Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

I really should read my own blog.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Come on, man.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Readership Capture / Go Ahead And Flame Me Open Thread

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  13. 13.

    Hill Dweller

    So, the Republicans passed a bill extending the payroll tax cut, but filled it with poison pills, despite warnings from Reid and the President.

  14. 14.

    jl

    How John G. Cole let me down today, by jl.

    Cole obviously did not take my condescending advice about how new technology will enable him to stand up to domineering fat white cats.

    Not sure what to do with these WV hicks… I am sincere and self satisfied despair.

    PS, just thinking it is too bad that Rosie has become civilized and polite. There may be opening for another up ‘n comer dark horse (dog?)in the GOP pres primary.

  17. 17.

    dexwood

    We don’t need to tell you you’ve let him down. You know it’s true…
    dexwood’s cat( but, really, I own dexwood.)

  24. 24.

    carpeduum

    The only time you deserved to be bitched at is when you offer an opinion on ANYTHING. So I don’t think you have done that this time.

  26. 26.

    blahblah

    You’re a cock-nosed namby-pamby ballgrabber and you have way too many fucking pets for a grown man.

  29. 29.

    Wag

    I feel let down because we haven’t had a microbrew thread in WAY too long

    I feel so bad about it I’m gonna open a Dale’s Pale Ale.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @WereBear (itouch):

    It’s too early for the Airing of the Grievances.

    This is Balloon-Juice. It’s always time to air some grievances. If we’re not ready to start bitching about how somebody has let us down, we go to some other blog.

  32. 32.

    PurpleGirl

    Sorry, but you haven’t let me down John Cole.

    Except it’s time for another picture of Tunch.

  33. 33.

    salacious crumb

    you have let ABL down by questioning Obama’s policies. That shouldn’t happen or you are a bonafide racist. All hail President Obama with starry eyed adulation.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Roger Moore: Anyway, if it really is too early for the Airing of the Grievances, I do think the the season for “Venting of Resentments” or, as they call it in France “Bitching about Shit on the Internet,” has certainly arrived.

  35. 35.

    jl

    @cathyx: thanks, that is a great funny carrot pic. Looks like Cole’s hand, I infer from a recent pic that seemed to be of Cole’s hand.

    This blog is getting better. It has been weak on funny looking vegetables (Which come to think of it, is how Cole has let us all down. I won’t put in a Cole joke here because doing that would be uncivil)

  37. 37.

    The Other Chuck

    This blog is getting better. It has been weak on funny looking vegetables

    I thought Rick Perry was getting enough coverage.

  38. 38.

    Eric S.

    You haven’t let me down, John. Well, not yet. The members in my condo association on the other hand…

    Oh! and my car. That let me down. And so did the dealer that sold the car I was going to buy before I even called them about it. Fargin’ bastages!

  46. 46.

    jl

    @cathyx: Make a big official announcement of the name in a comment. Cole might make put it up at the top of the blog, or the commenters of like mind can pester him into it. Or maybe his mom will pester him into it.

  52. 52.

    Benjamin Franklin

    open threads never let me down.

    TWO fucking oucnes. Merry War on Christmas, Gingrinch.

    Over the weekend, struggling Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson reminded MSNBC viewers that GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich had once to called to punish some drug offenders with death.

    “Newt Gingrich, in 1997, proposed the death penalty for marijuana — for possession of marijuana above a certain quantity of marijuana,” Johnson explained. “And yet, he is among 100 million Americans who’ve smoked marijuana.”

    “I would love to have a discussion with him on the fact that he smoked pot, and under the wrong set of circumstance he proposed the death penalty for, potentially, something that he had committed. I have troubles with that,” he added.

    Johnson, a former New Mexico governor who has advocated for marijuana legalization since 1999, is at least partially correct about Gingrich’s position.

    As Speaker of the House, Gingrich introduced the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996.”

