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From commentor Hamletta:
Hey, you guys! I am whoring for my peeps, and my city.
Any of you who have Facebook accounts can vote for Lutheran Services of Tennessee in Toyota’s 100 Cars For Good contest today, Friday.
You should do this, because their van is fixin’ to take a shit.
They do what they do because our society has decided the people they work with are beneath consideration, and they need a functioning vehicle to do it….
I may be a whore, but LST is doing the Lord’s work here on earth, and I’m happy to help it along.
Description of Toyota’s program here.
PurpleGirl
I will definitely vote this morning. I spent a number of years attending a Lutheran Church and know of the good work done by various Lutheran social services organizations.
Basilisc
Sounds like an excellent cause – good luck! According to Rick Santorum, of course, Lutherans are more or less Satanists. Another reason to vote.
But since it’s an open thread, I hope no one minds if I post Charlie Pierce’s latest kicking of ass:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/romney-angry-strategy-11744990?src=rss
“If he blows that dog-whistle any louder, Seamus may return from that great roof-rack in the sky.”
danielx
From today’s Kaplan Daily – take it away, Michael Gerson!
It strikes me as a negative argument for the existence of God that Michael Gerson hasn’t been struck dead by lightning after completing those two sentences, let alone the whole column.
As any number of others have pointed out, the Village is aghast that Democrats are using…Republican campaign tactics. It is, after all, a matter of natural law that Democrats are supposed to conduct “civilized” political campaigns. They’re certainly not supposed to do anything that that produces anguished calls for apologies and civility, much less put things like the Marquis’ taxes “out there” for the proles to be angry about.
The palpable shock and butthurt is a wondrous thing to witness.
In point of fact, it appears that the Dems (and the Kenyan imposter in particular) have finally figured it out, after a couple of decades of being stomped by various versions of Lee Atwater.
Rule #1 in politics – you have to win to accomplish anything. If that means making an issue out of how much Mittens has paid in taxes over the last decade, or drawing attention to the fact that Villager himbo Paul Ryan’s budgeting numbers are full of shit, so be it.
Rule #1a – polite discussions of how your policies are better for voters than those of the opposition does not win elections, since many people can be convinced to vote against their own interests. (See What’s the Matter with Kansas?) Convincing voters that the opposition is both ineffectual and corrupt does win elections. If that requires making your opponent deny that he has had carnal knowledge of his livestock, well, it works for Karl Rove.
Rule #2 in politics for the Obama administration in particular – there is nothing you can do that is going to lessen the rage held by your opponents. Whether you campaign wearing white gloves or mailed gauntlets makes no difference; in point of fact being nice only increases their disdain. They aren’t going to hate you any less or negotiate in good faith any more. So do what it takes to win, barring outright libel.
The irony, it burns…
@VividBlueDotty
Can’t vote till 10 AM ET but I’ll keep the tab open in my browser to remind me. I’ve voted for a couple of other organizations that ended up winning the car on their voting day. Hope LST wins theirs too!!
bemused
Discount at Barack Obama Store. I got a postcard with a discount code for 20% of your total purchases of $25 or more, free shipping. If anyone is interested, the discount code is GEAR UP expiring 8/31/12.
arguingwithsignposts
@danielx: Not a single fuck will be given today about “antinomianism.” The only people who even know what that word means are theologians and fundamentalists of all stripes.
Suffern Ace
@danielx: What we really need is someone who can stand above this fray of politiccs that I am tut tutting right now. Someone who doesn’t spend so much time trying to connect with the feelings of voters on the one hand, but a mans man on the other. What we don’t want, however, is someone claiming to want to advance the interests of any democratic constituency. That just won’t do. That would be crazy.
No. What we need is someone who wants to hold office but who doesn’t question the virtue of the other candidate. Someone who won’t make the ghastly appeals to voters. Or at least not to voters who aren’t upper middle class pricks like myself.
Someone should send a message to Gerson that if there was an actual constituency for nice politicians, Americans Elect would actually have been able to find a candidate who we’d be talking about this election.
Brian R.
