I’ve heard comparisons between Scott Walker’s union-busting and W’s efforts to privatize Social Security. I don’t think it’s such a perfect analogy, since Bush never went all in on Social Security privatization the way Walker has with union-busting. Also too, the Village never got behind Bush’s plans, partly because they were pitched as a way to increase retirees’ benefits (through the magic of the stock market) rather than a way to cut them.
The right comparison is the Terri Schiavo debacle. Here’s Mark Halperin in March 2005:
Despite some public opposition to Congress’s action (see below) the Republican leadership seems to have succeeded in framing the discourse around a moral question: if Congress can do something to prevent a woman’s death, shouldn’t it?
[…..]Once again, clearing away the personal part, the Republicans are on the offensive and the Democrats are on the defensive. That’s a Notable fact.
Here’s Ben Smith a few days ago:
Hostility to public-sector workers, including teachers, is at an all-time high amid a recession and a new national mania for curbing the tide of fiscal red ink. Walker appears to have a firm legislative majority on his side.
Here are some polls (amazingly, this first one is quoted in the same article where Halperin talks about how great the issues is for Republicans):
“The public, by 63-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case.”
You spend enough time talking to Cokie Roberts and Joe Klein about what Real Murkins think, you forget that people want a living wage and to live their lives out with dignity, and pretty soon you’re talking about the popularity of measures that poll just a few points above the crazification factor.
Martin
Fuck dignity. I want to be able to crush some working class losers skull under the heel of my Ferrigamos.
Phil Perspective
Doug:
I despise her too but it’s Cokie Roberts, not Robert.
Sockpuppet
You guys just love seeing your words in print. Today has been an epic.
Just Some Fuckhead
At least 60% of Americans are rational on every issue. I wonder if it’s the same 60% every time?
NoFortunateSon
The apparent disconnect between the Village and America is so large, I’m having a difficult time trying to accept it as reality.
Let’s hope I’m just slow.
PurpleGirl
Just what the fuck would Cokie know about real Americans or Joe Klein for that matter. Two more more pundits/villagers who need to spend major time without an income of any sort whatsoever.
Alex S.
@Sockpuppet:
It seems you love seeing their words, too!
bago
If only Walker had used his bully pulpit.
shirt
Blink
Blink
Doug Hill
@Phil Perspective:
Thanks, I fixed it.
NoFortunateSon
Also, what is a ‘Murkin’? It’s not in the lexicon. I know what a ‘merkin’ is, unfortunately, but I suspect this is not the same thing.
jrg
I miss the ’90s, when the beltway media was only telling me what I, as an ‘murican, think about inconsequential bullshit, like blowjobs.
asiangrrlMN
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yes. Fits almost neatly into the batshitcrazy 27% theory (with 13% leeway).
slag
@NoFortunateSon: American. ish.
Cat Lady
The corollary is truer also too – if Mark “this is great news for John McCain” Halperin says you’re winning, you’re definitely, definitely losing. Big.
jwb
@NoFortunateSon: Murkin as in Real Murkin(R), or proud to be Murkin.
freelancer
Mark Halperin is a douche.
Doug should stop reading Politico, even if he’s just measuring the direction of the wind.
These are Notable Facts.
kdaug
A serious question here: Will Sarah Palin’s ultimate legacy to the nation be to add the grammatically indefensible phrase “Also, too” to our national dialog and discourse?
Discuss.
jwb
@Cat Lady: I’m never certain, however, until Bill Always Wrong Kristol weighs in. He’s the master at reverse prognosis of any political situation.
slag
Your “here are some polls” link is self-referential.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Martin:
Fix’t dat fer ya. No charge!
In media and winger land, right is good, left is evil, up is green, down is milk, money is theirs, fact is fiction and fiction is fact.
Lying is news. Why? Because it’s profitable and in our country there is always someone willing to do something for a buck.
Like our presstitutes.
Tom Q
In line with this: I was watching CNN this afternoon, and 1) the reporter out in WI characterized the conversation between Walker and Faux-Coke as “joking” and 2) Glorya Borger spoke about nothing but the fact that Walker was “sticking to his guns”. Also, as far as I could tell, ABC World News didn’t even have a WI report for the first time in several days.
It’s their DC reality, and they’re going to cling to it till the peasants put their heads on pikes.
