Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

No one could have predicted…

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Books are my comfort food!

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Second rate reporter says what?

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

So many bastards, so little time.

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101Comments

  1. 1.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    My copy of The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank just arrived.

    Frank predicted back in 2008 that the Republicans would squeal like stuck pigs about the debt (which they created on purpose) and how the only thing Obama would be allowed to work on is deficit reduction.

  2. 2.

    cleek

    i just bought a case of nothing from Target, and now i see that it’s on sale @ Home Dept for close to half the price ! WTF.

  3. 3.

    dpCap

    Question for any Environmental friends out there: I’m trying to use my dishwasher less lately, so I know that if I’m gonna use the sink I’ll need to have a soapy tub and a rinsing tub.

    My question is what do you do when the rinsing tub gets all nasty? I don’t wanna just leave the faucet going to get clean water, but after a while the rinsing tub just turns gray.

  5. 5.

    Samara Morgan

    WikileaksUsa wikileaksusa
    by Anon_Central
    #Wikileaks: Full new WikiLeaks 55,000+ new cable release available by bittorrent wikileaks.org/magnet.txt
    20 minutes ago

  7. 7.

    Mark S.

    Come on, Crazy Eyes, you’ve got to start attacking Gov. Goodhair. This race gets really boring if Michele is out of it after Iowa.

    And Jesus, this kind of shit is depressing:

    Beyond the GOP presidential race, the poll showed some interesting facets of the GOP base in Iowa. PPP asked two simple questions: “Do you believe in global warming or not?” and ” Do you believe in evolution or not?” Global warming was only believed by 21 percent of respondents, against 66 percent, who do not. Evolution was believed by 35 percent of those polled, versus 48 percent. Only a near majority, 48 percent, think that President Obama was born in the US.

    I’m actually surprised belief in evolution polled that high with that crowd. Ladies and gentlemen, here are your Real Americans.

  8. 8.

    RossInDetroit

    I’m an asshole today. A landscape guy mowing an adjacent lot was sitting with the mower roaring for minutes on end, playing on his smartphone. The mower was loud as hell so I went out to tell him to move on or shut it off.

    The dude has one carbon fiber leg. I yelled at a gainfully employed handicapped person.

    Me = jackass.

  9. 9.

    General Stuck

    I’m currently pretty well sizzled on politics, and might take a break for awhile. Which should put a smile on one or two faces.

    And then continue building my new polling and election blog for the coming election. I hate August in politics, where it truly is the silly season.

  12. 12.

    gbear

    I’ve been trying to get the internets to refer to Rick Perry’s book as F’ed Up. It’s hard work.

  13. 13.

    Jay C

    @cleek:

    You should have gone online to check out the prevailing prices for nothing in your area – after all, it’s what teh Internet is good for…

  14. 14.

    Phyllis

    Just been given a new work assignment that has a required meeting in Myrtle Beach. That is back-to-back with my other required MB meeting. 7 Nights @ the Myrtle in late October. Hope it’s warmish this year at least.

  16. 16.

    RossInDetroit

    @cleek:

    I save all of my burned out audio tubes against the day there’s a shortage of vacuum and I can cash them in.

  17. 17.

    scav

    @RossInDetroit: so you yelled at a gainfully employed handicapped jackass the same as you’d yell at a gainfully employed jackass. I’m not seeing the problem.

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Roger Simon reacts to people reactin to his (possibly tongue-in-cheek) tweet about Obama huddling with FEMA:

    politicoroger Roger Simon
    I don’t think we use that word anymore. I think we say “progressive” instead. RT @SteampunkMuppet Are you retarded?

  20. 20.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Mark S.:

    Come on, Crazy Eyes, you’ve got to start attacking Gov. Goodhair. This race gets really boring if Michele is out of it after Iowa.

    I really want some Democrat to crow that Michele Bachmann will be a “One Primary Candidate”.

  21. 21.

