidize major corporations and provide tax cuts to the upper 1% while cutting subsidies to pay for heating oil for the poor. (Answer: We all have to sacrifice. Those upper 1% folks make a sacrifice by feeling really, really bad about cutting your heating subsidies while they’re having sex with hookers on a pile of cocaine and money.)
    __
    In short, Ayn Rand is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen.

    I’m willing to go on record arguing that Obama dealing with corporations is a good thing, that the RIAA deserves more support than P2P file-sharing, that a genuinely pro-life position demands legal and safe abortion, and that Obscured by Clouds is a better Floyd album than Dark Side of the Moon.

    But even I wouldn’t praise Ayn Rand.

  112. 112.

    matoko_chan

    @slag:

    I’ll make it up to him now by suggesting that anyone who thinks they “converted” him is pretty much a pompous ass.

    you dumb cow.
    he isnt converted …..hes a fucking “libertarian”.
    dont you know what libertarian means in America?

    I do consider myself a civil libertarian.

    in america that means sukking bankstah cock while holding the socons jackets while they beat the crap out of civil liberty and minorities and try to impose chattel slavery on women an children.
    get him to retract this and mebbe we can say hes converted.

  116. 116.

    Suffern ACE

    @Guster:

    There’s gotta me someone willing to make a rational case for a rational leftism that’s farther left than I’m comfortable with.

    Yeah. Making me justify my centrism on a lot of issues wouldn’t be a bad thing. While it can be difficult to be labeled a “leftist” or a “liberal” in this culture, so many things that are “liberal” are really rather moderate positions. Those moderate positions need to be thought through as they are often just as unhinged from reality as anything based on conventional wisdom.

  117. 117.

    Pooh

    @DougJ®: It’s slightly amazing that the stuff you or I would have said is too far gone to be believable a few years ago is now being mainlined. I mean, I would never have considered alleging the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated CPAC as an angle…

  118. 118.

    Cat Lady

    @Guster:

    I’m the female version of you. I’m very comfortable, but uncomfortable with the comfort, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. I live in an affluent blue suburb of blue Massachusetts. Barney Frank is my rep. To go further left I could go live in a yurt with some organic kosher radical separatist lesbitarians against the klan in western Mass – that’s seriously an option. I wouldn’t mind doing that, but at my age I’ve become really attached to my Tempurpedic. The revolution will have to happen with me supporting the supply lines.

  119. 119.

    slag

    @Pooh: That’s true. I’m incredibly tired of the pseudo-punditry style of argumentation I’ve been seeing from a lot of the left. Even here, I would like to see more discussion of policy. A lot more. Especially economic policy.

    Honestly, I miss the days when Cole would ask substantive questions about issues in a humorously earnest manner and the commentariat would engage. Has that happened very much recently?

    Now, get off of my lawn!

  120. 120.

    WyldPirate

    @Loneoak:

    m_c writes in English? Huh.

    You ever try reading the Canterbury Tales? Reading m_c’s version of “English” sort of reminds me of the challenge of trying to understand the Middle English of CT.

    “Wallah” is one of m_c’s words I haven’t quite figured out yet. It rolls off the tongue well, but given m_c’s usage it doesn’t seem to fit with any of the definitions I have found online nor does it seem to fit with a bastardize spelling of voilà.

  123. 123.

    Pooh

    @slag: There are a lot of places to go to discuss the wonkery (Delong, Klein, Yglesias, Kleiman, etc…) but at least from my perspective, discussing the ideals and workability of policies has something of the “and a pony” to it when the political reality is that a necessary party to the discussion is completely uninterested in policy beyond the zero-sum political calculus.

  124. 124.

    Mary G

    Does anyone know of a company that makes small saucepans with handles on both sides? I can find a zillion of the 15-inch frypans and Dutch ovens that do, but the smaller pans all only have one handle. I have a lovely heart-shaped burn on my leg because my wrist gave out when I was trying to drain pasta last Friday, but at least it was coming up to Valentine’s Day.

    I have been resisting getting something you make noodles in the microwave with, like Fasta Pasta, the Pasta Boat, Pasta N More. Part of it is those god-awful names. The user reviews on them are pretty positive.

  126. 126.

    DougJ®

    @Pooh:

    I think what has changed, maybe because of Beck, is that a lot of the stuff the right says now is just weird. It’s not connected enough with reality to be funny. It’s the political equivalent of really self-indulgent jam band music or poetry slams.