Stillwater
Here’s one thing to remember about the way the media portrays GOP policy positions in relation to the conservative electorate: most of the time (or frequently enough), conservatives don’t support GOP policies. Nobody likes GOP policies. They garner votes, and enact unpopular legislation, because of a shared hatred of liberals.
Sockpuppet
@Alex S.:
All 634,296 of them. And counting. You never know, the night is still young.
KG
@Just Some Fuckhead: It may actually be, which is why wedge issues are so useful in politics (especially if you’re in the minority)… distract the voters with other less important issues, play up the differences on these less important issues, and make them seem more important than they are… or go nasty and turn off voters, thereby lowering turnout and focusing on base voting (this was the Rove playbook, and it was pretty stupid, because 50%+1 is fine for winning elections but terrible for governing in any sort of effective way).
freelancer
@Sockpuppet:
“Wah! This blog blogs too much!”
What a fucking bizarre objection.
KG
@KG: actually, on second thought, I’d say it’s the same group +/-5% or so.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Gotta give Shep Smith on Faux a bit of credit for pointing out that this move to kill unions started with the Koch brothers and that it would kill three of the top ten political donors, all unions who support Democrats. He also mentions that the other seven top political donors all give to Republicans, saying that if the unions are killed then it would be “over” for the Democrats.
He even says that he isn’t taking sides, that he is only “reporting the news”.
I don’t know how long Faux is going to keep that squirrel around if he keeps finding nuts once in a while like he does…lol
Sockpuppet
@freelancer:
It is taking itself very self-importantly at the moment. Always a warning sign. You can’t have a bender without a proportional comedown.
After the Wisconsin mess shakes out, this blog might just run three days of nothing but cat pictures.
Suffern ACE
@Stillwater: Yep. And for all that living through their policies enacted cause they don’t like people like me, I’m not even a DFH. Why I bother to cut my hair, work in accounting, stay away from pot and free love is beyond me. Darn Lutheran upbringing…
Jager
Is it just me or is there something wrong with Walker’s eyes?
I haven’t seen weird eyes like that since my college apartment mate smoked an entire grocery bag of cheap Mexican pot over a long weekend!
JordanRules
@Sockpuppet: We won’t really know if it’s self-importance or brillant focus ’till that cat count is done though will we??
Hail Mary
MikeJ
@kdaug:
It’s the best she can hope for.
Cacti
The disconnect on display between the Villagers and everyone else reminds me of the 2008 Presidential Debates.
All of the flash polls had the viewers saying Obama cleaned grampy’s clock.
In the Village, on the other hand, it was always a draw if not a slight win for grampy.
Elia
I know it’s immature and also kind of vapid but, honestly, this kind of shit gets on my nerves on a daily basis way more than Tea Baggers Tea Bagging or any of the other claptrap we get from the right. There’s just something so frustrating about it. Makes you wanna go Danton on all their asses.
Mnemosyne
I was listening to NPR on the drive home and I was surprised to hear them on the unions’ side in Wisconsin. I guess they figured out that it’s their listeners who are camped out in the Madison capitol building right now. They even pointed out that the anti-union TV commercials that have started running in Wisconsin are paid for by — wait for it — the Koch brothers through their front organization.
jl
Not totally off topic, but here something I have been looking for: an analysis of the reasons for, and extent of, the awful pension crisis.
Economist Dean Baker and the CEPR provide!
The two most important bottom lines from the report
Most of the pension shortfall using the current methodology is attributable to the plunge in the stock market in the years 2007-2009.
The size of the projected state and local government shortfalls measured as a share of future gross state products appear manageable.
The first item is something I suspected, but I could find no research on it until now. Strangely enough, I have not heard this aspect of the pension crisis discussed by our decadent corporate media pundit class.
Link below. There is a pdf report with numbers at the link.
The Origins and Severity of the Public Pension Crisis
February 2011, Dean Baker
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-origins-and-severity-of-the-public-pension-crisis
Found via Brad DeLong’s blog
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/02/dean-baker-the-origins-and-severity-of-the-public-pension-crisis.html
Suffern ACE
@Mnemosyne: Well, they are about to get their budget cut for being in the thralls of politically correct muslim extremists. So perhaps they decided it was in their interest to tell listeners what was going on for a change rather than loafing and muddling up issues, like they have done so often in past.
slag
@kdaug: Well, she also helps democrats win elections. Also, too.
janeform
Mnemosyne @36: That NPR report was balanced out by stenography on GOP fiscal austerity that included a classic he-said she-said on whether a US government default will destabilize the economy. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!
