Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

This blog will pay for itself.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This fight is for everything.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Let there be snark.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The willow is too close to the house.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

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109Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Saints and Falcons fought hard for the right to be the team that most deserved to lose the game. Thankfully, Atlanta wanted it more.

  4. 4.

    Dee Loralei

    John, I can’t link a great new song about the Occupy movement, because I am a luddite idiot. It’s by Makana called We Are the Many. He sang it last night at the Obama’s APEC Luau. Kid took it to the 1% LOL. Can someone front page it? It needs to get spread around.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    By the way, I watched The Bank Dick (1940 W.C. Fields classic, not the one about Bank of America) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as part of my support of the Dolphins; if I don’t watch, they win. They did.

  6. 6.

    khead

    some nice woman in the UK wants to send me two million pounds if I just give her my bank information

    I’m sorry to hear that she catnapped Tunch.

  7. 7.

    patrick II

    I would like to encourage all future Bear opponents to continue to punt the football to Devin Hester.
    That is all.

  9. 9.

    Elliecat

    some nice woman in the UK wants to send me two million pounds Mine was some poor lady with ovarian cancer in Burkina Faso who has only two days to live so I better help her fast!

  13. 13.

    Mark B.

    Ask her to send pictures. I bet she is also teh hawt, in addition to being super rich. This is your ticket to many happy endings, John, you simply have to seize the moment!

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Damn. Everyone has beaten me to the obvious jokes about the woman with the two million pounds to give away.

    Well, at least she’s not from Lagos. Or Wasilla. Then you’d know for sure it was a scam.

  16. 16.

    RossInDetroit

    @Southern Beale:

    In a sane world, this story about how Mitt Romney destroyed a company and threw nearly 2,000 people out of work would disqualify him from the presidential race, especially during these tough economic times.

    Someone here described that story as ‘devastating’ so I read it. I thought it was fairly even handed. They described Bain improving and expanding the company, which is what it should have done. Smart management decisions to turn around an under-performing firm.
    The bad part was they ran up its debt paying themselves vast sums and the company went bankrupt, wiping out the stockholders and many jobs. They weren’t incompetent, just way (squared) too greedy.

  17. 17.

    jl

    If I ever said anything offensive to true blue American Football fans, I apologize. Ha ha. I was just joking.

    Did I ever sneer at US football? Only in jest.

    Two mystery teams have infiltrated the SF Bay area, and seem to be winning these football sporting contests on a regular basis.

    Niners on top of a very weak conference. And duh Raiduhs is on top a da conference. But in this case, I think it means that they are just falling down more slowly.

    My interest in this US football may return, I will have to learn up on sticky wickets, buggered rucks, and double dog reverse suplexes, I guess.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @RossInDetroit:

    The bad part was they ran up its debt paying themselves vast sums and the company went bankrupt, wiping out the stockholders and many jobs. They weren’t incompetent, just way (squared) too greedy.

    In other words, they looted the company.

    You know, in the 17th century they dealt with pirates severely.

  21. 21.

    RossInDetroit

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Well, they didn’t kill the company, they just put it on life support for a while. It ended up being bought by Siemens for a lot more than it was worth before Bain stepped in. Romney effectively increased its value, but they paid themselves enormous sums in management fees and almost sunk the whole thing. The article is worth a read. A little less greed would have saved a lot of jobs and stockholder value.

  22. 22.

    Roger Moore

    @jl:

    And duh Raiduhs is on top a da conference. But in this case, I think it means that they are just falling down more slowly.

    They’d better watch out for the Tim Tebow machine, which is currently on a roll. Tbogg must be about ready to slit his wrists.

  24. 24.

    Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)

    Well Georgia beat Auburn like people used to beat their children. So that’s a good thing.

    And even better, I am headed to beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina for a brand-new gig in a brand-new city.

    I’ve been there all of three times now, interviewing and hunting places to live and signing leases and such. Seems to be much as I’ve heard it described to me, a really good place to live, a little island of something cool floating in the middle of the rest of the South. I get the same vibe from the place, and from its people, that I got in Athens in the late 1980s as an undergraduate. I hope that’s how it is, anyway.

    It sure can’t be any shittier than living in Seneca, South Carolina at the dawn of the Nikki Haley era. Fuck this place. They’ll deserve what happens to them, whatever that ends up being. I’d just as soon not stick around for it.

    I’ll be glad to get the hell out of Clemson.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    Huh, so the Seahawks helped out the Stillers…whodathunk?

    My kid’s soccer team is 7-0-2, so there’s that sports triumph. All under-10 grrlz should watch out.

  26. 26.

    Jay in Oregon

    You guys are pikers.