  127. 127.

    slag

    @matoko_chan: Well, I consider myself a civil libertarian too. And yet, my mouth has been free of bankstah cock for as long as I can remember.

    That said, if I read the abortion-slavery thing again, I’m just going to get pissed off. And I’d prefer to save that for when I’m feeling more pugnacious than I am now. To everything there is a season…

  128. 128.

    ruemara

    @lamh32:

    I second this option. Shirtless and cute with potential of being quite corruptible works for me. With a sack of tools, because I really need a handyman.

  129. 129.

    WyldPirate

    @DougJ®: @DougJ®:

    I’d like to start doing that again. I don’t know if I can do it in a post, though, I need people to bounce off of.

    I remember years ago when I wandered over here from Atrios’ place and you were yanking my chain with some fundamentalist spoof take on evolution. I remember hammering out several replies to you trying to reason with you before I ended with some rant at you about your “idiocy” that left me spitting mad for the rest of the day.

    You sir are a master chain-yanker/spoof poster.

  130. 130.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Mary G:

    I have been resisting getting something you make noodles in the microwave with

    Save your money.

    Take a container, put in the pasta and the requisite amount of water. Stick it all in the microwave and cook for the amount of time on the package plus 2 minutes.

    So if your macaroni says cook for 9 minutes, cook it in the microwave for 11 minutes.

    Voila.

    Edited to add:

    I use the 2-handed, 2-hotpad method of removing the container from the microwave.

  131. 131.

    lamh32

    I’m sorry, I’m def not one to talk cause God knows I could stand to lose a good number of pounds, but still unless Chris Christie plans to lose some weight or “pull a Huckabee” as i like to call it. Then I seriously can’t see him making it through a long Presidential campaign. heck, walking from the back of the auditorium to the debate podium would have him breathing like a bull who’s seen red.
    Don’t even talk about having to do the actually walking and talking and doing those meet and greets that you need to do in those early states like NH and IA.

    Today on Hardball, Tweey asked a couple of reporters if Christie’s size would be a factor in an election against obama. Essentially, he was asking if the image of Christie next to Obama would be a good or bad visual.

    A reporter (Jonathon Alter I think) said that Christie’s girth could be an advantage, cause there are a lot of overweight people in America. And I know that Christie’s opponent made what seemed to be veiled cracks about Christie’s weight and that some think it was detrimental to that opponents campaign, but first of all, I don’t think Obama would ever even utter a deragatory statement against Christie. It doesn’t seem to be in him. Second, Obama would not need to make any cracks, the visual image would be rather striking IMHO.

    yeah there are a lot of overweight individuals, but most of us realize (I’m assuming) that being overweight is not the healthiest way to live. That’s why the weight loss industry is a million dollar business. It’s why shows like “The Biggerst Loser” and A&E’s “Heavy” and Discovery’s “I Lost 100 lbs” are such hits.

    If a candidate’s age would be an issue so would weight. particularly since for good or nil, the US is a superficial nations.

    And I say that as a fat girl with love…lol!

  132. 132.

    matoko_chan

    @slag: Hayek was WRONG. debate meh.
    @Pooh: you might think that, but you would be wrong.–napoleon dynamite
    ima drag BJ into the 21st century, kicking and screaming.
    what are we forgetting here?
    oh yah….DougJ TROLLED EDK’s site. and those retards didn’t even get the troll game….they were utterly pranked…..LoOG is just one slim gradient up from PW and Redstate, DougJ’s old hunting grounds…..why was he able to to do that?
    becuz they STUPID.
    lol

  133. 133.

    JC

    Actually, I think in a lot of ways, Balloon Juice HAS some right leaning posters. Just not insane rightwing posters.

    Eisenhower, Nixon, G.W. Bush, their actual POLICIES (minus the lawbreaking of course), would fit in nicely in the current cross section here.

    a. Were willing to consider tax increases, if it made sense in the reality of the situation. (G.W. Bush tax increase, Eisenhower level of taxes)
    b. Were willing to take on the ‘military-industrial complex’ (Eisenhower)
    c. Willing to build a VALID coalition, and ‘make friends with enemies’ when going into a 3rd world country (G.W. Bush’s masterful job creating a coalition in Gulf War One, Nixon’s ‘going to China’ moment)
    d. Saw labor unions as something actually VALID TO HAVE.
    e. Ready and willing to invest in infrastructure (Eisenhower’s funding of highway infrastructure)
    f. Willing to consider health care for all – Nixon’s plan more ‘liberal’ than what was actually recently passed.