    Loneoak

    This piece on evolving scholarship about why Japan surrendered in WWII is fascinating and morally complex. Turns out that history is multi-causal! And the atomic bomb was not a singular reason for surrender. The surrender was substantially a strategic response to Russia’s declaration of war a couple days later. Japan had been hoping that Russia would mediate with the US, but that plan went out the window when Russia invaded Manchuria. If this sinks in and we get rid of our atomic mythology we could really end up rethinking the morality and strategy of the bomb.

  22. 22.

    Samara Morgan

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    RELEASE: 599 US-Yemen diplomatic cables wikileaks.org/tag/YM_0.html
    1 hour ago

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    RELEASE: 727 US-Somalia diplomatic cables wikileaks.org/tag/SO_0.html
    1 hour ago

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    RELEASE: 1,375 US-South Africa diplomatic cables wikileaks.org/tag/SF_0.html
    1 hour ago

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    RELEASE: 446 US-Poland diplomatic cables wikileaks.org/tag/PO_0.html
    1 hour ago

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    RELEASE: 547 US-Bahrain diplomatic cables wikileaks.org/tag/BA_0.html
    1 hour ago

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    RELEASE: 946 US-Syria diplomatic cables wikileaks.org/tag/SR_0.html
    1 hour ago

    wikileaks WikiLeaks
    WikiLeaks is releasing 35,000+ new US diplomatic cables over the next 8 hours wikileaks.org/cablegate
    1 hour ago

  23. 23.

    RossInDetroit

    @scav:
    The problem is I’m a bleeding heart liberal and feel bad when I add to the Karmic load of someone who’s already got bad breaks.

    This just about makes up for Monday when I busted out my tools and fixed a thrown chain on a kid’s bike in a drug store parking lot.

  24. 24.

    metricpenny

    @RossInDetroit:

    I don’t think you’re a jackass for that.

    If the guy was noise polluting while goofing off instead of working, what difference does it make that he is handicapped?

    Don’t treat people different because they are differently abled. That is discrimination, and that makes a jackass.

  25. 25.

    catclub

    On NPR about the new version of Porgy and Bess:

    Porgy comes out of Bess’s house ( possibly in the morning)
    and the guys ask Porgy how things are going. Porgy sings ‘I got plenty on nothin.’ with a smile on his face.

  26. 26.

    Violet

    @RossInDetroit:
    Just because he’s handicapped and gainfully employed doesn’t mean he’s lost the ability to act like an asshole. In this case he was. Not to mention, playing on your smartphone while leaning on a roaring lawnmower is a good way to lose the other leg. That’s a stupid thing to do, irrespective of being inconsiderate of the neighbors.

    @Culture of Truth:
    If hurricane Irene hits NYC it’s going to be chaos. Been a long time since they’ve had a hurricane.

  27. 27.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @dpCap:

    Get yourself a dish rack and place it in the “rinsing” sink. Place the washed plates etc in the rack (no rinsing) and then when you are done with the whole load rinse everything at once with clean cold water using a spray wand (if you have one). I got rid of my dishwasher after Hurricane Floyd and have never looked back. I hated having to clean the damn dishes before I put them in there anyway and now I find it relaxing to do a load of dishes while watching my bird feeders right outside my kitchen window. Then again I am one of those tree-hugging DFHs.

  30. 30.

    HL_guy

    I appear to have a nasty sprained ankle, on the leg with the 3-month old titanium knee implant, which had been rehabbing nicely to this point. I’m really a walking orthopedic nightmare. If this goes on much longer, I’ma have a big Dilaudid monkey on my back. Kicking the Vicodin was hard enough the first time I blew out that knee.

    On the upside, I have a paper to review and a website to retool, both of which are leg-minimal activities.

    That’s what I have. How are y’all?

  31. 31.

    scav

    @RossInDetroit: If I understand Karmic loading theory correctly, I don’t think being yelled at adds to the object’s Karmic load, it’s the object’s reaction to being yelled at that matters. The only Karmic impact of your yelling involves you. Plus what @metricpenny says.

