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Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

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

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

He really is that stupid.

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

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

In after Baud. Damn.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Evening Open Thread

Wednesday Evening Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  March 16, 20116:10 pm| 72 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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(Ted Rall’s website)
__
For those with something to discuss other than a chorus of “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You… “

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72Comments

  1. 1.

    joe from Lowell

    March 16, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    So here’s my idea for pushing back against the anti-union pushback:

    Make up signs bearing some of the more common anti-union slurs, and give them to people whose physical appearance makes the claim look ridiculous.

    For instance, make up a sign that says “Union Thug” in pink and purple paint, decorated with Barbie stickers, hearts and flowers – and give it to a cute, little 24-year-old assistant librarian/AFSCME member. Make sure she’s in full view of the cameras as the march passes them.

    Make up another one with a stars and stripes theme that reads “Lazy Union Parasite,” and give it to a firefighter marching in his protective gear.

    Tell me those shots wouldn’t make the evening news.

  2. 2.

    srv

    March 16, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    I wonder if John loathes the troop hating, anti-American Ted Rall as much as he did back in the ole’ days.

  3. 3.

    RalfW

    March 16, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    It is hard to imagine the marketing strategy behind hating on the unionized firefighters and cops. Of course, the Wisconsin Wonderkind thought he could keep the cops & firefighters on his side for a tidy divide and conquer. And he failed.

  4. 4.

    DonkeyKong

    March 16, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    OK middle class, let’s get in a circle, here’s some gun’s and grenades to play with…………….

  5. 5.

    RalfW

    March 16, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    @joe from Lowell: Since you asked for it.

    They wouldn’t make the evening news.

    Maybe if the signs were radioactive and somewhere in Asia. But not here in TeaHadistan, where 100,000 “lefty” protesters are a bore-a-thon, and 7 TeaPartiers are to swoon for.

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 16, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    It’s probably not a good idea to call someone whose job it is to prevent deaths in fire “scum”.

  7. 7.

    Cris

    March 16, 2011 at 6:23 pm

    sigh.

    Added new RNC chairman Reince Priebus in a Tweet: “How can @BarackObama say he is leading when puts his NCAA bracket over the budget & other pressing issues?”

    Did the Democrats say anything that idiotic when GWB filled out his fantasy football or whatever? Maybe they did. Still idiotic.

  8. 8.

    kdaug

    March 16, 2011 at 6:23 pm

    @DonkeyKong: Back to back

  9. 9.

    Mike (Hammer) Kay

    March 16, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    three whole days without a manning thread — what’s this place coming to!

    the leading issue of our millennium is being ignored.

  10. 10.

    srv

    March 16, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    Blasts from the past:

    https://balloon-juice.com/2005/11/28/the-odious-ted-rall/

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 16, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    @RalfW:

    Ronald Reagan was all for unions.

    As long as they were in Poland.

  12. 12.

    BGinCHI

    March 16, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    @joe from Lowell: I was also thinking of a flowchart.

    It starts with “you.” Then the next box is “without people in unions.” Then arrows to the following outcomes:

    –house burns down

    –burglary, no response

    –illiterate

    –no public transportation

    –and so on

    Shit the right takes for granted. I’m so sick of these assholes.

  13. 13.

    Garrigus Carraig

    March 16, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    That comic is creepy. My first thought was, “I bet no small children were in the WTC on the first day of school.” Looks like I was right. The fabrication weakens the impact of the strip for me.

  14. 14.

    Cris

    March 16, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    @srv: I wonder if John loathes the troop hating, anti-American Ted Rall as much as he did back in the ole’ days.

    I’ve always liked Ted Rall, but even I found his unwillingness to back down over the Pat Tillman affair pretty assholish.

  15. 15.

    Dennis SGMM

    March 16, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    @Cris:
    Reince Priebus? Like Karl Rove, he’s probably still trying to get even with every kid who beat the crap out of him when he was in school.

  16. 16.

    Cris

    March 16, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    @Garrigus Carraig: Kind of conflated OKC and WTC there, didn’t he?

  17. 17.

    joe from Lowell

    March 16, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    @Cris:

    Added new RNC chairman Reince Priebus in a Tweet: “How can @BarackObama say he is leading when puts his NCAA bracket over the budget & other pressing issues?”

