Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Motown is Joe-Town!

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

We won’t go back.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

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

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

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

We’re not going back!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Little Song In Your Heart

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  4. 4.

    Dave

    And the Herman Cain Experience is officially over. The death rattle should last a few weeks, though.

    Mittens may be the luckiest politican ever. Except for President Obama, who has been given the worst opposition ever for 2012.

  6. 6.

    artem1s

    It was for the sake of this day that he had first decided to run for the Presidency, a decision which had sent waves of astonishment throughout the Imperial Galaxy – Zaphod Beeblebrox Herman Cain? President? Not the Zaphod Beeblebrox Herman Cain? Not the President? Many had seen it as a clinching proof that the whole of known creation had finally gone bananas.

  7. 7.

    Linda Featheringill

    Nice song. Voice is not too good, but probably better than mine. Of course, it really doesn’t tell us anything.

    Have we just been introduced to a new and better way of avoiding uncomfortable questions?

  8. 8.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    So, this just happened.

    Sadly, that’s completely meaningless to us cuberats who can’t do video.

    What just happened?

  12. 12.

    Thoughtcrime

    I could think of a few more appropriate tunes:

    “Send In the Clowns”

    “Tears of A Clown”

    “Laugh Clown Laugh”

    More?

  13. 13.

    EconWatcher

    I know Dougj thinks Perry is toast because of the debates, but I wouldn’t count him out yet. “Not-Mitt” has to be the largest single constituency among GOP voters, and I still think Perry is the most likely candidate for them to seize upon in the end. He may not be a credible candidate, but he is more credible than anyone else who is Not Mitt.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Mary

    My cubicle includes an iPhone and earbuds, but I didn’t need to listen. The link goes to an article describing how Cain broke into song at a press conference or speaking gig where the harassment charges were brought up. Video can wait until I’m home.

  18. 18.

    Rathskeller

    @gbear: Cain just flat out sung a gospel song about Grace, pretending that people were asking him about his faith. Perhaps this will be his Checkers Speech moment, or perhaps this is when people realize that he’s actually nuts.

  20. 20.

    cathyx

    That sounded like Danny Boy. But with different words.

    Edited to add: The smoker is there on the right.

  21. 21.

    The Dangerman

    “In a beautiful world
    I wish I was special
    You’re so fucking special
    But I’m a creep
    I’m a weirdo
    What the hell am I doing here?
    I don’t belong here”

    /herman sings radiohead

  22. 22.

    Nemesis

    @gbear: After providing a full-throated denial of the sechsual harassment charges from years past, Cain delivers his customary stump speech, followed by a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace. Not making it up. It really happened.

  24. 24.

    jamie d

    For those without video: Ol’ Herm did what appeared to be a mashup of Amazing Grace and Danny Boy trailing off into incomprehensible gospel lyrics in a soft baritone.

  26. 26.

    Jay in Oregon

    I would comment on that video, but I’m busy picking up shards of my skull after my brain exploded.

    Ho. Lee. Crap.

  27. 27.

    Loneoak

    This makes me think he might actually be a fun president. He could announce every policy decision with a song—no more dry, boring press conferences. And the State of the Union could be a musical review.

  28. 28.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    Since this is an open thread, I’m gonna take a moment to seriously vent here, because right now I feel like exploding.

    The Occupy movement is doing well…extremely well. Amazingly so, despite the all that’s thrown at them rhetorically and literally. Visiting the protest down at Zucotti Park was a heartening experience to me…

    But the more everything else filters through, the more I feel the knot in my stomach say ‘It’s too late, it’s far too late’. I mean, you have the massive state-level disenfranchisement movement going on. And for every Ohio success story (Bless you Kay and everyone else working for it down there), you have your Michigans and your Floridas. Places where it’s not only succeeding but getting entrenched, especially because people are buying the whole ‘You can’t use a credit card without ID, why not vote?!’ bullshit line, and being piss scared of them ILLEEEEEGALLLLS!!! voting to not understand the wide net being cast.

    And then you have abortions rights. There isn’t even a success story here to really speak of it seems. It’s being wiped away as we speak, to the point of laws like Alabama’s where you might just get charged with fucking murder for a MISCARRIAGE! Why? Because hey, YOU can’t prove you didn’t stab your baby in the womb, you slut!!

