Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

This blog will pay for itself.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

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

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

When I was faster i was always behind.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Open Thread: TPM’s 2011 in 100 Seconds

Open Thread: TPM’s 2011 in 100 Seconds

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Talking Points Memo boils it down for us. Of course, half these clips will be incomprehensible (except to political junkies with grudges) within five years, and there’s bound to be omissions that future archivists will wonder at.
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Who’s got nomination(s) for the “How could they not include…?” files?

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  4. 4.

    jl

    What? None of the BJ commenter uprisings got a mention, some of which were of cosmic significance?

    Slightly off topic, but why no love for Vaclav Havel? While off roaming through ancestral stomping grounds (‘foraging through’ would be more apt, though) I heard these year end wrap ups, and notable deaths pieces, Havel got few mentions.

    Which brings to mind, the fact that our current news and public affairs TV stuff is a kind of (brain) death panel. I don’t usually watch the damn thing straight up (Edit: droning and roaring endlessly like a infinite horde of mosquitoes in the Fairbanks basin on a still summer day) through the living room feeding tube. Except for sports, I get mine through internet mostly. Gawd awmighty, whatamess it is.

    Goodnight, Irene, to 2011. Mayan apocalypse here we come!

  5. 5.

    jl

    The widespread, bloody and chaotic BJ commenter uprisings, brutally suppressed by the local blog strongman, I might add.

    US State Dept never had a thing to say. No oil, what it was.

  6. 6.

    c u n d gulag

    How about the Teabagger House members being sworn it – where people in some districts didn’t vote for a member of Congress, but for a posse member to ride out and hopefully conclude their manhunt with a lynching?

    Also, too – Newt, the single most egotistical sociopathic two-timing grifting blowhard of a scumbag to ever be a candidate for President, huffing and puffing himself up a few weeks ago to be the leader for the nomination as if even the absolute drooling and knuckle-dragging morons in the Republican base might be stupid enough to cast a vote for someone who, if he was their neighbor, no one would talk to, let alone lend their lawn equipment to, lest they find out that he had killed his latest wife by mowing her to death, and running off with their underage daughter.

    Or the fact that he is more full of shit than a fertilizer factory.

    I love the smell of hubris in the morning – it smells like… defeat!

  9. 9.

    JGabriel

    Too short. TPM should have given themselves leeway to do a 200 second year-end special edition.

    Just for example, the Mitt quote needs its second half to make any sense:

    I’m running for office, for pete’s sake. I can’t have illegals.

    TPM could have done a much better job with this by just giving themselves a little more breathing room.

    .

  10. 10.

    jl

    @c u n d gulag:

    “lest they find out that he had killed his latest wife by mowing her to death”

    Ahh, but even you were forced to give him credit for innovative thinking.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I’m afraid the American media is so dedicated to entertaining rather than informing that this shit is bound to be useless to historians. It’s like they’re running a loop of Commodus’ greatest hits on a loop to keep the mob in the Colosseum happy. They’re profit centers now, and unless it keeps viewers glued to the tube through the commercials (the true customer of our media is the advertiser…you, the viewer, are the product they’re selling) it’s not going to make it.

    This is why there were so many GOP debates this past year…the popcorn lobby insisted on it, not to mention alcohol vendors of all sorts as you took shots when someone said something stupid. That’s a lot of booze being consumed.

  13. 13.

    robertdsc-PowerBook

    I have 3:

    -Mitt’s 10K bet

    -Perry’s “oops”

    -The President bitchslapping the press with his birth certificate.

  16. 16.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    In a little bit of good news today (for us Animal Rights folks that is) as of today Battery Hens are banned in the EuroZone.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8986255/French-farmers-ignore-battery-hen-ban.html

    While some countries have been slow to comply Britain is now a battery hen free zone, and only eggs raised by free-range or Barn housed hens can be sold. Unfortunately it will mean that alot of hens will be slaughtered by those not wishing to comply with the new rules (or given up for adoption in some cases, one of our local animal shelters is now home to 150 former battery hens), it also means that hens will no longer be housed in absolutely horrific conditions to produce cheap eggs.

    A couple of Battery Hen rescue videos here

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmqSQDsyCCA&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbHm767NpfY&feature=related

    At a flea market today I bought 2.5 dozen of the most wonderful fresh free range eggs for $2.00, proof that buying local and buying free range is not only better for your peace of mind and your health but also for your pocket.

  18. 18.

    Loneoak

    Gabrielle Giffords is a rather big omission.