    I REALLY HATE this redefining of ‘leaning right’ that keeps happening.

    the only people who currently exist on ‘the right’, are stooges of corporations, right wing loons, and people who aren’t paying attention to the facts and reality. Period.

    As soon as you ‘honestly pay attention’, you have no choice but to adopt a more ‘fair’, or ‘liberal’ position. Seriously.

    If you believe in a strong middle class, you have no choice but to just say no, to current rightwing policies. They just don’t work, if you want to build a strong middle class.

  136. 136.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @AhabTRuler:

    This. At some point your brain clicks a switch and you say to yourself, “you know what this is not about me, this is about the person working three minimum wage jobs, living in a single wide trailer, and worrying how they are going to pay their electric bill at the end of the month when the weather has been below freezing for a month” This is not about me, this about those people. DH and I do not live large (damn he is a teacher and I am a paralegal), but neither one of us have to go from one job to another, or go from one part time job to another part time job to yet another part time job just to keep a roof over one’s head, food on the table and the light and the heat on.

    At some point you have to say to yourself this is not ab out me, it is about the others, who are one paycheck away from living in a cardboard box. And to be honest I am sick and tired of listening to these fucking assholes who are making a billion dollars a year and piss and moan about having to pay a cent more in taxes.

  138. 138.

    Pooh

    @DougJ®: I think there was a collective moment when it all went to a point everyone knew was too far (probably something Palin did), and…nothing happened, so there are really no boundaries anymore.

  139. 139.

    matoko_chan

    @WyldPirate:

    You sir are a master chain-yanker/spoof poster

    .and he just reamed EDK’s posters, too. it was a thing of pure beauty.
    two questions for conservatives?
    lollollollollll
    might as well ax Jeffie G or Erik the Red to post here.
    they’d be more honest

  142. 142.

    Anne Laurie

    @Loneoak:

    We have a running joke that our dog is a Republican, also. She’s obsessed with borders, must have arbitrary rules, doesn’t like people who look kinda weird, and is fairly dumb.

    Also, dogs gleefully piss and crap anywhere they can get away with it, and expect other people to clean up after them, much like human Republicans.

  143. 143.

    DougJ®

    @Pooh:

    so there are really no boundaries anymore.

    There are times when Palin and Bachmann remind me of that Simpsons’ episode where Lisa drinks the contaminated water at Duff Gardens and starts talking about being the Lizard King.

  145. 145.

    slag

    @Pooh: I think there’s something to that last point. But have you read many of Klein’s, Yglesias’, or DeLong’s comments? Snoozefest. And not in a wonkery sort of way.

    Now, to that last point about how unrealistic passing any meaningful policy is at this moment in time, I think there’s a lot of validity to it. But then, at what point does it become completely irrational for us to pay any attention whatsoever to what our legislators are doing? If we’re paying no substantive attention to policy, why bother? Point-scoring? Isn’t that just reifying the punditocracy’s notion that this whole thing is just a big stupid game?

  146. 146.

    KG

    Ann Coulter is on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show right now. I think she is trying to make herself seem less crazy. And then she says something like “I love Sarah Palin because of her enemies, I’m jealous of that.” And saying that Palin running for president would be “a step down for her.”

  147. 147.

    matoko_chan

    @DougJ®: you did it exquisitely Master.
    dont you remember? you pranked EDK’s posters with two questions for conservatives.
    so much more more subtle than a moby.
    dont you remember the apes discussing philosophy–conservatives discussing science thread?

  148. 148.

    TG

    O, dead Tunch, roughly pull a small, lively wave toward the night shore.
    The breeze dies like a misty cat
    Curling up for an everlasting nap.
    Where is a moonbat as black as Cole?
    The rainy sail quietly fights the cloud as loss begets grief begets litter boxes.
    A murdered soul cannot an anchor weigh
    However fluffy and purring and brave it was in life
    Until he who calls himself “owner” is drowned on another day.
    No snorkel for Cole and no towel.
    This all began with a perforated bowel.
    A computer wrote this before you read it.
    Aren’t you sorry now?

  150. 150.