    And then…you have bullshit like that surrounding Social Security discussed further down, and the goddamn snarl of the Super Committee slamming the pendulum further right in some kind of stupid fucking hope that the GOP might finally agree to something, only for the GOP to snap back “NO! NO TAXES! OUR MILLIONAIRES CAN’T TAKE A .5 PERCENT HIKE, NOOOOOOO!!!” And despite the public conversation changing, it doesn’t matter a fucking whit because the people we have in charge now have already decided FUCK YOU AUSTERITY FOR-FUCKING-EVER, AND A GUBMENT IN EVERY UTERUS!! And with the perfect, state-level storm of Conservafucks in charge, it feels like it’s only gonna get worse, and we’re gonna have laws on the books that’ll take decades to undo, and a public that won’t tolerate Dems or….shudder to think, LIBERALS…even 2 years of wieldable power before they scream “YOU HAD 2 YEARS, SO FUCK YOU, GOP GETS 15 YEARS STRAIGHT!”

  29. 29.

    jl

    A new candidate like nothing we have ever seen before.

    Just like Cain promised. What’s the problem?

    I predict a big poll bump among the teahordes.

    Edit: just noticed link at top of post. The song was ‘He Looked Beyond My Faults’? If so, slam dunk win. The Xtianists love this stuff. I for one, welcome my new CEO in chief overlord singing Cain. Nobama and Mitt might as concede right now and save us all the money and trouble.

    And it stepped all over Newt’s re re re relaunch. A twofer.

  30. 30.

    grass

    Would I be underestimating the value voters and Christian Right if I thought this sealed the nomination for Cain? I mean, Gospel Singer in Chief would be their ideal president, no?

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Zounds, and I just saw a clip of Perry’s New Hampshire speech. Did he have a breakfast and Bailey’s interview with Peggy Noonan? Is it irresponsible to speculate, etc.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @EconWatcher:

    I know Dougj thinks Perry is toast because of the debates, but I wouldn’t count him out yet. “Not-Mitt” has to be the largest single constituency among GOP voters, and I still think Perry is the most likely candidate for them to seize upon in the end. He may not be a credible candidate, but he is more credible than anyone else who is Not Mitt.

    I don’t know. The crazy, conservative British newspaper, the Daily Mail, recently carried a news story which described a recent Perry speech:

    In it, he appears to be unusually expressive, rambling and sometimes even incoherent.
    __
    His tone and pitch verge from the manic to the sombre and subdued as he puts on strange voices and waves his arms in the air.

    Perry and Cain seem to be trying to out-crazy each other.

  38. 38.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @cathyx:

    I feel like I need Jack Daniels instead. Which sucks because I can’t stand the stuff.

  39. 39.

    jl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Xtianists love sinnin’ preachers, as long as it is he manly wholesome sinnin’, and they are folksy. So I thought that was what Perry was doing.

    Perry and Cain using the same playbook, but Cain wrapped it up. Too bad for Perry. But he will make one great lobbyist. Man, think of them parties he will shindig out for the morer people!

  41. 41.

    gbear

    This makes me think he might actually be a fun president.

    Except for when he, like, decides stuff.

  42. 42.

    pattyp

    Well, at least he found a unique way to use the standard conservative response to a sex scandal – “I prayed and asked the Lord to forgive me.”

  43. 43.

    Thoughtcrime

    This makes me think he might actually be a fun president. He could announce every policy decision with a song—no more dry, boring press conferences. And the State of the Union could be a musical review.

    Hopefully he’ll perform some Harold Hill songs at the Iowa caucuses. “The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl” would be a good choice.

  45. 45.

    jibeaux

    Since it’s an open thread, the 7 billionth baby was just born. They are naming her Danica Camacho.

    CAMACHO. That’s no coincidence, the idiocracy has officially begun.

  47. 47.

    jprfrog

    You are quite right: the tune is “Londonderry Air”, sometimes known as “Danny Boy” fitted out with come-to-Jesus lyrics by God knows whom (pun intended). It’s actually a beautiful little tune but is all too often submerged in a slather of over-done sentimentality.

    Was this really in response to a question about sexual harassment? I feel for the people there, hacks though some (many) of them may be. I would have wanted to crawl under the table with vicarious embarrassment. I would also feel some pity for Herman Cain, he were not (as this episode shows) such a complete, cosmic-scale a$$hole.

  49. 49.

    Hoodie

    @jl: I guess some of the fundies may go for it, but Herman seems to be singin’ past the graveyard, because the charge against Herman is too evocative of “rutting savage” stereotypes of black males to not get traction with that crowd. Only white teabilly preachers get to use the Jesus move.

  50. 50.

    Warren Terra

    @slag:
    I like Whedon, I like the ensemble cast he’s sort-of assembled around him. Maybe he’ll make it work. But Much Ado is terrible, plus it got the Hollywood treatment rather recently (Branagh, with Keanu, if I recall). Keeping my fingers crossed, hoping against expectation.