    Edit: I guess the Palin “blood libel” line was an orthogonal mention, but who the fuck cares about the Quitta from Wasilla in the long run.

  20. 20.

    jl

    @Loneoak: The Giffords shooting was in there, I think that snippet of HRC about homegrown (or something) extremists was about that.

    Commenter above was right, it was kind of insidery BS. I stopped clicking on most of the 100 secs things because of that.

    WI omission was surprising.

    Edit: in fact, I think nothing about MI, OH, or WI at all. I think at least one, or taken together, had enough impact to make the highlights. I may have missed it, but not worth watching again.

    @Loneoak: OK, thanks. But they did overturn labor crackdown in… in…. um… ooops (there goes my presidential hopes) one of those three. Right? That should have got an explicit mention.

    But, maybe that would wreck the insideriness of it all.

  23. 23.

    Dee Loralei

    @Villago Delenda Est: I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember a show called “Max Headroom,” I do believe it has come to pass, even though the show was from the 80’s and set ” a few seconds into the future….” Seriously, I re-watched it this past year and it was effing prescient. Get thee to Netflix my good sir.

    Had a lovely day today,brunch for about 20. This afternoon my son and a friend of his and I dug a bed and planted 100 or so bulbs. No, the ground hasn’t frozen yet on Jan1. The guys also composed a song, they are still working on the chorus, though.

    And if no one is murdered or dies in the next 23 hours or so, 2012 will already be better than 2011 for me. Y’all were so awesome and supportive, I just want to say thanks again.Y’all kept me sane and grounded with your compassion and wisdom and kind words, you enabled me to help my best friend cope with her loss.

    And I think I might be ready for another cat….I’m just putting that out there, into the vast universe, waiting for the great ceiling cat to present me with my next feline companion. Another loss you guys helped me cope with, my darlin’ sweet, handsome, Moses Kitty. So thank you all for that too.

    And I’m psyched about the new year and all the ways I’m going to help get President Obama re-elected. If any of you are in Memphis or Shelby County and want to participate, let me know! We need all the help we can get.

    So Happy New Years to all of my fellow denizens in the halls of Balloon Juice, you guys are seriously the best commentariate in all of the blogosphere. And thanks again.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    I should probably shower and put real clothes on at some point today. But I think I’ll take a nap first.

    I love New Year’s Day.

  26. 26.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Dee Loralei: Max Headroom featured a dystopian state with a system of proportional representation where each network, not each locality, received representatives in proportion to its ratings, and Sweeps Week took the place of elections.

    I’m guessing Roger Ailes (the evil one) was a big fan.

  28. 28.

    jl

    @jeffreyw: Looks good, but some of us are trying to forget about too much yummy food. I’ll bookmark it and check it out about a month from now, for the next New Year’s bash.

    In the meantime, in honor of the white bread, mayo, champagne and hard likker New Year:
    Dawning of a New Era, Specials
    http://youtu.be/CnENa6QEGI8

    I’ll be keeping my figers crossed about what kind of New Era it will be.

  29. 29.

    JGabriel

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Max Headroom featured a dystopian state with a system of proportional representation where each network, not each locality, received representatives in proportion to its ratings, and Sweeps Week took the place of elections.

    Right. Wait, how is that different from what we have now?

    .

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    I still can’t get over the fact that a major party candidate for the presidential nomination — the nominal front runner, in fact — dismisses some ~10,000,000 residents of this country with the slur “illegals” and no one makes a fuss over it, except maybe Hispanic radio & TV.

    .

  32. 32.

    lamh35

    Hmmm what’s not to love about Ron Paul…oh wait!

    Ron Paul: Civil Rights Act of 1964 ‘Destroyed’ Privacy

    Please follow Ta-Nehisi’s twitte feed:
    https://twitter.com/#!/tanehisi

    “Ron Paul slams the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It’s OK because he’s against the drug war”

    “For the record “I’m against the drug war” has officially replaced “I have a black friend.”

    “”I think lynching is just swell–but too be clear I oppose crack/cocaine disparities.”

    But ya’ll know how much of an O-bot TaNehisi is!

  38. 38.

    Klaus

    A lot of people get killed all the time, but Breivik’s mass killings of fellow Norwegians should be in there, I think.

  39. 39.

    scav

    added vote for Breivik, but I think Berlusconi and Kim Jong Il should be included in the recounting of the Very Bad Year for Dictators.

  43. 43.

    Triassic Sands

    “Oops” is the period at the end of the sentence that was the year 2011. That seems appropriate. In fact, it’s good enough to be the final epitaph for humanity.

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