Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

People are complicated. Love is not.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

I really should read my own blog.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Bark louder, little dog.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

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Afternoon Open Thread

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Ladies and gentlemen, my senator, Rand Paul.

An email campaign launched this week (pictured, below) featuring the endorsement of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) depicts a rifle pointing at President Barack Obama’s head, and a message about an imaginary “million rifle ban” the president is allegedly seeking to implement.

 

Open thread.  Before Obama’s Million Open Thread Ban begins.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  12. 12.

    FlipYrWhig

    The ad suggests that Obama has _already_ implemented the Skeery Negro Makin’ Y’all Defenseless Bill. Neat trick. That way when nothing happens, Paul’s suckers can feel like it was because they “reversed” the policy.

  13. 13.

    Steve

    When this story broke two years ago Obama was banning “100,000 rifles. Three months ago he was banning 600,000 rifles. Now it’s a “Million Rifle Ban.” No wonder we don’t want these things in our country – they breed like rabbits!

    Having said that, this has been going on for years and I’ve never heard a good explanation of why these guns are a problem. They’re old Korean War rifles that people would buy as collectibles. They’re very unlikely candidates to be used by criminals.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Well, Rand Paul is a US Senator, so he must know whether or not there’s legislation in the pipeline to ban a million rifles.

    I mean, a Republican Senator wouldn’t just lie about something like that.

    Would he?

    .

  16. 16.

    protected static

    @Steve: They’ve mostly acquiesced on the Garands; it’s the M1 Carbines they’re refusing to import now, because of the availability of 30-round magazines for them. (I still don’t see your typical criminal going for an M1 carbine – a militia member, on the other hand…)

  17. 17.

    shortstop

    @Steve:

    Having said that, this has been going on for years and I’ve never heard a good explanation of why these guns are a problem.

    Which is why Obama is only banning them in the imaginations of paranoid armed people.

  18. 18.

    Steve

    @shortstop: Well, I mean, it’s not a lie that the US Government has been refusing for quite a while to let these guns be imported.

  19. 19.

    dedc79

    It’s really hard to come to grips with the reality that we’re up against a collection of politicans for which “facts” and “truth” are a luxury they’ve decided they cannot afford. Not to mention a media that no longer employs anyone with any interest in telling fact from fiction.

  20. 20.

    khead

    Get out of Kentucky. It’s one of the few states I felt comfortable making fun of while growing up in WV.

  21. 21.

    cmorenc

    @GoodGuyGreg:

    Here’s the kernel of reality behind Paul’s email – just to save y’all the trouble of looking for it: blog.chron.com/txpotoma…..ting-rule/

    …which link references a rule requiring firearms dealers in four states which border Mexico to report to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms any sales of two or more firearms of certain types to the same people within five days, the purpose of which is to monitor for sales of guns in the US to violent Mexican drug cartels. Yet, GOP Congresscritters (especially in the GOP-controlled House) were fire-breathing down the neck of the Administration for allowing a sale of firearms to go through to these same cartels in the course of investigating channels of gun sales to these same cartels.

    Rand Paul is an amoral nutbag and a disgrace to the US Senate.

  22. 22.

    Schlemizel

    I was pretty sure in 2008 that there would be multiple attempts on Obama’s life if he were elected, I’m still stunned that there has not been a serious attempt. I seriously don’t know how he can go about his day so calmly. Ads like little Aynie Rands just set the stage for the demented jackass that might want to try. Jay-zuz I hate these fuckers.

  23. 23.

    MikeJ

    @khead:

    Get out of Kentucky. Really. It’s not that hard.

    Perhaps that’s why Republicans don’t want to fix those bridges?

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @cmorenc:

    Gun stores selling guns to Mexican cartels = freedom

    Government selling guns to Mexican cartels = socialism

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @cmorenc:

    Yet, GOP Congresscritters (especially in the GOP-controlled House) were fire-breathing down the neck of the Administration for allowing a sale of firearms to go through to these same cartels in the course of investigating channels of gun sales to these same cartels.

    Well, yeah, because they weren’t upset that we were selling arms to drug dealers. They were upset that we might try to stop those very profitable sales to drug dealers.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    This Paul crap should be wrapped up with “We’re the National Rifle Association, and we approve this message.”

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, has that photo of Paul been Photoshopped, or does he bear a creepy resemblance to a thinner Alec Baldwin?

  30. 30.

    Merp

    Holy shit

    I went after you pretty hard on your earlier post but this is excellent.

    In the sense of blog post quality. Obviously the content of it is horrifying. Thanks for posting it.

  31. 31.

    jharp

    @GoodGuyGreg:

    Don’t know where in the fuck you find any kernel of truth in that link.

    Banning rifles I always figured meant banning rifles.

    A law that requires the reporting the sale of certain rifles is now banning them?

