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You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Consistently wrong since 2002

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

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

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

So many bastards, so little time.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

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

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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Monday Evening Open Thread

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Charlie Pierce, at Esquire, so very much does not {heart} Scott Walker:

MADISON, Wisc. — On Friday, Governor Scott Walker presided over the ceremonial lighting of the Christmas tree in the great rotunda of the state capitol, hard by the bust of Fightin’ Bob LaFollette, which looked very much like it might leap from its pedestal and bite him in the balls. He dedicated the occasion to Wisconsin’s veterans, and he brought some of them with him. “THERE WILL BE NO MEDIA AVAILABILITY BEFORE OR AFTER THE EVENT,” the press release cautioned in big capital letters, so nobody could miss them.
__
There were new rules in the state capitol that morning. There are new rules in the state capitol of Wisconsin on almost every morning these days. You see, ever since last winter, when Walker rammed through his assault on the state’s public workers, touching off a general uprising all over the state, and a specific one outside on his front lawn, many of his fellow citizens have taken to expressing in imaginative ways how much of a walking pustulation they believe their governor is, both inside and outside the capitol building. So, in the interest of not being told to his face what a walking pustulation he is, Walker and his Department of Administration have concocted a veritable symphony of pettiness to drown out the noise. You have to hold a sign saying what a walking pustulation you think the governor is. If you secure your sign saying what a walking pustulation you think the governor is to a railing or to a banister, that is no longer a “sign,” that is considered an “exhibit,” and you are liable, if you don’t take it down, to get hauled off by the capitol cops. People have been busted for wearing the Bill of Rights around their necks. One girl was removed from the legislative gallery because she opened her civics textbook to read, and someone thought she was making a statement about what a walking pustulation she thought Scott Walker was. I am not making these stories up…

So — what ‘walking pustulation’ is irking the reasonable people around here tonight?

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  4. 4.

    burnspbesq

    “Walking pustulation.”

    What a perfect description of Roy Williams.

    Charles Pierce is now an honorary Cameron Crazie.

  5. 5.

    KG

    @BGinCHI: John Kyl remains on my walking pustulation list for the ban on internet poker, so anything else he does is just a little more puss at this point.

  7. 7.

    Soonergrunt

    As much as we quote Pierce around here, I don’t know why we don’t just put a link to his blog into every single thing we post on the front page along with whatever other stuff we want to say.

  8. 8.

    msskwesq

    What he didn’t tell you about that tree lighting ceremony is that there were school children en route to sing Christmas carols and so on and he did not wait for them to get there. He started it early in fact. My niece was among those kids and was very upset. I understand that the State Dems re-lit the tree to allow for the kids to do their performances. But the night was ruined for them anyway. Scott Walker is a big JERK.

  10. 10.

    TBogg

    Nothing quite says “Christmas tree lighting” like doing it in the early morning sunlight. Next up, Wisconsin Groundhog Day …. at midnight.

  14. 14.

    General Stuck

    @TBogg:

    Nothing quite says “Christmas tree lighting” like doing it in the early morning sunlight.

    Ruins the Christmas Spirit of peasants gathered on the castle lawn, with lanterns and pitchforks, flickering against the moonlight. A altogether different kind of nativity scene.

  15. 15.

    PurpleGirl

    @msskwesq: That is just so mean to the children. There are no more words to describe how terrible a person Walker is. Comparing him to anything would be to insult the item he is compared to.

  16. 16.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Walker really sounds exceptional in his jerkwadedness for even the GOP. I get the feeling this guy is going into the history books.

  17. 17.

    KG

    @JWL: I am really enjoying the various meltdowns he’s causing on ESPN. After being told for years that “winning is all that matters” he’s winning and some of the analysts are trashing him, and the rest seem to just saying “ah, hell, why not?”

    My favorite was this morning hearing one of them say “he only completed 10 passes!” And I’m thinking, he threw it 15 times, was sacked twice and scrambled two more times… that means they didn’t even call 20 pass plays, WTF do you expect?

    Honestly, part of me wants to see the Broncos win the Super Bowl just for the sheer absurdity of it all. But I’ve also come to take a zen approach to sports these days… enjoy the journey and know if you’re team wins once every thirty years in the pros or at all in your life time in college, you are ahead of the game.

