I can’t honestly say that anything went really wrong tonight, but as I sit here chugging bottled water, I kind of feel the need to offer an open apology to the people of Madison for anything that may or may not have happened. I would like to simultaneously apologize and blame someone else. KTHXBAI.
Also too, I intend to do this again on Friday.
localnebula
I almost never comment here, but what the hell, figure y’all might like this.
I found these cute little fellas abandoned by some piece of shit in the K-Mart parking lot earlier tonight. Couldn’t take them myself because my cat is super-territorial and was definitely not happy to see them in her home. I was afraid I’d have to take them to a no-kill shelter and have no idea when (or even if) they’d ever have a home. Called up a friend, who called up a few friends, and we all met up at the local coffee shop. Good news: they all found good homes less than 3 hours later!
David Koch
Madison in disarray.
Bago
B vitamins.
Jewish Steel
You’re only three hours away from me, Cole. There’s nothing stopping me from printing out a picture of you from the blog and tracking you like one of those endangered pandas Mitt and his Mormon buddies like to import and hunt.
And when I say endangered pandas, I mean filipina prostitutes.
Oh, and make sure you hit The Green Owl. Best Vegan restaurant I’ve ever been to.
Just Some Fuckhead
Sounds like Drunk Superman may have tried to save the world tonight and found out he wasn’t wearing his tights and cape underneath the suit.
Yutsano
@localnebula: KITTEH!!
NotMax
One would think someone with so much wealth could afford a better brand of whitewash.
freelancer
Cole flirted with the waitress and imagines that she thought of it as harassment. Relax, guy. She probably thought you were fun and interesting, and at least you left a tip and brought a grin to her face. The Scott Walker fans two tables over though, she might have a different story for them.
Chill out and shine on you crazy diamond.
ruemara
@localnebula: YAY you!
@ Cole: What have you been up to?
Dennis SGMM
@NotMax:
Romney is very funny with that one – especially if you’re a Californian. One of the main reasons this state is financially FUBAR is the Republicans’ intransigence on “raising taxes.” I put that phrase in scare quotes because, according to our state’s Republicans, charging the oil companies a separation fee for the oil that they pump out of the ground here constitutes raising taxes. So does closing egregious loopholes and removing the Prop 13 exemption for commercial real estate.
Instead of closing loopholes we’re closing state parks, closing public health clinics, laying off teachers, cops and firemen, raising the tuition at state universities and colleges to stratospheric levels, and using accounting gimmicks to get from one half-ass budget to the next.
I can see where a death dwarf like Romney would find that amusing. The rest of us here not so much.
freelancer
@Dennis SGMM:
Invest in the rich and you get trust fund babies. Invest in education and the trust fund babies have to compete meaningfully in a meritocracy with those who arose due to their merits. That’s just pure commie-talk.
Citizen_X
Did you break any bones? No? Then on the scale of things calibrated for John Cole, you’re way ahead, right?
Jane2
@localnebula: You’re a kitty hero!
Death Panel Truck
Listening to Astral Weeks. Don’t give a crap about the outside world right now. I’m in bliss.
In about 30 minutes, I’ll have to deal with it.
Right now, no. And furthermore, fuck no.
+4 Red Hook Long Hammer IPA.
localnebula
I think I broke something with too many links last attempt. Let’s try that again.
@Yutsano: First huff is free.
@ruemara and Jane2: Thanks.
All my pics of them. Apologies for poor quality and lack of variety/quantity. Taken with a phone camera and I was too busy getting eye diabeetus to think to take more. My friend got a few pics on her DSLR of them playing in her apartment – might upload those when I get them tomorrow. Because kitteh.
pattonbt
Just putting in my 2 cent prognostication for no reason than I am on paternity leave watching the new boy sleep (and two very curious kittehs sniff around the bassinet) while the boy’s mom gets some much needed rest.
Its still the summer season so the general populace really isnt paying too much attention to politics yet (outside those engaged all the time). But now that the R VP selection and two conventions are coming up, that will change. And if there is one thing that seems to hold true, the more people see Romney, the less they like him.
For the most part, he’s been able to hide, duck, dodge and weave from being on the airwaves a lot. But he’s now going to have to put his mug in public much, much more and as his own man (not a nameless “not Obama” pitchman). People (the undecideds) are going to have to have a reason to vote for him, and he really isnt capable of giving people a reason to vote FOR him.
So…..I see his numbers dropping after his convention. He’s going to be primetime and people will see him and not like him. Imagine his convention speech. It will be awful. Then, the debates. He’ll get creamed and again, lose with the undecideds.
The race will still be more competitive than it should be and you never say never, but the more focus that Romney gets and the more HE himself is in the limelight, the worse he will do.
Top that off with trying to walk the impossible tightrope of pleasing the base and sounding sane and not having the skill or charisma to do so, he will have unforced error after unforced error (just see today alone on healthcare).
Lastly, if he continues to keep the press at bay and play the “you know enough about me peons, you should just keep hating on that Obama fella and not worry about what I will do if I win. And dont mind all the horrible GWB people I’ve surrounded myself with” cards, he will sink further.
The problem for Romney in the end is Romney. He just doesnt have the skill to campaign in the spotlight. He’s not likeable. He’s not sincere (or better put, he cant pretend to be sincere well enough). He stands for nothing but himself. He just can not connect with people.
A president Romney would make GWB’s years look awesome comparatively.
danielx
@localnebula:
Excellent. One of my rules of life is that a day that starts with kittens is going to be a good day (Unless one of them leaves a little gift in one of your shoes, but that’s another story.)
However, the day started at 3:30 am with honest-to-god midwestern thunderboomers, which finally roused me out of my coffin at 4:30. We have probably gotten more rain in the past two hours than we got in all of June and July, not that it would take much. I may actually have to cut the grass for the second time in the last six weeks. There are worse problems to have…
I was pleased to read in another thread one of the better comments I’ve ever heard about Ann Coulter, Supreme Harpy of Wingnutteria:
Kind of like Dick Cheney without the charm, eh?
Let’s see, Cole is in Madison ‘taking in local atmosphere’ and whatever happened last night or happens tonight is not his fault. Also, too, it probably involved tequila.
Coincidence? I think not.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Since our discussion here about Matt Honan’s hacking via Apple iCloud services, he’s published a more detailed description of how it happened.
Short version: the hackers got enough personal information from hacking into Amazon that they convinced the Apple tech to issue a temporary password. They got his Apple ID from his own poor practices, using his me.com address as his alternate email for Google and not using Google’s two-factor authentication.
gnomedad
You know who else wore magenta?
Linda Featheringill
@pattonbt:
Congratulations on the kidling! [Boy? Girl? Pics?]
I agree about Mitt. The way he’s been going recently, he would lose any election anywhere.
Just Some Fuckhead
@pattonbt:
Sorta like Nero and Caligula, right?
Ash Can
Cole, unless you firebombed a union headquarters and then went skinny dipping with Scott Walker in Lake Mendota, I’m sure it’s all good.
SBJules
@NotMax:
First he gets a lower property tax appraisal on his CA beach front home, then he insults the state. Of course, it was a Republican Governor that got us into trouble in the first place.
kideni
It’s OK, John. The rain took care of most of the fires, and all of the boats have been found — how did you get a kayak to balance on top of the flag pole like that? Lady Forward would like to speak to you about a few things you left behind, though.
Maude
Wonder if Mrs. Cole has emailed John yet.