    Put the bong away.

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    I was pretty sure in 2008 that there would be multiple attempts on Obama’s life if he were elected, I’m still stunned that there has not been a serious attempt.

    The Secret Service, for all its recent screwups in public, is just that good.

    Also, the top Republicans apparently realize that if this Democratic President bites a bullet, they all won’t survive a week afterward. The veneer of civility has worn thin and dry as tinder.

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    A law that requires the reporting the sale of certain rifles is now banning them?

    If violent rightwing aholes can’t buy guns in secret for use against their fellow citizens, then its a ban.

    But there is no such thing as rightwing domestic terrorism. No Saah!

  34. 34.

    Steve

    @jharp: I don’t think that’s what Rand Paul’s deal is about at all. I think it’s about the Korean rifle thing I mentioned above.

  35. 35.

    Haydnseek

    Yeah, paranoia strikes deep. The last gun related legislation that Obama signed into law gave people the right to pack heat in national parks. All part of his super secret master plan to lull real murikans into a false sense of security before the black helicopters full of UN troops arrive to “take away our guns.” Sarah Palin tried to ride this same sick hobbyhorse, and when informed of the national parks laws and the fact that he’d had never even slightly hinted that he was taking away anyones guns, she petulantly whined, “well, he would if he could,” exactly like the childish idiot she is.

  36. 36.

    khead

    @MikeJ:

    I altered my statement a bit after it posted, but there’s just no way I would move back to WV or into KY today. No way.

  38. 38.

    FlipYrWhig

    @khead: @MikeJ: I remember that after I moved to Virginia from Philadelphia seven years ago, it was disorienting to see the weather map on the local news. We realized that we shared borders with Kentucky and Tennessee. My wife recoiled in horror.

  39. 39.

    JPL

    @Baud: Who ever has John’s ear should send your idea.. Tunch on t-shirts with that message.
    He could raise lots of money for the rescue organization. I’d even put a bumper sticker on my car and I live in red neck country.

  41. 41.

    Haydnseek

    @Schlemizel: I’m as surprised as you are. I was sure that some militia type would try to take him out about ten minutes after he took the oath of office, and yes, I hate these motherfuckers with the intensity of the heat of a thousand suns.

  42. 42.

    shortstop

    It’s not like I ever thought Wayne LaPierre was rational, but things have gotten out of control. Do none of the claimed 4.3 million members of the NRA find the argument “The reason you haven’t seen Obama do anything to take away your guns is that he’s got a sooper sekrit plan to do it in the second term”…um…FUCKING CRAZY? This is the kind of thing you expect leaders of small, largely ignored cults to say.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Who ever has John’s ear should send your idea..

    Cuz we all know John doesn’t read his own blog…

    :)

    Oh, and before I forget: Copyright 2012.

  45. 45.

    Not Sure

    @cmorenc: And yet, he’s destined to represent Kentucky until he draws his last breath, or until the Second Coming, whichever happens first.

  47. 47.

    khead

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Philly? My wife is from the Mayfair section. There are more people within a 10 block radius of her childhood house than my entire home county nowadays.

    This may be hard to believe (for some folks) but I would rather move there than to my own home county in WV.

    Also, Chinks serves awesome cheese steak.

  48. 48.

    Brian R.

    So we can just make shit up now? OK.

    If we’re going to stop Rand Paul’s Million Goat Fucking Spree, then we need to get started now!

    If we’re going to stop Rand Paul’s Million Dollar Cocaine Binge, then we need to get started now!

    If we’re going to stop Rand Paul’s Million Person Human Centipede, then we need to get started now!

    If we’re going to stop Rand Paul’s Million Man Dong Swallow, then we need to get started now!

  49. 49.

    j

    It’s ALWAYS some scarey thing that will happen “sometime in the future”. And it never does.

    The Teabaggers are real Nostradumbasses.

    The pants pissers have finally lost whatever used to be considered as their minds.

    Here’s a documentary with that REAL ‘Murkin” the noted philosopher Dr. B. Bunny explaining the dichotomy of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the enemy of my friend is still going to get it”.

    Aww Hell. They ALL get it because Dr. Bunny is an eleventh level chess genius.

    youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LfnOuIBF-X0

  50. 50.

    BethanyAnne

    Holy externalized synergistic cross-platform touchpoints, Batman. I barely escaped a full day marketing offsite with the presence of mind to collaborate properly, let alone instantiate my fully metric compliant 360 degree review of all relevant opportunities for market expansion.

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

    I don’t think I’ve hated humans more by the end of a day in a long time.

    and 1 + 1 + 1 =/= 5, you fuckers. You’ve ruined English, stay the fuck away from math.

