Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

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

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Accountability, motherfuckers.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Bark louder, little dog.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

You cannot shame the shameless.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

We still have time to mess this up!

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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66Comments

  2. 2.

    DS

    That Daily Beast headline is just astounding in its stupidity. Yeah, its weird the Democrats could “barely muster a majority” when they only have 53 votes. Meanwhile, every Republican voted against the bill – good luck with that Sen. Brown – and its doesn’t get a mention. Obama derangement syndrome at its finest.

  3. 3.

    wilfred

    The why why on earth have post after post referring to the regurgitated vomit of established media? There are many other sources which challenge the horseshit narrative that drives American politics. Try Press TV, or al Jazira, or better:

    http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag

  4. 4.

    Poopyman

    True enough, and yet Fallows himself calls Reid’s switching of his vote a “ruse” rather than the commonly employed parliamentary tactic that it is.

    Am I being too hard on him? He’s doing yoeman’s work of calling out his peers, yet slips up himself.

  5. 5.

    Moonbatting Average

    It’s infuriating that the media focuses so much on process over policy. It’s mind-boggling that they can’t even report on process accurately.

  6. 6.

    General Stuck

    We are about to see an epic and unprecedented influx of cold hard American cash into the pol system via unlimited and secret sources, and all the players are keenly aware that money will increasingly be the final arbiter of every single fucking thing that goes on in our political lives and elections especially. And when it comes to wealth, dems just can’t hold a candle to the wingnuts and their big money, that will fashion the debate to GOP liking even more than it has. And in the backs of all the players minds, this insidious advantage will only grow for the GOP, in all sorts of ways. I may be overstating the effect, time will tell.

  7. 7.

    cervantes

    That’s pretty funny — that he could “barely muster a majority” “proves his weakness.” Whereas being able to muster a minority proves the strength of the Republicans. That makes perfect sense to me.

  9. 9.

    FlipYrWhig

    I thought the media’s job was to speculate on why babies and/or hot chicks came to be missing. I’m pretty sure Walter Lippmann said so.

  11. 11.

    Chyron HR

    Senate Democrats could barely muster a majority

    Republican #1: “Sounds like the Democrat party’s got a discipline problem.”

    Republican #2: “Maybe that’s why we beat them at football nearly half the time.”

  12. 12.

    beltane

    Please stop thinking the media is useless or not doing its job. They are highly useful to the billionaires who pay their salaries and they are very effective at doing their job, which is to help subvert the democratic process by confusing and misleading the electorate. We are engaged in a class war and the corporate media is the psy-ops unit of the 1%ers.

  13. 13.

    Culture of Truth

    Useless? This?

    THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
    (New York Times) — When you see spontaneous social protests erupting from Tunisia to Tel Aviv to Wall Street, it’s clear that something is happening globally that needs defining. There are two unified theories out there that intrigue me. One says this is the start of “The Great Disruption.” The other says that this is all part of “The Big Shift.” You decide.

    Go ahead. Kill me.

    Go ahead. Kill me now.

  14. 14.

    jwest

    Since the press has never misrepresented a conservative position, I can only imagine what you liberals are going through.

    You have my sympathy.

  16. 16.

    maya

    The Daily Beast headline was the headline on Yahoo,(AP?) this AM too.

    Translation: Obama can’t even get it up, while, here, I kneel in humble awe before that magnificent manly big stiffy my corporate job provider whips out so I can proceed to slurp the bonus that he so graciously releases to feed my inner capitalist republic loving soul. And slurp I will.

  17. 17.

    eemom

    hey, Cole. DOUGJ sez y’all BAN trolls who contribute NOTHING POSITIVE to the conversation. He booted out 2 just the other day. Poof, gone — right before our very eyes — vanished in a puff of smoke.

    Jussayinzall.

  18. 18.

    Rihilism

    Perhaps the NYT can (sort of) pilfer CNN’s “viewers vote on which stories are important enough to air” method of journalism and allow its readers to vote on headlines.

    My vote would be, “Repubs Twirl Staches While Tying Economy To Tracks”…

  19. 19.

    amk

    Since I coined this all by myself, I love repeating it.

    One bitter fact is two bit hacks populate the third rate fourth estate who are truly the fifth columnists.

  20. 20.