  18. 18.

    burnspbesq

    Must be a good time to be a staff lawyer for the Wisconsin chapter of the ACLU. You wake up every morning with the knowledge you are going to be busy.

  21. 21.

    VidaLoca

    There are no more words to describe how terrible a person Walker is.

    The odd thing is that he spends thousands of dollars on TV air time, trying to tell us how his policies are benefiting the people of Wisconsin and what a wonderful guy he is — and then he does stuff like this that makes him look like a total dick.

    I get the feeling this guy is going into the history books.

    Well, your mouth to FSM’s noodly ears. I went out with a group of about 65 people Saturday in the rain; we got over 2000 signatures against the SOB. So at any rate he’s that much closer to the history books.

  22. 22.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @Redshift: Indeed, I thought the same when I read the line “There are new rules in the state capitol of Wisconsin on almost every morning these days.”

    Somehow it brought to mind Dolores Umbridge’s Educational Decrees in the Harry Potter books.

  25. 25.

    Trakker

    What’s irking me this evening? This:

    Black Friday set the biggest one-day record of background check requests for hopeful gun buyers, eclipsing the previous record by 32 per cent, according to the FBI.

    I haven’t seen anything about this in the domestic press, but this comes from the New Zealand press.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10771125

    So, what is going on in America that has the gunners building up their arsenals? Maybe an election in 2012? Possibly wondering if it might be time for Second Amendment remedies if Obama steals the election from them again?

  29. 29.

    Quarks

    @Trakker – I have been assured, by people who would not know, that Obama is going to steal the next election and institute Stalinism which would suck so everyone has to be ready to fight back.

    This assumes, of course, that you believe that a single gun can do much against the jet fighters that Obama controls with his mind, but see the assumption in my first paragraph.

  32. 32.

    Calming Influence

    @Jenny: If he didn’t snag a $10,000,000 check from the dude, I’ll be pissed. Play by the rules, and right now, those are the rules.

  34. 34.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @WereBear:

    Hate to break it to you but when a “kitten” gets to be 15 months old it is no longer a “kitten”, it gets to become a cat at that point.

  35. 35.

    Calming Influence

    I’ll try to redeem myself by pointing out that Rahm seems to be getting ready to pinch Colbert’s ass.

  37. 37.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    @KG: I seem to recall Bob Griese went 7 for 14 when the run-heavy Dolphins beat the Redskins in SB VII. Just win, baby, as someone or another was famous for saying.

    As a Broncos fan, I was hoping Tebow would fizzle and quietly get traded away. Instead, it looks like Elway (I am *so* glad I didn’t know about his politics when he was playing) may have a fellow winger QB to pal around with for at least a while.

  39. 39.

    bemused

    Walker is a chicken shit. He can’t handle the criticism or the ongoing protesters. It’s gotta be quite frustrating for him that so many Wisconsinites just don’t appreciate what he doing for (to) them and the state.

  41. 41.

    lamh35

    So Madonna’s gonna be doing Superbowl half-time. I kind wish Madonna would go back to her Justify My Love phase for just one moment. I would pay even money to have her do a show where some gay dudes or ladies are kissing, vogueing or maybe a white chick kissing Black Jesus in front a a burning cross ala Like A Prayer just so Janet “Ms Jackson if nasty” can get some vindication. Janet can be all “Oh ya’ll thought my wardrobe malfunction scarred kids for life you puritans…say hello to some LGBT couple loving!”

    But Madonna is now just an AARP-eligible mother of two who’s most controversial move now is dating some younger dude who’s old enough to be her son or much younger brother, but ain’t nothing controversial about that.

  45. 45.

    4tehlulz

    “So—what ‘walking pustulation’ is irking the reasonable people around here tonight?”

    S&P giving a hot carl to Angela Merkel.

    We expect to conclude our review of eurozone sovereign ratings as soon as possible following the EU summit scheduled for Dec. 8 and 9, 2011. Depending on the score changes, if any, that our rating committees agree are appropriate for each sovereign, we believe that ratings could be lowered by up to one notch for Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and by up to two notches for the other governments.

    GERMANY A CREDIT RISK LOL

  47. 47.

    Ailuridae

    @KG: @Trakker:

    So, what is going on in America that has the gunners building up their arsenals? Maybe an election in 2012? Possibly wondering if it might be time for Second Amendment remedies if Obama steals the election from them again?