    The bill would have required a “sentence of death for certain importations of significant quantities of controlled substances.” It would have applied to anyone convicted more than once of carrying 100 doses — or about two ounces — or marijuana across the border. Defendants would have had a window of 18 months to file their one and only appeal.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/12/gary-johnson-gingrich-proposed-the-death-penalty-for-marijuana/

  53. 53.

    jl

    @cathyx: Well, I think a BJ gardening calendar would be a good idea. There could be a funny looking vegetable month.

    But I don’t have anything to contribute. I noticed this morning that there is a bag of funny looking asparagus in my refrigerator, but it is not ‘ha ha’ funny.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Comrade Javamanphil:

    I got a splinter today.

    Anyone here want to weigh in on what the hell is wrong with my psyche* that I first read that as “I got a sphincter today”?

    *(or eyesight)

  57. 57.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @cathyx:

    That was no carrot! That was John Cole’s hand.

    Edit: upon reading the thread, I see I am far from the first commenter to note the resemblance.

  58. 58.

    Benjamin Franklin

    Or is it to halt the scourge of marijuana-smoking which leads to ‘Occupy’?

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/stealth-drone-afghanistan/#more-66596

    “The U.S. Air Force is sending a single copy of a brand-new stealth drone to Afghanistan. Only maybe not just Afghanistan.

    Officially, the General Atomics-made Avenger — a sleek, jet-powered upgrade of the iconic armed Predator and Reaper — is heading to Afghanistan as a combat-capable “test asset.” The Air Force said in a statement that it loves how the Avenger’s “internal weapons bay and four hardpoints on each wing,” will give it “greater flexibility and will accommodate a large selection of next generation sensor and weapons payloads,” as reported by Zach Rosenberg at Flightglobal.

    Problem is, you don’t really need those things in Afghanistan. Internal weapons bays, which hide the radar signatures of bombs and missiles, are for stealth: most warplanes don’t have them. And it’s not like the Taliban has been firing radar-guided missiles at NATO aircraft. Besides, there are already dozens of armed drones in Afghanistan. One more isn’t going to make much of a difference.

    Which begs the question: Is the 41-foot-long Avenger really meant for Afghanistan? Or is it destined to patrol over Afghanistan’s unruly neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, both of which do have radar-guided missiles? That was a job assigned to the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel before one of those drones crashed in Iran two weeks ago. We’re sure the Air Force has a few more RQ-170s to throw at Iran and Pakistan. After all, the elusive ‘bots have been spotted in Afghanistan, South Korea and Japan. But the Avenger, which debuted just two years ago, is newer and more capable than the Sentinel, which is widely believed to be a product of the early 2000s.

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Roger Moore:

    Congratulations! You may have already won the Internets for the day! Please stay on the line for the first available operator . . . .

  62. 62.

    CynDee

    Well, John, my MacBook battery swelled up and pushed open the bottom of the laptop just like a zombie trying to crawl out of a grave. I had to drop work and leave my sick dog to drive 130 miles round trip to a madhouse Mac store in a madhouse major mall to get it replaced by a guy who lectured me on “battery care” — see, I should have been removing the battery if I was using the Mac plugged in. I coulda shown that guy some battery, but paid the $99 stinkin’ bucks for a new one with a whopping 90-day warranty. He said the bulging battery wouldn’t cause everything to run slow, but guess what, it sure did. Oh, and just before I left to come home right at the cusp of rush hour, the engine light on my dashboard came on. I know it’s going to be $2,000 some way.

    I KNEW all this had to be somebody’s fault. You really blew it this time.

    So Tunch is bitching? Does he have a Mac?

  68. 68.

    Katharsis

    Interesting article about why OWS-Oakland still protested the ports despite no ok from the union:

    http://www.bayofrage.com/from-the-bay/blockading-the-port-is-only-the-first-of-many-last-resorts/

    Essentially: OWS represents both working people, and people who don’t even have a job, or union benefits. Unions fight to keep their shit job. OWS fights the 1% communists who control the means and the distribution of wealth in this world so you have ‘fight to keep’ your shit job from getting shittier.

  71. 71.