    I have an email from none other than Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury, who is prepared to send me $6.5 million as soon as I send him $150.00 to cover the processing costs…

  31. 31.

    lamh35

    Ugh. Never much of a Tom Cruise fan , but I will def, maybe, prob be seeing the next Mission Impossible.

  32. 32.

    Jay C

    So John, when you get that two million quid from the nice lady in the UK, will you able to get a better host for BJuice? So we can finally add “goodbye!!” to FYWP???

    Please?

  36. 36.

    RossInDetroit

    @Suffern ACE:

    I’d settle for more cupholders. I get tired of holding my latte between my knees.

    @lamh35:

    Not a Cruise fan either. Most of the films he’s best known for I really don’t like. If it wasn’t for two smaller roles playing against type – Magnolia and Tropic Thunder – I’d dismiss him altogether. But he was GOOD in those.

  37. 37.

    YellowJournalism

    Rikyrah: I love Once Upon a Time, too. I didn’t think it would be that good, but it is fast becoming my new favorite. I started to watch Grimm, thinking it would be the better show. Been a little disappointed with it. Doesn’t pop enough for me. The lead actor doesn’t have enough charisma. I would rather have watched a show about the aunt’s life as a Grimm.

    And Robert Carlyle is magnificent as Rumplestilskin.

  39. 39.

    Raven

    Got to see the Hokies beat Tech and the Dawgs de-jewel War Eagle both in person. . . priceless!

    And da Berz slapped the shit out of the Lions!

  40. 40.

    lamh35

    I have never played Call of Duty, I’ve never wanted to play Call of Duty, I’ve never even stood by and watched anyone else play it either, but if I gotta congratulate whoever their ad people are, cause I kinda love the new commercial with Sam Worthington and the newly slimmed-down Jonah Hill. At first I thought Sam Worthington was Channing Tatum since Tatum and Hill are both starring in the film version of “21 Jump Street”. I REALLY enjoy Sam Worthington.

    Official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – The Vet & The n00b

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    @Raven: Two out of three football weekend for me. And the other Dawgs lost. Ordered a pizza and washing clothes. All in all not too shabby a night.

    @lamh35: Sam is definitely one nice piece of Aussie. :)

  44. 44.

    The Dangerman

    @cathyx:

    And I bet both can increase my manly size if I buy their products.

    And possibly keep things interesting for 4 hours (they talk of it like it’s a bad thing; hell, by hour 3, I’m still calling people I know).

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @RossInDetroit:
    I’m not a Tom Cruise fan either, but I still love him in Risky Business. I watched it again a few years ago. It’s so subversive. I don’t think it would even get made these days.

  46. 46.

    jl

    The intertubes postal services, how does he work?

    At TPM, looks like John Dickerson, CBS’s new ‘political director’ (whatever that means) cc’d Bachmann campaign on message to CBS staff that they would give her less time because she has dropped in the polls.

    TPM
    11.12.2011 — 10:11 PM
    Okay, Buckle Up

    And if I understand the Tbogg (and Tbogg;s Greenwald link), the WaPo ombudsman tried to go ‘off the record’ in an email that he sent to a member of the public? I must have misunderstood and got that one wrong.

    Anyway, I did not know the paper had some new goofballl to be their sadsack apologist in chief.

    Patrick Pexton Wants To Hang On To His Fake Job
    By: TBogg Friday November 11, 2011 11:16 am

    No links since they seem to mess up posting comments, I figure people will be reading those blogs anyway.

  47. 47.

    eemom

    and yet, when a well known internet panhandler shows up here talking about being homeless, every idiot in sight sucks it right up. Funny that.

  50. 50.

    lamh35

    Advertisers pull ads from Penn State games

    LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Beyond the profound embarrassment and ethical questions surrounding the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, the controversy is also hurting the University’s bottom line.

    The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that no less than six advertisers have pulled their commercials from upcoming Penn State football broadcasts on ESPN.

    “I have multiple advertisers pulling ads from the ESPN broadcast,” one media buyer told the Journal. “I am advising my clients to move out of games for the short term,” another buyer added.

    The Journal’s report followed an announcement on Friday that Cars.com would pull its commercials from the school’s upcoming games.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    I am a Tom Cruise fan…he’s whacked, but I like him..

    and I will be there for Mission Impossible :)

  53. 53.

    Michael Carpet

    @18 jl: ahem, the 8-1 49ers have only had one confernce game; 7of their wins are from other confernces, and their only loss was in overtime. What a differnce a year, and a coach, make.

  54. 54.

    lamh35

    um ok, so Obama giving a press conference in Honolulu from APEC Summit, ya know, a real foreign policy event that may have some effect on international relations and ALL the questions from US press corps is about the GOP debate, as if POTUS hasn’t kinda been busy with ya know international stuff?

