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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Saving Newt From Himself

Saving Newt From Himself

by John Cole|  January 6, 20129:03 pm| 171 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012, Post-racial America, DC Press Corpse, Our Failed Media Experiment

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So apparently, a media analyst at the Politico has decided that Newt Gingrich is getting a bad rap for his remarks yesterday, and that “the interpretation has changed somewhat along the way.” You remember the remark that got a lot of attention: “And so I’m prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.” Byers is apparently upset at the coverage, which included headlines such as “Newt: African Americans Should Get Off Food Stamps; Demand Paychecks” by TPM.

Let’s just pull this car over for a second, as I know we need to take a break because I already know what you are thinking. Yes, the Politico has the balls to pay a media analyst to opine on fairness, bias, and accuracy. Yes, this is the very same Politico that, were it not for Fox News, would be the worst source of bullshit, nonsense, and trivialization of politics in the country. Being lectured by some columnist at the Politico on media coverage is like being lectured on safe shipping by a pimply-faced ship’s mate from the Exxon Valdez. The balls on Allen and Van de Hei.

Back to the Politico’s beef, which as far as I can tell is two-fold, the first of which is that the embeds at the speech didn’t hear anything unusual or that he hadn’t said before. The response to this one is simple- “SO FUCKING WHAT?” Just because they didn’t hear anything offensive doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t look at what he said and recoil in shock and disbelief. And just because he may have said similar nasty bullshit doesn’t make his remarks yesterday ANY LESS OFFENSIVE- things don’t get less offensive the more you repeat them.

The second complaint is that reporters did not include the entire block of remarks in their headlines, so therefore the offensive statement was taken out of context. You would think a media analyst would have a vague idea why the entirety of the remarks were not featured in headlines, but hey, this is the Politico, so let’s just let that go. At any rate, here are the remarks in their entirety:

The fact is if I become your nominee we will make the key test very simple — food stamps versus paychecks. Obama is the best food stamp president in American history. More people are on food stamps today because of Obama’s policies than ever in history. I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history.

Now there’s no neighborhood I know of in America where if you went around and asked people, would you rather your children had food stamps or paychecks, you wouldn’t end up with a majority saying they’d rather have a paycheck.

And so I’m prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps. And I’ll go to them and explain a brand new Social Security opportunity for young people, which would be particularly good for African-American males because they are the group that gets the smallest return on social security because they have the shortest life span.

Pray tell, how is that any less offensive? If anything, it is more offensive, because any time you give Newt time to talk, more bullshit pops out. Like, for example, the flat out lie that it is Obama’s policies which have created the current need for food stamps. Maybe lies don’t offend the Politico staff, as lies are the lifeblood of that institution. But they do bother people who have an eye on, you know, reality. At any rate, in its “full context,” the statement is just as offensive as it was stripped of “context.”

It’s going to be a long god damned year.

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Reader Interactions

171Comments

  1. 1.

    CT Voter

    January 6, 2012 at 9:08 pm

    Hey, Politico has to top the “Calling Romney weird = going after Romney’s religion” somehow, right?

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2012 at 9:08 pm

    If Obama is the “food stamp President” it’s only because of eight years of cretinous borrow and spend like a poet on payday bullshit by his vile MBA deserting coward predecessor.

    Oh, and BTW, food stamps provide more economic stimulus than all the tax cuts for the 1% ever have or ever will.

  3. 3.

    cathyx

    January 6, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    This sounds blah.

  4. 4.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:12 pm

    Honestly, John, can’t you see what Newt really means? All current food stamp recipients would be able to pay the financial equivalent into free market accounts at Tiffany’s. What on earth could even the most twisted liberal mind find to hate about that?! It’s the last stage of welfare reform, John, but not as we know it.

  5. 5.

    JasonF

    January 6, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    People mis-heard him. He didn’t say “the African-American community.” He said “the blah community.”

  6. 6.

    jl

    January 6, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    They are working the refs before the game even starts, two levels deep.

    I guess the next step for vermin journalists such as Fox and Politico is to just condemn anyone for believing their lying eyes, or ears.

    Rih Ahorahm says ‘black’, plain as day, theee is a recording of it, and a video clip, and then he goes on Fox where he simply says he did not say ‘black’. WTFN? See if it flies. Ef it.

    Do it over and over and over again until if flies.

    Hey, Cole, wake up and smell the coffee. Society, meet collapse.