  33. 33.

    RossInDetroit

    @Violet:

    He was on one of those big 40″ dual-blade commercial rider mowers. This is actually a smart job for a guy with limited mobility on foot, as it’s mostly riding and driving. I wonder if he pushes snow in the winter like most of the landscape guys.
    The mowers use big Kawasaki 17hp twins that are loud as bombs on full throttle. I was trying to work and the racket was annoying. I wear ear protection when I run the big Kaws but not when I type.

  34. 34.

    catclub

    @Loneoak: So Japan surrendered in order to avoid the tender mercies of a Soviet Invasion? I remember being taught that we set off two bombs to let the Russians know that we had a production line. (When we didn’t really.)

    So on _both_ fronts, the Russians won the war and we were just sitting around being candy-asses.

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    I got nothing and lots of it

    You stole my answer you bastard.

    @RossInDetroit:

    I yelled at a gainfully employed handicapped person who was still being a wasteful asshole.

    Just in case it hasn’t been hammered into your skull enough. Yeah he may have thought you were a dickhead, but not because of his artificial limb. Disabled people feel isolated enough from society as it is. Treating him like less of a jerk because of that doesn’t help.

    @efgoldman: SSHHH!!! She’s got a bright shiny new toy. I’m hoping it distracts her for the rest of the day.

  37. 37.

    merrinc

    @RossInDetroit:

    Ahem. My husband had his left leg amputated above the knee due to a motorcycle accident two years ago. I read your comment to him and he called bullshit on it. One, unless the guy had part of his brain removed, he had no excuse for leaving the damn mower run. Two, my spouse hates Teh Stoopid above all else and does not appreciate that a handicapped person was representing his brethren so poorly.

    Seriously, my husband hates it when he is treated differently than non-handicapped people.

  39. 39.

    Montysano

    Just built my second set of speakers using a single full-range driver. My first set was an experiment on the cheap; this time I bought a nice set of Audio Nirvana drivers and built a simple bass reflex cabinet for them (Audio Nirvana provides free enclosure plans w/purchase).

    For anyone who is seriously into audio, consider giving a single-driver enclosure a try. It’s a different experience from a multi-driver cabinet, and I’m completely hooked on it. The soundstage is so real and complex that it’s almost spooky.

  40. 40.

    merrinc

    @efgoldman:

    The college in our town brought in a bunch of goats to eat the kudzu on the cross country trail. Not so much a cost saving measure as an environmentally friendly way to try and stay ahead of an invasive weed which surely springs from the depths of hell.

  41. 41.

    Loneoak

    @catclub:

    No, that’s not really what the article says. You can hardly claim that the Marines slogging through the atolls and islands were candy-asses. And the Allies had planned an invasion that was bigger than D-Day. The Japanese leadership thought they could use the territorial ambitions of the Soviets to bargain for maintaining the Imperial system and avoiding war crime trials. When Russia declared war, this plan didn’t look viable and surrendering to the US suddenly look better strategically. They apparently didn’t give a fuck about whole cities being leveled by invasion or bombing (as the article stipulates, neither would America or any other nation).

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @dpCap:

    Question for any Environmental friends out there: I’m trying to use my dishwasher less lately, so I know that if I’m gonna use the sink I’ll need to have a soapy tub and a rinsing tub.

    First of all, if you have a newer model dishwasher, they use very little water. I upgraded ours because the old one broke and we had a statewide rebate program for people to upgrade to an energy efficient one. It’s extremely efficient. Five gallons per wash or something.

    Once I changed to the proper dishwashing detergent for the new dishwasher, I don’t even have to pre-rinse dishes. And I mean, horrible baked on stuff comes off. It’s kind of amazing. The right soap made all the difference. And not pre-rinsing saves a ton of water.

    My question is what do you do when the rinsing tub gets all nasty? I don’t wanna just leave the faucet going to get clean water, but after a while the rinsing tub just turns gray.