Vince CA
Kind of off/on topic, how should I pronounce “Koch”? Is it like “caulk” or “kotch” or maybe “Coke”? Since I haven’t watched television is many, many years and my radio is limited to children’s music, I don’t know how to say their names out loud, to curse them, tell my wife what’s happening, etc. (And please don’t suggest that I watch a video clip. I have bad enough heartburn right now as it is.)
Omnes Omnibus
@freelancer: “Too many notes.”
Nutella
@Vince CA:
I believe these Kochs pronounce it Coke.
freelancer
@Vince CA:
“Coke”
geg6
OT, but there’s been a very big Marcellus Shale explosion here in Western PA. In Avella, Washington County for any Pittsburgh area BJers. Several workers critically injured and at least a dozen other injured. Huge flames. And Gov. Corbett in the pocket of the drilling companies. Company claims there will be no environmental dangers as a result of the blast. (Yes, I’m rolling my eyes). They are showing the company statement superimposed over film of a huge fire burning behind a bunch of lovely Avella homes with horrified residents giving those flames a thousand yard stare.
JGabriel
Given Walker’s performance so far, does anyone think the Koch Bros. picked Walker to lead on this because of his stupidity? Like they’re thinking, if Walker can pull this off, then we’ll have no problems getting the other Republican governors on board?
I’m beginning to think that having GOP policy originate with their stupidest members is a featurenotabug, in that it exposes the most expendable members on the front line first.
.
MGB
Or one could use the German pronounciation, like I use, and just seems fitting for some reason. “Ko” would sound like “coke” while the ‘ch’ would be a hard, kind of phlegmmy sound.
Josh
Just remember that the Buffalo Beast headline was “Koch Whore” and you’ll remember how to pronounce it.
JGabriel
geg6:
Because explosions aren’t “environmental damage”, they’re just God’s way of sayin’ “Boo!”
I really hope those stares are a longer than a thousand yards, because a thousands yards is way to close to be to a gas explosion.
.
bk
@kdaug:
Reminds me of a line from a Firesign Theatre album (can’t remember which one) – “From the Department of Redundancy Department”.
Comrade Luke
You know, for all the fear around the Koch brothers, most of it is due to their money than their competence. After reading their profile in the New Yorker, what I took away from it was that they’ve been working on their dream since the early 80s, and they’ve been losing pretty consistently the whole time.
I hope that streak continues.
MikeJ
Describe what Marcellus Shale looks like!
What?
Say ‘what’ again. Say ‘what’ again, I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more Goddamn time!
asiangrrlMN
@geg6: Oh, crap! Not again.
Suffern ACE
The odd thing about the Koch Brothers in Wisconsin is that if they didn’t own this party, Pete Peterson would. I don’t ever want to take the eye off of that guy either. The TEA party is the Koch vision for America…I think Pete and his “public social insurance must be destroyed” is the owner of village CW. Look at who showed up to his commission and how everyone who does inside job journalism just wants Obama to adopt it to demonstrate leadership. Never cut slack to the billionaires and their public missions. Sometimes I think the Koch’s are clowns in comparison to some of our other oligarchs.
Mark S.
@geg6:
WTF? That’s the third one I’ve heard about in the last two weeks. Are explosions that fucking common?
Also, too, has Nick been around here to tell us that the Republicans are kicking our asses and to make the same fucking bully pulpit joke he’s make 8,745 times?
jl
If some deluded trolls came here and accused this here miserable lefty blog of being chaotic and disorganized, and the posters and commenters of being insufferable logorrhoeimaniacs, would anyone care, would anyone even notice?
Arundel
My nerves are fracked and frayed by all of this. SO so encouraged by the resistance to this incredibly hostile assault on America, the middle class, by the Tea Party governers across states. Just saying that the Village makes my blood boil especially right now: this is a stick-up, this is a hostage situation, and Christ if they aren’t willing collaborators. The divide has never been so naked and apparent, between the shit they’re talking and the reality on the ground in WI.
We really do have a state media in an almost Soviet style, the mainstream media are in their own fucking paid-for world. They have their groupthink and mantra, and there is no room for dissent. Even at this most egregious hijacking of basic rights in Wisconsin. Please, please let the popular protest continue and escalate, so that Village fvckos can be forced to report what a naked power-grab and assault on working people it really is. Because we’re all next. If we’re not there already.
