Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The willow is too close to the house.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Come on, man.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

This blog will pay for itself.

No one could have predicted…

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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Reader Interactions

96Comments

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    Isn’t it time for another left wing blogospheric freak out?

    Don’t look two threads down. It’s already happening.

  6. 6.

    El Cid

    Max Baucus did what he could to help entertain us with Stalin Summer while the health care bill remained imprisoned in his committee so he could come up with his awesome Democratic-Republican bipartisan support.

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    It’s really too hot to think and we all just want a beer job.

    Edited to account for reality.

  11. 11.

    PeakVT

    Why does politics always suck so much in the summer?

    A lot of people tune out (even more), so our so-called liberal media cranks up the crazy even more in order to get people to pay attention.

  12. 12.

    El Cid

    If only everyone realized their main responsibility was to shut up and organize local Democratic voting, none of this would ever happen.

  13. 13.

    Nemesis

    Just wondering…

    Why is there an ad with a woman felating a sizeable vegetable on the left side of my screen here at BJ?

    Oh, I get it. Clicking the ad is part of BJ initiation.

    Here I go…

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    Here I go…

    You didn’t click the ad, did you?

    You clicked the ad.

    Sigh.

    Another good one gets lost in the PETA rabbit hole.

  19. 19.

    kdaug

    Might just be me, but out of the corner of my eye I seem to have seen a Reply button… Probably just wish-fulfillment…

  20. 20.

    TheOtherWA

    It’s as if everyone’s brains go on vacation for the summer, both politicians and media. And you know, voters, too.

    Most summers are merely annoying in the political world, but this one has very important issues we all need to pay attention too. Unemployment and the debt limit/hostage crisis for starters. This isn’t a normal summer and I don’t like it.

  26. 26.

    Facebones

    No football to distract us. So, get ready for more of the same come autumn.

  27. 27.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Isn’t it ‘why DO politics suck. . . “?

    I don’t think so; “politics” is this sort of mass entity, like water or sand, rather than something you can count. Otherwise we’d be discussing whether this or that politic sucks in particular.

  33. 33.

    Brian R.

    Simple. During the rest of the year, the pinheads who make their living as reporters and pundits are distracted by their favorite shows on TV — Jersey Shore, Two and a Half Men, really smart stuff like that.

    When the networks go to reruns in the summer, though, they don’t have those shiny objects to distract them so they have to gin up fake drama in politics.

  37. 37.

    Lolis

    Remember when Senate Dems were making noises about putting stimulus into the debt ceiling negotiations? Whatever happened with that? Spend now, cut later.

  38. 38.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    I suffer from depression, and yeah, the constant left wing
    freaking out over everything really gets me depressed. I know how serious the debt limit is, how unemployment and the economy will impact the 2012 election, etc. Its just that lately there’s been a lot of unnecessary freaking out and despair. Seriously, its waaaay too early to start freaking out about stuff.

  39. 39.

    Suffern ACE

    My hypothesis is that the democratic establishment and limoseean librals who are supposed to push back actually take off on the weekends to their summer houses, whereas the professional minions on the right hate their families and actually work through the summer months and holidays.

    I have more thoughts on this, but gotta go. I’ve been invited to my friend’s house in P-town and want to beat the traffic. Can’t be too worried about that mosque they’re building downtown or the dumb death panel tweet from Sara.

  40. 40.

    Yutsano

    what up Y?

    I just broke one of my cardinal rules of Balloon Juice blogging. I touched a toxic thread. I may be a hopeless case, but learn from my mistakes and save yourselves.

  42. 42.

    IrishGirl

    I remember as a kid how much I loved Summer and now as an adult I hate it. My daughter is out of school and bitches about the summer camps she’s enrolled in. Its way, way too damn hot to do anything outside, including swimming! After my family vacation I always need a personal vacation. AND politics suck.

  43. 43.

    El Cid

    FWIW, (even though I as extreme leftist as imaginable — in ideology) I have to remind people that the left has always been on a constant freakout. Well, at least since no more disciplined Communist-like and union-based leftism existed.