    If you take the vowels out of Reince Preibus’ name, it spells RNC PR BS.

  18. 18.

    Garrigus Carraig

    March 16, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    @Cris: Bingo, yah. Maybe that was his intention.

  19. 19.

    Vibrant Pantload, fka Studly Pantload

    March 16, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    At last, the Open Thread discriminating commenters demand of a full service blog. Now then, where is Tunch with my slippers and Lily with my “veritable dustbowl of a martini” (to steal a phrase from Hawkeye Pierce)?

  20. 20.

    Svensker

    March 16, 2011 at 6:34 pm

    @Cris:

    Added new RNC chairman Reince Priebus in a Tweet: “How can @BarackObama say he is leading when puts his NCAA bracket over the budget & other pressing issues?”

    Did they mention Obama was black? Cuz you know those blacks like teh basketball and stuff more than doing hard work like good honest white folks.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    March 16, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    @Garrigus Carraig:

    @Cris: Bingo, yah. Maybe that was his intention.

    It’s an editorial cartoon, not a textbook for class.

  22. 22.

    BGinCHI

    March 16, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    @Svensker: Funniest part of this is that the GOP jackasses can’t imagine doing a bracket and being President at the same time.

    Like they’d have to schedule that stuff on separate days.

    Idiots.

  23. 23.

    beltane

    March 16, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    @Cris: I still cannot take anyone with the name Reince Preibus seriously. Sounds like the name of some kind of pubic itch.

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    March 16, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    @srv: Love the defense of Willie Pete in that thread.

  25. 25.

    srv

    March 16, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    Did everyone see this crazy picture?

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    March 16, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    @beltane:

    I still cannot take anyone with the name Reince Preibus seriously.

    No matter what I do, when I read his name I always read it “Prince Reibus”.

  27. 27.

    Nellcote

    March 16, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    When they came for the communists,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a communist.

    When they locked up the social democrats,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a social democrat.

    When they came for the trade unionists,
    I did not speak out;
    I was not a trade unionist.

    When they came for the JewsMuslims,
    I remained silent;
    I wasn’t a JewMuslim.

    When they came for me,
    there was no one left to speak out.

  28. 28.

    JadedOptimist

    March 16, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    @RalfW: Remember, Ronnie was also the only President who was a former Union President – two terms as head of the Screen Actors Guild.

  29. 29.

    Dennis SGMM

    March 16, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    I’d like to ask how in hell we’re going to stop everyone, including the talking heads who should know better, from lumping together Social Security and Medicare as pieces of the deficit problem. It’s as if they’ve become one word, socialsecurityandmedicare, when in fact SS is still paying benefits from its own trust fund and, unlike Medicare, isn’t taking one cent from the General Fund. Call me paranoid but, I feel that the conflation is intentional so that the last vestige of the New Deal gets swept up in the bullshit frenzy to Do Something About the Deficit.

  30. 30.

    Zifnab

    March 16, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    @RalfW:

    Maybe if the signs were radioactive and somewhere in Asia. But not here in TeaHadistan, where 100,000 “lefty” protesters are a bore-a-thon, and 7 TeaPartiers are to swoon for.

    I wonder how ratings are?
    I can’t help but think 100,000 pairs of eyeballs would be worth courting. But what do I know about the wildly successful print and tv media industries.

  31. 31.

    beltane

    March 16, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    @Dennis SGMM: You probably have a point. With names like Reince Preibus, Virgil Peck, Mae Beavers and Dick Wadhams there has to be something going on. Maybe the Republicans’ nominee in 2012 will be none other than the Heywood Jablowme/Mike Hunt ticket.

  32. 32.

    Garrigus Carraig

    March 16, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    @Corner Stone: What

  33. 33.

    J

    March 16, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    @joe from Lowell: /Brilliant! I love it. But let’s face it, unless and until pro-union, pro-collective bargaining demonstrators resort to violence, they will be invisible to our media.

  34. 34.

    Dennis SGMM

    March 16, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    @beltane:
    Not to mention dedicated, under-the-bleachers campaign workers like Seymour Butz.

  35. 35.

