Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

I really should read my own blog.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

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Reader Interactions

197Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Hmmm:

    Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign requested “several” years of tax returns from potential vice presidential picks, senior adviser Beth Myers, who ran the search, told reporters Saturday.
    __
    Myers said vetting documents were stored in safes in a secure room at campaign headquarters for review by attorneys.
    __
    Asked what was inside the safes, Myers replied “tax documents, everything we used.”
    __
    And how many years? “Several” she said, declining to provide a more specific number.

    Several, huh? So, Mitt Romney believes that it’s important to see several years of tax returns before making an informed decision on a future (Vice) President….

  2. 2.

    Brian R.

    Meet the Press had its share of Ryan fellating, with adoration from Scott Walker, Reince Preibus (seriously, how is that a name?), and Jabba impersonator William Bennett.

    But Chuck Todd warned that this “clarifying pick” they were all excited about could really lead to a massive Obama blowout. Pennsylvania is no longer a battleground state, he said, while Florida is now really in play for the Democrats.

    As I said in the other thread, Rich Lowry looked like he shat himself when Todd laid it all out there.

  5. 5.

    WereBear

    A lot of Republican daddy issues might be attributed to “Do as I say, not as I do.”

    And, of course, the ridicule, neglect, and beatings.

    I had always felt most of the Wingnut problems stemmed from bad parenting. Then I read Republican Gomorrah, and was supported in my thesis.

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Ryan is another one of these assholes whose head looks MUCH better disembodied or on a pike than it does on his own shoulders.

  11. 11.

    General Stuck

    I watched one bobblehead Sunday show, and am now going to soak my head the rest of today.

  12. 12.

    meander

    One of many things that doesn’t make sense about the Ryan Medicare-ultra-overhaul plan is this: why would private insurance companies want anything to do with the 65+ crowd? Incredibly high risk, only going to get sicker, always possibility of having hugely expensive treatment. Plus, they have time to sit on the phone on hold for hours, gathering their energy to yell at who ever is on the other end (my father, who is retired, spent 1 hour on the phone or at the bank complaining about a $10 charge for account non-use). And their stories of trouble with private companies will be sweet, sweet honey for local news agencies.

  13. 13.

    Linda Featheringill

    Biden calls Ryan [AP is apparently the original source]:

    Vice President Joe Biden has telephoned Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, congratulating him for being Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney’s running mate. The Obama campaign says that Biden encouraged Ryan to enjoy the day with his family. Biden also says he’s looking forward to engaging Ryan in what he’s calling a “clear choice voters face this November.”

    Ya gotta love a man with that much class!

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Linda Featheringill:

    The Obama campaign says that Biden encouraged Ryan to enjoy the day with his family. Biden also says he’s looking forward to engaging Ryan in what he’s calling a “clear choice voters face this November.”

    “Enjoy this day with your family. Because tomorrow and every day for the next three months I am going to pound the living crap out of you.”

  19. 19.

    RaflW

    Reince Preibus was on ToungBath with David Gregory this morning and twice said that Obama stole $700 million from Medicare.

    The first time Sir Reince said Obama stole it to give to European health care. I think he meant European-style health care, but maybe Reince is so conspiracy-minded that he really things O just gave mad cash to the French.

    Anyway, the key takaway is that some nefarious blackity black guy STOLE SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION BUCKS!

    Never mind that the masters of the universe on Wall Street have stolen many times that much. That black guy “stole” your Medicare, old lady. Clutch your purse!

  21. 21.

    Linda Featheringill

    @meander:

    Why would private insurance companies want anything to do with the 65+ crowd?

    Also, ACA would have to be repealed for this to happen, so insurance companies could refuse to cover people with preexisting conditions. And since 99.999999% of folks that age have something wrong with them, most of them just wouldn’t get health insurance.

    And no preventative care, no screening diagnostic tests, and no bunch of things. And of course, going to the hospital would be out of the question if you can’t pay for it.

    How much do the heavy duty, end of life painkillers actually cost? Will folks have to die without these medications?

  22. 22.

    Southern Beale

    So apparently word has leaked out that President Obama has more private-sector work experience than Paul Ryan, which prompted the Romney campaign to release this absofucking hilarious rebuttal:

    The Romney campaign has released some facts on the private sector jobs Ryan has held: “Ryan moonlighted on Capitol Hill as a waiter at the Tortilla Coast restaurant & as a fitness trainer at Washington Sport and Health Club. …One of Ryan’s summer jobs in college was as an Oscar Mayer salesman in Minnesota, peddling turkey bacon and a new line called ‘Lunchables’ to supermarkets – he even drove the ‘Wienermobile’ once.”

    Um … well okay, then. Let’s totally put him in charge of the economy.

    { facepalm }

    Fucking ay, Republicans have jumped the shark.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    Haven’t watched the Sunday shows in years.

    Has improved the quality of my life immeasurably.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Valdivia:
    @Baud: She was saying that people just aren’t going to buy into his budget plan. Too many people are using federal programs right now for them to trust someone who is talking about messing with them. Cokie seemed quite reasonable and on point – of course, that may just have been in comparison to Nooners.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @dmsilev:

    “Enjoy this day with your family. Because tomorrow and every day for the next three months I am going to pound the living crap out of you.”

    I am going to enjoy every last moment of it, too.

    Suffer, asshole. Suffer.

  26. 26.

    The Thin Black Duke

    As with Romney, the more voters see of Ryan, the less they’re going to like him.

    And if Romney reminds people of the asshole boss who fires you on Christmas Eve, Ryan is the ratfuck snitch in the office who tells lies to the boss behind your back.

    Maybe it won’t be a landslide, but I really think this election won’t be a nail-biter either.

  27. 27.

    RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    Paul Ryan will be there tomorrow. Today’s Sunday and I just found a clean double album of Dave Brubeck’s Greatest Hits. Gonna make a pot of coffee and groove out for a while.
    Cheers

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    @Southern Beale:

    One of Ryan’s summer jobs in college was as an Oscar Mayer salesman in Minnesota, peddling turkey bacon and a new line called ‘Lunchables’ to supermarkets

    That’s probably where he got the idea for his new product, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Medicare”

  31. 31.

    Linda Featheringill

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    And if Romney reminds people of the asshole boss who fires you on Christmas Eve, Ryan is the ratfuck snitch in the office who tells lies to the boss behind your back.

    LOL! Yep!

  32. 32.

    Southern Beale

    @Chyron HR:

    That’s probably where he got the idea for his new product, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Medicare”

    LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

    Husband and I just cracked up at that comment. Thanks for the laugh!

    Gawd people here are so clever. I missed this place when my internet was down all last week!

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Cokie Roberts seemed quite negative about the boy on the Snuffalupagus show.

    Did she have an opinion about where Ryan spends his vacations? I recall when Cokie opined that Obama was too exotic because he went back to Hawaii for a family vacation, instead of somewhere more … American.

    Several, huh? So, Mitt Romney believes that it’s important to see several years of tax returns before making an informed decision on a future (Vice) President….

    The Democrats really need to hammer this shit home. The GOP really believe that they are a bunch of aristocrats who can decide what the people need to know.

  34. 34.

    Southern Beale

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Too many people are using federal programs right now for them to trust someone who is talking about messing with them.

    Maybe the “independents” but never underestimate the power of people to lie to themselves. Husband works with a Tea Party right wing nutter who keeps his radio tuned to Rush Limbaugh all day and organized a busload of fellow nutters to travel to D.C. for Glenn Beck’s big hoo-ha. Major Teanut.

    Well guess whose mother is now disabled and needs full-time care which they can’t afford? He’s now whining about having to spend all of his mother’s money so she can …. wait for it … qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid! The program the wingnuts in this state have been trying to kill by saying it’s only used by welfare cheats and Cadillac-driving black people who use their food stamp money to go on Hawaiian vacations.

    You’d think personal experience would make these people wake up but you’d be wrong.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Brachiator:

    Did she have an opinion about where Ryan spends his vacations

    Not as far as I know, but I was toggle back and forth between that show and the Olympic mountain biking and may have missed it.

  37. 37.

    Bobbo

    I think Ryan gets a pass from the 65+ crowd brcause he doesn’t touch Medicare for anyone over 55? You know, make the election old people v. young people

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Southern Beale:

    Holy crap, there’s a mole from the Obama campaign issuing press releases from the Rmoney campaign.

    That’s the only explanation for something that incredibly lame and laughable.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bobbo:

    Certainly. The 65* crowd are all about making their grandchildren suffer.

    This will not go well for the Rethugs.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Mark S.:

    Mitt Romney Would Pay 0.82 Percent in Taxes Under Paul Ryan’s Plan

    But isn’t that 0.82 percent more than he’s paid over the last 10 years?

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    From Wikipedia:

    [Ryan] also studied at the Washington Semester program at American University where he played pick-up basketball games with NBC journalist, David Gregory.[23]

    Heh.

  51. 51.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @dmsilev:
    Probably wanted to be certain they had the same ethical standards. For example, no barely-legal tax dodges is an automatic disqualification.

  53. 53.

    Disco

    @ET:

    I spent 4 min on MTP and that was 4 min too long. Revolting kiss ass session.

    The fuck did you expect from David Gregory & Co? That guy only serves up softballs covered with whipped cream.

  55. 55.

    Southern Beale

    This New York Magazine profile on Paul Ryan from April is a must-read.

    Lots of great nuggets of info here, such as:

    In 2001, Ryan led a coterie of conservatives who complained that George W. Bush’s $1.2 trillion tax cut was too small, and too focused on the middle class. In 2003, he lobbied Republicans to pass Bush’s deficit-­financed prescription-drug benefit, which bestowed huge profits on the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. In 2005, when Bush campaigned to introduce private accounts into Social Security, Ryan fervently crusaded for the concept. He was the sponsor in the House of a bill to create new private accounts funded entirely by borrowing, with no benefit cuts. Ryan’s plan was so staggeringly profligate, entailing more than $2 trillion in new debt over the first decade alone, that even the Bush administration opposed it as “irresponsible.”

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    And if Romney reminds people of the asshole boss who fires you on Christmas Eve, Ryan is the ratfuck snitch in the office who tells lies to the boss behind your back.

    With the current placement of the rotating tag lines, this isn’t too long for a tagline. I would like to double-nominate this as a rotating tag line.

  58. 58.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    I didn’t get to watch it, but from the HuffPost comments, it sounded like Lowry basically filibustered his ass off any time Rachel tried to speak and Gregory basically let him shout her down.

  60. 60.

    Violet

    On Meet The Republicans, Rich Lowry kept insisting Rachel defend President Obama’s Medicare cuts, or something. He just went on and on, wouldn’t let her say a word. She said, “Can I say something?” and he responded, “You can answer the question” (I think–remembering it, may not be verbatim). He was an ass.

    A family member in another room heard the TV and that exchange, came to the doorway and said, “What a dick!” If that’s what a non-political family member thinks of the exchange, it doesn’t look good for Lowry.

  61. 61.

    Dennis

    @Southern Beale:

    he even drove the ‘Wienermobile’ once.”

    Um … well okay, then. Let’s totally put him in charge of the economy.

    He won’t be in charge of the economy, but opposed to the guy who drove the Choomwagon in charge of this lousy economy now and who blames everyone and everything but himself, the choice should be a no-brainer.

    Penalties for letting pot smoke get out of the wagon because it was wasteful, that’s our President’s idea of frugality.

  62. 62.