    Ugh!! the US press corp is an embarassment.

  55. 55.

    Brian S

    I’ve stopped paying attention to football except for those two weeks when the Saints play the Falcons, so yay for this week.

    Now for some fun. My spouse had one of her classes do adaptations, so one group made a choose your own adventure story out of badly-written Harry Potter fanfic. Yes, that may seem a little redundant, but this is Bulwer-Lytton quality bad writing, so bad it’s hilarious. I offer it to you with no apologies.

  56. 56.

    Suffern ACE

    @lamh35: As Brad Delong pointed out today, in a GOP debate nominally about foreign policy, not one question was asked about Europe or the Euro Crisis. If it ain’t Israel or bomb related, our press corp gets bored.

  57. 57.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Michael Carpet:

    ahem, the 8-1 49ers have only had one confernce game; 7of their wins are from other confernces, and their only loss was in overtime. What a differnce a year, and a coach, make.

    You mean one Division game, not Conference game. Seven of their nine games are against NFC teams.

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    @Brian S:

    Yes, that may seem a little redundant, but this is Bulwer-Lytton quality bad writing, so bad it’s hilarious.

    Sorry, that writing doesn’t rise to the level of Bulwer-Lytton. Bulwer-Lytton is about trying to write great literature but just missing in a way that makes it hilariously bad. That stuff was written by people who just had no idea what a good story is or what good prose sounds like. It’s still hilariously bad, but in a completely different way.

  59. 59.

    lamh35

    @lamh35:

    ugh some woman actually asked why no Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts or something.

    Obama’s respone :got rid of APEC funny shirt photo op because “we’re here for business”!

    freedom of the press…more like a flock of dummies.

  62. 62.

    David Koch

    @eemom:

    and yet, when a well known internet panhandler shows up here talking about being homeless, every idiot in sight sucks it right up.

    I didn’t know Greece panhandles on this blog.

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @Brian S:
    Ah, I misunderstood. I thought they put the thing together by excerpting fanfic they had found somewhere. If they actually wrote that themselves as a parody of bad fanfic, they’re showing some talent.

  66. 66.

    Suffern ACE

    @amk: Well, to be fair, WE over here, didn’t vote a soccer star to the number three position. But who even put Casey Anothny on the list for consideration?

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    So had to go with plan B: chicken marsala and tater skins. Let’s just hope they made it the proper way.

  70. 70.

    Suffern ACE

    @amk: I don’t know. 7 of the top 10 aren’t bad. We (the 99%) voted for ourselves in droves. It’s like the year Time made “You” the person of the year. We probably deserve more than anyone the editors would come up with.

  71. 71.

    Gin & Tonic

    Interesting. The (retired) VP of Finance at PSU, the guy nominally in charge of the campus police, to whom the Sandusky shower incident was reported, receives a pension of $27,558 per month. Per month!

    I could retire on $27k/mo.

  77. 77.

    Joel

    When cement-shoes Ninkovich takes you in for a pick-6, then the game is over. The Patriots by no means looked good tonight, but the Jets looked awful.

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    @RossInDetroit:

    I haven’t seen it in a long time, but Cruise was good in All the Right Moves (1983) as a high school jock trying to parley his talent into a ticket out of a small Rust Belt town. Craig T. Nelson was good as the slightly sinister football coach.

    Also The Firm (1993), opposite Gene Hackman, where Cruise plays an eager-beaver young lawyer who signs up with the firm from hell.

    And, finally, Collateral (2004), in which Cruise plays a laconic hit man.

    Cruise seems to do best when he’s not trying to do too much. Either that or he’s only good for one outstanding role about every five years.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I am flabbergasted. That is $330,000 a year, which is probably, what, 60-70% of his final salary, which would put it in the range of $470,000 to $550,000.

    I know big colleges are being organized and run more like corporations, but this just leaves me gobsmacked. Sky-high salaries for the “executives,” much less for the rank and file “workers” (teachers). And an ever increasing financial burden on the backs of the students.

  81. 81.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Steeplejack: I have a soft spot for Cruise because in my youth I was sometimes said to resemble him. I like him in Rain Man and even Jerry Maguire, because I think he handles “Arrogant Guy On the Verge of a Breakdown” rather well. He’s terrible when he’s just swaggering, like in Cocktail and Color of Money and that car-racing movie.

  84. 84.

    suzanne

    I did some grocery shopping today at Trader Joe’s, and I bought a box of The Best Treat EVAR, a.k.a. Candy Cane Joe-Joes. I ate one, and I think my mouth came. I had an oralgasm.

    Spent much of the day studying for my Structural Systems ARE. Ask me about moment-resisting frames. Go ahead. ASK ME.

    Here’s a cute kitteh. And the older spawn had her first piano recital this weekend.