    Edit: There is a sketch of a wife catching her husband in bed with another woman. They calmly get up and dress, the chick leaves the room. The hubby calmly denies, and asks the wifey where’s her evidence. Who did that sketch? Monty Python?

  7. 7.

    Crashman

    January 6, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    Amphibians are not actually eligible for the presidency, no mater how erudite they might sound to the layman.

  8. 8.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    @JasonF:

    To be fair, Newt does speak while blah a lot of the time.

  9. 9.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 9:17 pm

    Shouldn’t he be busy bittering at the Stormin Mormon?

    Focus, Newt. For once in your wife-addled, money-grubbing, historico-lobbying, big think-small mind life, FOCUS!

  10. 10.

    ChrisNYC

    January 6, 2012 at 9:18 pm

    As if a Politico person even wrote this. It’s straight from NG’s campaign, I’m guessing.

  11. 11.

    Lurking Canadian

    January 6, 2012 at 9:18 pm

    Everybody knows it is uncivil to quote exactly what a Republican says, without first asking his publicist and/or a focus group what he probably ought to have said if he didn’t want to sound like a racist douchebag.

    It’s gotcha journalism, really.

  12. 12.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    Bob Kerrey may run!

  13. 13.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    @Lurking Canadian:

    Is it like with the Ryan Plan fiasco? Any quotation is libel?

    Probably.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    January 6, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    The biggest problem with Newt becoming the attack dog against Romney is that Newt is such a shit himself, at least a few people will decide, “If Gingrich hates him, Mitt can’t be all bad.”

    .

  15. 15.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    Anyway, didn’t Newt specify that nothing he says should be quoted because it would be inaccurate? Something about “right-wing social engineering” – which, as I recall in my vile, libellous liberal mind, was something that our dauntless non-lobbyist free-market historian was opposed to. On TV, at any rate.

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/newt-gingrich-blasts-gop-budget-as-right-wing-social-engineering.php

    Followed by:

    “Let me say, on the record: Any ad which quotes what I said Sunday is a falsehood.”

    “Oh you can quote me on a Monday, a Monday and Saturday is best.. but never on a Sunday, a Sunday… ’cause that’s my day of rest.”

  16. 16.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    January 6, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    Being lectured by some columnist at the Politico on media coverage is like being lectured on safe shipping by a pimply-faced ship’s mate from the Exxon Valdez sex by a STD riddled slut.

    Fix’t.

    Other than that, fuckin’ right on John.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    January 6, 2012 at 9:26 pm

    And just because he may have said similar nasty bullshit doesn’t make his remarks yesterday ANY LESS OFFENSIVE- things don’t get less offensive the more you repeat them.

    I think this is more along the lines of “why are you bringing it up now, when Newt’s been saying essentially the same crap for years”. It’s basically the same thing that Paul’s supporters are bitching about with the newsletters. They don’t get the idea that press attention can be negative as well as positive, and the only thing that’s been keeping the bad press away so far is that their candidates were so far under the radar there was no point is talking about how crazy they were. Now that they’re getting some attention, the crazy is out in the open and the media can’t ignore it.

  18. 18.

    Jason

    January 6, 2012 at 9:26 pm

    And why is “on food stamps” a universal synechdote for “unemployed and on welfare” anyway? Large numbers of the working poor quality for food stamps. I read in a Michael Moore book that the families of junior airline pilots qualify for food stamps. What’s so evil about being on food stamps?

  19. 19.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    True, but he’d still land a few good blows. That line about how Mitt would be career pol if he hadn’t fucked it up trying to unseat Kennedy was awesome.

    More of this, Newt.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    There is no way that the MSM can gin up a horse race by telling the truth and accurately quote these people. They need jobs too. Think of the economic consequences for chichi bistro owners on the Vineyard.

  21. 21.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    @Jason:

    I think it’s all about the soc.ialist hordes eating while blah.

  22. 22.

    Poika

    January 6, 2012 at 9:29 pm

    Seems to me that Newt is doing the not very subtle dog whistle of black president, food stamps, african american community. It’s like when republicans used to talk about “welfare queens”- they didn’t expect you to think of corporations or white people.

  23. 23.

    Lurking Canadian

    January 6, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    I, ignorant foreigner that I am, got the impression from comments during the blow-up at Salon about hipsters cooking stewed rabbit with their food stamp money, that ONLY people with jobs are eligible for food stamps. Is that not correct?

