Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This blog will pay for itself.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Cole is on a roll !

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Let there be snark.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

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

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

We’re not going back!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Debate Open Thread

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    I wonder if there will be any laughing at the death penalty today.

    Wondering if it took a terminal hit yesterday, although it will take time to eliminate it completely.

  4. 4.

    Calouste

    Succint commentary by the Guardian as usual:

    9.03pm: First question, about jobs and small businesses, to Rick Perry. His answer is, basically: “Texas, woo!”
    __
    If it’ll work in the state of Texas, it’ll work in Washington.
    __
    But tell us the details Rick Perry? asks Baier. My jobs plan is Texas, says Perry.
    __
    The gag about Rudy Giuliani was that his answer to everything was “a noun, a verb and 9/11”. Perry skips the verb and goes straight to “Texas”.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    @Elizabelle: It certainly did not take a terminal hit among the crowd assembled at this debate. Knowing wingnuts, if the death penalty is mentioned they’ll cheer even louder than they did the last time.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    Is it just my connection, or is this debate literally being held in an echo chamber? Turn down the reverb!

  8. 8.

    licensed to kill time

    I’m not actually watching it, just following here and at Think Progress’s live blog.

    I’m sure the lying and obfuscation has commenced.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    Should we put out an Amber alert for Doug? He was suppose to live blog and obviously he’s been kidnapped.

  11. 11.

    Linda Featheringill

    I usually watch the Republican debates with the sound muted so I don’t have to listen to their lies. This time, however, Rick Perry was talking before I got the sound turned down. It was like being in a time machine. He sounded so much like Bush did about 15 years ago.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    @Elizabelle:

    Wondering if it took a terminal hit yesterday

    I doubt it. If you want to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs; if you want to put people to death you’re going to wind up killing a few innocents. The true death penalty believers aren’t going to be convinced there’s anything wrong with it just because some poor innocent guy was executed.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    @shortstop:

    Nada. Sea otters in the wild, snacking on abalone.

    Cassoulet as something delicious for fall, but not in 90 degree rooms.

    Vote Obama for Otters
    2012

  18. 18.

    licensed to kill time

    9:08: Bachmann calls for absolutely no taxes. “You should be able to keep every dollar that you earn.” Then contradicts herself, “obviously we have to give money back to the government to run the government.”

    This woman is so……D’oh! She’s on the Vapidity Express.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    Also, what’s with the lighting and/or makeup? With the exception of Herman Cain, all of the candidates are more orange than John Boehner.

  21. 21.

    Loneoak

    Kinda surprised it’s co-sponsored by Google. I thought the wingnuts were boycotting Google because Muslims use it.

  24. 24.

    Cat Lady

    No Red Sox FAIL on tonight, so may as well watch GOP FAIL. I just saw Contagion today, and it feels like the GOP is the virus right before the vaccine is developed. The question is whether there’s a vaccine.

  26. 26.

    handy

    @licensed to kill time:

    She’s talking about every dollar after money spent on bombs and stuff for all of baby Jeebus’s wars on brown people. Oh, and congresscritter and presidental salaries. Gotta account for those too.

    Though I suppose in both cases she could have just said, “wip out the credit card” ala Dubya, but then that would have been too honest.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    @Loneoak: I’m disappointed that the first question to Santorum wasn’t “Since this debate is sponsored by Google, would you mind googling your own name?”

  29. 29.

    Samara Morgan

    the three headed dog of AllahP/Brietbart/Malkin is throwing crazy eyes bachman under the bus.

    allahpundit Allah Pundit
    RT @ExJon: Debate prediction: Gary Johnson will come out for the recreational use of Gardasil.
    21 minutes ago

    allahpundit Allah Pundit
    RT @robertcostaNRO: My Huntsman hope: he cites Mother Love Bone. youtube.com/watch?v=lH0gnw…
    26 minutes ago

    allahpundit Allah Pundit
    Bachmann: I’m a “Teavangelical” twurl.nl/scrvfm
    31 minutes ago

  38. 38.