    Veritas

    @joeyess:

    If Paul wins in Iowa its the next best thing that could happen to Romney besides an outright Romney win. Ron “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD STANDARD!” Paul stands zero chance to do anything after Iowa. He’d be another Mike Huckabee.

  72. 72.

    Lojasmo

    @Veritas:

    Whoa! A ten point lead is a loss now?

    Fat bloviating fired professor/fired majority leader/fired husband is going to be your nominee, loser. Deal with it.

  73. 73.

    handy

    @Lojasmo:

    Romney really has everything going for him. He wins NH and it’s probably going to be McCain ’08 all over again. It’s just that he’s a terrible politician. Even gramps knew how to do the baby kissing thing. This guy wreaks of patrician elitist stiff.

  74. 74.

    suzanne

    Went to work. Most everyone else got Christmas bonuses. I did not, because I haven’t worked there for a full year yet. However, I did get a lemon coconut cupcake from a contractor, so there’s that.

    I wish I could call out sick until after the New Year.

  76. 76.

    Lojasmo

    Mewt will likely Win IA, SC, and FL. MItt will likely pick up NH and possibly NV.

    Either way, it will be a bloodbath. The battle between two candidates everybody hates.

    I can’t wait until ultimately cool and witty Obama takes on either of these two flailing clowns.

  77. 77.

    Hill Dweller

    Newt’s support dropped, but Romney wasn’t was the beneficiary.

    Willard could have used the losing margin as some sort of moral victory if he had stayed out of the state, but that didn’t happen. Moreover, they’ve got every right wing sock puppet in the media telling republican voters Gingrich is poison, but Romney is still stuck in place.

  79. 79.

    Ross

    Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam! Tunch cam!

  81. 81.

    carpeduum

    Typical Cole post.

    “Drones…..something stupid the GOPers did….we are all gonna die…..Drones…..something stupid my dog did…..crab cakes…..booze….Drones….something stupid my cat did….we are all doomed….fantasy football.”

  83. 83.

    Svensker

    @CynDee:

    the engine light on my dashboard came on. I know it’s going to be $2,000 some way.

    Could be just bad catalytic converter crap. I’ve had that twice, both times different sensors that went out. Not too bad, moola-wise.

  86. 86.

    handy

    And Cole why do you feel the need to invite people to flame you? You pretty much do that with your own posts. You score goals on yourself like it’s going out of style.

  89. 89.

    PurpleGirl

    @suzanne: I began to work at the non-profit in March, the “year” ran July 1 to June 30. When Christmas/New Year came, I got a “vacation” because the office closed for the days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. No bonuses but lots of time off.

  90. 90.

    carpeduum

    Drones DRones DROnes DRONes DRONEs DRONES droneS dronES droNES drONES dRONES DRONES……..drones…….and drones!

    That is all.

  91. 91.

    some guy

    the Revolutionary Guards hope to have a minituarized version of the RQ 170, with remote control (don’t forget those 6 AA batteries, kidz) available by Christmas 2012. stealth paint, radar arrays, and sigint capture features will all be upgrades. start saving now.

  92. 92.

    suzanne

    @PurpleGirl: The benefits are good at this place, but they are pretty tight with the holidays. No MLK, no Veterans’ Day, no Presidents’ or Columbus. And they stay open between Xmas and New Year’s, which is dumb, because none of our consultants or clients are working. So it’s essentially a week of cleaning your desk and tidying up the office.

  94. 94.

    scav

    Shit. I’m out of tea. At least now I know why and who to blame. I’m surprised he has to time to fit in all these personally tailored failures and maintain his track record of self-inflicted spectacular mishaps.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    @Anoniminous:

    In aviation news, all the 737 Maxes ordered by Southwest today would fit on Mittens’ shoulders at the same time and still leave room for Newton’s swollen prostate.

    Feel the Mittmentum, stay for the caffeine-free diet Pepsi.

  99. 99.

    fleeting expletive

    Someone speculated on a blog somewhere today that Romney may be somewhat autistic. The whole robot, socially awkward business I suppose could fall on that spectrum, I suppose. Or he could just be a clueless man who doesn’t interact well with humanity.