  24. 24.

    ChrisNYC

    January 6, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    @Jason: The NAACP response made two points — most people on food stamps are white and most people on food stamps work.

  25. 25.

    Shari

    January 6, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    @Jason: I know junior enlisted military who are on food stamps. Don’t have any numbers, but that would be an interesting stat for someone to bring up.

  26. 26.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    Newt want to talk about the food stamps that go to folks that already have a job–they just can’t feed their families on what they make. And it’s the avowed intention of Republicans to see that there are more and more of us like that, what with busting unions and free-rider acts.

    Americans made more in 1968 than they do at today’s federal minimum wage.

  27. 27.

    Rhoda

    January 6, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    @jl, it’s Joey Bishop in A Guide For The Married Man.

  28. 28.

    srv

    January 6, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history.

    But aren’t food stamps and welfare actually paychecks for those strapping young bucks who voted for their brother?

    Maybe if Newt did a rap video.

  29. 29.

    gnomedad

    January 6, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    “Newt: African Americans Should Get Off Food Stamps; Demand Paychecks”

    The gooper drones would cheer for this even if it were taken out of context but will complain about the unfairness anyway because Librul Media!

  30. 30.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    @Mino: Not me, I made $140 a month plus $65 “Hazardous Duty Pay”.

  31. 31.

    amk

    January 6, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    politico=porn politics

    good for gossip.

  32. 32.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    Why can’t they just charge for their speeches? It’s all so simple. And of course their historical advice.

  33. 33.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    @srv:

    Who’s the private-sector dick/That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?/Newt!

  34. 34.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson:Hush yo mouth!

  35. 35.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    @Raven: In 1968? I was making $1.35/hr as apprentice metalsmith.

  36. 36.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    @Raven:

    But I’m talkin’ about Newt!

  37. 37.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    @Mino: I got free food, cigs and ammo!

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson:

    That’s a sex machine to all the chicks

    ::shudder::

  39. 39.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: I thought it was Shaft!

  40. 40.

    jrg

    January 6, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Pay a man $1.6 million to be a “historian”, he’ll think he invented the fucking light bulb.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    @Raven: I was turning four, but I was in Grant Park for the Democratic Convention.

  42. 42.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    In fairness, there is a Tiffany’s account involved.

  43. 43.

    danimal

    January 6, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    Still pissed at Newt.

    Why would he go to the NAACP to make his encouragement-of-paychecks speech? If all neighborhoods have a majority of people preferring paychecks to food stamps, he doesn’t need to go anywhere with the speech, right? But somehow the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People needs the speech.

    Sorry, it was blatant racism yesterday and it still is today. Not to mention that he is 100% wrong about food stamps factually.

  44. 44.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:43 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He’s a complicated man
    But no one understands him but his woman

  45. 45.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson:

    which one?

  46. 46.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was in the barracks at Lewis fixin to ship out.

  47. 47.

    Linda Featheringill

    January 6, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    @Lurking Canadian:

    I believe food stamps are a supplement given to people because of reduced income for whatever reason. You don’t have to have a job to qualify.

  48. 48.

    Canuckistani Tom

    January 6, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson:

    Which one, the math teacher, the one he divorced in the cancer ward, or the current one?

    ETA: dang, too slow

  49. 49.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    @Little Boots:

    There can be only one?

  50. 50.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: Everyone must believe in something, I believe I’ll go fishing!

  51. 51.

    jl

    January 6, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    @Rhoda:

    Thank you. I vaguely remembered that skit from someplace a long time ago. Old movie reruns on the TV probably.

    OK, you damn kids, (and you too, old man Cole) please pay attention to the following instructional video on the new GOP and friends’ bamboozle technique.

    Joey Bishop in denial – with Ann Morgan Guilbert
    http://youtu.be/MZmnXIN_Rb4

    If this work on the US public, you can stick a fork in us. We are done, well done. A cooked goose.

  52. 52.

    gaz

    January 6, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    @jl:

    Rih Ahorahm says ‘black’,

    dude, no fair pushing a new play on his name.

    we’d have to update Dan’s savage google bomb =)

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 6, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson:

    But no one understands him but his woman

    And by god, Newt won’t stop till he finds that woman!

    From the picture, it looks like Master Ryan has literally months of experience covering politics and media, so he is quite well placed to judge the ways that race and racist dog whistles (though in this case, it’s a fucking hog call) play in American politics.