    Scribe9

    @meander:

    I’m presuming that under “RyanCare,” insurance companies would remain free to reject applicants with pre-existing conditions, which will be most of of the 65+ population. So t he end result of RyanCare will be no insurance at all for seniors. Which is pretty much his plan as I see it.

  63. 63.

    The Dangerman

    If this basketball game gets to monster crunch time, Kobe will either sit or jack up some wild shot to either win or lose. I predict sit.

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Bobbo:

    I think Ryan gets a pass from the 65+ crowd brcause he doesn’t touch Medicare for anyone over 55? You know, make the election old people v. young people

    That’s not how it works with seniors, they are obsessed about their grand children. The only group this will play well with is single young men.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Violet:

    Lowry is your typical wingtard asshole. They’re all dicks.

    It’s a fucking requirement to be a wingtard, practically. Must be a dick to join us. Even if you have a hoo-ha.

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    The photo of Ryan should shave the sides of his head so he has a true faux hawk Mohawk.

    Just sayin’

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    I didn’t get to watch it, but from the HuffPost comments, it sounded like Lowry basically filibustered his ass off any time Rachel tried to speak and Gregory basically let him shout her down.

    This happened to her once before fairly recently. I wonder if conservatives have decided that this is the best way to neutralize her.

  69. 69.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Brachiator:

    I wonder if conservatives have decided that this is the best way to neutralize her.

    “She’s smarter than us, and she’s prepared, and she’ll answer the question and make us look like doofi.

    So the solution is to never let her answer the question while badgering her about answering the question.”

  70. 70.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Violet: Exactly.

    As I wrote on an earlier thread, one of the problems with hiding in the gold-plated bubble of White Male Entitlement is discovering that the majority of people living in The Real World don’t share your hallucination.

    And the dynamic duo of Romney & Ryan is a stale sandwich of moldy white bread and rancid mayonnaise that’s gonna make most folks sick to their stomachs.

  71. 71.

    Violet

    @Villago Delenda Est: Rachel needs to come up with a better strategy to counter that tactic, then. She kept trying to interject and even waved her hands in front of his face, but he wouldn’t shut up. She said, “I’m not the one running for President!” and he said, “Why won’t you answer the question? You can’t defend it!” “I’m not running for President!” “You can’t defend it! Answer the question! Answer the question!”

    Kind of like that.

    He looked like a dick, but she looked ineffectual somehow. I’m not skilled in how someone could counter such things. Any suggestions?

  72. 72.

    The Dangerman

    @raven:

    James will step up.

    USA has the better individual players (duh, by far), but Spain playing better team ball (plus, they’ve exposed the weakness in the paint; that the US team had a 5 hole was known, but … still shouldn’t be this close).

  75. 75.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Violet:

    He looked like a dick, but she looked ineffectual somehow. I’m not skilled in how someone could counter such things. Any suggestions?

    A slap to the face or a punch in the neck would work, but doubt it would fly on press the meat.

  76. 76.

    Walter Homple

    All we have to say is that Ryan will starve your grandma before Romney has a chance to give her cancer. The masses will eat this up. Trust me.

    Further, I’m sure that Steiner (oops, I meant Axelrod) will manage to unseal math’s divorce records.

    Forward!

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Violet:

    I’m not skilled in how someone could counter such things. Any suggestions?

    2nd Amendment remedy? Invoking a “stand your ground” law?

    (I keed! I keed!)

  78. 78.

    Hill Dweller

    @Violet: This is going to be a losing battle for the the wing nuts.

    Obama didn’t cut any benefits. They slowed the rate of cost growth. Moreover, the reforms have been in place for a couple of years, and no one has seen their medicare change.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    interesting comment from a NYTimes reader (“ann” of “Southern US”), on Nate Silver thread about Romney’s risky choice of Ryan:

    His decision has now isolated potential independent voters as well as some conservative voters who may have once considered him as a potential candidate but are worn out by the hard-headedness of tea party members. In summary, I believe that his choice will cost him the election. But , perhaps maybe he was looking for a scape goat to blame his eventual loss upon.

    Wonder if this is sticking it to the rightwingers, who would otherwise say Romney hadn’t been conservative enough.

    Ann has a point about rank and file Republicans being sick of the Tea Partiers in their midst.

  80. 80.

    gelfling545

    @Bobbo: Not really. If you are 55 and your spouse is 53 you’re not going to be feeling very good about this even if you don’t care about any other generations and older folks mostly do care about their children’s and grandchildren’s well-being.

  82. 82.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Elizabelle: More to the point, the few “moderate” people left in the GOP are getting damned tired of the teabagger morans in their party who keep losing them elections.

  83. 83.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Wait, what? I’m gone for a couple of days and Romney actually picked Paul Ryan as his running mate? That is unpossible. Surely even Romney isn’t that stupid. Ryan is a zealot. He can’t keep his mouth shut. He thinks everyone will understand that destroying Medicare and Social Security is awesome if he can just explain it to them.

  84. 84.

    Nutella

    So Romney looked at “several” years of tax returns from Ryan? Several is more than one, right? So he’s asked for more from Ryan than he has provided to us.

    No surprise there. It’s his business training. Underlings always have to provide more of everything than bosses do.

    The Other Cole has a nice illustration of Ryan’s deficit fauxhawk record here.

  85. 85.

    eric

    My proposed bumper sticker

    Romney/Ryan 2102 — The Ambiguously Gay Duo
    (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    Ann has a point about rank and file Republicans being sick of the Tea Partiers in their midst.

    Problem is that some rank and file Republicans don’t seem to realize that the Tea Partiers have taken over and now set the agenda.

    And the GOP leadership will depend on the Tea Party to enforce discipline against the Democrats if Obama wins a second term.

  94. 94.

    danielx

    @Valdivia:

    …guys like Ryan (and his Irish Catholic GOP confrere Pat Buchanan) somehow become the political face of the white working class when they never spent a day in that class in their life.