    Suffern ACE

    @KG:

    And saying that Palin running for president would be “a step down for her.”

    They really don’t want her to run, do they? Talk about flattery. What is she now, queen of the planet or something?

  151. 151.

    Cat Lady

    @KG:

    Ann Coulter is staring into the abyss, and the abyss is called pathetic irrelevance, hence the attention whoring on MSNBC. There’s an abyss whispering Palin’s name now, also too.

    ETA: Hey, maybe Coulter wants to be a new FP’er? What else does she have to do/

  152. 152.

    lamh32

    Oooh,

    Heads up Colin Firth lovers like myself! Piers Morgan’s long awaited interview with Colin Firth will be on CNN tonight at 8pm.

    The interview was scheduled the night when the Egyptian protest began to reach it’s crest.

  153. 153.

    Pooh

    Sully is going to fucking kill me. Still not a mention of Wisconsin, with the closest being bitching about how California is beholden to public employees unions and thus Must Cut Now (because paying taxes is for suckas?)

  156. 156.

    KG

    @Suffern ACE: “they” aren’t as dumb as some of us might think they are. They can read the polls, they know that Palin would lose and lose badly (she puts Texas (TEXAS!) in play for fuck’s sake). So they say things like “she’s huge, she doesn’t need to run.” Because they know they are looking at a ’64, ’72, ’84 election.

    @Cat Lady: I’m not sure she was ever particularly relevant, but I know what you mean. I’ve always thought she was mostly entertaining, though not the one that I’d look to for insight.

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The woman who played Ellie Mae Clampett used to (may still) show up at state fairs and gospel fests and the like, looking like she’d lived a hard life and still wearing her Ellie Mae costume, complete with big blonde wig with frizzy pig tails. That’s how I see Coulter, spending the rest of her life showing up at CPAC and the like with her long yellow hair and her short black dress and spewing out nonsense for cash. Maybe there will be a theatre in Branson for her to run out the grand guignol clock.

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Huh. I’m seeing Lady Gaga up close for the first time on O’Donnell. She looks like she could be Coulter’s younger sister. Or future incarnation.

  160. 160.

    WyldPirate

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The imagery of your post had me laughing.

    Being the perv that I am, I couldn’t keep from thinking as I watched Coulter on O’Donnel’s show that what she truly needed was a nice, fresh pearl necklace adorning that goose neck of hers.

  163. 163.

    KG

    @KG: One more point about Palin… I don’t think she can win the nomination. She would bomb in NH, she’s tied for third in Iowa and running fourth in her home state of Alaska. Based on the statewide polls, I’d say Huckabee is the frontrunner, but it depends on how the calendar plays out and proportional allocation of delegates.

  165. 165.

    matoko_chan

    look Cole.
    EDK was a LIBERTARIAN two years ago when we both commented at TAS.
    if he has changed its undetectable.
    ur a sukkah and hes a grifter.

  167. 167.

    Jules

    @KG:

    I saw Coulter and automatically did the any channel but this one move.
    I landed on Animal Planet and people were catching big ass catfish with their hands.
    Their hands people!

  170. 170.

    freelancer

    @matoko_chan:

    ur a sukkah and hes a grifter.

    Yeah ’cause they’re both into it for the Dollah billz ya.

    If EDK wasn’t hitched, I’d chip in to get you a plane ticket to Northern AZ so you could grudgefuck and then you could pick up and move on to the next big bellicose biometric bovine belligerent blowout.

    +1

  172. 172.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @freelancer:

    If EDK wasn’t hitched, I’d chip in to get you a plane ticket to Northern AZ so you could grudgefuck and then you could pick up and move on to the next big bellicose biometric bovine belligerent blowout.

    Well, there’s Rule 34 for ya.

  177. 177.

    WyldPirate

    @stuckinred:

    Got some of my old redneck drinkin’ buddies back in Tennessee from 30 years ago that are still noodlin’. One of them lost a finger to a snapping turtle doing it. Didn’t slow him down a bit.

  178. 178.

    freelancer

    @matoko_chan:

    grrls like me dont fuck pudgy multichin white boiz. ever.

    Shot in the dark here, but I’m wagerin’ you don’t fuck much. or possibly at all. Too many cudlips in the dating pool and all that, ’cause all da American boiz be cudlips.