    @cathyx:
    Indeed. Neither a bad voice, nor a terrible delivery. But really rather scary to have a candidate evangelizing from the podium in the Press Club – and it was the wrong damn tune. The actual tune to Amazing Grace is much better, at least with the words to Amazing Grace.

    On the other hand, maybe we can get him to do “One Song To The Tune Of Another” on I’m Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue?

  54. 54.

    slag

    @dedc79: Good post.

    King is preoccupied with avoiding anthropomorphizing animal behavior when what scientists should really be preoccupied with is avoiding anthropomorphizing human behavior.

    I like this point especially. I know that not all scientists who decry anthropomorphism are guilty of making unfounded assumptions about human behavior, but it sure seems that a lot of them are. Nice to see a rebuttal.

  57. 57.

    Satanicpanic

    Anyone ever been at a poker table and someone has to leave early? They write off their buy in and just start going all in, hoping to lose. Because everyone figures it’s easy money, people start wrecklessly calling their all-ins and inevitably, the person trying to lose ends up winning a few rounds and hilarity ensues. Herman Cain is tired and he just wants to go home, but everyone else in this stupid game just won’t let him.

  58. 58.

    dedc79

    @slag: Thanks, I didn’t have time to flesh out the argument as much as I would’ve liked, but part of what prompted the post was a recent article in the New Yorker about how dogs came to be domesticated, which was full of problematic assumptions about human behavior/emotions.

  59. 59.

    scav

    Almost there, but he does really need to break into a little softshoe or tap or something no? At last we’ve got a candidate who’s really got the chance to give the public a song and dance! Lehrer calls rewrite

  60. 60.

    slag

    @Warren Terra: Whedon has a way of making me love things I know I’ll hate. Only Joss can turn a show named Buffy, the Vampire Slayer into a show that I would want to watch. He’s kind of magical that way. And yet, no matter how many times he undermines my preconceived notions, I still haven’t learned to trust him unconditionally. Which I guess just means that I’ll never believe in magic.

    That said, I love so much about Much Ado that I can’t agree with you on that score. My only hesitation is in its adaptation.

  61. 61.

    Politically Lost

    Oh, how I love the the intertrons. One moment on checking on my favorite dystopian nightmare blog and I’m instantly conveyed to a mind bending universe where political front runners sing sloppy bj’s to Jesus in order to hide from talk about talk about naughty bits sealed against revalation by legal settlement; and then, AND THEN I’m transported to an IMBD page showing me one of the most hilarious premises in movie plot I had ever heard.

    Give me MOAR!!!

  64. 64.

    Tom Q

    @EconWatcher: I’m in complete agreement with you. It’s not dissimilar to the between-parties situation in 1992: Bush I was clearly deeply unpopular, but, after the Gennifer Flowers/draft mud-flinging at Clinton, GOP operatives were certain they’d rendered Clinton unelectable. What they didn’t realize was that Bush’s unfavorability was still the driving force of the election. Voters danced around a bit — going with Perot for a while — but, in the end, they voted for the best not-Bush available, which was Clinton despite the air of scandal.

    The premise now seems to be that if they (and it’s the same “they” — the Republican attack machine — only this time working intra-party) can take down all the opposition, the not-Romney voters will simply surrender to Mitt in the end. I invoke the Clinton precedent and say, if Not-Mitt is the over-riding principle, primary voters will find a way to make that reality.

    And I’m with you: Perry is the one that can come back and take the nomination, despite the massive pain they’ve inflicted on him.

  66. 66.

    Jenny

    I can’t stop laughing.

    Half the wingers are screaming this is an Axelrod hit job, the other half are screaming Politico is liberal organ.

  67. 67.

    jl

    It’s too early to say who will win GOP nom. Remember that mean ol’ McCain was considered a zombie candidate for months, and he won out late in the game, just in time to get himself nominated and reveal himself to be an ignorant, rash, blowhard, know nothing fool during the financial panic.

    Multiple Choice’s best chance is to come in a consistent second and outlast all the notMitts.

    It might be a long campaign, long enough for Cain to get up a novelty gospel/pizza troupe that throws performance art events, and Perry to work up a protable circus with a carny ally, with himself staring in the folksy freak show tent.

    It will be fun.

  69. 69.

    Calouste

    @Jenny:

    Occam’s razor: Cain is running against Republicans at the moment. That makes it being a Republican hit job that much more likely.

  70. 70.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jenny:

    There’s a reason why they’re called “wingtards”.

    They really are stupid sacks of shit, every last one of them.

    This whole thing is SCREAMING “Rove did it” and they refuse to consider anything but their mindless hatred of the evil left.