    Litlebritdifrnt has some good suggestions. My solution (because I still hand wash a lot of things) was to set up a grey water system. All my rinse water goes into a bucket. When the bucket is full it goes outside in the larger grey water bucket that has a tap with a hose attached, and when that’s full I water the plants. It’s absolutely amazing how much water I collect in a day.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    @MikeJ: Second that. Washing dishes by hand will almost always use more water. And current dishwashers don’t even have a heated dry cycle — at least the one I bought this year doesn’t.

  47. 47.

    RossInDetroit

    @Montysano:

    I’ve had a number of single-driver speakers. Lowther Fidelios, Altec 755Cs, JBL LE8s, EV SP12Bs, etc. I love the realism, dynamics and midrange of a fullrange.

    Here’s an article I wrote on converting vintage Advents to modern JBL waveguide horn tweeters.

  48. 48.

    ruemara

    OK, I have a water pump and a car that needs a water pump. After that, I have nothing. How do I get them to mate and give me back a running car?

  49. 49.

    Samara Morgan

    orly?
    you guys are talking about washing dishes while wikileaks just dumped 55000 cables, and is prepping 4k Israeli cables for release mere days before the UN vote on palestinian statehood?

    can you get your heads any farther up your asses?

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Violet: I was just now googling about setting up a grey-water filter. Do you directly water the plants, or do you filter? I’ve been dumping grey water (Seventh generation dish detergent or vinegar as cleaners) on my compost pile. I was thinking of getting a rain barrel, putting pebbles on the bottom and a thick layer of sand on top, to filter out the detergent and vinegar. Do you (or anyone) know if that would clean the water enough for plants?

  51. 51.

    RandyH

    @dpCap:

    It’s easy. Just use the dishwasher. Don’t bother with all that sink-full-of-water stuff. Dishwashers are very efficient. Just make sure the water’s running nice and hot before you turn it on. And don’t use the heated dry cycle, but make sure to have some Jet Dry in the rinse agent hole.

  52. 52.

    Violet

    @RossInDetroit:

    He was on one of those big 40” dual-blade commercial rider mowers. This is actually a smart job for a guy with limited mobility on foot, as it’s mostly riding and driving.

    Not paying attention while using a lawnmower is dangerous no matter what kind of mower it is. I know someone personally whose three year old child was run over by a riding lawnmower driven by a family member. The family member never saw the kid and he wasn’t using his smartphone and not paying attention.

    It’s easy enough not to see people, animals and other objects when you are paying attention while using a mower. Sitting on an idling lawnmower while you text or check your email is just plain stupid. What if it started rolling and the guy was too caught up in his Angry Birds game to notice? Idiot. He deserved to be yelled at, no matter what sort of legs he has.

  56. 56.

    Violet

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I don’t filter. When I went to a presentation on grey water, I was told that it wasn’t a big deal so long as you aren’t using the grey water directly on things you are eating (like lettuce leaves). It’s best to use for trees, larger plants, etc.

    I don’t put food into it. It’s extremely low tech right now — just the bucket in the sink. I try not to put a ton of soap into it, so like when I wash my hands I do the first three or four seconds of the rinse over the open sink, then move the faucet across over the bucket and finish rinsing them there. Does that make sense? It sounds like a hassle, but it’s really easy.

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    @Samara Morgan:
    Maybe you could do us all a big favor: go through all those cables, and then give us a heads up if you find anything worth our attention. I’m sure that if you take enough time and give the job the full attention it deserves, the rest of us will be grateful for the respite whatever noteworthy information you turn up.

  58. 58.

    Origuy

    @merrinc: Some of the parks around here have goats brought in to keep down the vegetation, which is important during fire season. They also eat poison oak, which grows into enormous bushes. If they catch on fire, the smoke can be lethal.

  59. 59.

    scav

    @Origuy: Flaming goats? ! I always rather liked the smell of BBQ. Gotta be careful apparently, it’s more dangerous than I thought.

  60. 60.

