Thanks again to Balloon Juicers for sending me to Netroots. Minneapolis is a lovely city, and the convention itself was worthwhile and interesting.
I went to the Democratic Convention in Denver in 2008 as a delegate, and I was shocked at how different my impressions were from those of my husband, who went with me, but wasn’t “on the floor”. He was watching media coverage of the convention, in between biking around Denver and carousing with Ohio political types.
I would return from the day’s events and he would tell me all sorts of things: how the Party was divided, in disarray, how hundreds of Hillary delegates were planning a coup, how it was really a close question whether or not Obama would be nominated.
None of that was even remotely true, from where I was sitting. There was one extremely upset Clinton delegate in the Ohio delegation, and we would have to push past the media lining up to interview her when leaving a conference room or event. It became a standing joke: no one wanted to interview the happy delegates, or even the mildly annoyed, completely confused, or bored and ambivalent delegates.
It isn’t news to anyone here that conflict is covered, while the ordinary hard work of disagreement or dissent is not covered, but since I was at Netroots I wanted to talk about the presentations and forums I attended. They were balanced and informative. I imagine the organizers put an enormous amount of work into this, it showed, and they should get credit for that. If you have somehow gotten the impression that the whole thing was a raucous battle between two warring factions, that isn’t true. There are divisions. There are big disagreements. I don’t want to downplay what’s obvious. However, I can tick off the following examples of some really substantive and informative presentations that were in no way one-sided “Obama bashing”.
The health care panel included frequent critic of this administration, Wendell Potter. However, a representative from Obama’s HHS was also there, and the Daily Kos blogger who led the discussion presented facts, not opinion. The panel on manufacturing had an administration critic, Representative McGovern, but it also had an unapologetic administration backer, Jared Bernstein, who used to be Joe Biden‘s chief economist. The panel on young AA voters was composed of African American activists and an African American House member. It was not focused on “Obama voters” exclusively, but was instead focused on getting young or first-voters out again, which is a perennial problem for Democrats and is not unique to Obama or African Americans. Those are just some of the panels I attended. There were many more I didn’t get to.
So, thanks again for sending me. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. I have more to write, but I first have to catch up on my “real job”.
One more thing. I mentioned that the theme of the three days was “where is John Cole? Is he here?” That continued right up until the last party. I was clowning around, looking to take pictures of what I was calling “celebrities”, and I saw Markos go by on his way to the club stage. I followed him, tapped him on the shoulder (and, now that I knew the magic words) blurted out “John Cole wants a picture for the site”. That isn’t true, no one at BJ HQ told me to do or not do anything, but by then I knew the name I need to use, right? Anyway, he agreed to the picture, but first he said “where is he? Is he here?”
arguingwithsignposts
Great reporting, kay, and glad there was a BJ meetup. Hopefully you’ll have some more photos to share, maybe in an album on flickr or something.
Citizen_X
Today, we are all John Cole.
Derf
John Galt Cole is too busy living in cyberworld. Reading Greenwald, looking for bad war news so he can say “see, war is bad which is why all wars need to end now”.
Seeing what his latest favorite Libertarian candidate is up to. Praising Boehner for holding Obama’s feet to the fire in Libya.
So he’s a busy guy living in the internet reading and opinionating. Too busy to actually get out and see what is REALLY going on in the world. Just like his hero Greenwald who sits in Switzerland sniping from the bushes. They are stuck in the echo chamber…permanently.
Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory
Who is John Cole?
OzoneR
Oh DailyKos
Clearly the NN poll showing 80% support for Obama didn’t go over well with the needy and the crazy.
All that’s left to do is boil Malia’s pet bunny.
Evilbeard
I am guessing a movie will be in the works, “Where is John Cole?” with a sequel already being written, “John and Juan Cole versus The Forces of Darkness.”
maye
can’t wait for the John Cole railroad line.
Kristine
There is no Cole, only Tunch.
Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory
Derf: Not to rain on your parade, but are you really suggesting that war is a favorable state of affairs?