    Straight out of the Republican playbook, it is. The biggest political scam ever foisted on the American public was Ronald Reagan’s accomplishing the impossible: convincing working class whites that the Republican Party was on their side. It worked for thirty years, but the act is finally starting to wear a little then. Thin, hell, it’s become so transparent you could use it for Saran wrap.

    I mean, really – Mitt Romney as savior of the American worker?

  95. 95.

    Hill Dweller

    @Baud: The officials have killed any flow in this game. Twenty three fouls in a ten minute quarter is f’n ridiculous.

  98. 98.

    RSA

    @Southern Beale:

    You’d think personal experience would make these people wake up but you’d be wrong.

    My father-in-law used to be like that. Constantly complaining about taxes and over-reaching government, and lazy people. “Forgetting” that a member of his family lived for a few years on welfare and that he was on Medicare. I think it’s often a combination of “But I deserve what I get” and “No one should ever have it easier than I did.” And someone who grew up during the Depression sets a pretty high bar.

  99. 99.

    JoyfulA

    @Hypatia’s Momma: Mrs. Ryan is a tax attorney. They get some sort of a 20% tax break for living in a National Historic Register house, which probably even Mitt hasn’t taken advantage of.

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @beltane:

    Well, then, if that’s protected speech, then if someone starts quoting Der Stürmer on bus ads, it’s protected speech, too.

    Amirite?

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Wait, what? I’m gone for a couple of days and Romney actually picked Paul Ryan as his running mate? That is unpossible. Surely even Romney isn’t that stupid. Ryan is a zealot. He can’t keep his mouth shut. He thinks everyone will understand that destroying Medicare and Social Security is awesome if he can just explain it to them.

    Yes, Romney is that stupid. And that cowardly.

    Not too long ago, there was a chunk of the political conventional wisdom predicting that Romney would predictably pivot towards the middle after the convention, to appeal to moderates and independents. This despite the open chortling of wingnuts that Romney was a pushover who could be easily kept in pocket.

    So now, how can Mittens pivot to the center in any meaningful way with Ryan as his VP pick. And with all mystery gone about who might be VP, he gives the Democrats the luxury of extra time to bash his sorry ass.

    Romney’s political stupidity is astounding. If he still finds a way to win, or even keep the election close, it will certainly be a sign of the Apocalypse.

  109. 109.

    aimai

    @Violet:

    I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been underwhelmed by Rachel every time I’ve seen her on a competitive format. She is too smart for the kind of weakness she displays. These are simply standard debating issues–if she finds herself saying “let me finish” or relying on the raised eyebrow or the look of aristocratic bemusement more than once she’s losing. These guys are one trick ponies–she should know how to counteract that one trick. If she doesn’t know how instinctively, and she has never struck me as having any real mean genes in her, then she needs to consult with a professional debator and public figure who does know how to kneecap people verbally.

    aimai

  110. 110.

    Linda Featheringill

    @eric: #83

    Romney/Ryan 2102—The Ambiguously Gay Duo

    Ahh. You saw the younger-man-older-man vibe?

    It’s true that Romney is a bit blah to be attractive but he has just scads of money!

    :-)

  112. 112.

    different-church-lady

    It has occurred to me that suddenly this campaign is playing out in the same pattern as 2008: a struggling GOP candidate the base isn’t enthused about picks a “glamor” VP who can throw chum to the sharks, but in so doing creates more enthusiasm for the second slot than the first, thus throwing things seriously out of whack and making the pres. candidate look anemic by comparison.

  113. 113.

    beltane

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, I’m gobsmacked by that ad and even more by the fact that this type of blatantly racist hate-speech is protected. Can you imagine the uproar if other ethnicities were targeted in this way?

  118. 118.

    GregB

    @beltane:

    Reuters is running a story, that I saw in the alternative press a few days ago, stating that the drumbeat for war with Iran within Israel is reaching a fever pitch.

    There is a push to launch an attack on Iran before the US elections.

    One can imagine there must be a calculus that Romney will lose and the time for force Obama’s hand is before the election.

    Nothing good can come of this.

  119. 119.

    jp7505a

    My sister and her husband complain constantly about tax and spend democrats and big government. Both are retired 20 military with access to TRICARE ($500.00 annual premium) the VA (government owned hospitals and doctors getting paid by the government) and of sourse their full pensions. My sister works in a nursing home full of medicare/medicad residents. One daughtertook advantage of in-state tuition rates, both took advantage of college loans and the third daughter works for the state department. They both campaigned for a local school take HIKE when their daughters school district was about to cut the eduucation program by a third.

    AND Obama is the socialist. (sigh).

  121. 121.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Bobbo:

    I think Ryan gets a pass from the 65+ crowd brcause he doesn’t touch Medicare for anyone over 55? You know, make the election old people v. young people

    I’m 64 and Ryan sure as hell doesn’t get a pass from me. Two reasons:

    1) It’s not okay to fuck over one group of Americans and exempt another, particularly when the fuckers who are exempting that one group do it because they’re ball-less, soul-less little toadies.
    2) I have a son and it’s not okay to fuck him over either.

  122. 122.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @beltane:

    Mind you, Geller is the foul git who’s simply outraged that food items are certified halal nowadays, it’s creeping Sharia Law!

    Never mind it’s basically identical to kosher…

  123. 123.

    g

    Listening to my local CA NPR station interviewing people at the California Republican Convention taking place today in Burbank, about their thoughts on Paul Ryan as a VP pick – some guy is saying how Ryan is “the most exciting VP pick in the Republican party in the last 100 years!” Someone else saying, “we’ve finally got someone with fire in the belly!”

    Were they asleep in 2008? I realize they want to distance themselves from Palin, but for heaven’s sake, the pick of Palin really was exciting and galvanized the party, for good or ill. This bland Wisconsin policy wonk is “exciting?” Ryan has “fire in the belly?” Only in comparison to Romney, I guess.