  54. 54.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    @Raven: And housing, too. Don’t forget the housing. Jeeze.

  55. 55.

    jl

    January 6, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    @gaz: I stumbled, I didn’t type what I typed. I stumbled and typed something that was what I was going to type, but typed it anyway, except I didn’t and almost typed something else, but it came out something like what it wasn’t, whatever it was.

  56. 56.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    @Mino: GP Medium.

  57. 57.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    @jl:

    Next you’ll be denying reading or writing your newsletters!

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    @Little Boots: Good point. Anyone who would, you know, Newt would need some motivation.

  59. 59.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: How did the tear gas taste? You had baptism by fire, for sure.

  60. 60.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 9:55 pm

    Home sweet home

  61. 61.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    @Raven: What kind of poor trees were those? Just pitiful.

  62. 62.

    Gust Avrakotos

    January 6, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    Cole using several paragraphs with links and quoted text to basically say Newt is an asshole that likes to send out the dog whistle.

    Yawn, and water is wet yada yada.

  63. 63.

    RossInDetroit

    January 6, 2012 at 9:59 pm

    We were on Food Stamps for a while in the ’70s. Six kids, one parent. No way for her to make enough to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.
    About that roof. It was leaky so she got Federal grant money through the state to have it replaced. They also upgraded the 50 year old wiring so it wasn’t a fire hazard.
    Thank you Federal Government. These are two of the reason I’m a Liberal.

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 9:59 pm

    @Mino: The ‘rents had me home before that. OTOH my mom has an abiding detestation for cops since then. She asked a cop for directions to public restroom so she could take me to it and he responded, “Fuck you, hippie.” Mom can hold grudges. BTW we did safely find a restroom in time to prevent embarrassment.

    Also too, tear gas sucks.

  65. 65.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    @Mino: I think they were eucalyptus.

  66. 66.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    @jl:

    that’s horribly, disturbingly, awfully close. pretty much the last 30 years in this country.

    If only he’d accused her of class warfare it would have been the exact history.

    Member when Bush and Wall Street fucked up the entire economy? no, me neither. musta been Obama.

  67. 67.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    @jl: Doesn’t this belong in the Santorum thread? Or is it synchronicity?

  68. 68.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    @Mino: Here’s our xmas tree 68.

  69. 69.

    Maude

    January 6, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    @Raven:
    You also got a free wardrobe.

  70. 70.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    @RossInDetroit: Two reasons why you’re alive.

    TVA created multi-generational Democrats.

  71. 71.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    @Mino: Here’s a wonderful shot of the Mekong River and 7 mountains from the air.

  72. 72.

    Lojasmo

    January 6, 2012 at 10:06 pm

    Any E1/E2 in the military with a wife and kid would qualify for stamps. Of course, a lot of them are blah.

  73. 73.

    jl

    January 6, 2012 at 10:06 pm

    @Mino: I am a big Rih fan and emulate him in all ways. For example, I simply do not know what I am doing and what I do or say makes no sense.

  74. 74.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    @Raven: Were you in an engineer brigade? That’s pretty decent.

  75. 75.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    @Maude: And mail!

  76. 76.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    @Raven: Christ. Ox-bow, much? That is amazing.

  77. 77.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    And funny money!

  78. 78.

    Alex

    January 6, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    The best is that liberals have been pointing out that Newt has been dog whistling on food stamps for a while now. This isn’t a new thing that has never been complained about the many times he said it in the past. The only thing new is that he forgot to dog whistle and everyone could hear it.

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:10 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I was turning four

    Turning four what?

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    @Lojasmo:

    The wisdom of having an E1/E2 with a wife and kids is suspect, but because we made a decision that kids like OvenMitt’s sons shouldn’t be compelled to serve, the military has to take what they can recruit. With families, if necessary, and all the logistical complication that implies.

    Food Stamps are available if you’re below certain income levels. Which means that many food stamp recipients are working. Like those E1s and E2s.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    @Raven:

    That’s some hella meander there.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Years old.

  83. 83.

    Maude

    January 6, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    @Raven:
    Wow, on the mail. There’s an APO drop box in our local post office. It hasn’t been there that long.

  84. 84.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: That was sissy tear gas. It’s much better now.

