Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

This really is a full service blog.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans in disarray!

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

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Open Thread

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It’s wine time. Long day. Got a grill (I went for one that is one side gas and one side charcoal, because I prefer charcoal but sometimes I don’t plan shit in time and need to use gas), then went to the Farmer’s Market in Bridgeville and bought a bunch of stuff. Planning a party for 20 peeps is a lot of work.

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    IS there a bigger Douche-bag then Chuck Todd??

    He concedes Obama has won the debt ceiling fight on his own terms, but says it’s sad because Obama wasn’t bipartisan.

    He’s bucking to be the new David Broder.

    Obama could find the cure for cancer and they would be lamenting that the discovery wasn’t bipartisan.

    Does working in Beltway make them retarded, or

    Do they only get hired because they’re already retarded?

  3. 3.

    harlana

    Oh, well, party on, Mr. Cole! Just leave the rest of us dregs to suffer along the remnants of your post about how you have a life and stuff. How dare you?

  5. 5.

    MattR

    Anyone here watch Falling Skies? I have a theory on a plot twist I am dying to get some feedback about.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    IS there a bigger Douche-bag then Chuck Todd?? no

    The President embarrassed Todd today when Todd asked about the meetings being contentious and the President did point out that the American public was more concerned about jobs than hurt feelings..

  8. 8.

    General Stuck

    I’m back on the Comcast high speed internet bandwagon, after my apartment manager got mad and quit working for the morons that own my complex. And I guess they discovered someone tuning into to their internets and changed the key code.

    But that’s okay, it was kind of a hassle moving the antenna around when the signal got week from atmospherics of the day. The comcast signal is a lot faster too, but it’s 60 more bucks a month.

    Nothing unusual to report from the NM High Desert. Charlie the dog is just getting so sweet a pet, it makes me feel unworthy as his owner.

    All and all, I am just grateful we have a cool customer president right now, or I fear we would be on one side of a front, lobbing mortars at the wingnuts on the other side. And the magic progressives running around silly in no mans land between, screaming about the sellout of the day by Obama. God had a bad day when he made trolls.

  10. 10.

    El Cid

    __

    “These documents show there is a pervasive anti-Fox bias in the Obama White House,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton in a statement.

    E-mails surfaced that in 2009 the White House didn’t feel like inviting Fox to interview a Treasury official.

    This proves there is no global warming and that the Clinton Body Count is still going up.

  13. 13.

    wmsheppa

    The Bridgeville Farmers Market is the best Farmer’s Market ever – I’m spoiled enough by it that I’ve been unable to find a substitute since moving to DC.

  14. 14.

    yeahyeahwhatevs (Studly Pantload, once upon a time)

    I am *loving* watching The Big O’s performance at today’s presser. He has grabbed the cudgel the Republicans were waving at him and is now, well, cudgeling them with it. “You wanna talk deficit reductions? Bring it. Oh, you don’t have the stomach to actually do it? I thought at much. Well, since you don’t have any further use for this talking point, I’m sure you won’t mind if I use it for some political mileage.”

    See also: p0wned.

  15. 15.

    pragmatism

    We ordered pizza. The delivery guy called after and hour and said he couldn’t find Mongolia. We live on magnolia. I told him it was by china but he didn’t appreciate it. Pie was free at least.

  17. 17.

    General Stuck

    “You wanna talk deficit reductions? Bring it. Oh, you don’t have the stomach to actually do it? I thought at much

    He doesn’t get enough credit for being a superb actor as well. With that dead pan faux serious delivery that he offered the Grand Bargain big cuts, though with tax hikes that no republican can agree to, with their current internal politics.

    They really have no answer to that, and no plan b, other than to fiddle as Rome burns, looking like the dishonest incompetent, and dangerous fools that they are.

  19. 19.

    yeahyeahwhatevs (Studly Pantload, once upon a time)

    @pragmatism

    Now that gave me a belly chuckle.

  20. 20.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    I am loving watching The Big O’s performance at today’s presser. He has grabbed the cudgel the Republicans were waving at him and is now, well, cudgeling them with it.

    It’s Dog Day Afternoon.