Poopyman
Kay, that is the most dead-on analogy I could possibly imagine to what I saw and heard at NN11.
Most of the forums were quiet — almost too quiet[1], and were fact-based.
I concentrated on the science-based panels, the cyberwar panel[2], and messaging and countering the other side’s arguments panels. How diverse and informative the sessions were can be seen in the agenda, which is still up at the Netroots Nation website.
Mrs P and I enjoyed meeting other BJers, but wished more of you folks could have been there. Kay’s -BJ- Balloon Juice cachet came as a surprise to me, and maybe next year I need to find a way to cash in on that myself, like having “BJ Pseudonymous Commenter” on my nametag or something.
Y’all better come to Providence next June, and send at least TWO frontpagers.
[1] During one after–lunch presentation I had to continually fend off the guy sitting next to me as he nodded off and his head slumped onto my shoulder. I wasn’t really that into him.
[2] A topic I’m pretty familiar with, and the session was aimed at the general public, for obvious reasons.
Pococurante
WOLVERINES!
Ayn Randy
WHO IS JOHN COLE?
Culture of Truth
The Dread Pirate John Cole
dpcap
I’m still fairly new to this site. Can people fill me in on what’s up with all this John Cole hate?
(If you hate him so much why do you keep coming here? Plenty of “more” liberal blogs over there—>)
OzoneR
IMO, they’re necessary state of affairs in nature, just like fires and illness. You do what you can do starve them off or make them hurt as little as possible.
stuckinred
dpcap
are you familiar with the concept of “snark”?
Violet
John Cole is Keyser Soze.
Trinity
Thanks for the report Kay! Glad we had you there to represent.
Mike E
Derf’s midget golf video is to laff!
Poopyman
I also wanted to mention how great Minneapolis is. I could totally enjoy living there — at least in the couple of summer months they have. I’m pretty sure there’s a reason they have an extensive network of enclosed walkways running through the city.
But the architecture, cityscape, and people were totally great. And no complaints about the restaurants and night spots, either!
General Stuck
It is good to hear there are some heads screwed on straight in the NR’s asylum. I wish they would gong the morons that make it onto teevee and Politico. I might let up on the beatings some.
And you are a treasure Kay. :)
maye
dpcap:
How can one hate a myth? a gossamer, amorphous chimera?
Poopyman
@ OzoneR
That is totally sick. Broiling is the only way to serve bunny.
Bob
i am spartacus
(rabbit should be soaked in buttermilk and fried)
amk
Nice report, kay. Despite the huffing puffing po’s wet dreams of base deserts Obama, choi’s look-at-me, look-at-me antics, look the left is in disarray meme by the media hacks, it looks like NN did have its usefulness. Cheers to the doers and jeers to the attention whores.
TheMightyTrowel
Bunny is also delicious simmered in stew with a dash of ale, a lot of carrots and some fluffy dumplings. YUM.
Poopyman
@ idiot Poopyman:
Well, the link no worky. That sucks. Try here.
General Stuck
More nutrients if you just bite the head off and drink the bunny blood straight out of the bottle. Save the rest for the dog that needs to eat too.
CT Voter
Thanks for the reality-based update.
Has anyone heard from Cole, anyway? I’m wondering if he got smothered under all that home-made pasta….
Chris
Is Derf the latest product of M_C’s Lazarus Pit?
The anti-libertarian obsession coupled with criticism of his pro-Libya stance would seem to suggest it might be.
Comrade Javamanphil
John Cole is Vera Peterson.
General Stuck
John Cole is the agony of victory, and joy of defeat
Yutsano
Hasenpfeffer. Jeez, you barbarians.
arguingwithsignposts
kay, did you bring back a “reply” button while you were out, by chance?
Culture of Truth
He’s very stingy with animal pictures.
Comrade Luke
Shockingly, in a “5-4 vote along ideological lines”, the “Supreme” Court rules in favor of Wal-Mart.
Until things change I think the quotes around “Supreme” are justified. What a bunch of hacks.