Go, Wisconsin, go!
asiangrrlMN
@MikeJ: What?
FYWP.
Mark S.
And speaking of Cokie, I love Cokie’s Law by Digby:
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Homo ReaLAMEricanus is a strange beast according to those who study his habits. He does not think, question, eat, get ill or grow old. His sole desires are to work (for wages if he can get them, but if not, no big deal) and protect the rich from tax hikes.
JGabriel
@Comrade Luke:
Since the 80’s, the top 1% have tripled their share of the nation’s income from 8% to 24%, union membership is massively down, Republicans have been in charge of at least one branch of Congress 14 of the last 16 years, in charge of the presidency 20 of the past 30 years, and appointed a 5-4 majority of the Justices on the Supreme Court, with concomitant deregulation and tax cutting across the board, and crashed the economy just in time to hand off the cleanup to a Democratic president.
Whether that was due to, or in spite of, the Koch Bros. efforts, I’ve gotta think it still looks like mostly “WINS!” from their point of view.
.
Suffern ACE
@jl: Meh, you lost me at the logohemorrhoids. If the worst that can be said about us is that we’re disorganized and self-important, we’re not doing so badly. There are worse character flaws. I’ve dated folks whom I wished had flaws so limited.
Three-nineteen
OT, but I finally got onto the New Zealand Red Cross website to make an earthquake relief donation (I just cannot donate to the Salvation Army). I’ve been trying all day and just now was able to complete the credit card transaction. So if anyone wants to make a donation, now would be a good time.
ppcli
@jl: Unlikely – the trolls around here are never that perceptive or accurate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE:
Sounds painful.
jl
@ppcli: Sorry I mentioned it, I guess I came close to feeding. Just noticed some trolls trying this new tactic over the last few days. But I cannot imagine a tactic that would be, one would think, so obviously and patently futile and useless at a blog like this.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Speaking of trolls, was m_c given a time out?
geg6
@Mark S.:
They didn’t used to be. Probably because they (the drilling companies) first went after large landowners like the state and municipal governments and very, very rural communities, mostly in the PA oil fields in Titusville and Oil City and such. They tried real hard to get the city of Pittsburgh and the city school district to let them drill on their land but were mostly rebuffed. So the currect strategy is huge media buys encouraging average citizens to pick a personal drilling company (like you do a mobile carrier or your car insurance) and they will take care of you in your old age or something very, very vague but self-evidently good for you and yours. Thus, more drilling and more explosions and more deaths and third degree burns over 80% of workers bodies. And let’s not even mention groundwater and wells and rivers and creeks. Nothing to see there.
Tom Q
@bk: I believe it’s Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers — a ready source of many usable quotes.
Elia
Always thought it was Kawchh.
Coke is so much less villainous.
At least I’ve still got Krauthammer.
Sly
D.C. is probably the most insular and provincial city in the United States (and that’s saying something… to a very large extent, Americans have been defined by their insularity and provincialism). In that same regard, D.C. is also the most conservative city in the United States.
But because D.C. is where Federal policy is set, its local culture has a profound impact on the rest of the nation. So its chattering class, as a defense mechanism, must believe that it speaks for the interests of the nation when the reality is it, and established local media in general, speak for those who have large reserves of local social and cultural capital. In the case of D.C., it is the culture of the corporate lobbyist.
Upton Sinclair’s statement regarding a person’s beliefs depending on their salary is perennial. To gain advancement, you must speak for the interests of those who hold social and cultural capital, whether in a school district, a city, or a capital. You simply don’t piss off the “important people.”
And it’s more like “natural” selection than a planned conspiracy. When those who tow the line gain advancement and those who challenge it are sidelined (or, at best, ignored), then, like the morphology of finches on the Galapagos Islands, the characteristics of the media culture will shift.
Michael
@Comrade Luke:
The fuckers (along with their entire extended family) still deserve a machete party, or at least to be Dexterized.
Sly
@Sly: Auto-Moderated and I didn’t even use the s-word? FYWP.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: Not so bad. You just have to write about your insights on preparation H for about a hour or so and it’s cured.
Martin
@geg6: Shhh. The invisible hand is working. Don’t disturb it with your tales of human suffering, please.