    Samara Morgan

    @Amir Khalid: heres a heads up, Brother.

    @MaanNewsAgency
    Ma’an News Agency
    Gaza projectile lands in Egypt bit.ly/r1h3TN #palestine
    4 minutes ago via twitterfeed

    Kalizec is coming.

    why the release NAOW? could it have anything to do with the UN Pali statehood vote in September?

  61. 61.

    Kane

    I have seen multiple reports that Mitt Romney is worth between $190 and $250 million dollars, but I have yet to see it reported how much taxes he paid. Inquiring minds want to know.

  63. 63.

    RossInDetroit

    @Montysano:

    That driver looks a lot like the fullrange in the Moth Cicada speakers, but with a black cone instead of parchment colored. I had a pair of those here and they sounded great. What kind of cabinet loading are you using? Looks like good specs for a transmission line or aperiodic port.

    Must now return to my designated place of work. Will check back later.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    @Samara Morgan:
    I’m sure there’s plenty of interesting stuff in those cables that your hero Julian Assange Wikileaked. You need to give them a great deal of time and attention. We’ll all be waiting right here, with bated breath. I promise.

  66. 66.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Amir Khalid:

    Maybe you could do us all a big favor: go through all those cables, and then give us a heads up if you find anything worth our attention.

    One more thing: Make sure you go through all of the cables before reporting back. We can’t appreciate the full scope of whatever it is unless you take the time to piece together the full conspiracy.

  67. 67.

    Montysano

    @RossInDetroit:

    What kind of cabinet loading are you using?

    I do not know what this means.

    The cabinet I built is very simple, built from a single sheet of birch plywood, 37.5″ x 12″ x 12″, driver near the top, 6″ bass port.

    Email me later at montysano at gmail dot com. We’ll talk.

  68. 68.

    lahke

    I’d like to change the whine du jour to complaints about the Washington Post website. Last time I tried to read Ezra, my computer loaded up 387 cookies. Don’t know if that’s a record, but the highest load I’d heard about previously was dictionary.com, at 200. Are there cookie preventers out there? That won’t damage my work computer?

  69. 69.

    Elliecat

    Have I missed something? Suddenly I’m hearing “progressives” blaming Obama for the Tea Party. It’s all his fault apparently and it would never have been formed if Hilary had been elected. Is the left going batshit crazy too?

  70. 70.

    Samara Morgan

    @Amir Khalid: do you know why im an Assange otaku, brother?
    because he is opportunistic and subversive.
    He wanted the webdizens to unpack the data dumps.

    Our initial idea — which never got implemented — our initial idea was that, look at all those people editing Wikipedia. Look at all the junk that they’re working on. Surely, if you give them a fresh classified document about the human rights atrocities in Falluja, that the rest of the world has not seen before, that, you know, that’s a secret document, surely all those people that are busy working on articles about history and mathematics and so on, and all those bloggers that are busy pontificating about the abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan and other countries and other human rights disasters, who are complaining that they can only respond to the NY Times, because they don’t have sources of their own, surely those people will step forward, given fresh source material and do something.
    __
    No. It’s all bullshit. It’s ALL bullshit. In fact, people write about things, in general (if it’s not part of their career) because they want to display their values to their peers, who are already in the same group. Actually, they don’t give a fuck about the material. That’s the reality.

    But when that didnt work out…..he made the media into his enslaved data servers….genius really. its the freemarket in action.
    the media are forced to harvest the most sensational data bits, but also forced to truthful representation, or he will cut them off.
    sheer genius.
    he made free market capitalism and the media’s need to sell product into a feature.
    :)

  71. 71.

    Paul in KY

    @catclub: We set off the 2nd, because they still refused to unconditionally surrender after the first. If it made the USSR think we had a pile, so much the better.

  73. 73.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Loneoak:

    The entire thing is really complicated, and the not wackaloon Japanese (like Yamamoto) knew in 1941 that a good (for Japan) outcome of the entire adventure was iffy, at best.