  179. 179.

    amorphous

    Does Chaz Johnson count as “right leaning” any longer? I enjoy LGF nowadays, compares nicely to BJ for the “holy shit how crazy have my former allies become” factor.

  180. 180.

    NobodySpecial

    Well, you could always get one of your right leaning commenters and frontpage them. Like Nick. Nick would be good at it.

  182. 182.

    stuckinred

    @WyldPirate: Yea, in Illinois they called it hoggin. I wasn’t opposed to a limb line or jug fishin but I’m not stickin nothin in no hole in a riverbank.

  183. 183.

    stuckinred

    This is a mis-understood sport, and at times, it is illegal, too. It depends on when and where. According to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission handbook of Fishing Rules and Regulations, hogging and noodling are defined as “grabbing fish by hand and only rough fish and catfish may be taken for personal use by this method.

  184. 184.

    mclaren

    Kain was a good choice. But I wouldn’t call him “right-leaning.” Trouble is, anyone who self-identifies as conservative these days is batshit insane.

  185. 185.

    stuckinred

    @matoko_chan:

    Asleep At The Wheel

    Runnin after Fools

    “You call me shabby
    you say my hair is not in style
    well the pants may be baggy
    but it could be worth your while. . . “

  188. 188.

    WyldPirate

    @stuckinred:

    I used to run limb lines and jug fish a good bit. I’ve been known to run a trot line or two as well but that’s a pain in the ass unless you do it a lot.

    I’m like you when it came to noodlin’–didn’t have a big enough pair to go blindly sticking my hand into snapping’ turtle/cottonmouth-infested holes in river/creek/lake banks.

  193. 193.

    sneezy

    @matoko_chan:

    Re: “I do consider myself a civil libertarian.”

    in america that means sukking bankstah cock while holding the socons jackets while they beat the crap out of civil liberty and minorities and try to impose chattel slavery on women an children.

    More likely, it just means that Kain likes smoking weed.

  194. 194.

    Nicole

    @WyldPirate:

    I remember years ago when I wandered over here from Atrios’ place and you were yanking my chain with some fundamentalist spoof take on evolution. I remember hammering out several replies to you trying to reason with you before I ended with some rant at you about your “idiocy” that left me spitting mad for the rest of the day.

    Holy cow; I’m sorry I missed that. DougJ’s spoofs are like great acting- he makes it look so easy and so fun that you think, “I could do that!” But you can’t. I tried once, on FB, on a right-wing friend who was yammering about how the sooner we just accept there are haves and have-nots the sooner we could all get back to making the country great (seriously. That’s almost word-for-word), but gave up in despair after three posts. Spoofing ain’t for amateurs.

  198. 198.

    WyldPirate

    @Nicole:

    Spoofing ain’t for amateurs

    You’ve got that right, Nicole. DougJ is the master. He totally had me snowed. I didn’t visit the BJ for a couple of years after that because I wasn’t really into reading Cole’s right-wingnut take on the world at the time–too many good people were dying in Iraq for me to tolerate some rightwing asshole trying to justify the criminality that led to it. ;)

  202. 202.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @asiangrrlMN: Like a idiot I forgot to bring a good camera. I took some with my iPhone. I emailed a few to Cole to see if he was interested in posting them. They are not great photos, so he may not want to do so. If he doesn’t, I won’t have hard feelings,

  210. 210.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @asiangrrlMN: If I have a chance I will go up again tomorrow. If I do, I will bring a better camera. I saw John Nichols do an on-air interview on CNN. I saw Ed Schultz recording his show. An AFL-CIO guy told me that they had handed out 3000 brats between 7-7:30. According to Nichols, there were still 8-10,000 people around. About 100,00 are predicted during the day tomorrow.

  211. 211.

    burnspbesq

    @Alex S.:

    Yes, he does. First sentence:

    For 30 years, conservative ideologues have played moderate deficit hawks for suckers.

    And it gets better after that.

  215. 215.

    gbear

    @Guster:

    I just want to be challenged from the other direction. And as you say … a pony.

    Sorry, but if you go right to the source and ask the horse, he’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.

    He’s always on a steady course.

  218. 218.

    4jkb4ia

    I thought that the blogroll at Secular Right might be a place to start looking. That or Front Porch Republic, because Larison seems to think they aren’t idiots. John would have to be careful that abortion didn’t take over a paleo’s entire contribution to the blog.

  219. 219.