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    @The Thin Black Duke:
    And if Romney reminds people of the asshole boss who fires you on Christmas Eve, Ryan is the ratfuck snitch in the office who tells lies to the boss behind your back.

    …Ryan is the ratfuck snitch in the office who told the lies to the boss behind your back that got you fired.

    Fixt for you

  125. 125.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:
    But Ryan doesn’t even deliver the Tea Party. The man gets booed in his own town halls when the angry boomers the GOP is staking everything on learn what he’s planning. He’s an awful, awful choice.

    I guess… Ryan does have one constituency. The Villagers love him. Maybe Romney, the arrogant rich snob’s arrogant rich snob, thinks this will buy him the media and the rabble will fall into line?

  126. 126.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jp7505a:

    This is simply good old fashioned “I’ve got mine, fuck you!”

    They just don’t have the honesty to say that outright.

  127. 127.

    Anya

    @beltane: Savage man vs. civilized man? Who uses that language anymore? What century does this hate filled woman live in? If I cared about Israel at all, I would not want that creature on my side.

  128. 128.

    Mr Zip

    @meander:

    Isn’t this the reason we have Medicare in the first place? No one would insure the seniors at a price they could afford?

  129. 129.

    ShadeTail

    Regarding the graphic: I think “Deficit Chickenhawk” would be a better caption, because it neatly ties in to the GOP’s attitude toward service to the country in general. “For thee, not for me.”

  131. 131.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @beltane:
    From the article:

    It will be impossible for SF Muni to refuse counter ads under these circumstances.

    Yeah, this is worrying.

  134. 134.

    Hill Dweller

    @aimai: I didn’t see it(you can’t pay me to watch Meet the Republicans), but if Maddow had kept her head, she would have pointed out that the 500 billion the wingnuts are carping about(which doesn’t cut any benefits) is also included in both of Ryan budget plans. They’re attacking Obama for something they support.

  137. 137.

    The Dangerman

    @GregB:

    There is a push to launch an attack on Iran before the US elections.

    I don’t think Israel would be that stupid…

    …then again, if the shit goes down, how do the Republicans benefit since, as we all know, politics ends at the waters edge in times of war (BTW, this IS meant to be sarcasm)?

  140. 140.

    Anya

    @aimai: Rachel is a Rhodes Scholar, so she’s not used to debating with graduates of Maury Povich show school for debates. But I agree she should anticipate this kind of behavior by people without facts and argument. She should assert herself more.

  143. 143.

    Stuck In 60s

    Romney/Ryan 2102—The Ambiguously Gay Duo

    Oh no — you straight boyz own this couple.

    Other famous heterosexuals: Dubya, St. Reagan, The Trickster.

  144. 144.

    jp7505a

    @Dennis SGMM: I’m 66 and would not vote for Ryan to swat the fly’s away from the back of the garbage truck. I don’t want my mid-20’s nieces to be screwed by these clowns when they reach 65.

  146. 146.

    Violet

    @aimai: I agree. She looks ineffectual against them. She needs a debate coach so she can figure out how to combat the GOP bullies. There has to be a way. They’re so predictable.

    BTW, I keep seeing examples of how the Republicans are rusty in their ability to deal with Democrats who fight back. They’re also rusty on staying on message–I guess because the Village media has let them off the hood for so long they haven’t had to be strong on disciple.

    Today’s example comes from Bill Bennett, who was in the MTP roundtable via remote feed. Dancin’ Dave asked him about Ryan as a VP pick, and Bennett responded that if it was going to be a serious discussion, then Ryan was a good debate. However:

    If we stay at the cheap shot level, that Mitt Romney kills people, Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist, then we have a problem.

    First rule of messaging is say what you want the public to hear and remember. You don’t say things you don’t want them to hear. So here’s Bennett telling people that Mitt Romney kills people and Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist. Okay, then! See! Even Republicans think so!

    The last person who did this was Rove. Can’t remember the exact words, but I commented about it here at the time.

    They know they’ve got a clunker as a candidate. They can’t help themselves and keep telling the truth about him. I just don’t think they know people are going to hear what they say.

  147. 147.

    FlipYrWhig

    @jp7505a: “Tax and spend” means “Free stuff for Negroes and illegals” and “big government” means “telling me what to do and you’re not the boss of me.”. There’s always a reason, for Republicans, why the government spending money on you and people like you is a legitimate use of money for people who earned it, but spending money on people not like you is necessarily waste.

  148. 148.

    g

    @Ruckus:

    I saw a variation on this on another comment board – If Romney reminds you of the boss who fired you, Ryan reminds you of the security guard who stands over you while you empty your desk drawers into a cardboard box, then escorts you out of the building, smiling the whole time.

  149. 149.

    aimai

    @Anya:
    Uh, yeah, its all the more unforgiveable in a Rhodes Scholar, actually. One of my cousins was one. Clinton was one. Those people are not slouches. She should be able to change her style and learn to punch down.

    aimai

  150. 150.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Anya: Maybe ahe should have said, “is it Sarah Palin or Paul Ryan who gives you bigger starbursts, Rich?”

  152. 152.

    The Dangerman

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The IDF is not that stupid, but I’m not so sure about Bibi and his fanatical racist coalition partners.

    I wonder if Obama has told Bibi that our IFF might “misindentify” the Israeli planes headed to Iran?

  156. 156.

    Redshift

    @Bobbo:

    I think Ryan gets a pass from the 65+ crowd brcause he doesn’t touch Medicare for anyone over 55? You know, make the election old people v. young people

    Didn’t work last time, when Bush tried it with Social Security. (And you know who was one of the chief architects of that debacle? Paul Ryan.) The strategy assumes most old people are IGMFY types, and based on experience, most of them aren’t. Especially when they start hearing from AARP.

  157. 157.