    That event was pretty eye-opening. We hadn’t seen that kind of thing since TV head become widespread. The labor/Pinkerton riots and other slap downs of the public had never been seen in the raw by so many people. It changed us, I think.

  85. 85.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    @Mino: Signal Company, they were good with wires.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    @Raven:

    Tell me that’s not George Washington on the dollar.

  87. 87.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    @Raven: Military script! They don’t use that any more, do they?

  88. 88.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Hell of a river.

  89. 89.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 6, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    85 comments in 1 hour? Are you guys crouched at the start?

  90. 90.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Uh huh. Thanks.

    :-)

  91. 91.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    @Mino: MPC. Beats me, I got out in 1969.

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:17 pm

    @Mino: I didn’t personally run into CS gas until Basic in ’88.

  93. 93.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: They would change it every few months. Very high security operation. They’d close every base and make you exchange your dough. The vietnamese would be at the gates with wheelbarrows full of cash trying to get anything they could. You could really make money if you could get greenbacks.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Wha’d I do?

  95. 95.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: Some of us are watching the cotton bowl.

  96. 96.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    @Raven:

    Wow, sure is. Runs through, what? half a dozen countries? Quite impressive, I must say.

  97. 97.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    January 6, 2012 at 10:21 pm

    i think newt’s entire candidacy could have been avoided if someone had given him a platinum sub to ashleymadison.

  98. 98.

    jl

    January 6, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    I was temporarily imprisoned in an undisclosed working environment location today, and overheard Mitt on a radio call in show from from some cuboffical.

    I thought Romney was absolutely awful, horrid, offputting, irritating, hideous, in his interactions with callers. Whenever he was challenged he sounded like a bad swindler who was about to break out in a sweat, and starting to get pissed at the mark for catching on to his con.

    Right after hearing Romney today, I thought ‘there is NO WAY that dude can get elected president’. Claws scrapping across a chalk board would beat him. He was about as appealing as a moldy dog turd you step in while raking leaves. He makes McCain having a temper tantrum look like FDR/Reagan/Bid Dawg all rolled into one, political arts wise.

  99. 99.

    Cacti

    January 6, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    I wonder how many Wal-Mart associates are on food stamps.

  100. 100.

    Linda Featheringill

    January 6, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    @Raven:

    Smart alec! :-)

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Not a thing, my friend, I just thought it was funny. my mind sometimes hares off in unexpected directions.

    TPIAW, it’s not you, it’s me.

    Peace.

  102. 102.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yea “From the Tibetan Plateau this river runs through China’s Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.” We’d take civilian ferry’s across at Vihn Long and Can Tho. In the film “The Lover” they start out at Vihn Long and drive to Saigon on the actual road I drove. Gave me the willies when I saw it.

  103. 103.

    jl

    January 6, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @jl:

    “[Romney] was about as appealing as a moldy dog turd you step in while raking leaves.”

    If Bobo is reading, I just want to point out that I am trying to be civil. Trying very hard. I pulled my punches and typed the polite version.

  104. 104.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: I have that on a t-shirt and it credits Thoreau.

  105. 105.

    Jebediah

    January 6, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @Gust Avrakotos:

    Yawn, and water is wet yada yada.

    Check your browser, up near the top. If you see an address bar, you’re in luck! You can use it to go anywhere on the web that will meet your standards!

  106. 106.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @Cacti: That is a feature not a bug.

  107. 107.

    The Moar You Know

    January 6, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    @Mino: They still use military script. Got some on my last trip out. I’ll keep it to show the nephews one day.

  108. 108.

    moderateindy

    January 6, 2012 at 10:27 pm

    To be fair when taken in total the speech was less offensive then just the quote taken by itself. Really, almost in the same way that Ryan’s plan was only a little change to traditional Medicare, or Charlie Sheen is less crazy than Gary Busey.
    See? Newt’s words when heard in full context are only extremely offensive, so why are you Dirty Hippies acting like they were outrageously offensive?

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:27 pm

    @Raven: I know it was a different war but your pictures have a powerful aroma of M*A*S*H about them.

  110. 110.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Huh, is there a big black market in the Ville?

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Okay, cool. I try to live by Oscar Wilde’s maxim that “a gentleman never gives offense, unintentionally.”

  112. 112.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    @jl: That description of Romney’s hallmonitor by that reporter in the previous thread made me think of a ballroom full of mortiticans. Smiling.

  113. 113.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    @Jebediah:

    He might even meet another Avrakotex and they can make virtual Avrakotexes together.