    The difference is now you can hear it and see it on blogs, instead of having to subscribe to certain magazines and newsletters and be in certain groups and hang out at left-wing bookstores or have a local radical radio station and/or show.

  44. 44.

    Mike Goetz

    Do yourselves a favor and go read Michael Tomasky’s piece in The Daily Beast.

    He thinks Obama should not have become President and that his true calling is…college basketball coach!

    Does Tomasky quote New Liberal Hero David Frum in his piece? Why, yes he does. Is it possible that I hate liberal commentators more than I hate Louie Gohmert himself? Why, yes it is.

  46. 46.

    Woodrowfan

    I’ve lived in DC for a couple decades now and I understand. Maybe we should send Congress and the executive branches north from June-September. Summer in DC sucks and makes everybody cranky.

  47. 47.

    Yutsano

    And never fear JC: soon you’ll be bitching about winter and snow soon enough.

  53. 53.

    cleek

    @El Cid:

    The difference is now you can hear it and see it on blogs….

    … and if you spend all your days on political blogs, all you hear is partisan dingbats spouting partisan bullshit at each other.

    in other words: selection bias.

  54. 54.

    Yutsano

    I’m not a summer type person anyway, so wake me when the white stuff starts falling from the sky please.

    @ stuck: please save me from myself. The emo may be overwhelming me.

  55. 55.

    Dean

    Maybe global warming has an inverse effect on republicans. The higher the temperature, the dumber they get. Maybe that’s why they don’t want to believe that it’s happening.

  56. 56.

    MGLoraine

    “…it just seems like every summer politics takes a turn for the worse.”

    It seems to me like every DAY politics takes a turn for the worse. No Hope in sight.

  57. 57.

    Legalize

    I think it’s because Americans pay less attention in the summer months. So, GOP lies and misinformation can sprout from little seedlings without anyone really noticing. By Labor Day, those sprouts have turned into noxious weeds, and Americans only then get around to noticing.

  60. 60.

    mk3872

    This is much more a problem of economics than politics.

    Clearly our political system is not structured in a way that it can quickly solve macro economic problems.

  61. 61.

    Yutsano

    Back to Woody from Love and Death: FLEE!

    Which is why I’m going to work even though I feel like hell gently warmed over.

  63. 63.

    JC

    For what it’s worth, Digby and Krugman, sometime Obama detractors, have been more accurate the past couple of years, in terms of the policies enacted and effects, of the policies, even those adopted by the Democratic Congress.

    Digby today:

    “And it’s a biiiig push.

    Though the president and Congressional leaders did not close wide gaps on the issues of spending cuts or new tax revenues, officials briefed on the talks said, they emerged with a consensus to aim for the biggest possible deal — one resulting in up to $4 trillion in savings — and a recognition of the dire consequences of not acting before Aug. 2, when the government will lose its authority to borrow.

    The good news is that the president and the Republicans have decided to do this hugely ambitious, complicated deal on a hard deadline that’s right around the corner. That way we don’t have to deal with all that messy “democracy” thing have a real debate or serious analysis before the Armageddon forces a vote.

    Who says they don’t know what they’re doing, eh?”

    What did Obama talk about today, in his press conference? Confidence, payroll tax cut, trade agreements, patent streamlining?

    what?

    Did you hear Sperling the other day? Talking in all the rightwing talking points, about confidence for businesses to invest?

    What the hell is going on?

  64. 64.

    jwest

    Some right-wing blogs are speculating that if the economy and unemployment situation remains relatively the same as it is now and Obama’s numbers continue their downward trend, it could become apparent that a Carteresque loss in the making.

    Given that scenario, as the speculation goes, Obama would want to avoid an embarrassing loss and decline to run for a second term, leaving the candidate to be selected at the democrat convention. The theory being that with a fresh face unassociated with the Obama presidency, any loss would be minimized and with the right person, there would be an outside chance at a win.