    There was a great deal of dithering about the “unconditionality” of the surrender…in essence, the US demanded it be “unconditional”, but the Japanese wanted to retain their figurehead Emperor. This was true even before the two bombs made it a bit more obvious to the wackaloons that no, they were not going to pull off a last minute upset of the dragon they woke up.

  75. 75.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Samara Morgan: Then get crackin’! The more time you waste posting here means the less time you have to pour through the cables and (more importantly) the less time you have to put the puzzle pieces together!

  76. 76.

    TG Chicago

    David Atkins at digby’s blog linked to this piece from The Hill, but he didn’t highlight the best quote from it:

    “Everybody I speak to is on the same boat — disappointment,” said the source, who contributed to Obama three years ago and is now backing Romney.

    The executive said he and others on Wall Street have taken exception to Obama’s rhetoric about the wealthy, especially because the president has asked rich donors to fork over $35,800 to his reelection efforts.

    “It’s not healthy for rich people to feel maligned,” the executive said.

    Wow.

  80. 80.

    Yutsano

    @TG Chicago: Shorter rich folk, “OUR FEE-FEES IZ HURT!! MAKE THE BAD BLACK MAN GO AWAY!!”

    Dare I look to see how poorly sourced the article is?

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    Jackhammer blasting. Neighbor behind us is pulling down his house to rebuild. They’re at the foundation.

    If there’s a 5 or 6 magnitude quake today, we won’t know it.

  83. 83.

    licensed to kill time

    praps Cole will give me a one time FP slot to synopsize them.

    The sound you just heard was elebentybillion BJ’ers muttering “just shoot me now”.

  84. 84.

    Yutsano

    @TG Chicago: I was speaking of the Hill article specifically, and yeah it was pretty much what I thought it was. The media wants a horserace so bad they’ll make one up out of whole cloth if they have to!

  85. 85.

    Paul in KY

    @RossInDetroit: I have a couple Polk Audio RT8s and a couple Cerwin Vegas (don’t remember nomenclature on them). They are both over 20 years old & they still do the trick.

  88. 88.

    Judas Escargot

    @Samara Morgan:

    Let us know if/when they release cables from the Chinese, the Saudis, the Iranians, or the North Koreans. Still waiting on those documents from BofA or the Russian oil cartels that were supposed to Shock the World and Change Everything, also, too.

    Until then, the script-kiddie’s consistent and limited choice of targets just makes me wonder who’s funding them.

  89. 89.

    Samara Morgan

    @Paul in KY: like i said in comment 74, no need.
    Julian has enslaved the media as analysts and truth servers with the power of the first amendment and the Superawesome Freed Market.

    however, i plan to read all 4k of the Israeli cables, as soon as they are released.
    i wonder if the release date is calculated for maximum impact on the UN vote in September?

    Julian is clever like that.
    :)

  91. 91.

    Paul in KY

    @Samara Morgan: I am glad you’ll read them. Appreciate you doing that. I know you will let us know when/if you find something really interesting.

    P.S. Up to the begining of ‘A Feast of Crows’. What a ride it has been! Feel sorry for poor Arya, don’t know if she’ll ever get home. Sansa too. I’d want to get well away from the Littlefinger, she saw what he did & dead girls tell no tales.

  94. 94.

    Samara Morgan

    @Paul in KY: i think…the form of Cat is going to pay Littlefinger a visit….down the road.
    :)

    im done with Dragons….now i must wait.
    :(

  95. 95.

    Paul in KY

    @Samara Morgan: Please don’t give anything away. I am going to read this one & then I’m going to wait until next year at beach to finish it out (if I can wait that long).

    Edit: I must say that when Joffery was killed, I thouroughly enjoyed that.

  96. 96.

    Samara Morgan

    @Paul in KY: im not.
    im purely speculating.
    there are two more books after Dragons, in the Songs of Fire and Ice.

    if you run out, you can read Martins shortstorys. both volumes are great, but my two favs are Sandkings and

Comments are closed.