  114. 114.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:30 pm

    Thirteen series of MPC were issued between 1946 and 1973, with varied designs often compared to Monopoly money due to their colors. After the official end of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War in early 1973, the only place where MPC remained in use was South Korea. In autumn of 1973, a surprise conversion day was held there, retiring MPC and substituting greenbacks. MPC was never again issued, and the concept lay dormant until the late 1990s, when it was revived somewhat in the form of a Stored Value Card system, presently used by U.S. armed forces in Iraq.

  115. 115.

    some guy

    January 6, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    Paultards attack Huntsman as the Manchurian Candidate since he has two (count them, two) non-Caucasian children. these fuckers are both evil and vile.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/06/jon-huntsman-criticises-adopted-daughters-ad

  116. 116.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:33 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Oh, you want to see Korea? Camp Hartell, 1/79th Arty 1967.

  117. 117.

    cmorenc

    January 6, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The wisdom of having an E1/E2 with a wife and kids is suspect…

    An old saw about the Marine Corps says: “if the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife, they’d have issued you one.”

  118. 118.

    Cacti

    January 6, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    @some guy:

    Paultards attack Huntsman as the Manchurian Candidate since he has two (count them, two) non-Caucasian children. these fuckers are both evil and vile

    Racism from the paul campaign? No way.

    I refuse to believe that the one true savior progressive in the campaign would stoop so low.

    La la la la I can’t hear you!

  119. 119.

    Little Boots

    January 6, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    @some guy:

    Yeah, it’s all about the freedom with those guys.

    Yup.

    The freedom.

  120. 120.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    @cmorenc: Eat the apple and. . .

  121. 121.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    By any chance did you read that NYT review today of a new manners book? The review quoted that OW line which I have known, I suppose, most of my life but haven’t thought of in years. Funny to come up against it twice in a few hours.

    And just to be clear, I absolutely didn’t mean to be offensive. Sometimes I’ll say or write something that seems funny but misfires rather badly. Apologies to you.

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    @Raven: Guns! I spent time as Battalion Ammo Officer/Ammo Platoon leader. Easiest job I had in the army. I had a fantastic Ammo SGT who did everything; he just asked that I keep senior officers out of the way while real work was being done. I was fully capable of that.

  123. 123.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 6, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    @some guy:

    The Paultards apparently can’t help themselves, it seems. It’s not like Huntsman is seriously threatening Paul’s position as Klown Kar Kommando #3, after all.

    They see these non-Caucasian kids and their salivary glands start drooling.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:44 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: No, I thought I had been offensive and wasn’t sure why. No apologies needed on your part.

    And no, I had not seen the review. To an extent, I really do believe in that as a way of going through life.

  125. 125.

    waratah

    January 6, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    @Raven: Were you in Korea and Vietnam?

  126. 126.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yep, as you know, there was nothing lower than the ammo platoon in the arty. We had bunkers all up on this goddamn hill. We’d drive to the asp, load em up, drive back and tote those suckers up the hill and store em. I have no idea why they designed it that way but that was it. When we went to the field we’d just stack em. I don’t know if you’ve seen this but my Bn CO sent me his home movies a few years back. Here’s a condensed version. It’s him narrating.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Man, you and I share a birthday. It’s all cool.

  128. 128.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:47 pm

    @waratah: Yea, I went in on my 17th birthday in 66 and you had to be 18 to go to the Nam so, the genius that I was, I volunteered for Nam and they sent me to Korea. It was fine until they came across the border and then took the Pueblo.

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:48 pm

    @Raven: Cool video.

    @SiubhanDuinne: No one else really understands Leos, do they?

  130. 130.

    PurpleGirl

    January 6, 2012 at 10:48 pm

    OT — For WaterGirl (if you are reading this thread): I will have the resume to send you tomorrow. And again, thanks.

  131. 131.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 6, 2012 at 10:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s a pride thing.

  132. 132.

    some guy

    January 6, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    attacking a man for adopting kids is about as low as one can go, methinks. I may be biased in this regard, but racist assholes like these can go eat a bag of salted dicks.

  133. 133.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    January 6, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    @Mino: In 1968, whatever minimum wage was, was what I was making in the dishroom at Howard Johnson’s. $1.25? Is that too much?

  134. 134.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yea, it’s strange when you have these memories and then you see it on film and realize they were accurate. Only thing missing is the smell.