  51. 51.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @TenguPhule:

    Also, the top Republicans apparently realize that if this Democratic President bites a bullet, they all won’t survive a week afterward. The veneer of civility has worn thin and dry as tinder.

    I honestly find it very hard to believe that the GOP has any control over the wingnuts. In the wingnuts eyes the Republicans and the Democrats both are coming to socialize their medicare for the New World Order.

  53. 53.

    Rick Massimo

    That’s really the picture of Rand Paul they put on top of mailers?

    Like, on purpose?

    I’ve seen that mug on top of e-mails that used him as a symbol of the stupid and/or evil that our country is succumbing to, but I never knew HE used it himself.

    He looks like a pampered rich kid who is getting the butler of three generations’ service fired because his grilled cheese sandwich was made with Gouda when he SPECIFICALLY demanded Camembert, even though he was told they were out.

    He looks like the rich kid who gets the face full of pie at the end of every episode of every kids’ show I ever saw.

    And that’s the face they WANT you to see.

  54. 54.

    jharp

    @protected static:

    The Garand rifle in the mailing would indicate that this is about the Korean rifles

    I went and read it again and have no idea what you are talking about.

  55. 55.

    TFinSF

    Why did Rand pick out a picture of himself that makes him look like an insufferable douche?

  56. 56.

    Redshift

    @FlipYrWhig: Yeah, but you can take comfort in the fact that even from Richmond, let alone NoVa, Tennessee is further away than New York.

  57. 57.

    FlipYrWhig

    @khead: I lived in West Philly for a couple of years, by the Art Museum for a summer, then just below South Street near Grays Ferry. Lots of comforting greasy food… I was 30 or so pounds heavier there!

  59. 59.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Redshift: True. But it’s funny to say, “I think that storm might be coming this way, once it gets over the Kentucky border.”

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    Just you wait, sheeple, until Obama’s third term. What, if Putin and Chavez can….

    (Horrible, horrible things await, also too.)

  61. 61.

    geg6

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Saw that and had the same thought. And dipshit Dimon lost all that cash in credit derivatives. Fucking credit swaps! Again!

    And these are supposedly the smartest guys in the room? And are worth the millions and millions and millions they get?

    Jesus fucking Christ.

  62. 62.

    jharp

    @Steve:

    There was nothing in that article that GoodGuyGreg posted about any Korea rifle or Garand or whatever the hell you are talking about. I since I was responding with GoodGuyGreg about his article I see how I missed your silliness.

    So what is the story on this Korean rifle? And what exactly is the problem?

  63. 63.

    LanceThruster

    That ad can’t be real. Did someone photoshop out Pres. Obama in a hoodie?

  64. 64.

    Haydnseek

    @BGinCHI: A million thanks for this. In their infinite wisdom, the brainacs at the Los Angeles Times have chosen Jonah Fucking Goldberg to be their twice a week “conservative” voice on the op-ed page. I don’t envy person who edits the letters to the editor in this decidedly blue city in this blue state. I would love to see the letters that they DON’T print.

  65. 65.

    eemom

    @FlipYrWhig:

    A pity they are what they are politically, because the Great Smoky Mountains part of Tennessee is absolutely gorgeous.

    Many, many, many years ago, the husband and I took a motorcycle trip through those states. What stands out in my recollection, aside from the scenery, is our first and last nights in Kentucky. The first, we stayed in a nice family owned motel, and after dinner we asked the owner if there were any good bars around. She said, “Not that I would recommend your going into. If y’all want a beer you better stay here with us.”

    The second also involves beer: we’d been riding all day and it was hot as hell, and we stopped at a 7-11. I picked up two beers and brought them to the register. BOY was I thirsty.

    The woman looked at me. I started to dig out my ID.

    “Honey, it’s Sunday.”

    Oh shiiiiiiiiiiit.

    I was so pissed I insisted on riding another 3 hours so we could make it across the WV border. And when we got THERE everything was closed, so I never did get a beer that night. : (

    (Just in case anyone was curious, there was only one motorcyle.)

  67. 67.

    Steve

    @jharp: Is there a reason you’re talking like an asshole? Because if you seriously want me to give you some background on this issue, you’re not acting like it.

  68. 68.

    FlipYrWhig

    @eemom: I can totally picture it. OTOH, Pennsylvania is a terrible mess on alcohol sales. Virginia seems like a bastion of enlightenment by comparison. Being able to buy beer and wine in a grocery store? Or a Target? O brave new world!

  69. 69.

    James L

    Has anyone seen this article in Politico? Romney’s son Tagg has just welcomed twin sons into his family born from IVF in a surrogate mother. This is the second time Tagg and his wife used a surrogate to give birth to their children. The last paragraph of the article states that three of Mitt’s five sons have used IVF (no mention of surrogates).

  70. 70.