  104. 104.

    Anoniminous

    @Lojasmo:

    Romney is starting to sink in New Hampshire, down to 33% from 41% a month ago with Gingrich (23%) wavering in the MOE. Paul, of all people, is the one with the “Big Mo” rising to 22%.

    Nate Silver has his First Iowa forecast out and it looks:

    Win Probability

    Gingrich – 49.6%
    Paul – 28.2%
    Romney – 10.6%

    based on polling.

    The GOP has bet The Ranch on ensuring a lousy economy and then pinning it on Obama, which is why we see GOP insiders and supporter mouthing off about “lousy economy = Obama defeat.” That strategy crumbles if Gingrich gets the nomination.

    GOP insiders get hysterical when they look to the general with Gingrich as their nominee. Women won’t vote for him and may even vote in order to vote against him. If Obama takes 60% of the woman vote – a rise of 4% over 2008 – he wins. Gingrich’s numbers are lousy with Independents as well. A combination of Democratic base, women, and Independents could slaughter the GOP in the House, reverse the 2010 House elections, and maintain Democratic control of the Senate.

  105. 105.

    Tom Johnson

    More than how you’ve let us down, the significant thing is how you’re going to make it up to us. I think: my car needs to be washed. We went up to Chicago for the weekend and it’s covered in that salty crap they put on the roads in the winter, no doubt because the supplier gives a lot of money to Obama’s campaign. Now we’re back in Kentucky and the tea partiers can tell we’ve been someplace else and that scares them, and they’re circling around with guns to make sure we’re not Muslims or something. So if you could get over here quick and get it washed, that would make up for how disappointing you are.

  106. 106.

    hrprogressive

    You are definitely letting us down by not posting pictures of your fat, adorable kitty.

    Make with the pictures, Fat Man.

  107. 107.

    mclaren

    Cole is one of the few sane people on this board. The cringing crawling mob of cowardly quislings who whimpered and whined about Cole’s accurate warnings on the use of drones over American soil — they’re the ones who let us down. Not Cole.

  109. 109.

    CynDee

    @Raven: How thoughtful. Thank you very much. I appreciate your directing me to the support page. I didn’t find it before. My MacBook is from 2007, and those are removable, but I’m really glad to get the calibrating info so I will be more aware when I get a newer machine.

  110. 110.

    gaz

    This thread is full of win.

    Make with the pictures, Fat Man.

    Perfect bookend to the thread. The LOL rounded out the comments nicely. Well played.

  112. 112.

    some guy

    @mclaren:

    you make it sound like a bunch of whimpering center right careerists is a bad thing to have in a commentariat.

    shame on you

  114. 114.

    Anoniminous

    @trollhattan:

    ROTFL

    I’m not an O-Bot by any means. The man is too squishy Center for me. But he is the best national Democratic Party campaigner I’ve seen since Bobby Kennedy AND he has the devil’s own luck with his opponents.

    Unseating a sitting president is the hardest job in US politics. With either Willard or Newt I like our chances.

  115. 115.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I always suspected as much. ::waves to DougJ::

    And also, my superstition is better than yours,* so there.

    *general “you”

  116. 116.

    CynDee

    @Maude: Thanks. That was my impression. Maybe a battery from 2007 can be expected to go wrong, but really, swell up and bulge out of the case??? The Genius said it wasn’t “unsafe,” so they wouldn’t replace it free. Thing is, it was never a very good battery. From the first, I couldn’t watch a whole movie in bed without dragging the AC cord along with it. Not my idea of a laptop. For the money I paid up front in 2007, I think it should have performed better. Oh well, at least it didn’t explode.

  117. 117.

    amk

    John Cole, I know President Obama. You ain’t no President Obama.

    …so everyone can tell me how I have let them down.

  118. 118.

    some guy

    HuffPo has a great photo up of Gnut shaking hands with invented person Yasser Arafat in 1994. will make great campaign fodder.

    run, Gnut, run.

  120. 120.