    Merrily

    @Hill Dweller:

    Rachel should have turned to the host and said, “Who is in charge of this show, you or him?”

    I’m also waiting for the day when anyone on these shows says, “That’s a lie, and there are 10 people within 20 feet of us who can find that speech on the internet and show us what he said. Let’s make a bet over who is right, and then after the commercial, one of us will apologize to the other.”

  159. 159.

    Jennifer

    @JoyfulA: This is false.

    There are no tax breaks for living in a historic home. There are some state-level credits for doing rehab to historic homes (these are one-time credits), there are facade easement credits in which the homeowner grants ownership of the home’s exterior to a state historic preservation agency in return for a one-time tax credit (usually worth 15% or less of the home’s value, and since it stays with the deed in perpetuity and restricts the current or future owners from ever making any changes to the building exterior without approval from the agency, not widely used), and there are federal tax credits (also one-time) for rehabbing historic buildings that are to be put to commercial use, either as rentals or offices, etc.

    That is all there is. Paul Ryan is not getting a tax credit for living in his house. I don’t know where this notion came from, but no one gets a tax credit for living in an old house.

  160. 160.

    GregB

    @The Dangerman:

    I didn’t think the US would be so stupid and easily marched into war with Iraq.

    As for what the IDF thinks….last time I checked, they had a civilian government in Israel and if my recall is correct, the US military wasn’t so hot on a war with Iraq, but when the order came, they sharply saluted and followed orders.

  164. 164.

    Redshift

    @Merrily:

    I’m also waiting for the day when anyone on these shows says, “That’s a lie, and there are 10 people within 20 feet of us who can find that speech on the internet and show us what he said. Let’s make a bet over who is right, and then after the commercial, one of us will apologize to the other.”

    Doesn’t that presume that they’ve let you get a word in edgewise?

    I’m hearing a lot of talk about Rachel needing to have a debate coach to teach her how to respond to these tactics, but no hint of what that response might be. The problem is that this isn’t “debate.” Debate tactics don’t teach you how to handle someone who interrupts constantly and talks over you because in a debate you’re not allowed to do that.

    The whole problem with the right’s “shouter” tactics is that your two choices are letting them walk over you, or turning the “debate” into a shoutfest that makes you look equally bad. The only actual solution is to have a host/moderator who isn’t completely ineffectual.

    If anyone has an actual idea of tactics that could counter this, I’m all ears.

  165. 165.

    different-church-lady

    @g:

    This bland Wisconsin policy wonk is “exciting?” Ryan has “fire in the belly?” Only in comparison to Romney, I guess.

    Am I rite or am I rite?

  166. 166.

    danielx

    Ann has a point about rank and file Republicans being sick of the Tea Partiers in their midst.

    Y’know…this is one meme of which I grow exceedingly weary. There are a lot of things wrong with it, indeed so many there is not time to discuss them all. But a few…

    – Tea Partiers are rank and file Republicans, end of story. The Republican Party establishment (see John Boehner) may be sick of Tea Partiers, but the Tea partiers are just as sick of the Republican Party establishment. Whose favored candidate is the Marquis, much to the distaste of the Tea Partiers.

    – Tea Partiers are mostly oblivious to the funding behind the original Tea Party movement – see Richard Armey. They’re also oblivious to the funding behind Tea Party candidates (read Kochwhores). But without the Republican Party establishment who saw them first as useful tools, the Tea Partiers would still be a bunch of idiots in three cornered hats.

    – If those remaining Republicans who are not Tea Party stalwarts are so sick of those who are, why the fuck haven’t they done anything about it? Like saying, I’m sick and tired of your ignorant bullshit and lies, and I’m not going to take it any more because this is my party just as much as yours?

    – There is an alternative to the Tea Party version of the Republican Party, a more moderate and less ideological version of the Republican Party. It’s called the Democratic Party, and – for better or for worse – it’s about the Republican Party was thirty years ago, ideologically, in that dim era B.R. (before Reagan). Leaving the party and joining the opposition because the opposition’s positions are closer to your own has been done before with great effect – see the Southern Strategy.

    – Rank and file Republicans have been going along with horseshit and lies to win elections since the 1980s (at least). I didn’t notice any Republicans calling down Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter to say ‘we need reality, not lies’, did you? On the contrary, any Republican who leveled criticism against El Rushbo ended up with lips firmly affixed to Rush’s fat ass. Now that the inmates have taken over the asylum, they’re all ‘who let these barbarians in the house?’. See Frum, David, and Sullivan, Andrew.

    Fuck them. They might be sick of Tea Partiers, but they created the conditions for the Tea Party to flourish and grow. If they want to know how this happened they have only to look in the mirror.

  167. 167.

    Violet

    @Redshift: How about saying nothing until they shut up? Problem is, someone else at the roundtable would fill the gap.

    Another tactic is to call him on it: “Do you want a shouting match or a conversation?”

  168. 168.

    Vico

    Heh — Just now getting This Week in Portland, and poor TPaw really looked pimped by Stephanopoulos’ last zinger about how many years of tax returns he released to the Romney campaign. His silly pinched-up face just about collapsed as he realized that all the super work he’d just done dancing the Romney two-step had just been undone by that last thrust — and thank you, Governor Pawlenty.

  170. 170.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @GregB:

    The IDF has already told Bibi that air strikes on Iraq are pretty iffy things, mainly because the facilities are at the edge of fighter-bomber range, which means next to no loiter time to deliver the ordnance.

    The logistics for such a strike are formidable.

    This doesn’t stop moron civilians who ache for others to go into battle to smite some foe from demanding that someone other than them do something about this existential threat.

    These assholes want war, and they don’t give a rat’s ass about the physical restraints on war making.