General Stuck
There is a thin pasta between love and hate.
arguingwithsignposts
@Comrade Luke:
But, hey, things will be better under President Romney, amirite?!? (/snark)
auntie beak
so where is the picture of markos (aka, satan)?
Yutsano
If FDL says it, it must be true. Part of ideological purity is absolute certitude in your correctness. Idiots.
Josie
@dpcap: The “hate” is a large helping of snark with just a dash of trollery.
Comrade Mary
We haven’t heard from John since the pasta party. I hoe there wasn’t some terrible pasta machine related accident. Don’t make me link to some OSHA death cartoons, folks.
OzoneR
Clearly, since 2 of the 4 against are Sotomayor and Kagen, adn 2 of the 5 for are Roberts and Alito, Obama is no different than Bush.
artem1s
‘taters plz, Boil’em, Mash’em, Stick’em in a stew!
AliceBlue
@Comrade Mary:
John was armed with a paste machine AND a machete. I don’t see how that could’ve ended well.
Warren Terra
Oh, sure, “Kay”. Keep up the act. We can all see through it: You are John Cole. That whole bit about being a bachelor in West Virginia is a smokescreen: he’s a married lady from Ohio, and it’s “Gay Girl In Damascus” all over again. This is how you could suddenly divine Cole’s wishes, no consultation necessary. The signs were all there for all to see. I’ll bet even the pets and the pasta aren’t real – though the idea that someone would make Tunch up is a bit scary.
PS Thanks for the reports, glad you had a good and informative time.
goblue72
There’s only one way to eat a brace of coneys.
Poopyman
Oi. Jane now has her report up,(warning: FDL link) and all I can say to this line:
… is but one word. Bullshit.
By the way, if anyone has heard or seen any evidence of Jane Hamsher’s presence at Netroots Nation other than this one session, please do inform me.
AliceBlue
Sorry–that’s “pasta” machine.
Yutsano
Sashimi?
Roger Moore
@AliceBlue:
And there was alcohol around. Not a good combination.
burnspbesq
Dude, part of the holding was unanimous. But don’t let that get in the way of your rant.
As much as I don’t like the outcome, I think the decision is correct on the law. The evidence shows that individual store managers have a lot of discretion, and in the absence of any evidence that they were on a short leash held by Bentonville that significantly constrained how they exercised that discretion, it’s awfully tough to show commonality under current law.
I’m sure someone will say that Wal-Mart designed its policies specifically so as to minimize the possibility that a class could ever be certified, and that may be so, but it doesn’t change the way the law as it currently stands applies to the facts of this case.
Don’t like the outcome? Start lobbying.
kindness
Thanks Kay. You’re our trooper.
At first I was going to give Derf the benefit of the doubt with the snark/sarcasm, but then he kept going. Pretty much sealed the deal wrt trollhooddom. Not worthy of being awarded the coveted Knight of Trolldom, but mighty fine effort none the less.
Bob
John Cole is just another person serving the needs of the Fat Cats.
I wonder if Tunch would like some fresh made lasagna.
Poopyman
@ Bob:
I rather think he had his eye on Malia’s bunny.
L. Ron Obama
And then John was Cole.
Mondays only...
I mentioned that the theme of the three days was “where is John Cole? Is he here?”
Did you look in the pool hall? Or the drug store?
Hmm…could it be?
(…just a musical mental health break…)
burnspbesq
If you’re going to be unhappy about the effects of Supreme Court decisions that were correctly decided on the law as it currently stands, don’t forget about American Electric Power v. Connecticut, which was also issued today.
A unanimous court, in an opinion by Justice Ginsburg, held that states and interest groups can’t sue power companies to try to force them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA’s rule-making power displaces the so-called “federal common law of nuisance” that plaintiffs relied on.
OK, EPA, time to step up.
Paul in KY
[email protected]: Gollum would think so. Got pretty pissed about it too.