    FlipYrWhig

    @James L: How does Romney feel about human cloning? From all available evidence, he’s been for it for decades. But, you know, that doesn’t rule out a change of heart.

  71. 71.

    the fugitive uterus

    yes, if i need to defend myself from attack, i will purchase a 60-year old rifle from the other side of the planet and wait 2-3 weeks for an inoperable firearm to be delivered to my doorstep.

    Obama will be responsible for 1 million homicides!

  72. 72.

    protected static

    @jharp: At the end of the Korean War, the US Gov’t ‘gifted’ South Korea with hundreds of thousands of M1 Garands (the rifle pictured in the email) and M1 Carbines. South Korea now wants to get rid of these rifles, and wanted to sell them to American importers. The State Department said no (years ago – Bush era, IIRC), then backed off on most of the Garand rifles in the last year or so. They’re still refusing to allow some 850,000 M1 Carbines to be imported – the Garand only holds 8 rounds, loaded internally; the Carbines hold up to 30 rounds in external magazines, making them more assault-rifle-y.

    I suppose in wingnut math, 850,000 can be rounded up to an even million. They’re probably factoring in the additional Garands that State says don’t qualify for importation.

    At any rate: the Garand isn’t anything anyone is going to ban soon, and doesn’t meet the reporting requirements in the SW border area, so Paul’s email has to be the re-importation BS.

  75. 75.

    khead

    @ FlipYrWhig:

    Cool. I never thought I would say this but…..

    I love Philly. Not looking to move to Mayfair anytime soon, but I do like the city.

    Bro-in-law runs (sorta) some of the Chickie’s and Pete’s locations around Philly.

    I have never had a bad time visiting the inlaws.

  76. 76.

    gaz

    @TFinSF:

    Why did Rand pick out a picture of himself that makes him look like an insufferable douche?

    Nobody would recognize him from his baby pictures?

  78. 78.

    jharp

    @Steve:

    Yeah. Because GoodGuyGreg’s link was stupidly trying to justify Rand Paul’s idiotic “million rifle ban” and after I pointed it out you and some other jackass made up some bullshit about a Korean rifle being the problem.

    Fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on.

  80. 80.

    FlipYrWhig

    @khead: Hey, I’ve been to a Chickies and Petes, the one near the stadium complex. I haven’t been back to Philly since ’07. I should give it a shot…

  83. 83.

    Raven

    What’s all this “Korean Rifle” bullshit? The are M-1, the basic combat rifle for the US in both WWII and the Korean War.

  85. 85.

    khead

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Pete got a pretty sweetvdeal for converting that location from a grocery store to a restaurant. 100K sq ft. Of dead space til Pete came along.

    Bro-in-law worked at the original joint at the corner of Robbins and Erdrick. Those folks have come a long way…..

  86. 86.

    Steve

    @Raven: It’s a specific batch of rifles from the Korean War that the South Korean government wants to sell in this country. I don’t know much about guns but I do understand they weren’t made in Korea.

  87. 87.

    cckids

    @geg6:

    And these are supposedly the smartest guys in the room? And are worth the millions and millions and millions they get?

    They’re not just worth it, if they don’t get it, THEY WILL LEAVE!!!

    That, or hold their breath until they turn blue. Don’t we all wish.

  88. 88.

    gaz

    @geg6:

    And these are supposedly the smartest guys in the room? And are worth the millions and millions and millions they get?

    This is our meritocracy, people. Cherish it

    ;) (apologies to the incomparable charles pierce)

  90. 90.

    jake the snake

    Hey Zandar, where do you live,somewhere in the golden triangle?

    I am way down here in Bowling Green. PaulinKY, do you live in NoKY, AKA Cincy ‘burbs?

  91. 91.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Paddy:

    I saw that on Tweety earlier and it was a thing of beauty. Tweety really went after Tony Baloney on the ‘definition of marriage never changes’. I loved the point about Mormons having to redefine marriage as singular rather than plural. The point went right over Tony’s empty head since he was looking at it as the Mormons having to abide by his religious dictates, thus there was never any change to marriage in the first place. Barney thoroughly clubbed Perkins, like a hunter would a baby seal.

    Tony didn’t have fun on TV today, he should stick to Faux where he’s safe from reality.

  94. 94.

    protected static

    @jharp: I see that now – but seeing as how I’m one of your so-called jackasses who mentioned ‘Korean rifles’ I still don’t understand why you’re attacking people who basically appear to agree with you.

  95. 95.

    protected static

    @Raven: The ownership of the rifles is a legal issue for reimportation. If Korea bought them, making them ‘Korean rifles,’ they can’t be reimported – but if they stayed US property, they can be. It’s also the shorthand term that’s evolved on various gun boards to describe this situation. Mention ‘the Korean rifle thing’ on any gun board that deals with military or military-style firearms, and most people will know what you’re talking about right away.

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