    General Stuck

    @General Stuck:

    I would add, that although dems can’t match the wingers dollar for dollar, they compete and maybe win by going full metal populist for the 99% percent and take no prisoners, and not let up. It looks like for now, our dems in office gets it, but we will see if and how well they stick to it. It’s the only way forward for liberals progressives and democrats. imo

  23. 23.

    boss bitch

    Mass GOP produces ooga booga video of Elizabeth Warren:

    http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/massachusetts-gop-video-elizabeth-warren-throws-rocks.php?ref=fpa

    The video plays snippets of Warren using some colorful, figurative language during a TV interview — with added sound effects and video blurring, with the picture zooming in further and further on Warren’s mouth as she speaks: “I have really done three things in my life, I have taught school…I’ve done research…And I have thrown rocks at people that I think are in the wrong.”

  24. 24.

    wilfred

    “It’s the only way forward for liberals progressives and democrats”

    Strike out the first and last terms and you’ve got it. Apply the Chuck Schumer standard here – which is one he? He sure can’t be all three.

    No one is going to buy populism from anyone who’s been feeding at the Wall Street trough – and that includes the Emperor.

  25. 25.

    TooManyJens

    @Poopyman:

    and yet Fallows himself calls Reid’s switching of his vote a “ruse” rather than the commonly employed parliamentary tactic that it is.

    OTOH, he immediately explained exactly what Reid was doing there and why; the sentence was actually informative. “Ruse” isn’t the best word, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.

  26. 26.

    beltane

    @boss bitch: As opposed to Republicans who fail at school, don’t do their research, and who throw rocks at poor people just like Jesus told them to.

  28. 28.

    Rihilism

    Since the press has never misrepresented a conservative position, I can only imagine what you liberals are going through.

    Since conservatives are adept at misrepresenting their own positions on issues, I believe your empathy, …er…a, sympathy is misplaced…

  31. 31.

    Gilles de Rais

    Thomas Friedman: Worst. Columnist. Ever.

    @Reality’s Bounced Check: Who says the left and right can’t agree on anything?

    Anyone who loathes The Mustache of Understanding is a friend of mine, regardless of any other insane beliefs they may hold.

  34. 34.

    Rihilism

    @Yutsano: I am no expert on empathy, but I assume that you can understand or relate to what someone is going through and still not give a shit…

  35. 35.

    Rick Massimo

    Since the press has never misrepresented a conservative position, I can only imagine what you liberals are going through.

    The press misrepresents conservative positions all the time – they make them seem much more sane and humane than they actually are. That must really eat at you.

  40. 40.

    Lurking Canadian

    I lost track, is empathy good or bad?

    Empathy for the suffering of poor and/or non-white people is bad.

    Empathy for the suffering of Wall Street traders who sometimes get called nasty names is good.

  43. 43.

    Culture of Truth

    “Republicans Filibuster Jobs Bill”

    “In an attempt to prevent a majority vote from prevailing, the GOP staged a filibuster of the Jobs Bill submitted by the President. The passed but is blocked by the filibuster unless it gets 60 votes.”

  45. 45.

    MagicPanda

    I get why we all complain about the media, but it’s just not that useful.

    Instead of complaining, we should be better getting our message out given the way the media is today.

    Instead of wishing that the media called the GOP obstructionists, we should call the GOP obstructionists. We should say that they are trying to destroy the economy to win elections. We should say that tax cuts for the rich have been tried for 30 years and all they have done is screw the middle class.

    If folks on the Democratic side of things could say it loudly enough, often enough, and using simple enough words, eventually, the media will eventually report on it. That’s what they see as their jobs.

  46. 46.

    MagicPanda

    And by “we” in that post above, I meant “our politicians”. I realize that bloggers and commenters say that stuff all the time, but no one is going to report on that stuff.

  47. 47.

    patrick II

    I felt much less justified about the blaming the republicans for the democrats inability to get to sixty since I understood it would take only 51 votes to change the filibuster rules. Which means we could have passed a lot of legislation the last two years. It seems there are less than 50 dems who really want to vote for progressive programs — but don’t want to vote against them eigher. They hide behind the republican filibuster which has allowed them to not be demagogued as they have been with an actual reconciliation vote they had to take — health care.
    Passing legislation that can be made to seem as controversial in the right wing wind machine (but shouldn’t really be controversial at all) can, in the mind of at least some, be a less favored strategy than not passing the legislation while apparantly voting for it.

  48. 48.

    harlana

    where are the true “conservatives” anymore? this word is being thrown around loosely here and everywhere else. i guess it just doesn’t mean what it used to mean. it pretty much means “right wing” these days. i don’t mean to state the obvious but use of that word to describe a bunch of unbalanced and/or sociopathic people who want to destroy the economy to take down a black man just doesn’t sit right with me.