Yutsano
Also correct me if I’m wrong, but this doesn’t preclude the individuals filing cases on their own correct? I imagine they’ll have to start from scratch and the proof will be more difficult, but it’s not the total end of the road.
burnspbesq
@ Yutsano:
Correct. However (and I’m sure Kay will weigh in if she disagrees), the relatively small amount at issue in each individual case, and the formidable challenges of litigating against a defandant with the resources of Wal-Mart, make it unlikely that a large number of claims will be pursued.
Derf
kindness, you are too kind.
Using those amazing reasoning abilities think about what my (new) handle spells backwards.
Seems John Galt Cole does not like dissenting opinion so he has tried to filter my IP and handle.
To anyone willing to listen, John Galt Cole is EXACTLY the sort of person many of you openly despise. Only difference is that he is enough of a snake in the grass to pull the wool over your eyes. I don’t think he is smart enough to do it deliberately though. He just sort of mixes it in with genuine progressive ideas…..all be it somewhat naive ones at times.
The one that particularly irks me is his “all war is all bad always and there should never be war ever” meme. That is just naive. A REAL practical liberal is smart enough to know that sometimes, war is necessary. It should always be the last resort. Big difference from naive opinion that all war is bad so let’s not even dangle it as a deterrent.
C.J.
Then who was phone?
Davis X. Machina
Not quite. Kay is Archie to John’s Nero.
TooManyJens
Derf:
HTH.
Davis X. Machina:
Perfect.
burnspbesq
@ Derf:
We knew it was you. The stupidity gave you away.
Yutsano
No matter how much you secretly desire it, John Cole is not going to fuck you. So get over it. Cross. Wood. Need. You. Off. Now.
Aye, there’s the rub. The destruction of the class action lawsuit will be the Roberts court’s true legacy.
beergoggles
John Cole is a lesbian blogger. har har at all u girls who cybered him thinking he was a straight male.
david mizner
Apparently according to the Times, a ex-CIA official says the Bush administration asked the CIA to dig up info on John Cole.
burnspbesq
Has anyone ever seen “Derf” and Mark Steyn in the same place at the same time? If not, how do we know that they aren’t one and the same person. After all, both are Canadian, and both are idiots.
OzoneR
Legally, this is a no brainer.
geg6
Glad you found NN worthwhile and fun, kay. I have to say that your experience was similar to mine in 2009. And the FDLers were assholes then, too.
Derf
burnspbesq,
“We”?
So spelling my former handle backwards and then when nobody said anything finally pointing it out so that you can spew forth “WE..always knew it” wasn’t clever enough to hide from you?
Gosh….your a smart feller!
Yutsano,
Projection is the sincerest form of flattery imho. Always happy to be projected upon by all my fans. Gay or straight.
Cris (without an H)
@Violet: gaaah spoilers!
Violet
Pasta and a machete. Dangerous combination. I fear for Cole. Okay, no, it’s his fault. I fear for Lily and Rosie. Tunch can take care of himself.
burnspbesq
@OzoneR:
You may think so, and I may think so, but a panel of the Second Circuit saw it differently. No-brainers generally don’t make it all the way to the Supreme Court.
bryanD
“By the way, if anyone has heard or seen any evidence of Jane Hamsher’s presence at Netroots Nation other than this one session, please do inform me.”
arguingwithsignposts
@burnspbesq:
Meh, I didn’t care. His shit was stale when he started in the first time.
Yutsano
One probably slips by every now and again. And I can see granting cert just to tell the lower court they’re being a bunch of idiots and to knock it off.
Me personally I find it hilarious. Let’s see how bad we can beat up JC on teh Interwebs!
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerely rarely seen poster Fe E)
Wait, I’ve been on vacation for a week or so (which is where I picked up the spiffy new handle) did Ghanima Atreides/Matoko Chan morph into “Derf?”
No matter how much you secretly desire it, John Cole is not going to fuck you. So get over it
That’s intersting in light of the fact that the banning of M_C resulted in a offer for some “exhale employment” heading Mr Cole’s way by a grateful commenter. The interent certainnly is an interesting place!
ETA Gack formerely = “formerly!” Fortunately I don’t think I’ll keep the parenthetical statement around all that long.