  85. 85.

    Martin

    @kdaug: #8 was my father in law. Broken hip on Monday. Heart failure yesterday. 4 others were cancer. 1 heart attack (my age). 1 hit by a car (my age). 1 suicide. Rough year.

  88. 88.

    eemom

    @FlipYrWhig:

    heh. One of my college friends bore an uncanny resemblance to Cruise as well
    — guess there’s one in every decade or so.

    I never had anything against him as an actor — the Scientology shit, OTOH…..but then, to each self-obsessed Hollywood mini-god his own, I guess.

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: That pattern suggests once a decade. But I’m just being pedantic for no good reason.

    That and chicken marsala is NOT a cream sauce. What I got is insanely delicious and may indeed have marsala wine flavoring. But it is not chicken marsala.

  90. 90.

    Redshift

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, funny how wingnuts only think it’s “unfair” that public employees get pensions when the rest of us are stuck with IRAs, but don’t think it’s unfair that execs get them.

  91. 91.

    Roger Moore

    @Steeplejack:

    Cruise seems to do best when he’s not trying to do too much.

    I think he did a lot to help Dustin Hoffman win the Oscar in Rain Man and Paul Newman to win in The Color of Money. The key is that in those movies he was an actor rather than a movie star. When he’s just trying to flash his charisma and hope that will be enough to carry a movie, get ready to be disappointed.

  92. 92.

    handy

    @Roger Moore:

    Nicholson was nominated because of the courtroom scene. I’m trying to figure out whether Cruise was a help or a hindrance in that. On balance probably a help. But man does he flash that manic charisma thing in the process.

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    Well, if you throw in Tropic Thunder (2008) and Magnolia (1999), which RossInDetroit mentioned, that’s about one every five years. I’ll throw in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) to cover the gap between All the Right Movies and The Firm. Sorry I didn’t spell it all out for you.

  94. 94.

    burnspbesq

    Don’t know what this Masterpiece Contemporary thing that is serving as background noise is, but it’s unwatchable despite the presence of Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman.

  97. 97.

    2liberal

    Pretty good sports weekend- WVU wins, Steelers win, ravens lose, and on top of all that

    the steelers winning sucks, but a nice Patriots win to make up for it. Cardinals won their second ni a row, D is looking much better.

    Cole, don’t miss that oppty for the 2million pounds !!

  98. 98.

    2liberal

    @burnspbesq:

    Don’t know what this Masterpiece Contemporary thing that is serving as background noise is, but it’s unwatchable despite the presence of Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman

    weren’t you watching Pats / Jets ??

  99. 99.

    Sly

    @Steeplejack:

    Cruise seems to do best when he’s not trying to do too much. Either that or he’s only good for one outstanding role about every five years.

    Tom Cruise seems to do best when the movie isn’t about him, which typically takes place when he has to work opposite someone who is either (a) a much more experienced actor or (b) as part of an ensemble.

    Creating a movie as a “star vehicle” will generally, I find, result in mediocrity, because the star has to shine and for the star to shine everyone else has to be a little bit… well… dim. And Cruise has been in a lot of star vehicles. You can repeat that for pretty much every other movie star under the sun, past and present. Burt Reynolds was in a lot of movies where he received top billing. But his absolute best performance? Boogie Nights.

  101. 101.

    Comrade Luke

    Did you ever notice that every Tom Cruise movie has a scene with him sprinting?

    I bet it’s in his contract. Seriously.

  102. 102.

    Suffern ACE

    No love for Top Gun? So beloved that it is being remade. Or Next Generationed in theaters near you in 2012.

  103. 103.

    patrick II

    You can just see Cruise “acting” in so much of the work he does, particularly when it is a star vehicle. It is just so mechanical — forced smile to show bravado, phony toughness, it just doesn’t work.

    You can’t compare Cruise to Daniel Craig who can actually seem smug and superior not just play acting at smug and superior. And strangely enough I love Angeline Jolie in action flicks like “Wanted” and “Salt” She is very athletic and when she gets in various heroic situations her expression is much more subtle and varied than the typical action hero actor.

  104. 104.

    Martin

    @suzanne: Thanks. It’s hard to stay positive after so much. It’s resulted in lots of families moving as well, which has been hard on the kids. We’re feeling a little alone these days.

  105. 105.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    @Joel:

    The Patriots looked fine tonight, but you’re right, the Jets sucked.

    Jets fans are kidding themselves if they think the Sanchud can bring them a title. In case they haven’t noticed it yet, he mostly sucks.

  107. 107.

    burnspbesq

    @MoeLarryAndJesus:

    No quarterback in NFL history has more road playoff wins than Sanchez earned in his first two seasons. If that’s what suckitude looks like, I’ll take all I can get.

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