  71. 71.

    Villago Delenda Est

    A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer in your pants.

    Oh, wait, that was for Chuckles the Clown…

  74. 74.

    Jenny

    Get the popcorn ready, the 2nd act of this circus commences when Tweety freaks out at the top of the hour.

  76. 76.

    replicnt6

    I think it’s customary to have someone else sing Amazing Grace at your funeral. But I guess this just goes to bolster Hermie’s maverick credentials.

  79. 79.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jenny: Half the wingers are screaming this is an Axelrod hit job, the other half are screaming Politico is liberal organ.

    File this one under “They Just Don’t Get It‘

    “You’re saying Occupy Politico,” Ingraham responded to Natalie. “They’re occupying Wall Street, we need [an] occupypolitico.com. I got it.”
    Ingraham went on to criticize the website for publishing the story, claiming that they are “destroying a good man’s reputation.”

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    If I were Huckabee I would be cursing my decision not to run right about now. Man this year’s field of asylum escapees/Republicans is made for him.

  81. 81.

    rikryah

    when I first read about this over at TPM, I had to blink.

    and read it again.

    he BROKE OUT IN SONG?

    W-T-F?

    And some Black folk have the NERVE to try and say Barack Obama isn’t a ‘ real Black man’?

    when we have an honest-to-God

    SHUFFLIN’ AND JIGGLIN’ ACE-BOON-COON

    right in front of you.

  82. 82.

    MomSense

    @64 Tom

    Did you see the clip of Perry’s speech in NH? In dry New England speak, the Mayor of Manchester saying “it was different” is translated as ‘this guy is fu@#$ng nuts and probably on drugs.’

  83. 83.

    Tom Q

    @MomSense: Literally saw it just moments ago. He looked like a total goofball.

    And he still has a hell of a chance to be the GOP nominee. A party that nominated, variously, Sharon Angle/Christine O’Donnell/Joe Miller and other loons I can’t remember in Senate and gubernatorial primaries last year is not exactly squeamish about craziness.

  85. 85.

    Kane

    It appears thus far that many on the right are coming to the defense of Herman Cain following the report of sexual harassment. I suppose the reaction of the right to rally around Cain is to be expected. But what happens to that support from those on the right if those faceless and nameless women accusing Cain of sexual harassment turn out to be white? It’s one thing for those on the right to defend Clarence Thomas when his accuser is black. It’s another thing altogether to ask those on the right to take the word of a black man over the word of two white women accusers.

  86. 86.

    PurpleGirl

    jl at #29 has the song title — “He looked Beyond My Faults.”

    This song, written by Dottie Rambo (no kidding that’s her name) wrote the song. It was not meant to be the “Amazing Grace” we know. And it does seem to use the tune “Londonderry Air”. Numerous hymns can can be sung to different tunes. If you look in any hymnal, you will find lists of hymns by first line, title, tune.

  87. 87.

    Mark K

    If any wingnut says anything, act pissed off. That you were hoping, really hoping Cain would be the nominee because Obama would win in a landslide.

    When my RW authoritarian dad mentioned Palin running for POTUS, I said the same thing and it shut him up immediately.

  88. 88.

    maya

    After having to suffer through, “the president we want to have a beer with” we now have, “the president we want to sing a capella with”

  89. 89.

    AA+ Bonds

    His rickety ass campaign is full of weirdos who have the shittiest ideas about what people might find appealing about him and about them, it’s motherfuckin manna from heaven, just shower me with videos of Herman Cain going shithouse crazy

  90. 90.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Oh this sexual harassment biz is without a DOUBT a Rove hit, coming up like this, right now, but then again, Cain probably did it.

    It’s pretty interesting because there’s no way Cain or Perry win the nomination. Rove is just trying to run the 2000 game: do away with any semblance of democratic process in choosing the Republican nominee, so his groups can save up the bucks for the general election.

  91. 91.

    luc

    All future laws, to be signed by president Cain, will have to fit on a single page – and they will have to be accompanied by a matching tune.

  93. 93.

    birthmarker

    The GOP implosions are starting to get really messy. How many more debates did the fools schedule?

  94. 94.

    birthmarker

    @Kane: They may be defending him in public, but the article is pretty well sourced (though names are withheld) and devastating. Plus, who else will come out of the woodwork?

    If you haven’t actually read the Politico article, you should do so.It’s not just a bunch of innuendo.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    Loved the pan back. Mark Block looks like he wants a cigarette bad.

    (He of the viral video.)

    Cain has a nice voice.

    Too bad he uses it to spout such simplistic drivel a great deal of the time.

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