    He waited them out, all day, and now he’s leading them to airport to lay the coup de grace.

  22. 22.

    RossInDetroit

    I just finished reading Charles Stross’ cybercrime thriller Rule 34. A pretty exciting read that I have some minor quibbles with. Perfect for sitting under a spruce tree with on a summer evening.
    Now I need more stuff to read…

    Barbecue suddenly sounds really good.

  23. 23.

    Poopyman

    Two related points to the post:

    It’s been wine time here for a couple of hours. Now it’s almost nap time.

    Mrs.P’s birthday is Wednesday and she hasn’t told me what she wants yet.

  25. 25.

    General Stuck

    I may be a lot of bad things but I don’t steal.

    I didn’t steal you moron. I was given the key codes by the apartment managers at the time. And intercepting unsecured wireless internet signals is perfectly legal.

  27. 27.

    abject funk

    Did you at least donate your old grill to Confederate Yankee? I still have nightmares he suffered during that awful windstorm so many years ago, a scar that will not heal.

  28. 28.

    Gozer

    My fucking mother-in-law is visiting and after 2 days I’m about ready to slit my own throat…

    Imagine racism, paternalism, and a generous bit of self-loathing and jealousy and you have a good picture of the woman.

  30. 30.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    He doesn’t get enough credit for being a superb actor as well.

    For the longest time, I’ve resisted it. But now, I have to conclude that some so called progressive are unable to accept that a black guy is capable of playing chess. Even after taking the wingers to the cleaners in the budget, even after taking bin LAden to a watery grave, they still said Obama wasn’t capable of negotiating.

    And you watch, even after this victory, they’ll still mock his intelligence and courage. It can’t be because of the results, so it has to because they’re unaccustomed to seeing a black guy “count cards” and break the casino.

  31. 31.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    He doesn’t get enough credit for being a superb actor as well.

    For the longest time, I’ve resisted it. But now, I have to conclude that some so called progressive are unable to accept that a black guy is capable of playing chess. Even after taking the wingers to the cleaners in the budget, even after taking bin LAden to a watery grave, they still said Obama wasn’t capable of negotiating the debt ceiling.

    And you watch, even after this victory, they’ll still mock his intelligence and courage.

    It can’t be because of the results, so it has to because they’re unaccustomed to seeing a non-white guy “count cards” and break the casino.

  32. 32.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    He doesn’t get enough credit for being a superb actor as well.

    For the longest time, I’ve resisted it. But now, I have to conclude that some so called progressive are unable to accept that a black guy is capable of playing chess. Even after taking the wingers to the cleaners in the budget, even after taking bin LAden to a watery grave, they still said Obama wasn’t capable of negotiating the debt ceiling.

    And you watch, even after this victory, they’ll still mock his intelligence and courage.

    it has to be because they’re unaccustomed to seeing some like him succeed at high stakes poker and breaking the casino.

  35. 35.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    He doesn’t get enough credit for being a superb actor as well.

    For the longest time, I’ve resisted it. But now, I have to conclude that some so called progressive are unable to accept that a black guy is capable of playing chess. Even after taking the wingers to the cleaners in the budget, even after taking bin LAden to a watery grave, they still said Obama wasn’t capable of negotiating the debt ceiling.

    And you watch, even after this victory, they’ll still mock his intelligence and courage.

    they’re don’t think some one like “him” can succeed at high stakes poker.

  36. 36.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    He doesn’t get enough credit for being a superb actor as well.

    For the longest time, I’ve resisted it. But now, I have to conclude that some so called progressive are unable to accept that a black guy is capable of playing chess. Even after taking the wingers to the cleaners in the budget, even after taking bin LAden to a watery grave, they still said Obama wasn’t capable of negotiating the debt ceiling.

    And you watch, even after this victory, they’ll still mock his intelligence and courage.

  37. 37.

    MaximusNYC

    ***THIS IS AN EMOSPHERE POUTRAGE ALERT***

    Obama has reportedly chosen someone other than Elizabeth Warren to be the permanent head of the CFPB (probably her deputy).

    She is the *only* person in the world qualified to run this agency, so clearly Obama wants it to fail, and her rumored interest in running for Senate in MA is irrelevant.