    Roger Moore

    @Katharsis:

    Essentially: OWS represents both working people, and people who don’t even have a job, or union benefits. Unions fight to keep their shit job.

    Actually, a lot of the union jobs in the ports are anything but shit jobs. There’s very little of the traditional hard manual labor because the cargo is all containerized, and the West Coast ports have been growing rapidly because of the traffic from China. The West Coast dockworkers have been doing very well- well enough to make one of those obnoxious “most overpaid jobs” lists- so it’s understandable they’d want to keep a good thing going.

  122. 122.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    My wife and I are hoping that we won’t piss her employer off too much if they are caught violating the law with the new insurance plan they offered for next year. I won’t go into details too much but her employer is self-insured so the Department of Labor is the power they answer to, not our state insurance regulatory body. My wife and I thought that what was offered was in violation of an EEOC ruling and I called the DoL to ask about it. The nice lady at the other end had me forward copies of the materials provided by the company, which I did a few weeks ago.

    We got a phone message last Thursday from another individual at the DoL that the “case” had been handed over to, who told us that I needed to call her back as she had a few more questions for me. I called her back Friday and she introduced herself, stating that she would be handling this from now on. She asked her questions, which I answered, and then she asked about the Human Resources person at my wife’s place of employment. She wanted to know if we knew anything about how deeply into her job she was, which I told her that the person is basically a paper pusher for HR and that corporate is where the power is at. She laughed and said that that’s typical of large companies and that she would be contacting them (this week) because it looked like we had a legitimate issue with what they were offering employees and the terms they had to meet to get it.

    Now we are wondering if shit is going to roll downhill if indeed they are caught pulling quick stunt.

    So we wait…

  124. 124.

    Svensker

    @Roger Moore:

    Or it could be something even more minor. You can get a check engine light from something as minor as a loose gas cap.

    True — we had that last year. Forgot about it. Boy, was I happy when the guy at the garage made THAT diagnosis. :)

  126. 126.

    Cliff in NH

    My most recent was that the nuts rusted off the bolts that hold the o2 sensor in place, first it was just loud, then I hit a bump and it got completely knocked out and the sensor was just hanging there in the salt spray. The check engine light came on about when it got notably loud, so that was a easy one for me to diagnose once it fell out, lol.

  127. 127.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Svensker: Hell, my Check Engine light goes on and off all the time. Most of the time it’s something to do with the oxygen sensor and the exhaust. If your gas cap is loose the light will come on. Sometimes it comes on and stays on until your mechanic clears the codes. Probably not $2,000. You’d hear death rattles from piston slap and see smoke billowing out the exhaust for that kind of coin.

  128. 128.

    4jkb4ia

    Where are your posts showing that you are utterly riveted to the daily happenings related to the euro, mister?

    (Also too, there was an absolutely jaw-dropping story on MF Global in the NYT on Monday.)

  129. 129.

    Suffern ACE

    @4jkb4ia: Bah. I’ve heard the bastard has been mingling our FWP accounts with his own to cover big bets against the Euro that have soured. I only noticed when my screen name changed to Uffern AE.

  130. 130.

    boss bitch

    @Katharsis:

    Essentially: OWS represents both working people, and people who don’t even have a job, or union benefits. Unions fight to keep their shit job. OWS fights the 1% communists who control the means and the distribution of wealth in this world so you have ‘fight to keep’ your shit job from getting shittier.

    what a load of arrogant bullshit. OWS ain’t got enough power or money or influence or history (if any at all) to be out there claiming it “represents” anyone better than a Union.

  131. 131.

    gelfling545

    @Eric S.: I did some work about a year ago for a guy who does property management for several condo associations. Did no one tell you that the association’s board of directors must sign a pact with Satan? Honestly, I had sometimes thought of trading in my house for a condo but, after what I saw there, it will never happen.

  134. 134.

    Paul in KY

    @cathyx: I think that’s one of those things that lives in wizard gardens. Saw them in a Harry Potter movie, really hard to get rid of once they’ve set up their bars, etc.

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