    The question is, who would be that “fresh face”?

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    @Dean
    The higher the temperature the dumber the politics explains those southern red states.

  66. 66.

    David Brooks (not that one) is a dickhead

    If you think this is bad, just wait until next summer. If you thought the last campaign was awful, this one will break records and split families…

    Sorry, didn’t check to see if someone else has made the same comment. It’s too hot.

    Oh, wait, this is Seattle. It isn’t.

  69. 69.

    WyldPirate

    @Yutsano:

    I just broke one of my cardinal rules of Balloon Juice blogging. I touched a toxic thread. I may be a hopeless case, but learn from my mistakes and save yourselves.

    Got that “la-la-la-la-la I can’t hear you” playing constantly in your head, huh?

    “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    @Mike Goetz
    I couldn’t get past the little teaser on the home page. Politicians being reasonable would be transformational.

    Some reasonable things:
    Raising the debt ceiling
    Ending corporate tax loopholes
    A serious jobs program
    Acting on climate change
    Raising income taxes for millionaires.

  71. 71.

    WyldPirate

    @mk3872:

    Clearly our political system is not structured in a way that it can quickly solve macro economic problems.

    Doesn’t help that a big percentage of the Congress appears to be–or are held in the thrall of–a bunch of nihilistic psychopaths and the “good guys” are bought off my the MOTU.

  74. 74.

    cat48

    Chuck Todd thinks it’s a regularly scheduled Event. Don’t try to fight it; just roll with it……..

    Another summer of Obama’s discontent? In the five years we’ve been covering Barack Obama on the national stage — first as a presidential candidate, now as the president — he’s always experienced his toughest months in the summer, particularly in July. In the summer of ‘07, he was trailing Hillary Clinton in the primary horserace, and donors were whining about lack of movement; in the summer of ‘08, he saw his poll lead over John McCain narrow as he struggled not to look like he was being coronated; in the summer of ‘09, we saw those health-care town halls; and in the summer of ‘10, the Greek debt crisis and the BP spill helped lock in what was going to be a brutal midterm season for the Democrats. You’ve been able to see it in his poll numbers, too. The summer of ’09, according to the NBC/WSJ survey, was when Obama’s approval rating declined from the 60s to the low 50s. And in the summer of ’10, it went from the low 50s to the mid-40s. He’s now at 49%, per our latest poll.

  75. 75.

    Pat

    Because they would rather be on the golf course. The people’s business can wait until whenever the hell they feel like it getting to it!

  76. 76.

    Mike Goetz

    @momsense:

    Good job stopping when you did.

    I agree with your entire list of reasonable actions, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

  77. 77.

    Andrew

    You know for all the wailing and moaning about Obama’s poll numbers, it actually seems that under the conditions they’re pretty good. He’s been averaging about 46% – not good, but with in near-zero growth and 9-10% unemployment that seems awfully high. Most presidents – Democrat or Republican – would have numbers in the 30s under those circumstances.

    (And no, I’m not justifying inaction or trying to spin the numbers: they’re awful, and even taking into account what I said above, he’d probably narrowly lose reelection if conditions are like this in November of 2012.)

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @jwest:

    Some right-wing blogs are speculating fantasizing that if the economy and unemployment situation remains relatively the same as it is now and Obama’s numbers continue their downward trend, it could become apparent that a Carteresque loss in the making.

    FTFY. Not that they’re wrong that a bad economy would make things tough on Obama. But if they expect him to fold in attempt to avoid an embarrassing loss, they’re stuck in la-la land. Whatever taint of failure clings to Obama is likely to cling to whatever fresh face the Democrats try to stick in his place.

  81. 81.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    The abolition of slavery accelerated the unravelling of the family unit thereby causing politics to suck in the summer:

    Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

    Curse you Lincoln!

  82. 82.

    cat48

    @gbear

    Want to know what is NOT funny about the Marriage Pledge that she signed?? Lots of black folks NOT HAPPY about this!

    Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

  83. 83.

    jl

    This blog needs a summer project.

    Cole could fix the blog problems, but sounds like he is not in the mood. And having everything working would wreck the broken down rustic charm of the place. Kind of like having a rustic B&B out in the country side with satellite TV dishes over every room.

    I would suggest a lemonade stand, but Cole won’t tell anyone who he really is or where he lives, and we don’t really know whether he exists or not. So, hard to see how that will involve this joyful, mutually accepting commenter community.

    How about Cole (or DougJ, assume Cole is really one of his spoofs) pitch a reality show about Balloon Juice? Innovative and novel? (yes) Interesting characters? (yes) Conflict and drama? (double yes) Cute anthropomorphic animals? (triple yes yes yes!)

    Could be money maker! It will change history, is all.

  84. 84.

    Mike Goetz

    I’ve long thought that two-parent households were the hidden upside to slavery.

  85. 85.

    stuckinred

    yeahyeahwhatevs (Studly Pantload, once upon a time)

    Watch Murder Inc, Falk got and Oscar nomination, and you’ll never quite see Columbo the same way. He was Keitel before Harvey was.

  86. 86.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Roger Moore

    But if they expect him to fold in attempt to avoid an embarrassing loss, they’re stuck in la-la land.

    Does this mean that Obama has learned to fold after the hand is dealt?

  87. 87.

    Suffern ACE

    @ 70 MomSense-
    Funny I keep thinking I voted for that. I keep voting for that and my people seem to win, but I don’t ever get that outcome. I tried hitting the damn political machine thingy that brings news into my home, but it still isn’t working.

  88. 88.

    Suffern ACE

    @82 – WTF is the policy outcome that they are proposing in this pledge?

  89. 89.

    PurpleGirl

    Woodrowfan @ 44: Actually you’re quite right. When the D.C. area was picked as the location for Congress and the President they didn’t anticipate it becoming a year-round city. They thought it would host the government during the congressional season and then everyone would go home. Who could/would have predicted that it would turn into a real city?

  90. 90.

    TheHalfrican

    Sheeeeeeeiiit, considering his previous summers (as per Chuck Todd), I think this summer’s going absolutely fucking PEACHY for Obama. Peachy, fun, candyland times lol. Fuck your “anonymous source familiar with the President’s thinking”. Death panels, birth certificates & guns at town halls, and the rise of the Tea Party. That was bad. BP spill. Now that was *BAD*. In 07 his campaign looked like it would lose to Edwards in Iowa. Pretty fuckin bad. Trailing in polls to Grampa Simpson thanks to bullshit “celebrity” ads and a rapturous reception for Palin at the end of August. PRETTY FUCKIN BAD. This summer the issue is what? Republicans acting like assholes in congress? Ho-hum. Dog bites man.

    Obama needs a sex scandal or something to really keep his awful summer streak going. Maybe punch a girl scout or two. Oh and I’m pretty sure 85% of Americans couldn’t find Greece on a map and don’t give a shit about its default, #justsayin

  94. 94.

    James E. Powell

    @JC:

    Did you hear Sperling the other day? Talking in all the rightwing talking points, about confidence for businesses to invest?

    Leaving aside the problems that there is apparently no person to voice them and no Big Media to allow it, what are the left-wing talking points?

  95. 95.

    Legalize

    @83jl – July 8, 2011 | 2:28 pm

    This blog needs a summer project.

    My project is called drinking vodka-and-grapefuit juice and smoking cigarettes, while tending the deck garden and grilling.

    I recommend it to everyone!!

  96. 96.

    IrishGirl

    @Legalize @83jl: For some reason your quote reminded me of the Penguin (Jack Nicolson) quote (modified for BJ): “This blog needs an enema!” Oh, wait, that’d be a good one for the rotating snark in the site header….just sayin!

    BTW, check out my blog snark….the GOP crusade against the light bulb change set me off on a rant, It’s called “A thousand points of dimness“

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