    General Stuck

    Okay, I got a question for the geeks out there. My landlord gave me the key to the office wireless wifi router to get free internet, but it is about 200 feet away and I can’t get more than one bar of signal. What would be a fairly cheap adapter with or without an antenna that would do the job of strengthening the signal?

  220. 220.

    Martha

    @Omnes Omnibus: We were there too! It was inspiring…the Capitol was rocking. Saw the Ed show being taped. The signs were great. I’m headed over at lunch tomorrow for sure…

  223. 223.

    MikeJ

    @General Stuck: Google pringles can antenna. You can build a yagi dirt cheap, and the tin compressed potato mash comes in makes an ideal housing. People have attached to networks miles away with less than $10 worth of parts.

  225. 225.

    scav

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That should have been IT made my mom giggle.

    IT can get a barely suppressed guffaw out of my mother too but it’s been decades since she worked at Microsoft and the scars have crusted over a bit. Rabble rousing would be a solid cheer and then, probably, an offer of coffee.

  229. 229.

    Steeplejack

    __

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster . . .

    Balloon Juice, where pilgrims come to wash away their sins and have the scales lifted from their eyes. Hallelujah!

  231. 231.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .

    Guess we’re looking for a right-leaning front page poster…

    May I recommend President Obama?
    .
    .

  234. 234.

    Steeplejack

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Caught it! God, that has got to be in the running for the most linked-to song on Balloon Juice. And yet I find it deeply moving every time. That’s what true art will do to you.

  248. 248.

    icuryy

    I have not been here a long time, maybe since last May.
    But a few things/posters stand out, and one is Schrodinger’s.
    I’m calling B/S from now on all “crazy” type shit.
    Even Cat fetish Zombies.
    Every “Cole” post, its the same from some, brush the topic, and ask for “Tunch” pics.
    Sicko’s.
    Thank Dog for Cole’s judgement.

  249. 249.

    Pangolin

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Perhaps, just maybe, on economic matters, individual responsibility is bullshit. If corporations are shipping thousands of jobs a month to China and India and demanding that we pay the same damn rent and mortgage payments it’s not your fault.

    If a third of the businesses in town are boarded up…..it’s not your fault that you can’t find a job.

    Think like that.

  250. 250.

    icuryy

    Ahhh, and since it’s “Stoner Thursday”, I can say it’s “Robbie Rivera” and the “Juicy Show”, on Sirius.
    Go Girls!!!Boiz!! Guy Garret
    “FRANCIS”

  255. 255.

    matoko_chan

    @And the Horse He Rode In on: no, because DougJ is a bioluddite.
    he is intellectually incapable of articulating the laws of EGT and the bio basis of behavior.

    do i really have to go dig up old Culture 11 archives? EDK has been a civil libertarian ever since i met him.
    he hasnt changed a nanowafer.
    Aimai got this fucker cold.
    EDK wants a pat on the back because hes “evolving”.
    He hasnt evolved since Culture 11.
    He’s still a civil libertarian, he still pushes “we are all the same”, he still defends the god-given right of the conservative base to believe in counterfactual, wrong, bad, and stupid ideas and to try to IMPOSE those ideas on the rest of us.
    Him riffing about unions and schools is like Conor writing about Palin at Culture 11 or Levin at the Dish…
    SO FUCKING WHAT?
    EDK agrees with the obvious but hes just trimming….its just cosmetics.
    THEY HAVENT CHANGED THEIR CORE IDEOLOGY A NANOPARTICLE.
    Conservatism is a failed paradigm.
    Empirically, it didnt work.
    Empirically, it CANT work.
    When EDK admits that i’ll believe hes changed.
    until then hes jus’ frontin for you cudlips.
    Your Glorious Conversion didnt happen Cole.
    This is the same old unevolved EDK ive always known.

  256. 256.

    matoko_chan

    @schrodinger’s cat: i always liked the story of Dr. Wheeler’s cat……he lived in same neighborhood as Einstein, and the cat would translocate between Einsteins house and Wheelers house, and you never knew which house he’d be at.
    We used to say in class, Wheeler’s cat….much luckier than schrodingers cat.

  257. 257.

    matoko_chan

    and WTF is this “right-leaning” bullshytt about?
    libertarians in america are one leg of the three legged stool that defines conservatism.
    libertaians are PART of the machine.
    they dont lean. they ARE PART OF THE RIGHT.

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