    Linnaeus

    @Roger Moore:

    I doubt it. If you want to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs; if you want to put people to death you’re going to wind up killing a few innocents. The true death penalty believers aren’t going to be convinced there’s anything wrong with it just because some poor innocent guy was executed.

    Agreed. I’ve been talking with acquaintances of mine who favor capital punishment, and while most of them are also genuinely troubled by the notion of an innocent person being executed, some (more than I thought) consider the risk that an innocent person will be executed an acceptable one. As long as we get more bad guys than good, it’s not really a problem.

  39. 39.

    dmsilev

    Now Perry and Romney are arguing about different editions of their respective books. “But the paperback edition doesn’t have that line”.

  41. 41.

    beltane

    Even the Wonkette commentators can’t manage to make this showcase of human degeneracy amusing. It would be more fun if Sarah Palin were there.

  45. 45.

    Samara Morgan

    @Omnes Omnibus: yeah, anonops is not relly relevent for old white ppl.
    :)
    i think the juxtaposition is hilarious. Bachman and the teavangelicals “debating” while people in the aptly named Liberty Plaza are gettin beat up by the NYPD while protesting Troy Davis’ execution and the souless rapacious bankstahs.

    my country tis of thee, L-O-fucking-L.

  54. 54.

    dmsilev

    I know Ron Paul is supposedly the crazy one, but it’s pretty hard to tell the difference between him and the rest of the clown show. Different accents, I suppose.

  55. 55.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: “Purportedly” being the operative term in that statement. I suspect that collections drone is a more accurate description of that period of her career, the majority of which, I read, was spent on maternity leave. Heh.

  57. 57.

    suzanne

    I’m watching the debate on my DVR, so I’m a bit behind (surprise), but did Mitt Romney just accuse Rick Perry of flip-flopping? Holy shit.

  58. 58.

    different church-lady

    Who is pubads.g.doubleclick.net and why has the loading of Balloon Juice been hanging for the past 48 hours because of them?

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @Linnaeus:
    I think that it really boils down to something that I brought up in the Class Warfare thread earlier. Liberals are most worried about protecting the needy while Conservatives are most worried about punishing people who have gotten away with something. Liberals are willing to support welfare cheats as an acceptable cost of helping the many poor people who depend on it, while Conservatives are willing to hurt the many poor people who depend on welfare to prevent the few cheats from taking advantage.

    When it comes to criminal justice, you see the same pattern. Liberals are most worried about protecting the innocent by providing comprehensive protections for the accused and are willing to end the death penalty to protect the wrongfully convicted. Conservatives are most interested in punishing the guilty, so they want long sentences, capital punishment, and fewer procedural protections, even if it means innocent people will be executed. Conservatives are genuinely more worried that a murderer might escape justice than they are that an innocent man might be executed.

  62. 62.

    Samara Morgan

    truthsay, lol.

    allahpundit Allah Pundit
    RT @andylevy: Oh God one of these people is gonna be the GOP nominee. #tweetthepress
    2 minutes ago

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Roger Moore:
    Yes. I believe you are one hundred percent correct there. It goes to foreign policy as well, where liberals fall along the range of ‘Do we really NEED to to use force?’ while conservatives fall along the range of ‘Are you looking at me funny?’ What is the common thread, do you think?

  77. 77.

    JPL

    So according to the debate pollution is good and education is bad? I did try to stream but the echo effect drove me nuts… Okay it wasn’t the echo, it was the candidates.

  82. 82.

    Samara Morgan

    @Omnes Omnibus: link or it didnt happen.

    eadvocate Kendra Kellogg by anonops
    1st, protests merged: RT @EgyptEagle #TroyDavis march reached #occupywallstreet #Zaccutti really proud of these people twitpic.com/6oxspm
    21 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

    the merge happened like 20 minnits ago.

  84. 84.

    Linnaeus

    @Roger Moore:

    I think that’s a very plausible explanation. It’s all about someone else “getting theirs”, unless of course, it’s the conservative “getting his”. Then it’s, “hey, let’s not rush to judgement here!”