Citizen_X
@burnspbesq & OzoneR: Doesn’t that also mean the Supremes just validated the regulatory mandate of the spawn-of-Stalin EPA?
(I ask because there seems to be a Republican full-court-press against the EPA lately.)
asiangrrlMN
Glad you enjoyed my hometown, Kay. I’m also glad NN wasn’t all the shit and moaning that I read about on the ‘nets.
Origuy
Everyone knows the best way to cook rabbit is Hassenpfeffer!
Linda Featheringill
dcap #13:
They are kidding, dear. Sort of a male bonding thing.
And he can hand it out, too.
Poopyman
Also too, in some attempt to pull this back on-topic:
I’m sure I saw John Fund at NN this year. Specifically, he stood up and left about a third of the way through the Chamber of Commerce session on Saturday afternoon. Had his nametag covered, but the guy absolutely looked like Fund. Expect to see something from him referencing NN in the near future.
OzoneR
Yes it does.
ETA: On second though, perhaps to the liberals, the right wing justices probably thing no one should regulate the private sector’s damage to the environment, not state, no interest groups, not the EPA.
eemom
IMO, the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the WalMart case did their clients — and all class action plaintiffs — a disservice by defining the class so broadly as to doom it to failure.
Yes, the class action is an excellent procedural mechanism for bringing justice to the many. But there are limits on it, and not all of them are evil. Some actually do exist to protect the due process rights of absent class members.
Linda Featheringill
Bob #53
Yes! Although I guess I also fit into that group.
[Except for skinny, old Mojii, who has his stitches out and is regrowing fur along the nether parts. And is still quacking at me.]
Warren Terra
@ David Mizner
No, that’s according to the Grauniad version of the story.
Linda Featheringill
RE: #68
I don’t know. Would John be flattered or insulted?
Linda Featheringill
Mizner #69
I think that was Juan Cole. Professor and blogger and Bush critic.
ruemara
Linda
I think John would be hopeful. But that’s IMHO.
Davis X. Machina
Juan Cole’s pretty much the same as another….
burnspbesq
@ Citizen X:
Yup. This is pretty much the same Court that told the EPA two years ago that it was taking too narrow a view of its jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and that it should get off its ass and write some rules. Those rules are supposed to come out no later than Q2 of next year.
PeakVT
Great report, Kay. Next year we’ll try to get you into the Bilderberg conference.
jl
The legend of John Cole inspired a nation to keep fussy neat, yet somehow totally disorganized houses, run by their pets. And dive into disastrous and potentially deadly home cooking and gardening experiments, that somehow ended up pretty OK, if downed it with enough booze.
The myth of John Cole lead to national renewal based on indescribably obsessive and hopeless attempts ‘to keep a nice place’, and constant worrywort whining, which regularly hit deep veins of sheer panic and hopelessness.
Yet it saved a nation.
Indeed, who is John Cole? Who is Johnny Appleseed? Who is Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Stagger Lee, or Waldo?
Or Little Miss Muffet (Jane Coale?)
To ask is to miss the point.
Dill
The Liberal Hamsher in a comment on her NN post had this to
say:
“We’re going to start an “identity hardening” page, for when community members suspect that someone is an anonymous plant. Right now they have their permissions suspended until they provide proof of who they are, but I think we should be collecting them all on one page.”
She seems to be a hybrid of Joe and Charlie McCarthy
david mizner
@91
Yeah, Linda, I was just kidding around. John was a big supporter of the Iraq war. The good news is, he’s now gotten to Juan Cole’s left in terms of opposing stupid and unjust wars, which is one of the reasons I stop by.
Southern Beale
Let’s clarify this, shall we? Conflict that makes Democrats look bad is covered. Because I don’t see a helluva lot of stories about the massive Wisconsin rallies — which are still going on, I might add — in the news. I didn’t see much about anti war protests or the town hall meetings attacking Republicans for trying to kill Medicare covered. But Republicans suddenly have a problem with our military involvement in Libya and it’s all the MSM can talk about. A few senior citizens mobilize their Hoverounds to support the plutocracy and don tricron hats and wave misspelled signs and it’s a “movement.”