  135. 135.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    @some guy: Not to be picky, but why waste the salt?

  136. 136.

    waratah

    January 6, 2012 at 10:52 pm

    @Raven: Photos of Vietnam I have seen you all looked too young. I asked about one young man and was told he was under 18.

  137. 137.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:53 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: $1.60

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    @Raven: There is a line in a Billy Bragg song: “the smell of damp webbing in the morning breeze” that brings the exact smell to my mind.

    @SiubhanDuinne: Ha!

  139. 139.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    @waratah: Yea, I mean I wouldn’t question it if someone said they were. It was official policy but I think there was a marine that was something like 15.

  140. 140.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    January 6, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    @RossInDetroit: I dunno why I’m a liberal. We had a roof over our head and steady meals, and college educations. My old man worked on radar systems for fighter jets. Private sector — public contracts. I do environmental work for cities and counties. Private sector — public contracts.

    Different type of federal, state, and local support than you had, but still…

    It was probably Nixon that turned me into a liberal, actually. Reagan cemented it.

  141. 141.

    some guy

    January 6, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    to make their gums burn.

  142. 142.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Combine that with 1000 years of honey buckets on the paddies ripening in August as you ran in formation through the village and you got it!

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I was raised one by people who were raised by them, etc.

    @some guy: Have you considered marketing a habanero version?

    @Raven: Subtropical farming villages really are not my milieu. Nor yours, I would think.

  144. 144.

    Raven

    January 6, 2012 at 11:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not anymore. peace out boys and girls. Don’t let the Joneses get ya down.

  145. 145.

    Mino

    January 6, 2012 at 11:07 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Check out the chart:

    http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

    1968 1.60 (7.21 in 1996 dollars)
    2007 5.85 (4.41 in 1996 dollars)
    2010 7.25 (afraid to put in the values, I guess, but you can interpret the trend.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 11:09 pm

    @Raven: Brian or Mick?

  147. 147.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    January 6, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    @some guy: From the link:

    “I have a daughter from China who was abandoned at two months of age and left in a vegetable market, picked up by the police and sent to an orphanage.”

    Me, I have a son from Bolivia who was abandoned at 3 or 4 years of age (we don’t know for sure) in a market, picked up by the police and sent to an orphanage.

    Vile. May they all burn in hell. No, burn in a fire here.

  148. 148.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    January 6, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I had a fantastic Ammo SGT who did everything; he just asked that I keep senior officers out of the way while real work was being done.

    My (fantasy) response to management is “Don’t monkey with the buzzsaw while it’s busy cuttin’ wood.” Glad you could run interference for your SGT.

  149. 149.

    Mike in NC

    January 6, 2012 at 11:17 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:

    It was probably Nixon that turned me into a liberal, actually. Reagan cemented it.

    When I turned 18 the first thing I did was run out and vote for McGovern vs the odious bastard Dick Nixon.

    Then along came Newt Gingrich, fat fucking draft dodger, who coined the term “McGovernick” to tar and insult a guy who flew many B-24 missions over Nazi Germany in WW2. Yet the Villagers still love Newt.

  150. 150.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 6, 2012 at 11:17 pm

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: It was something I was got at doing. We won awards. Cheers to you, SFC Ivory, wherever you are.

  151. 151.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    January 6, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    @Raven: Hmm. $1.25 sticks in my mind. Lower wages for restaurant workers? Maybe I was working there earlier than ’68? I don’t think I have the W-2s any more to solve my conundrum. :-{

  152. 152.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    January 6, 2012 at 11:24 pm

    @Mike in NC: When I turned 18 I ran out and voted for Shirley Chishom in the California primary because McGovern was a centrist!

    He still got my vote in the fall, though.

  153. 153.

    LosGatosCA

    January 6, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    When faux religion gets you fourth place in Iowa, you just have to go with the real racism in South Carolina.

    Every conservative Republican TeaBagger understands the dog whistle, it’s back to basics.

  154. 154.

    TG Chicago

    January 6, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    Not sure if you saw the second update to the Politico story. It includes Newt saying, “I talked to J.C. Watts this morning and he’s happy to talk anybody about this. Like I said I talked to Col. West and he’s happy to talk to anybody about this.”

    So he’s already falling back on “I have black friends”.

  155. 155.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 6, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    @TG Chicago:

    Give the Neutron two minutes and he’ll be citing fake Bill Cosby videos from Youtube.