RalfW
@Arundel:
Thank FSM we have the postmodern equivalent of samizdat: Blogs!
piratedan
@Odie Hugh Manatee: @28 he’s actually a couple days behind Rachel Maddow, who was making these very same points last friday on her show indicating that on the left, it’s the unions and that’s it. They have no corporate PAC money flowing in or nefarious front organizations shilling for them that come close to matching what the Republicans have arrayed on their side of the campaign donation ledger. Essentially TRMS was stating that if Walker wins his crusade, that it makes it extremely difficult for the union to stay viable as it would have to recertify each year until such legislation passes otherwise.
Sly
@Sly: I figured it out. Old post @71 can be deleted.
…
D.C. is probably the most insular and provincial city in the United States (and that’s saying something… to a very large extent, Americans have been defined by their insularity and provincial-ism). In that same regard, D.C. is also the most conservative city in the United States.
But because D.C. is where Federal policy is set, its local culture has a profound impact on the rest of the nation. So its chattering class, as a defense mechanism, must believe that it speaks for the interests of the nation when the reality is it, and established local media in general, speak for those who have large reserves of local social and cultural capital. In the case of D.C., it is the culture of the corporate lobbyist.
Upton Sinclair’s statement regarding a person’s beliefs depending on their salary is perennial. To gain advancement, you must speak for the interests of those who hold social and cultural capital, whether in a school district, a city, or a state/national capital. You simply don’t piss off the “important people.”
And it’s more like “natural” selection than a planned conspiracy. When those who tow the line gain advancement and those who challenge it are sidelined (or, at best, ignored), then, like the morphology of finches on the Galapagos Islands, the characteristics of the media culture will shift.
Sly
Oh, and the Villagers never went in on Social Security Privatization because it was billed as increasing benefits. They didn’t go in on it because it presented the opportunity to talk about a potential fight. And potential fights generate more “buzz” than anything else, and will be focused on more than anything else in a given topic.
Especially when the focus reinforces dominant thinking. Social Security is the Third Rail of politics! Oh no! What’s gonna happen now? We’ll have Democratic Strategist A and Republican Consultant B on next to shout at each other, so stay tuned after this important advertisement for Oppenheimer Funds.
Comrade Kevin
If you want a picture of the Republicans’ plans, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.
asiangrrlMN
@Odie Hugh Manatee: The man needs immunity, stat. He’s gonna get shunned pretty soon. Let’s trade…Lenny Davis for him.
freelancer
@Comrade Kevin:
You need to modify at least one more aspect of the quote for it to be truly inspired. I’d suggest the boot in question be gilded.
asiangrrlMN
@Comrade Kevin: I want to laugh, albeit bitterly, but I can’t because it’s too painfully true.
FYWP I can’t edit my goddamn post!
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
If it turns out that team R has overplayed its hand and alienated right leaning union workers (and what kind of idiots are they?), so much the better. Republican hubris is a delicious meal with a sweet dessert.
But I do find it depressing to think of middle class people who ONLY vote their self interest. I know they’re out there, and hell maybe the majority of the US electorate is like that, but it still bums me out.
Stan
Overall good points, but this is surely hyperbole:
Comrade Kevin
@freelancer: yes, that would be an improvement.
Mark S.
Hindtrocket:
Most extraordinary story? But really, two lonely libertarians? Is there any better proof that libertarians can’t get laid? These guys are fucking billionaires and they have to get blowjobs from Radley Balko and Nick Gillespie.
Comrade Kevin
@Mark S.: Leave Fonzie alone, he has a real edgy leather jacket.
freelancer
@Mark S.:
FTFY
Comrade Mary
Jon Stewart not only handled Wisconsin better tonight (and was funnier than he was on Monday, although that may be because he’s less sick and today’s material was priceless), but he was also really effective and persistent in his questioning of Rumsfeld. So he gets cheers from me for that. I’ll have to look for the full interview on the web tomorrow.
Martin
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): They haven’t overplayed. Their opponent isn’t the Dems – it’s the moderate Republicans. This is a fight for ownership of the GOP – the teabaggers vs the old guard. They’re dragging the GOP to the right kicking and screaming and anyone who isn’t on board is going to get their ass primaried next year – even if that means handing elections to the Dems. The GOP is seeking a new equilibrium point.
Sly
@freelancer:
I think, in that case, the boot would be stomping on a scrotum and not a face. I’ve heard that’s the preferred kink in certain conservative circles.