    (I am only lightly paraphrasing comments I just read over at the Great Orange Satan.)

    ***THIS HAS BEEN AN EMOSPHERE POUTRAGE ALERT***

  38. 38.

    Ash Can

    @Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century): I think it must be the Beltway, since I recall Todd being a number-cruncher/poll-analyst deluxe a few years ago, before he was promoted to the White House stenographer pool.

    @El Cid:

    “These documents show there is a pervasive anti-Fox bias in the Obama White House,”

    Jeebus, let’s hope so.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @ Gozer

    When my mom was still alive, my brother-in-law would pre-arrange to get an emergency call from work at some point during her visit. “oh, so sorry, I have to go into work to deal with…”. That was just the break he needed in order to be able to handle my mom the rest of the time.

    We were just laughing about that when I visited him a couple of weeks ago, and I have no doubt that he would highly recommend your trying it.

    Family can be hard.

    @ Ash Can and El Cid
    Let’s hope so, indeed!

  40. 40.

    El Cid

    We are a nation of measured, calm, hard-working yeoman independents.

    But should you cross us, should you arouse our ire, you will see our rage fall upon the unjust.

    Woman’s minivan rammed because attacker thought she looked like Casey Anthony
    __
    Apparently, now is not a good time to be a brunette woman in your mid-20s. Why, you ask? It turns out you might be mistaken for Casey Anthony. And there might be lunatics out there doing their best to kill you.
    __
    Sound far-fetched? It’s already happened. A woman named Sammay Blackwell of Chouteau, Oklahoma, was just finishing her nightly shift at a convenience store when she first met Shireen Nalley. A half-hour later when her shift ended at 10:30, Blackwell left in her Nissan pickup.
    __
    Unfortunately for Blackwell, Nalley had been waiting for her to leave, and she followed her out of the parking lot. A short time alter, Nalley rammed Blackwell’s truck with her Chrysler minivan, and later collided with it again, causing Blackwell’s truck to flip several times, landing on the driver’s side.
    __
    Fortunately, Blackwell escaped without serious injury, and Nalley was later apprehended by the police. The reason she gave for trying to kill Blackwell?

    According to the attacker, she looked like Casey Anthony and she was “trying to save the children.”

    Salley is currently being held in jail, and police say there was evidence she was under the influence of drugs when they took her in.
    __
    As a final indignity, Blackwell says that Nalley’s insurance company is claiming it’s not liable for damages if its client caused the accident on purpose.
    __
    Although Blackwell says she doesn’t really look like Casey Anthony in any meaningful way, there is one coincidence: Blackwell has a young daughter named Caylee.

  41. 41.

    hilts

    @Mike Kay

    Attica, Attica, Attica!!!

    @JPL

    IS there a bigger Douchebag than Chuck Todd?

    What about John King, Wolf Blitzer, Ed Henry, and David Gregory?

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    Confession time.

    I loved Tim Russert and I cried when he died. When Obama was running for president, I used to like Chuck Todd. I used to like Chip Reid when he substituted for the older gentleman on CBS. For about 45 minutes, a million years ago, I even liked David Gregory. And now i have to confess that until partway through the process of Barack Obama running for president… i thought David Broder made sense and I listed to what he had to say.

    David Gregory turned into a worthless cringe-worthy piece of crap as soon as he got to be white house correspondent. When he got the meet the press gig, I wanted to puke, or choke someone, and I even sent repeated email messages to the show, saying how awful he was.

    Today I could barely stand to see Chip Reid and Chuck Todd as they asked their stupid, smarmy questions.

    I have always been a progressive and well-informed (I thought) so what I am wondering is this… Did those guys all change in the last few years, or were they always awful?

    Edit: Oh, and Luke Russert. Wow. He is just not good. It’s almost embarsassing.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    Poopyman:

    Mrs.P’s birthday is Wednesday and she hasn’t told me what she wants yet.

    When in doubt, ask. If you wait until Tuesday night, you don’t get credit for remembering the date in advance.

  45. 45.

    MazeDancer

    @WaterGirl:

    Chuck Todd definitely changed.