  156. 156.

    MikeJ

    January 6, 2012 at 11:42 pm

    @TG Chicago: For people who remember usenet, “the lurkers support me in email”.

  157. 157.

    LT

    January 7, 2012 at 12:03 am

    OT: How in god’s potato farm did I miss the end of the ABL Wars? Holy Christ in heaven. No, really: Holy Christ in heaven, thank you, thank you., thank you…

  158. 158.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 7, 2012 at 12:14 am

    Two anti-black statements plucked by the media from the absolute reams of transcripts these guys must be providing, one from Newt, one from Santorum in the last two. At least one came down the Politico pipe, which is a guaranteed Rove outlet (that’s how Cain got done).

    Granted, those guys are racists, just like Cain is a sexist. But that works out awfully well for somebody else………………………..

  159. 159.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 7, 2012 at 12:17 am

    It’s a strange world – Rove can flag to South Carolina (!) Republicans (!!) that someone is unserious by pimping moments when they made their racism public instead of private

  160. 160.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 7, 2012 at 12:20 am

    This is pretty slick of Newt here too

    More people are on food stamps today because of Obama’s policies than ever in history.

    He’s been doing this thing since the 1990s at least where he buries a questionable clause in a true statement, he does it a lot more than other politicians even, listen to him next time you hear a soundbite from him on whatever weak-ass liberal shit you people listen to

  161. 161.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 7, 2012 at 12:22 am

    @AA+ Bonds: It is just now that the current weirdness has struck you?

  162. 162.

    AA+ Bonds

    January 7, 2012 at 12:26 am

    Until now I believed the world to be the Lord’s tabletop yes

  163. 163.

    WaterGirl

    January 7, 2012 at 12:26 am

    @PurpleGirl: I sent an email message to Anne Laurie asking her to give you my email address if you send her an email message.

    I will look for a message from you over the weekend.

  164. 164.

    LT

    January 7, 2012 at 1:41 am

    Regarding my comment at #157, that was thank you for not getting snared in those threads, nothing more.

  165. 165.

    Bago

    January 7, 2012 at 4:10 am

    Man, remember Active Server Pages? They wrote books on those….

  166. 166.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    January 7, 2012 at 4:48 am

    EricKKK, Son of EricKKK, has a post up at RedState about the website that Teh Noot has set up (notromney.com) to go after Romney. The members love it and are more than happy to help Obama win by going after Romney.

    While they didn’t actually say that they would help Obama win, that will be the end result so it all works out for us.

    Noot knows that his campaign latest income stream is coming to an end and has found his newest no-effort gravy train job; taking Romney down and raking in the contributions of the winger rubes to do so. Noot is like any good conservative out there, they will fuck anyone over for a buck.

    Anyone.

  167. 167.

    Triassic Sands

    January 7, 2012 at 10:15 am

    Don’t you have to have a job to get a paycheck?

  168. 168.

    Mart

    January 7, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    He’d go to the NAACP as only black people are on food stamps, with the exception of my white college grad daughter who is having a rough time making a living wage right now.

  169. 169.

    uptown

    January 7, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    I think this part is actually worse.

    …would be particularly good for African-American males because they are the group that gets the smallest return on social security because they have the shortest life span.

    Instead of trying to make the changes needed now so that young African-American males live as long as every other male, Newt wants to f@#! with their SS payments. In the hope they get a bit more cash back during their still shortened life span.

  170. 170.

    Robert Waldmann

    January 8, 2012 at 2:30 am

    I know it’s impossible, but you failed to keep up with Gingrich’s bullshit. He suggests that people get either food stamps or paychecks. In fact, many people get both. This is central to his purpose of hinting that food stamp recipients are not only all Black but also not in paid work possibly because of laziness.

    The fact is that, due in large part to real wage declines (at the lower end of the distribution) under Reagan and both Bushes and in spite of the increases which followed the Clinton tax increase on the rich and expansion of the EITC (which he said would be a disaster) many people are both working and poor. He knows that. He is attempting to deceive racists more ignorant than himself.

  171. 171.

    gluon1

    January 8, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    Small moment of pedantry, but Cole writes, “The balls on Allen and Van de Hei.” While there are a lot of things to be pissed at Mike Allen about, I think this one was aimed at John Harris (http://www.politico.com/reporters/JohnFHarris.html) and VandeHei.

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