  88. 88.

    Jenny

    Peggy Noonan (the Widow Reagan) called Parry, “cheap, base-playing buffoon”.

    It’s so funny watching them bite and kick each other.

  90. 90.

    Chris

    @Cacti:

    Mitt Romney would be a shoe-in, but for the fact that most people don’t like him.

    Almost feel bad for the guy, he just wants SO BADLY! to be president.

  92. 92.

    Samara Morgan

    @Omnes Omnibus: make meh.

    anonops AnonOps
    NYPD is “escorting” protesters back to #libertyplaza #OccupyWallStreet LIVE VideoStreaming >> goo.gl/aj94g
    11 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

    just like Tehran and the Greens!

  94. 94.

    Loneoak

    I’d give my left nut just hear someone say frothy mix.

    ETA: Man, the autocorrect in the new MacOS is pretty bossy.

  98. 98.

    gogol's wife

    @Jenny:

    What does “base-playing” mean? Oh, I just got it, he’s playing to the base. I thought you meant he was a bass player, the first halfway decent thing I’ve heard about him.

  100. 100.

    Jenny

    @Chris:

    he just wants SO BADLY! to be president.

    It’s a daddy thing. He’s trying to even the score for his father’s disastrous 1968 run.

  104. 104.

    gogol's wife

    I shouldn’t ask this, but what is m_c on about and what does it have to do with the Republican debate?

  110. 110.

    Short Bus Bully

    @Chris:
    I hear ya. I always die a little inside when I see the rich having to struggle with achieving their heart’s desire…

  111. 111.

    Samara Morgan

    Cole just caved.
    he is tweeting.

    Johngcole John Cole
    Bush. Drunk. RT @ChrisNBama: Rick Perry really has no grasp on foreign affairs. Who the hell is prepping this guy?! @cspanwj
    4 minutes ago

  114. 114.

    Chris

    @Jenny:

    It’s a daddy thing. He’s trying to even the score for his father’s disastrous 1968 run.

    Hey, I remember the last time we had a president with daddy issues.

    Good Lord, is EVERYONE trying to be The New Bush?

  118. 118.

    Anne Laurie

    @gogol’s wife:

    I shouldn’t ask this, but what is m_c on about and what does it have to do with the Republican debate?

    Two separate groups of her fellow trustafarians earnest young hipsters have merged their joint protests in downtown NYC. The NYPD are demonstrating the VILINCE INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM, as will happen. Since this indicates, in chanese, that Amerikkka is now witnessing its very own Jasmine Revolution, why why why have the running dogs of the BJ collective failed to dedicate the front page to live-streaming? ! ? Or at least changed the color of the blog’s backdrop to indicate where we stand?

    It’s got sweet-fvck-all to do with the Republican debate, but then, m_c’s not gonna waste her beautiful mind on mere WEC politics…

  121. 121.

    Samara Morgan

    @Anne Laurie: sorry JAFI queen, but its relevent. AllahP said so.

    allahpundit Allah Pundit
    The Dow lost close to a thousand points this week, right? Oh well. Back to Gardasil. #debate
    18 minutes ago

    wanna take a few shots at us poor oppressed “shariah-ridden” muslimahs and our harem culture again?

  122. 122.

    scav

    Give her credit though: loca_chinwag’s giving an entire combined debating team’s worth of republicans a stiff run in the idiocy stakes. Universe might not be able to take the strain, but it’s certainly a sight.

  125. 125.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Samara Morgan:
    No. It couldn’t be. Seriously, not in snark, no. It couldn’t be. Protests are not uncommon in the US. Every time the WTO meets you get a mess dwarfing this. Investors do not care two rubs of a penny over these protests and they are not affecting stock prices. Wall Street doesn’t care, and there’s no reason for them to care. Whether or not the actual government itself is moving towards greater regulation or taxes is important to them. Europe’s financial problems are important to them. A street protest is not important to them.

  128. 128.