  171. 171.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @Merrily: I love your internet search idea. Maybe each panel member could have a little “challenge” button that makes a red light go off and the speaker is notified “Ms. Maddow is challenging that statement so we will come back to that after the next commercial.” Problem is, it would bogg down the flow of the show and producers would hate the way it would ruin their art. So I doubt we’ll ever see anything like that.

    However on one of those silly sports roundtable shows on ESPN (one of my guilty pleasures) at the end of the show they do a fact-check where one of the assistants lists any factual errors made during the show: ie: you said that X had a batting average of .323 in 1995, it was actually only .305, etc.

  173. 173.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Arrgh! IRAN, not Iraq!

    The Israelis did bomb an Iraqi nuke complex a few decades back, and that was pushing things (violating Jordan’s airspace, for example) even then.

  174. 174.

    different-church-lady

    @Uncle Ebeneezer:

    Maybe each panel member could have a little “challenge” button that makes a red light go off and the speaker is notified “Ms. Maddow is challenging that statement so we will come back to that after the next commercial.”

    Buttons have been proven not to work. I needs to be a red beanbag flag that they hide in their socks and throw on the table where the moderator can see it easily.

  175. 175.

    cckids

    @different-church-lady:

    It has occurred to me that suddenly this campaign is playing out in the same pattern as 2008: a struggling GOP candidate the base isn’t enthused about picks a “glamor” VP who can throw chum to the sharks, but in so doing creates more enthusiasm for the second slot than the first, thus throwing things seriously out of whack and making the pres. candidate look anemic by comparison.

    No lie. And to compound that effect, Yahoo’s headline on the front page was “Sign of Ryan’s impact: Big crowds”.

    How long till they are carrying stuffed monkeys and shouting “terrorist!”?

  176. 176.

    Jennifer

    @Violet: My preference would be for her to stand up, which would quiet the conversation, and say to the host, “since your show is obviously about who can shout the loudest and display the worst manners, which has long been a tactic of rightwing pundits, who really must know that the only way they can “win” an argument is by making sure the other side never gets heard, I’m going to leave now. If at some point in the future you decide that your show will be about an exchange of ideas, and you’re willing to moderate it in order to allow that, I’ll be happy to return. Until then, I guess your audience will just have to settle for hearing only the opinions of the most ill-mannered people who can shout the loudest.”

    And then walk off set.

    Sure, it’s not “professional,” but then again, neither is interrupting or shouting other people down (or failing to control the dialogue to keep someone from interrupting or shouting others down). I never could understand why anyone even vaguely liberal would agree to go on Fox, knowing that the moment they make a point that destroys the host’s or other guests’ bogus argument, they’ll be shouted down, interrupted, have their mike cut, etc. Liberals and moderates are invited on Fox for one reason only – as whipping boys, so that the trogladyte hosts can impress their knuckle-dragging audience with how feckless and pansy those liberals are by bullying them.

    You can’t bully someone who isn’t there, and there’s no reason to agree to participate in a rigged contest. Rachel should say as much, walk off, and refuse to return unless the moderator actually is willing to do his presumed JOB and control the dialogue.

  177. 177.

    KS in MA

    @Valdivia: Thanks. The Grunwald piece is totally awesome– especially the part about how proposing to raise taxes on the rich is labeled “class warfare” whereas cutting services for the poor is labeled “courageous.”

  178. 178.

    Elie

    I think that Ryan is going to make Romney’s life immeasurably harder, not easier. Romney couldn’t keep his own stands straight and now he will have to worry about finessing this very unpopular plan. Make no mistake, its the head of the ticket that is stuck with everything. His campaign, already noted for reversing itself so much that its going round in circles, will just implode.

    The other thing is we will see this guy’s temperament under pressure. If he is quick trigger and easy to anger, he will be an even bigger liability. He may have been selected in part because of his capability of being an attack dog, but as people who hunt bear will tell you — you have to really have a specially trained dog not to bring the bear back to YOU. My guess is that now, Romney is going to be fighting his own PLUS whatever shit is brought back to him by this guy…

  179. 179.

    Elie

    I also believe that Romney, two weeks in front of the Republican convention is already in “no mas” mode… he was literally begging Obama to give him a break and also referred to his own penchant to make mistakes when he incorrectly introduced Ryan as “the next President of the United States”…

    I think that this kind of choice will not make his burden easier but much much harder. Lets see. Maybe I am wrong..

  180. 180.

    Celeriac

    I just want to point out–because it has been misrepresented across the intarwebz and that serves no-one, least of all the people repeating it–that the Ryan’s don’t get a forever 20% tax credit for dottering about and leaving errant $100 bills in the sofa cushions of a historic home.

    The way the national tax incentive works, you get a temporary tax break when you *rehabilitate a qualifying property* It has to be either independently listed on the national register, or part of a national register listed district, it is finite, and it requires you to use the property as an income-producer (rental, home office, commercial, etc.) for 5 years after the rehab.

    I can’t recall, off the top of my head, how long the tax break stays in effect–and I’m too lazy to Google–but the notion that they just get to skip out on x% of taxes, indefinitely, is disingenuous, though apparently not important enough for any pundits to actually confirm.

    That said, I look forward to Ryan’s silly ass being beaten all the way back to his historic home, regardless of its tax status.

  181. 181.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I guess… Ryan does have one constituency. The Villagers love him. Maybe Romney, the arrogant rich snob’s arrogant rich snob, thinks this will buy him the media and the rabble will fall into line?

    People give the Village too much credit. They are less influential than they think they are. And they are often less arrogant rich snobs than the usual gaggle of toadies and well paid butt kissers that you find in the usual swamps. It’s just that the Beltway and high profile media offices are bigger sewers. Still needs to be drained out now and again.

  182. 182.

    Violet

    @Elie: I made this observation yesterday in one of the many threads about Ryan. One of my family members does a lot of presentations and has extensive training in how to stand, what body language means, tone of voice, etc. The analysis I got of the Ryan rollout was that Romney didn’t want to be there, doesn’t want to be President. Even things like Romney’s wave said “stay back” to the audience, vs. Ryan’s, which was more open.