    Mike (Hammer) Kay

    March 16, 2011 at 6:49 pm

    @beltane:

    Bill O’Reilly endorses Jack Meoff

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsNqugzaiXA

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 16, 2011 at 6:50 pm

    @joe from Lowell: I’ve seen that kind of thing in Madison. The fact that you have not indicates that it will not make the evening news.

  37. 37.

    joe from Lowell

    March 16, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Funniest part of this is that the GOP jackasses can’t imagine doing a bracket and being President at the same time.

    Obama got big props for his bracket last year. It makes him look like a regular guy, who enjoys regular-guy things, and also reminds people that he’s a tuff guy jock.

    RNC PR BS knows that this is a winner for Obama, and is trying to take some of the luster off.

  38. 38.

    David in NY

    March 16, 2011 at 6:55 pm

    Interesting statement on the nuclear situation, as it applies to the US, from Union of Concerned Scientists:

    http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/nuclear_power_risk/safety/senate-briefing-on-japan-nuclear-crisis.html

  39. 39.

    Mike (Hammer) Kay

    March 16, 2011 at 6:57 pm

    @joe from Lowell: Palin filled out her brackets. Now if she could only wipe the crayon residue off her computer monitor.

  40. 40.

    Shadow's Mom

    March 16, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    One of the morning news programs on MSNBC made a point of showing that while ESPN broadcast Obama’s bracket picks, Obama made a point of calling on people to go to USAID.gov to find ways to help people in Japan.

  41. 41.

    BruinKid

    March 16, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! I just passed my preliminary orals for the Ph.D.!!!!!!!!! :-D

  42. 42.

    lahru

    March 16, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    so, is it the color of his skin?

    I’m just wondering?

    can someone help?

  43. 43.

    gnomedad

    March 16, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    @BruinKid:
    Yay, congrats!

  44. 44.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 16, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    @BruinKid:

    Woot!

    Time to knock back some brewskis prior to your next set of orals to insure that those go slurringly.

    Oh, wait, that’s not right…

  45. 45.

    JPL

    March 16, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    @BruinKid: Wow! Time to celebrate!

  46. 46.

    Southern Beale

    March 16, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    “Die Union Scum” aptly sums up this blog post from rightwing wackadoodle Tennessee state senator Stacy Campfield. Seven pro-teachers union protesters were arrested at the TN state capitol yesterday and .. well, just read Campfield’s post. It’s hilarious. Sounds like a parody … but it’s not!

    Basically he said the pro-union people smelled and needed to bathe … and some other choice things. HILL-fucking-larious ….

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 16, 2011 at 7:07 pm

    @Southern Beale: With the exception of Mr. Keach, I know of few men named Stacy. Southern thing?

  48. 48.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    March 16, 2011 at 7:09 pm

    Stacy is a girl’s name.

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    March 16, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    @joe from Lowell:

    RNC PR BS knows that this is a winner for Obama, and is trying to take some of the luster off.

    It’ll backfire; it’s a boy-who-cried-wolf thing. The next time some reporter asks Obama about the GOP’s next outrage-du-jour, he can just say “those folks criticize me no matter what. Heck, they even attacked me for filling out a March Madness bracket.”.

    dms

  50. 50.

    Citizen_X

    March 16, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    Heard about that Red Dawn remake, where the bad guys are Chinese? Well, now they’ve changed them for the North Koreans. That’s right, North Fucking Korea. Taking over the U.S.A. What, was Albania busy?

  51. 51.

    Calouste

    March 16, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    @dmsilev:

    The next time some reporter asks Obama about the GOP’s next outrage-du-jour

    Yeah, like that’s going to happen.

  52. 52.

    Gravenstone

    March 16, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    @Garrigus Carraig: It’s a take on the very famous pic of the OKC bombing aftermath .

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 16, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    Poe’s law strikes again!

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 16, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    The shocking thing that the villains are not Turkish led Islamic hordes, dressed pretty much as 13th century Mongols.

  55. 55.

    Garrigus Carraig

    March 16, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    @Gravenstone: Ah. No recollection of that pic. Thanks.

  56. 56.

    Amy

    March 16, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    Reince Priebus probably thought that taking on collective bargaining in Wisconsin, his home state, would be good for Republicans.

