Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Second rate reporter says what?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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  12. 12.

    JPL

    @Comrade Mary: The comments are interesting although not quite the level of ours. How come someone said you have to spend a billion securing the border? Are they afraid that if Obama were not able to win reelection we would all try to emigrate.

  13. 13.

    burnspbesq

    Laettner the kitty is highly amused that her namesake has agreed to coach the Villains team in a Heroes vs. Villains charity basketball game at the University of Kentucky. She showed her amusement by stomping on the chest of her Aminu Timberlake bobblehead.

  17. 17.

    RossInDetroit

    @ant:

    what the hell happened in the Senate tonight?

    TPM‘s got a rundown.

    ETA: jousting over obscure rules about obscure rules. I’m not sure why I should care about this but apparently it’s Important. Frikkin’ Senate. How do they get anything done? Oh, yeah…

  18. 18.

    Mark S.

    I’m pretty sick of politics right now. I have a question for the old timers: Has is it ever been this fucking glum in your lifetimes (I imagine no one here was alive during the Great Depression)? I mean, shit, our victories lately have been not defaulting on the debt and not shutting down the government. Any hope of some positive legislative is like hoping for magical unicorns.

    It’s pretty hard to think it’s gonna get any better in the next couple years. The economy has fundamental flaws, we’ve probably passed peak oil, it’s starting to get a lot fucking hotter. We don’t even discuss these problems because one of the parties is clinically insane.

    Oh well, sorry to bum everyone out. FTFY?

  22. 22.

    lahke

    What with all of the appreciations being written about Steve Jobs, I’m learning new things, such as his birth father was from Syria. Which leads me to wonder, how long before some wingnut decides that Jobs was trying to create technology that would lure the world into instituing sharia law, and trashes his iPod?

  24. 24.

    jeffreyw

    @And Another
    thing…    :
    I set up on my kitchen table, the white ceiling turns the room into a light box for me. I use two remote strobes slaved to the camera, both bouncing off the ceiling. Works pretty well, I set the remotes for +2.0 EV. I’ve been using a 35mm f/1.8 prime lens lately.

    +

  29. 29.

    zmullls

    Oh, here’s a good laugh for the night. I don’t know if anyone reads The Bloggess, but she had an e-mail exchange with a PR Company that has to be read to be believed. (And oh, that picture of Wil Wheaton collating papers — that’s real, and he did it just for her blog).

    I’m watching the real time twitter feed of this poor PR company. They got snotty with the wrong blogger.

    (What’s awesome is that Wil Wheaton even tweeted to his million followers)

  30. 30.

    Comrade Mary

    @JPL: The G&M comments are really polarized. You can count on the vast majority pounding dipshit Toronto mayor Rob Ford for his innumeracy and his arrogance (and his Christie-esque dimensions), but they’re more split on the Liberals at the provincial level.

    Meanwhile, comments at the “liberal” CBC are very Tea Party. It’s bad enough that someone developed a Greasemonkey script for it.

  33. 33.

    Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water

    @Comrade Mary: McGuinty may be the second luckiest politician in Canada, next to Harper. This is the second election in a row that the conservatives have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mark S.:

    I can’t ever recall, in four decades of following politics, it being this bad.

    Not even during Watergate. There were some Republicans who didn’t need the “Smoking Gun” tape to be pissed about what Nixon was doing…and once that got out, they were nearly all pissed, to the point where Barry Goldwater was among the senators who told Nixon that he was toast.

  37. 37.

    wonkie

    I don’t know when Ihave ever felt so bad about the future. I came of age during the Viet Nam war years. My first political experience was the Chicago police riots. Except for the Clinton years when I sort of tuned out for a while I have always been active and well informed. I also had he impression that life in America gradually improved for most people over time. When I look at the faces of the people at occupy events they all look young to me.

    I can remember learning about global warming at an earth day event way back in the seventies.

    I do think we are goig through a bad stretch and that it wil get better but I think it iwll take political and economic upheaval on the order of the Great Depression. If the Rethugs actually defund Medicaid and turn Medicare inot a voucher system–that would cause some serious blowback.

    But this uprisig of the young who don’t feel that they have access to the American Dream–well those who are living are comfortable don’t give a shit. Republicans appeal to the worst in human character and there is always a lot of that around.

    Well I’m just rambling. I have hope but I thik things will have to get worse before our fellow citizens smarten up and stop votig for the Rethuglicans. We’ll be better of when the Faux viewing demographic dies of old age.

  38. 38.

    Comrade Mary

    @Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water: Yeah, Tory really blew it on the schools issue. I don’t listen to his radio station any more, but word is he tore a strip off Tim “Mr. Bean” Hudak for fucking up so badly.