I mean let’s just be perfectly clear here.
jl
My comment was intended to thank Kay for the reports.
I look forward to follow-ups on whatever Kay didn’t have time to write while she was partying down with the blogger beautiful people, er, I mean working like a slave day and night at this very serious meeting.
CT Voter
OWWWW.
Derf
John Galt Cole seems to be some sort of Mutant combination of Progressive and Libertarian. Resulting in some truly fucked up opinions seeing as how the two are mutually incompatible in fundamental ways.
For instance. John Galt Cole hates all war always under any circumstances no matter what. That is both a naive progressive ideology and a fundamental Libertarian stance.
So John Galt Cole doesn’t seem to have a problem embracing both. Problem is, Libertarians are insanely naive. They are really all about self fullfilling prophecy. They don’t want war ever. But they don’t even want a military. I believe they secretly want some sort of Apocalypse which is what a lack of military would eventually bring.
Thereby creating exactly the sort of world they want. Where we go back to the stone age, living in small villages in mud huts with no taxes and no laws. Not caring about anything beyond our local hunting grounds. Of course after an Apocalypse all we would be hunting would be rats and cock roaches but insanely naive libertarians are not concerned with such minor details. So John Galt Cole is not concerned with them as well. We rejected war and a military and that’s all he cares about. What with his inability to see the forest from the trees.
Never mind that Libertarians also want to abolish child labour laws, civil rights laws, unions, socal safety nets. None of that matters because they don’t want war so we will just ignore the other inconvenient ideas.
Southern Beale
And by the way, did the media cover NN11? I remember the media descending on Nashville for the very first Tea Party convention — one reporter for every three convention attendee. Don’t suppose we saw that many reporters at NN11 did we?
I mean, I’ve been forced offline for a week so I just read the dead tree edition of the Sunday New York Times but I didn’t see any mention of Netroots Nation.
Roger Moore
@jl:
FTFY. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
gnomedad
Derf seems to have drunk-dialed this blog.
geg6
Damn, my edited comment was flagged as spam. And I have no idea why.
Anyway, here’s the jist of it:
That just caused me to spew Pepsi all over my keyboard. Fucking hilarious.
gnomedad
@arguingwithsignposts:
Next meetup, everyone should wear a “Reply” button.
Tony J
Southern Beale:
There was some interest, but once they realised no one was planning to get hopped-up on peyote and dance around burning effigies of Obamao the Deciever they all kind of drifted away.
jl
I agree with the anti-libertarians assessments of libertarianism. It is goofy, incoherent, naive, and I think some of its current media platforms are intellectually corrupt. I have nothing good to say about it, unless you reduce it to the truism that human liberty is a good thing (though not the only good thing, which is where libertarians go off the rails).
I agree that the persona and opinions of the mythical John Cole, who is perhaps nothing more than a sockpuppet invented by DougJ to get a few laughs, for some prank by Ben Stein, is deeply confused and conflicted. As are we all.
I don’t get this business that the entity named Cole is some kind of stalking horse promoting libertarianism.
Chyron HR
He’s Magneto?
burnspbesq
Red-hot conservative-on-idiot action! NSFW! Click if you dare!
http://www.capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/2276/no-gov-pawlenty-tax-cuts-dont-pay-themselves
Actually it’s just Bruce Bartlett blowing his nose into Pawlenty’s tissue of lies.
burnspbesq
Close. He’s Magenta.
TooManyJens
@jl:
That’s because you’re lacking the requisite head injury to follow along with derf.
schrodinger's cat
Does John Cole really exist. We have seen Tunch, for all we know Cole is a figment of Tunch’s imagination, which like his girth is enormous.
Southern Beale
See, I knew y’all should’ve worn the knee britches and Tricorn hats. Gets ’em every time!
Southern Beale
Unrelated but just read that “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn was killed in a car accident outside of Philly.