MikeJ
@Mark S.: I would argue that the most extraordinary story of the day is that the phrase “Aspergers Syndrome by Proxy” made it into print.
joel hanes
Student : Yeah, what do you think, Porgy?
Porgy: Well, I don’t think we oughta jump to any conclusions or take any…
Student 2: Hey, Porgy! Hey, Porgy! Principal Poop’s on the radio. Turn the car radio. Poop’s on.
Porgy: OK, well, gather round kids and stay on camera. We’ll all listen together.
Principal Poop: All of us want to know… just as much as I want to know: who’s responsible ?
Bottles: Communist Martyrs High School, that’s who’s res…
Porgy: Shhh, Shhh
Principal Poop: and until we do I must make my dirty cl… duty clean… clear, and announce the suspendering of the upcoming graduating exercises.
Porgy: Oh no!
Principal Poop: which can not… and will… which aren’t taking place.
Porgy: I’m never gonna get out of here!
Principal Poop: But don’t worry! Don’t worry! Your food, housing, insecurity will be guaranteed by the Department of Redundancy Department, and the Natural Guard.
Mudhead: Hey, there gonna surround us!
Principal Poop: And remember: trust-breakers will be persecuted. So please: stay where you are. Don’t move, and don’t panic! Don’t take off your shoes. JOBS is on
the way.
Porgy: Golly!
Principal Poop: Thank you!
themann1086
@geg6: Nobody coulda predicted…
Also too, if we tax the drilling companies we’ll be hurting business and Pennsylvanians.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Martin: I would like that to be true.
Not all old guard Republicans can be complete idiots, right? I wonder what they plan to do if, okay, when the crazy takes over and starts tanking elections. O’Donnell, Angle, those two harridans in CA. How much failure will they endure? And what choice do they have?
Turgidson
@Sockpuppet:
What would be wrong with that?
freelancer
Wow, after a record day of posting, it’s quiet out there. Too quiet…
Cain
@Mnemosyne:
NPR has a bit of a problem, because of right wingers trying to cut funding they have to rely more on subscribers and a lot of us are center to left of center and we are the only ones who will probably give them money. So they better be on our side.
cain
Mark S.
@freelancer:
I probably scared everybody off with my Nick Gillespie slash fiction.
ThatPirateGuy
I wish I never had to hear McMegan on NPR. The idiots have fox news and AM radio stay off my NPR.
Comrade Mary
@Mark S.: You know what? I’m just going to take you at your word that you wrote some and I won’t go looking for it. #shudder#
Yutsano
@Mark S.: The brain bleach quantities need restocking, so everyone made a quick run to the 7-11.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
What’s a 7-11?
Yutsano
@freelancer: Sort of like an A&P, but with nastier interiors and horrifically jacked-up mark-ups.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
No, I know. I just wanted to make you feel old. What’s an A & P?
Yutsano
@freelancer: Okay now you’re just being obstinate young’un. You. Lawn. Off. Naow.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
Rest easy, elder. I’m in the street. Egging your house. That’s all.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Hi, hon! How you be? I saw the pic of Lexie you posted yesterday. She is sooooo cute!
And, I don’t know what an A&P is. I do know what a 7-11 ‘coz I’m just like it.
Calouste
@KG:
Wedge issues work a lot less well when the voters actually have some choice.
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: When I can find my bifocals, my teeth, and my cane, I’m coming after you!
And seriously, fuck you WordPress for not letting me edit my goddamn post.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
See my link. Updike wrote a story about the store in ’61. Yeah, um my dad was two years old when that was published. Just to give you an idear.
Calouste
@Sly:
You’re talking the Village, not about the actual DC. The actual DC votes about 90% Dem.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Snow falls from my sky and may dump up to a foot. Should that occur they might shut my work down. I haz a major happy about that. Add on to that I’ll most likely be out of work next week, and I’m seriously considering partying.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
How’s your voice, J? You got that back?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: SNOW! Right on.
@freelancer: Get off my damn lawn. Kids these days.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
“Kids”, that cracks me up. I’ve been an uncle for 6 years and my last two girlfriends have been divorcées, yet I’m a kid. Sheesh, folks. I’m speechless.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: They said there would be a foot today too. It snowed. Then it stopped and we had blue skies. Then it snowed. Then blue skies. Back and forth every half hour all day.
There’s probably 1/8″ on my deck. Which falls well within what the ever so helpful tv weatherdudes called for. They predicted anywhere from a trace to 8 inches.