    Samara Morgan

    AllahP twittering Conservative Thunderdrome is even funnier than Cole.

    allahpundit Allah Pundit
    RT @Heminator: I think Rick Perry just had a stroke.
    4 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

  129. 129.

    cmorenc

    @Roger Moore:

    Conservatives are most interested in punishing the guilty, so they want long sentences, capital punishment, and fewer procedural protections, even if it means innocent people will be executed. Conservatives are genuinely more worried that a murderer might escape justice than they are that an innocent man might be executed.

    A key part of the conservative mindset is dividing society into the circle of blessed and deserving folks like themselves and the circle of dammed and undeserving “others”. As a member of the “deserving” citizenry, most of them genuinely cannot imagine themselves as ever potentially being the subject of the criminal justice system as the unfairly accused rather than being among the unfairly victimized it is supposed to protect. They are worthy citizens of society, and the kind of folks subjected to the criminal justice system are unworthy predators and low-lifes. They utterly fail to see how a just society requires sharing any common interests with the latter, as opposed to removing as many of them as expeditiously as possible from circulation.

  131. 131.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @cmorenc:
    An inability to empathize in the old fashioned sense? They just can’t place themselves there? When ‘There but for the grace of God go I’ is said, they hear ‘I’m God’s favorite!’ rather than ‘That could have been me’? It would go well with all their other IGMFY policies. But the argument about fear is persuasive, too.

  132. 132.

    chrome agnomen

    @cmorenc:

    and if perchance any of these deserving citizens are accused, they are immediately rebranded as undeserving. this ultimately results in solitary units of ‘deservedness. “i suspect everyone but me and thee, and i’m not too sure about thee.” a lonely, fear-ridden, paranoiac existence.

  135. 135.

    Short Bus Bully

    @chrome agnomen:

    and if perchance any of these deserving citizens are accused, they are immediately rebranded as undeserving.

    Not true. Watch what happens when one of their kids gets arrested for anything.

  136. 136.

    Texas Dem

    Romney ran rings around Perry tonight. I think it’s going to be increasingly difficult for the party to ignore the fact that Perry is simply not ready for prime time, at least insofar as running for president is concerned. Perry should have been better prepared, given how much was riding on his performance tonight. Yet his attack lines fell flat, and at times he seemed incoherent. Almost like he took a sleeping pill this afternoon and it never quite wore off. Then again, maybe Perry just isn’t capable of much more. Perhaps that’s why he went out of his way to avoid debating opponents when he was running for reelection in Texas.

  137. 137.

    Anne Laurie

    @Texas Dem:

    Perry should have been better prepared, given how much was riding on his performance tonight. Yet his attack lines fell flat, and at times he seemed incoherent. Almost like he took a sleeping pill this afternoon and it never quite wore off.

    During the short clip played on the local late-night newscast, Perry seemed to be nodding his head too much, and holding his shoulders very stiff — he looked odd, even standing next to Willard Romney, who’s a longterm denizen of the Uncanny Valley. I’m beginning to believe the rumor that Perry’s not fully recovered from his back surgery, and the pain pills aren’t making him any more coherent. (He seems to be fine in the clips I’ve seen of grip’n’grins and such, but not in the evenings, at least when it’s an event that he can’t duck out of, like tonight.)

  138. 138.

    Bago

    @different church-lady: Doubleclick.net is an Internet advertising company that was bought by google roughly two years ago. Through their market segments and tracking cookies (because the ad spans or divs are served from the Doubleclick domain) are used to target advertising towards you based on your browsing history.

    Now, because of the timeout you are seeing, I would suspect that google is attempting to do some sort of domain/geoip based targeting, and, using that to leverage the content delivery network(local caches) to get you the closest copy of the ad. But, the dns resolution is failing. The browser is blocking on that content, meaning it is not rendering the full Dom because it isnwaiting for the content to download to define the Dom.

  139. 139.

    schlemizel - was Alwhite

    I know its late to the thread but I just read that the crowd boo’ed an active duty military member last night. Any of you souls brave enough to sit through the shit fest able to detail what actually happened?

Comments are closed.