    When he was spouting numbers during the election he was interesting. He seemed fair and informed. Always enjoyed what he added. When he moved to being a correspondent he became something else. He’s dreadful now. Total idiot. He even made the President scowl at him yesterday. And drop that dig when answering Todd’s lousy question. Mr. Obama saying how Americans aren’t interested in the Reality TV aspects of such a serious subject. Which was basically polite POTUS speak on national TV for “Chuck Todd, you’re an idiot.”

    David Gregory was always a smarmy Repub lover. He just got more so when he went to MTP.

  46. 46.

    hilts

    @WaterGirl

    They were always awful.

    One good thing about Tim Russert. He had a talk show on CNBC where he interviewed writers and entertainers and it was actually pretty decent. I remember him having very good interviews with George Carlin, Alan Alda, and Steve Martin.

    The White House Press Corps along with Joe Klein, Mark Halperin, and the whole Morning Douchebag aka Scarborough crew are a giant clusterfuck of epic fail.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @ MazeDancer

    I do have to say that I really enjoy reading about Fluffy in the bobblespeak translations. They make him look like the idiot he is.

    LOVED the smackdown by the president today. You just know he had that line in his pocket, and a few others, but was smart enough not to use any of them in his prepared remarks. They were much more powerful when they came out as conversation in the Q&A. The reality tv comment was awesome in and of itself, but got even better when he slammed Cantor with the reference to nobody caring if someone’s feelings getting hurt.

    Note to self: do not piss off Barack Obama.

  49. 49.

    Poopyman

    @Anne Laurie

    Of course I asked. She just can’t think of anything now. This will change, of course.

  50. 50.

    hilts

    @MazeDancer,

    The only legitimate skill Chuck Todd ever possessed was crunching numbers. The assholes who promoted Todd should be waterboarded.

    Chuck: “What has Murdoch done that TMZ hasn’t done and why does what TMZ does, is legal, but what Rupert Murdoch does, it is illegal?”

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @ hilts

    I liked the Russert interviews that were on TV on saturday nights, too.

    So if they were always awful, how did i not know it? I’m fairly smart, and in most circumstances I am pretty discerning, and my politics have not changed. So if they didn’t change, and were always like this, how did I not see these guys for what they were?? I don’t get it. ::shakes head:: oh well.

  52. 52.

    hilts

    @Comrade Kevin

    I get the exact same feeling when I watch any of the tools within the WH press corps ask Obama a question.

    Jesus Christ! Charlie Rose’s first fucking guest tonight is Chuck Todd.

  54. 54.

    H.E. Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist

    Never knew about a dual gas/charcoal grill. That sounds like some tech I could embrace!

    Off-topic and unrelated, but I wonder if Mr Cole intends on playing the upcoming Star Wars MMO?

  55. 55.

    Anne Laurie

    Poopyman:

    She just can’t think of anything now. This will change, of course.

    Ah. The Spousal Unit does this to me, too also, but I get to use the “I know how cheap frugal you are, darling, so I resisted the impulse to buy something whose expense wouldn’t be worth the momentary pleasure of its acquistion.” This probably will not work in your household. On the other hand, if you’ve been together more than 5 years, you’ve probably got a bank of “Things We Don’t Do Together, Because I Hate Them, and She Doesn’t Love Them So Obsessively That It’s Worth Re-Training Me”, and a spontaneous suggestion that we actually go out to see a movie he’d otherwise wait to Netflix, or eat at that restaurant which he thinks is fantastic and I think is meh… even when he doesn’t put the date and my sudden impulse together, it always improves his mood. Your wife is probably more alert to such nuances than my SU, but that will only make your sacrifice more endearing.

  56. 56.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    On the other hand, if you’ve been together more than 5 years, you’ve probably got a bank of “Things We Don’t Do Together, Because I Hate Them, and She Doesn’t Love Them So Obsessively That It’s Worth Re-Training Me”

    Gold.

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @ hilts

    Just in case you will see this, thanks so much for that link! How did I not know about the Media Consortium. That’s a keeper!

    I do like Amy Goodman and Democracy Now, but I’m not familiar with Common Dreams and Free Speech Radio News.

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