  49. 49.

    catclub

    @Culture of Truth: NPR got it about half right, they did say that republicans defeated the jobs bill, rather than saying democrats failed to pass it.

    Still did not mention that defeat means a minority of the votes.

  50. 50.

    catclub

    Of course, that could also be a link to Fallows’ 1994 article, right?

    Some things never change.

  51. 51.

    RalfW

    In useless media land, I was (for some unknown reason) watching NBC Nitely Nooz last eve, and the story on the Iran-Saudi assassination attempt contained a section on why the story might be hard to believe. I was blog-reading and eating dinner, so I didn’t track closely.

    Now Salon has a piece up on how the s Iran-Saudi assassination thing is full o’ incredulity.

    So, gee, who might have a vested interest in pushing the meme that this thwarting is bogus and that Obama is bumbling and lying about national defense. Could it be the same right-wing machine that tried to take the Osama kill away from Obama.

    The same r/w machine that would have had 100 BooYaa! chants if Bush droned a Qaeda top-dog but that says ‘pfffft’ when Obama’s team does it?

    Could it be that Democrats aren’t weak on defense, we just have a corrupt or utterly inane media? Oh how could that be????

  53. 53.

    RalfW

    Oh, and the updated Fallows post now has an utterly mind-bogglingly biased headline from the Daily Beast (Daily Bullshit):

    “Obama Looses Big on Jobs Bill”
    Lede: Nothing quite illustrates the depth of Barack Obama’s weakness in Washington better than…

    F*ckers.

    F*cking jacknobs.

    Nothing quite illustrates the utter contempt for people out of work and suffering quite like the unholy alliance between an nihilist GOP and a blow-job hungry press like this Beast hit-job.

  54. 54.

    eemom

    @eemom:

    Aha! NOW I get it…..my posts are eated because they use the names of the booted trollz.

    Some high tech shit ya got here, Cole.

    Anyway: a-i-s-c-e got banned for being a pathological asshole with no redeeming value.

    And some BoB sockpuppet for saying there are fat women at OWS rallies.

  55. 55.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    NPR’s Tamara Keith had a lovely report this morning on the jobs bill vote in the senate. 3 minutes on how “Both sides” got to use the vote to accuse the other of tanking the economy. 0 minutes spent on discovering if either of those accusations were true.

    Pathetic.

  56. 56.

    Gilles de Rais

    So, gee, who might have a vested interest in pushing the meme that this thwarting is bogus and that Obama is bumbling and lying about national defense.

    @RalfW: I don’t know. I can certainly think of some options, including the right wing (I find that unlikely) but quite a few other possibilities as well.

    Here’s the deal: the story that is being pimped around is, put charitably, unbelievable from start to finish. It’s shadier and less believable than Colin Powell at the UN. It’s more unlikely than anything Chalabi ever made up between hits off his hash pipe. I’m not going to pretend I know what’s going on here, but my bullshit meter is pegged at the far end of the dial. Hope we can get it all sorted before the nukes start landing on Tehran.

  59. 59.

    Dee Loralei

    @RalfW: I heard Richard Clark last night, I think it was NPR, because I was in my car. He seemed to think the threat was legitimate and that as crazy as it sounds, was probably real. Since he worked for Clinton and Dubbya. And since he doesn’t seem to have an axe, I find him say more credible than any of the folks from the right wing on this. YMMV.

  60. 60.

    TenguPhule

    I understand we can solve hunger in America by boiling Republican born babies in large vats and serving them as stew.

  61. 61.

    TenguPhule

    I felt much less justified about the blaming the republicans for the democrats inability to get to sixty since I understood it would take only 51 votes to change the filibuster rules.

    They will filibuster rule changes too. Doesn’t matter if its in the rules or not.

  62. 62.

    Nethead Jay

    @eemom: What! Don’t like a-i-s-c-e at all but didn’t see her as anywhere close to banning teritory. I’d far rather see jwest tossed out posthaste for his horrible crack about beating women yesterday.

  65. 65.

    FlipYrWhig

    @patrick II:

    It seems there are less than 50 dems who really want to vote for progressive programs

    Many, many less. Some are just not progressive; some are zealous guardians of Senate prerogatives and aren’t about to cede their own power just to help some fly-by-night President they never much liked — and they never much like ANY Democratic president.

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