    I think its less the militia types and more just an issue of demographics and changing laws. Gun laws are loosening in a lot of places (I’m not here to advocate that’s a good thing), creating more (legal) first time purchasers who are then subjected to background checks. For instance, I grew up around guns (and for that matter militia types) but then never owned any in adulthood as I spent all of it in Chicago. Now that I moved to Austin I own more than one.

    Also guns are insanely expensive – just like people save up for a TV or a computer to buy on Black Friday gun owners do the same.

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Comrade Luke:

    Next, she’ll be going around actively shopping for a luxury tumbrel to whisk her away to her appointment with the nice lady who knits.

  52. 52.

    JCT

    @Ailuridae:

    For instance, I grew up around guns (and for that matter militia types) but then never owned any in adulthood as I spent all of it in Chicago. Now that I moved to Austin I own more than one.

    I’m laughing — I think I’m part of that Black Friday statistic. Grew up target shooting back West, spent the past 30 years in NYC, just moved to AZ and almost immediately bought myself a pistol for the range. Took all of 20 mins and was kind of surreal it was so easy…

  54. 54.

    KG

    @Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn: my personal favorite part of this whole episode is that Tebow’s numbers are better than Elway’s at similar points of their careers. I tend to think that Tebow could be an effective NFL QB if he’s given the chance (Fox doesn’t like to throw the ball) and weapons on offense (it’s not like he’s lining up with Rice to the left and Taylor to the right); I mean he completed 2/3 of his passes in college against all those vaunted SEC defenses.

    As for politics, I honestly don’t care what any entertainer’s politics are, be they athlete, musician, writer, or actor. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it is. And if I was so preoccupied with their politics, there’s no way I could enjoy the performance. Life is just way the fuck too short for that bullshit.

  55. 55.

    Anoniminous

    @Quarks:

    Not jets. Sharks. Sharks with laser beams on their heads! Halal Approved© Sharks with sharia powered FRICKIN’ laser beams on their heads.

    From Kenya!!!!!

    Too. Also.

  57. 57.

    kideni

    @msskwesq: Your poor niece. I heard that the kids had had to be on the road at 4:30 in the morning because of the early lighting, which just makes the whole situation more obnoxious. They called ahead when they realized they were running late, but Walker blew them off anyway. Normally the tree lighting is at noon, which would have allowed anyone coming from that far away to get there, but Walker had a “scheduling conflict” in Milwaukee. Yeah, right. He’s the governor and the tree-lighting ceremony happens every year, so he could have easily avoided any scheduling conflict. He only scheduled the lighting at the butt-crack of dawn to try to avoid the protesters that attend his every public movement (I think this was the first time he’s been seen in public in Madison since June). There were still protesters, of course, but they were respectful of the soldiers and the ceremony, although they turned their backs on Walker himself.

  60. 60.

    Trakker

    @Rome Again: In their tiny Tea Party minds any time a Democrat wins an election it had to have been stolen because REAL Americans would never vote for Dems.

  61. 61.

    Trakker

    @Ailuridae:

    I think its less the militia types and more just an issue of demographics and changing laws.

    There’s that, but I find it hard to believe it explains a 32% increase. That’s a huge increase, and it’s not like gun sales have been down since Obama was elected…

  62. 62.

    sherparick

    With all the other Walker stuff to feast on, the little fact that his Galtian paradise continues lose jobs should be noted, 9700 last month, of which largest decline in the Union according to the BLS.

    The largest over-the-month decrease in employment occurred in Wisconsin (-9,700), followed by
    New York (-8,300) and Minnesota (-6,100). Delaware experienced the largest over-the-month percentage increase in employment (+1.0 percent), followed by North
    Dakota (+0.7 percent) and Oklahoma (+0.6 percent). Wisconsin experienced the largest over-the-month percentage decline in employment (-0.4 percent), followed by Maine,
    Rhode Island, and Wyoming (-0.3 percent each). http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

    Meanwhile, the socialist, tax raising hell hole to the South, Illinois, added 30,000 jobs.

    Loser, loser, loser.

  65. 65.

    Paul in KY

    @KG: I have less animosity for someone who has legitimate reasons to be in GOP. If you are filthy rich, there are logical reasons to be a Republican.

    I can appreciate that.

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