    (Now I’m envisioning Hudak staggering about with his head inserted into a roast turkey. Canadian Thanksgiving coming up this weekend!)

  39. 39.

    Cat Lady

    Watching the George Harrison documentary. He was always my favorite. What a life.

    Beware of Darkness.

    Beware of sadness
    It can hit you
    It can hurt you
    Make you sore and what is more
    That is not what you are here for

    Sigh.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    The NYTimes Friday crossword is a tribute to Steve Jobs. Crosswords are not like obits that are just stored away waiting so it was quite a feat. Good for Will Shortz and the creator Kevin Dor. Special thanks because this Friday puzzle was doable for me. (which is unusual)

  49. 49.

    Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen

    @opal: Congratulations, you have won Today’s Internet. You can have it shipped to your home, take it with you now or you can sell it, become a millionaire and join the People Herman Cain Doesn’t Think Should Die in a Fire Club.

  54. 54.

    beltane

    @amk: Does this mean that Palin’s circle of online admirers really wanted her to be hanged upside down in a town square after bringing humiliation to her country? What an odd thing to wish for.

    If Palin were even semi-coherent she could have a successful career on radio. As it is now, her best bet is to invest her loot wisely as the circus is packing up and leaving town without her.

  57. 57.

    Linnaeus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Here’s the weird thing with Valverde: he does much better in save situations than non-save situations. But you can’t put him in for two innings like you can Rivera. Or at least like you once could.

  59. 59.

    Cassidy

    Anyone in the North Florida, SE Georgia area should check out the Occupy Jacksonville peeps. They have a FB page and a forum and are planning something this weekend. I intend to volunteer as part of the medical team, but I’m a little iffy. They aren’t a very organized group and they are calling this a gathering of private citizens. If they call it a protest, JSO will arrest them as they have to have a permit. I’m trying to get a feel for the leadership. My natural instinct is to push to the front and take charge, lol.

  66. 66.

    William Hurley

    I noticed that the President was speechifying earlier today, so I went back to to the tape to give it a close careful listen.

    Some of the presser was interesting, most silly, but one part stuck out. The President again employed his “do as I say, not as I do” angry-face over the X, Y, Z acts of the banks and Wall St.

    Was this his first baby-steps toward a more concerted effort to co-opt the non-partisan “Occupy” movement? Who knows, for certain.

    But, I can assure you, when the President adopts his “angry regular guy” character (refined at regional-theater actors’ circle no doubt) and declares that he too is mad that the criminals he refuses to prosecute and who refuse to help him strengthen financial regulations and the criminal code – laws he refuses to enforce – he’s actively informing the viewership that he doesn’t care. The President’s “fau-nger” is born of a certitude reaffirmed over dozens and dozens of fund-raising events these range-free malefactors have held for him. Of course, this “certitude” reflects his first-hand experiences of asking – politely no doubt – his most reliable and bountiful campaign financiers to acquiesce to a pantomime of “accountability” in exchange for his “angry-guy” theatrics.

    The fact is that the general public responds to Obama’s unoriginal use political theatrics as do most trauma victims. They, we, tune him out – which is an evolutionary adaptive gift that allows victims to mitigate the immediate impact of traumas.

    Obama will only begin to recapture or recoup some integrity when he actually begins and succeeds in prosecuting crooks who stole a treasure that was valued at over 14-figures and represented the hopes, dreams and pennies for daily-bread of the American people – 99% of us.

  77. 77.

    Moonbatting Average

    As an A’s fan, I now officially forgive the Tigers for the 2006 ALCS. (Note: random blog commenter forgiveness is not officially official)

  78. 78.

    burnspbesq

    I have this sacreligious but utterly delicious image in my head of Steve Gilliard up in Heaven getting all up in George Steinbrenner’s grill.

  81. 81.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mark S.:

    I have a question for the old timers: Has is it ever been this fucking glum in your lifetimes (I imagine no one here was alive during the Great Depression)? I mean, shit, our victories lately have been not defaulting on the debt and not shutting down the government. Any hope of some positive legislative is like hoping for magical unicorns.