Yutsano
@freelancer: Voice is back about 90%. I got through work with no major hang-ups so it seems to be sticking with me right now. But no telling what tomorrow will bring.
@asiangrrlMN: I just checked the weather. They say one to two inches but they said that last time and it just dumped like mad. So I’m thinking we’re gonna get buried again. Plus it’ll all freeze, which here is a much worse proposition.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: I’m thinking they don’t know what the duck is gonna happen tonight and tomorrow, so they’re just hedging. I got about half an inch on my back porch in Northgate. And it goes from light dust to dumps in about a minute.
Oh and FYWP for not allowing edit.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: We MAY get light snow this weekend. Supposed to cool down a bit, too.
@freelancer: What? Type bigger. I can’t read what you wrote.
Peter
Completely OT, but is it just me or is HuffPo completely losing its shit tonight? It’s sent me four seperate notifications for the same Chris Weigent post.
Yutsano
@Peter: What do you mean “tonight”? Hasn’t that been SOP for awhile now?
Peter
@Yutsano: This is my first time getting this, and frankly I don’t actually go to HuffPo anymore so I wouldn’t know about any onsite glitches.
freelancer
@Peter:
Really? I don’t subscribe to Huffpo email updates, but I just visited their frontpage and it’s all “Shutdown” is imminent. It better fucking NOT be. Just for the havoc it will wreak on our economy alone, but I have a vested interest as well, I confess. I’m supposed to fly on March 4th. How is that going to occur with no TSA and no FAA employees reporting to work?!
And Ariana keeps pushing liberal outrage as her sales model, but she has no moral quandaries rubbing elbows with dire enemies of progressives like Darrell Issa. When I initially saw the photo of them hanging out in Vegas, I thought nothing of it. But learning that Issa is the richest member of Congress at damned near a half a billion dollars, that infuriated me.
All the shit that Kerry got for being a “ketchup heiress” in 2004 and McCain got for being married to beer money, there is a point to be raised there, but when we get our media from people who marry rich and then hobnob with their supposed enemies, because they too are superrich, is just absolutely disgusting. The day we resurrect the guillotine in this country, there’s a special ergonomic, comfy as all hell model that’s to be set aside for a soulless, rich as fuck “liberal” opportunist like Ariana Huffington.
freelancer
@freelancer:
And Megan McCardle, though in the interim, we’ll spend our time dulling the blade for hers so that it’s a tenth as sharp as everybody else’s.
Yutsano
@freelancer: Remember one very important thing about Ariana Huffington: she was a willing beard until it became inconvenient for her. That tells you more about her than anything.
Xenos
@Yutsano: Huffington lost. Arianna has no time for losers, even after marrying them and having children with them and cleaning out their bank accounts.
David
I remember Cokie chuckling throughout her story about how families were giving up a Saturday night treat of going out to eat in order to send $25 to the Obama campaign.
That’s coming from a political pundit.
Comrade Kevin
If any of you all are in the LA area, there’s the Southern California Linux Expo, at the LAX Hilton. I’ll be there, and will have my special Tunch T-shirt on on Saturday, so you’ll recognize my own fatness.
Sly
@Calouste:
And what influence does “actual D.C.” have on actual policy?
Hell, “actual D.C.” exists in perfect accordance with conservative ideology. The mob may have their elections, but at the end of the day its a Congressional committee made up overwhelmingly by people who don’t live in the district who get to decide what happens. All laws passed by the city council must be approved by Congress. They have no voting member of the House or Senate, and are limited by Constitutional amendment to three electoral votes no matter their actual population.
It’s a lobbyists city. The people who live there don’t count, and they know it.
cynickal
@Calouste: They still work. See Britain, Ireland, Israel.
agrippa
@KG:
KG, now what self respecting Republican wants to do something as stupid as governing ?
Ony nerds wants to govern.
Corner Stone
@freelancer:
Neither of these two criteria speak to how you may or may not be a “kid”.
Corner Stone
@asiangrrlMN:
You have “nastier interiors and horrifically jacked-up mark-ups” ?
asiangrrlMN
@Corner Stone: Come, on CS! I threw a softball right out there. You swung and missed!
Corner Stone
@asiangrrlMN: You’re goods are cheap yet over priced? You’re open late? You’ll accept any business at those hours?
I’m just not sure where you’re going here.