    I think Romney does not want to campaign and doesn’t really want to be President. He’s like Palin in that he wants the title, but doesn’t want to do the work.

  183. 183.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Southern Beale: Fitness trainer, hmm. Wonder if he would be competition for Aaron Schock. Or some people think he would be, and that’s the source of the claim that Ryan is attractive.

  184. 184.

    Elie

    @Violet:

    I agree and I also believe that Romney’s “mistakes” and flubs are going to get worse. Depending on how worse, and how he demoralizes the Republicans, he might also impact Ryan’s career. Look at Palin — things just went from sugar to shit for her (obviously because the campaign surfaced some enduring bad attributes that just did not fade with time). I look at Ryan and I am not sure what will surface about him. I don’t see or sense a man of real feeling for the “masses”, but a cold elitist, looking for rationales for that elitism. If that is borne out, not only will he hurt Romney further, but his own political aspirations as well…

    I think that Romney’s campaign (or the people who are telling his campaign what to do), got panicked and jumped the shark…

  185. 185.

    Ruckus

    @danielx:
    Thin, hell, it’s become so transparent you could use it for Saran wrap.

    They are going to change the name to Ryan Wrap and use it to strangle anyone under 55. (Wrote that as Ryan Rape the first time. By mistake?)

  188. 188.

    Ruckus

    @Redshift:
    Stand up, remove the mike and walk out. When the host asks what the hell, you calmly explain that he/she not being a good host and therefore it’s not worth my time. It is about a host losing control of the show or so pandering that they want bad behavior. You have to make it about that and not the asshole. And you can’t acknowledge the asshole at all as you walk out.
    Two issues
    1. The show then becomes about the person left, your point can not and will not be made.
    2. You will probably never be asked back. But you never know it might be considered good TV and you’d be a hit.

  190. 190.

    JustAnotherBob

    @Southern Beale:

    Well guess whose mother is now disabled and needs full-time care which they can’t afford? He’s now whining about having to spend all of his mother’s money so she can …. wait for it … qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid! The program the wingnuts in this state have been trying to kill by saying it’s only used by welfare cheats and Cadillac-driving black people who use their food stamp money to go on Hawaiian vacations.

    Perhaps your husband should ask his right-wing fellow worker how they should prepare to take care of themselves when they get old and Medicare won’t be there to pay for their nursing home.

    I’ll bet they could work out how much money they would need to save now in order to not get kicked out on the street to die later on….

  193. 193.

    Jennifer

    @Celeriac: I addressed this upthread, and you don’t have it quite right, either.

    The federal tax credit is a one time credit which is taken when the rehabilitation is complete, and credits the property owner with some portion of the rehab costs. It’s not a credit which can be taken for several years. You are correct that it only applies to commercial/rental property – there is no federal tax credit for rehabbing a home you intend to use as a residence.

    There are, however, some states that have tax credits for historic residences. They are also one-time credits that are applied when a rehab is completed and tend to be very narrowly focused in terms of what type of work qualifies for the credit, the minimum amount that must be spent on the work, and etc.

    Aside from state income tax credits, the only other tax credit available to those who own and live in historic properties are facade easements, in which the property owner grants the building exterior to a state preservation agency in return for a one-time tax credit, generally worth 15% or less of the total value of the property. These are not used by most owners of historic properties, however, because they limit any changes that can be made to the exterior of the property (the state now owns it and must grant permission for any changes) and they stay with the property in perpetuity, which can affect resale value and make it harder to sell the property in general, since any future owners will have the encumberance of the easement but will never realize any of the tax benefit.

    The tax credit misinfo came from the generally excellent Charlie Pierce, who I think must have missed the term “income-producing property” on the NPS website that explains the tax credits. I posted to his piece to point out the error. I’ve been writing NR nominations and tax credit applications for 20+ years, so when commenters on all the blogs started running with Charlie’s error, I knew without googling anything that it was inaccurate.

  194. 194.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    [T]he facilities are at the edge of fighter-bomber range, which means next to no loiter time to deliver the ordnance….The logistics for such a strike are formidable.

    Well, helzbelz, they’re a lot less formidable if you don’t mind a one-way flight, with aircrew punching out over the Persian Gulf. You’d need a friendly power with a significant naval presence in the PG to fish your personnel out before the Iranians got to them, & a rich friendly power to buy you even shinier newer planes to make good the hardware losses. (And sonofagun, guess which global hyperpower ramped up its presence in the PG just last month?)

    My utterly-uninformed guess is that Obama has warned Bibi that we ain’t gonna rescue his kids from the drink, & Bibi for his part is thinking to do it anyway, at some moment deep in the fall campaign season when (by his calculation) Obama couldn’t refuse to pick them up without losing the Jewish vote & the election with it. That’s just the kind of stone-hearted gimlet-eyed momser Bibi is.

    ETA: Awaiting moderation?? For fucking what??? FYWP & all your evil spawn!!

  195. 195.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Jennifer: I would go against every instinct I have, raise my voice, and talk over Lowry and keep talking until he shut up. I wouldn’t answer any of his questions, but I would say what I had to say in a loud and respectful voice. My hunch would be that Lowry would have shut up at some point, but if he did not, then I would employ your tactic and walk out after stating my piece.

    @AxelFoley: Hey, boo! I miss you. Kiss kiss!

  196. 196.

    Celeriac

    @Jennifer:

    Thanks–in the interest of quick and dirty, I had mistakenly conflated RITC with state property tax abatements, which are serviced over a finite number of years and vary by state.

  197. 197.

    Socraticsilence

    @Linda Featheringill:

    They don’t, Insurance Companies were actually one of the key forces for the creation of Medicare in the mid-60s, after trying and failing to profitably cover the retiree market.

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