    The 1980s should have a much worse reputation. “We” elected Ronald Reagan on purpose (none of this modern Diebold vote-jiggering), the Soviet Union was still powerful enough that nuclear-fueled dick-measuring was the order of the day, scientists were discussing what they called “nuclear winter” and its potential to eliminate 90% of the globe’s species (including humans) over a three-year period. And if that didn’t keep us awake at night, stagflation, 19% mortgage rates, and the start of the multinationals’ Globalization Fvck Yeah crusade against the middle class was just catching fire. Then came this untreatable, incurable, invariably fatal & apparently unstoppable “Gay Plague”, thousands of people were withering away & dying, and the godsblasted “Moral Majority”, with the full acquiesence of St. Ronnie, insisted it was all the victims’ fault and what was required was not funding for medical research (much less relief for the sufferers) but moar PUBLIC PRAYER. Plus also a rollback on women’s reproductive rights and maybe quarantine camps or at least a mandatory “HIV+” tattoo for those people…

    We survived all that hell, and by the end of the decade things were even starting to turn around — the Berlin Wall fell, Iran-contra was exposed (if not, alas, punished), and HIV-positive status was becoming a chronic illness instead of a particularly ugly death sentence. But in 1984, we were making jokes about how Orwell’s book had been outdone by brute reality.

  82. 82.

    OzoneR

    @William Hurley:

    Obama will only begin to recapture or recoup some integrity when he actually begins and succeeds in prosecuting crooks who stole a treasure that was valued at over 14-figures and represented the hopes, dreams and pennies for daily-bread of the American people – 99% of us.

    which will never happen because they DIDN’T DO ANYTHING ILLEGAL.

  83. 83.

    someguy

    Hey, how ’bout Harry Reid eliminating the procedural filibuster? Nicely done – didn’t think he had the nerve to deploy the nuckular option. Now if he can just eliminate the regular filibuster, the last weapon the repiglicans have to stand in the way of democracy in the senate will be eliminated.

  84. 84.

    William Hurley

    @OzoneR:

    Don’t you apologists even try anymore?

    I’ll get you back on the path to reality by directing you’re delicate eyes to this report discussing mortgage and foreclosure fraud.

    Once you’ve really shown you get it, I’ll introduce you to the thousands of single-petitioner and class actions led by states’ AGs seeking remedy for the massive criminality of Obama’s most precious and generous campaign financiers.

    Be sure to remove your “peril sensitive sunglasses”.

  86. 86.

    William Hurley

    @someguy:

    Indeed.

    The other outcome of immediate benefit is that O-Bots will no longer be able to whine about the opposition party acting like an opposition party. Their “spinelessness” defense has been eliminated.

    Truth be told, if a President who enjoyed an 80 seat majority in the House and 19 seat majority in the Senate can’t overcome an historically unprecedented small opposition party, then its well past time to get a President who can and will!

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    @Anne Laurie:

    I’ll see your Reagan era and raise you the Vietnam War era with assasinations, riots, pollution, skyrocketing crime rates, decaying cities, crushing of the Prague Spring and the continual threat of nuclear annihilation, lorded over by president Nixon. Highly recommend spending a few hours at the Vietnam Memorial and ponder reinstatement of the draft.

    Some good music, though.

  90. 90.

    William Hurley

    @burnspbesq:

    Maybe you don’t understand English.

    The linked item provided in above post, if read closely and with attention to detail, will disabuse you of that mistaken reactionary stance.

    Of course, another way to arrive at the standard you note is for the President’s law enforcement agencies to be directed to vigorously investigate and prosecute any and all matters that meet the probable cause standard.

    However, the President is more interested in having his law enforcement agencies manufacture incidences of “terrorism” and to hound “whistle-blowers” and to coordinate efforts that, so far, have resulted in the identification, arrest and deportation of over 1 million undocumented workers.

  92. 92.

    OzoneR

    @William Hurley:

    I’ll get you back on the path to reality by directing you’re delicate eyes to this report discussing mortgage and foreclosure fraud.

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Obama donors?

    You’re talking about two completely different things here. Get back to me when you get them straight.

  93. 93.

    OzoneR

    @William Hurley: ,

    if a President who enjoyed an 80 seat majority in the House and 19 seat majority in the Senate can’t overcome an historically unprecedented small opposition party, then its well past time to get a President who can and will!

    It’s funny because someguy didn’t even mention the President.

  94. 94.

    Donald G

    @Anne Laurie:

    Then came this untreatable, incurable, invariably fatal & apparently unstoppable “Gay Plague”, thousands of people were withering away & dying, and the godsblasted “Moral Majority”, with the full acquiesence of St. Ronnie, insisted it was all the victims’ fault and what was required was not funding for medical research (much less relief for the sufferers) but moar PUBLIC PRAYER. Plus also a rollback on women’s reproductive rights and maybe quarantine camps or at least a mandatory “HIV+” tattoo for those people…

    And one of those arguing in favor of the quarantine camps and mandatory HIV+ status tattoos was one of the patron saints of “reasonable” conservatism, the slimy serpentine one himself, William F Buckley, Jr., the one who is lionized for driving the John Birchers out of the Republican party.

  95. 95.

    Occupy Balloon Juice!

    It’s always best not to feed trolls.

    The minute you feed them they return to the porch every day asking for more.

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