Amazing, all those bizarre stunts and he’s killed in a car wreck. Sad.
eemom
I usually have a modicum of respect for C-Span, but it disgusted me that they had zero coverage of NN — whereas EVERY fucking gathering of right wing lunatics is broadcast in excruciating real time.
schrodinger's cat
Does John Cole really exist. We have seen Tunch, for all we know Cole is a figment of Tunch’s imagination, which like his girth is enormous.
gnomedad
Like St. Elsewhere, this blog will end with Tunch waking up.
opal
Not me. I’ll be rolling homemade pasta in Vault 101.
Derf
jl,
I didn’t say that either. I think Cole has perhaps flirted with the idea but is smart enough to know he is not smart enough to pull off some sort of subersive liberatrian masquerading as a progressive concern troll.
Fact is he doesn’t take himself too seriously which is a good thing.
I believe he is a progressive with libertarian mutations rather than the other way around.
Yes, I did see the latest X-Men and there is perhaps some influence there.
Seems the reply button disappeared about the same time Cole started trying to filter out my comments. So I am quite proud of that achievement. If your comments suddenly start getting marked as spam you can probably thank me for that as well. I don’t think anyone will ever be able to use the backwards spelling of derf again without it being marked as spam….lol….(as I wipe tear of joy from my eye)
Southern Beale
Oh, but … ACORN!
Southern Beale
Oh, but … ACORN!
Tony J
Given the Gatsbyesqe atmosphere Kay describes where everyone was looking over their shoulder and whispering “Is Cole here? have you seen him?” they might have had more luck if they’d all worn torn shower-curtains and carried bloodstained mops.
Southern Beale
Sorry for the double post. I do not know how that happened. I’ll go away now.
Warren Terra
@ eemom
C-SPAN has been fairly bad for years. My favorite example is that they retired “Booknotes”, because the head of C-SPAN was tired of reading the books, which is fine, but then brought it back, as “Q&A”, only without the reading, and generally with a center-to-right spectrum. The “Afterwords” program is even worse: nutball authors of rightwing screeds are interviewed by slightly less crazy members of the Wingnut Welfare establishment.
Ash Can
@Southern Beale: That news bears repeating. AFAIC, double-post away.
Tony J
But, but, but..
Politics ain’t beanbag.
Democrats are worse!
Media Bias!
Politicising politics!
Activist Judges in a kangaroo court.
A few bad apples.
Liberal plants doing what they’re paid to do.
What’s wrong with minority outreach, racist?
If even the Liberal MSM aren’t interested…
This never happened.
Something like that.
kay
Well, let’s not get carried away. His readers were asking, and the “celebrity” I was fake-stalking.
arguingwithsignposts
Hey, you were fake-stalking EDK?
kdaug
I saw what you did there. I’ll bring the rail gun.
Nellcote
It’s somehow reassuring to see that I’m not the only one seeing a rightward drift with CSPAN. It’s just so sad that they feel the need to promote every nutcase “author” that Regenery/NewsMax pumps out. Check out how many Corsi videos they have for cripes sakes.
Tony J
.
No, let’s get carried away. Tell us about the after-parties where people would sit in a circle and chant “Tunch needs feeding. Tunch needs feeeeding!” then all scream when the lights flickered and the silhouette of a large, hairless figure waving a set of secateurs was seen pressed against the window.
Is it true Jane Hamsher wouldn’t sleep in the same bed two nights running because she always woke up with the other pillow smelling of pasta? That’s what I heard.
Things like that.
Monala
Kay, would you do some write-ups of what you learned at these sessions? Or if you’ve already done so, would you share the links? Thanks.
d. john
“There’s only one way to eat a brace of coneys.”
“All that’s left to do is boil Malia’s pet bunny.”
“John was armed with a paste machine AND a machete.”
“Today, we are all John Cole.”
Each of these an excellent tagline and/or bumper sticker in and of itself…
lulz at teh whole thread.
(except for derf/GH, whatever – ur unfunny, nobody cares and we’d all ban you as well) – just sayin’