    Meanwhile, all the union-bashing in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana will pretty much ensure an Obama win in 2012 and create massive Democratic turnout.

    In other words, his political smarts are basically absent.

  57. 57.

    ppcli

    March 16, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    @Cris:

    Added new RNC chairman Reince Priebus in a Tweet: “How can @BarackObama say he is leading when puts his NCAA bracket over the budget & other pressing issues?”

    Unlike the Republicans, who have important abortion-banning, gay marriage restricting, health-care-bill rejecting, EPA-finding-“repealing”, and other crucial job-creating work to do. (Though if Obama had been a Republican, he would have just called it his “job-creating NCAA bracket” and Fox would have supported him on it.)

  58. 58.

    Joe Beese

    March 16, 2011 at 7:22 pm

    “The issue isn’t that these criminal and murderous acts are being carried out in his name, but rather that they are being carried out by his orders. The problem isn’t that he hovers symbolically, a great grinning blue suit, uttering promises about freedom, over the wholesale killing of civilians without cause or even decent pretext, but that he is the commissioner of the crimes. The question isn’t whether or not the drone killings are crimes, but whether or not the President is a war criminal.”

    http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2010/08/suborn.html
    http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2010/08/suborn.html

  59. 59.

    beltane

    March 16, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    @Citizen_X: I guess it wouldn’t be as exciting to make a movie where the US is taken over by a bunch of smarmy corporate executives in suits who take everyone’s money and shut down all the schools and deny people health care unless they meet their price. No, let’s build up some hysteria over North Fucking Korea.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    March 16, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    @Calouste: Sure it will. The question will be framed using the same words as the RNC press release or Sarah Palin Facebook post or whatever, but that sort of “fight! fight! fight!” thing is catnip to modern political reporters.

    dms

  61. 61.

    JCT

    March 16, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Reince Priebus? Like Karl Rove, he’s probably still trying to get even with every kid who beat the crap out of him when he was in school.

    All the way through college no doubt.

    The joke is that for all of their “elitist” nonsense, Obama is far closer to a regular guy than they could EVER hope to be.

  62. 62.

    Mike in NC

    March 16, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    @ppcli:

    Added new RNC chairman Reince Priebus in a Tweet: “How can @BarackObama say he is leading when puts his NCAA bracket over the budget & other pressing issues?”

    How soon before the GOP starts waxing nostalgic about the keen management skills and eloquence of Michael Steele?

  63. 63.

    Southern Beale

    March 16, 2011 at 8:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Dunno about the “Stacy” thing …

  64. 64.

    MikeJ

    March 16, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    @Mike in NC: They complained about it last year too and I don’t think anybody cared then either.

  65. 65.

    cs

    March 16, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    @Garrigus Carraig:

    Rall is merging two iconic images of firefighters, both involving acts of terror. There’s the obvious reference of the rubble in Manhattan. There’s also the reference to the picture of the firefighter carrying the baby out of the rubble in Oklahoma City, 1995.

    The baby in the arms of Rall’s firefighter is in exactly the same position as the one in the famous OKC photograph.

  66. 66.

    Superluminar

    March 16, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    @ Joe Beese
    I’m not reading your post, but would it be a fair summary to say it blames Obama for the sun rising in the East?

  67. 67.

    Morbo

    March 16, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    It’s just German for The Union Scum.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 16, 2011 at 9:57 pm

    @Superluminar: … and at different time the past few days.

  69. 69.

    KS in MA

    March 16, 2011 at 10:14 pm

    @joe from Lowell: That’s brilliant, I love it!

  70. 70.

    Paul in KY

    March 17, 2011 at 8:02 am

    @Garrigus Carraig: I think it’s the rubble of the Murrah bldg in OK City.

  71. 71.

    Paul in KY

    March 17, 2011 at 8:07 am

    @beltane: How about one of the Bush cousins? I hear ole Adolph Oliver is available.

Comments are closed.

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  1. So I Went to a Rally | calle viena says:
    March 16, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    […] right off and so there are two pictures of it.  The teabaggers in this picture behaved much like this cartoon depicts.  They mocked children and accused everyone there of not having a job — despite the fact […]

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