@arguingwithsignposts:
Especially from the asshole who gave us the “smoking gun/mushroom cloud” metaphor that helped launch the Iraq War.
Hey, Gerson, your words were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. We’ll let you know when we give a fucking shit about whether or not you think a political ad has hurt someone’s feelings.
Brian R.
In other news, Soledad O’Brien is still refusing to take any bullshit on the Republican claims about Medicare.
She had an exchange with Chaffetz this morning in which he kept insisting the term “voucher” was an evil Democratic spin on the Ryan Plan. She made it plain as day that these were vouchers — you give them money and they go buy their own health care — and Chafetz kept pushing back that wasn’t true. So she asked him, OK, explain it to me, and he just sputtered something about “more choices” and other vapid shit.
He looked like he’d been in a car crash by the time it was over.
Raven
I see Huff Post has finally gotten around to highlighting the South African miner clash. Pretty intense.
jibeaux
On the topic of Democrats fighting to win, Obama apparently announced that since Romney was so afraid Obama was going to find “ammunition” in his tax returns, that he promised that if R releases them, he won’t say boo about it, no ads, no nothing.
Completely genius: Day 293 of talking about the returns Mitt won’t release, in a whole new way.
vestigial
@danielx:
I read ineffectual as “intellectual.” Sadly, it does not change the meaning of the sentence.
SiubhanDuinne
They will have my vote at 10:00 a.m. Wish I had known about this Toyota initiative before today, when the 100 days are almost over. What a lot of worthy organizations out there!
And — this may be a silly way to make decisions, but I’m in the market for a new car and this makes me very much inclined to look carefully at Toyotas. If I can help them make a profit by purchasing a decent vehicle so they can put some of that profit into philanthropy, I’m not seeing a downside.
SiubhanDuinne
@jibeaux: THIS is how you play 11-dimensional chess!!
Suffern Ace
@Brian R.: I dont know why they don’t just embrace the damn vouchers and move on. Look, at least they’re giving you something that has a value when you have your choices. Normally they just plan to give you a choice to solve the problem, but because of their compassion, you get a voucher as well.
FlipYrWhig
In the 2000 campaign, the Republicans and Big Media got a ton of mileage out of the idea that Al Gore was would say anything to get elected, would “attack, attack, attack.” Yeah, hard to believe that Al Gore’s big problem was his ruthlessness, but to a large degree it stuck. The problem with trying to run that ploy again is that whil George W. Bush’s entire persona is based on aw-shucks amiability, Mitt Romney’s persona is that he’s a stiff — and, of course, someone who beat the other Republican contenders through an avalanche of negative ads. So Romney is unsympathetic on at least two major levels, which completely undermines the premise that Obama is too mean to him, which was already going to be a difficult sell because Obama is obviously not mean.
Valdivia
@Brian R.:
is there a place where one can give kudos to O’Brien for doing her job? I am afraid if I call CNN they will tell her to stop.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Well, but funny, it’s the second time in just a few days that “antinomian” has shown up in a BJ thread. Some commenter, I can’t remember which one, used it the other day with reference to his daughter. I wasn’t sure what it meant, and looked it up at the time.
Cassidy
Pussy Riot was found guilty of hooliganism.
jibeaux
But back to Lutheran services, I am happy to vote for them but FYI the website says it opens at 10 a.m.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Check out the Dowtom Abbey folks for reelze!
Siobhan Finneran is quite a number!
Raven
@arguingwithsignposts: You get my email about the Red and Black?
Cassidy
[email protected] Riot was found guilty of hooliganism.
This might show up twice since the FPer’s aren’t responding to my mental commands to un-moderate the first comment.
Brian R.
@Valdivia:
Good idea. She’s on Facebook and Twitter, and I imagine they have contact info at CNN.
WereBear
PurpleGirl
@Raven Thanks for the link. The pictures were nice to see.
arguingwithsignposts
@Raven: Yes, been following that situation as closely as one can from half a continent away. It’s getting a lot of attention in the journalism trade right now.
Raven
@arguingwithsignposts: Yea, thought you’d know about it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven: What a great site! Thanks, and yes she is indeed.
Love that they included a variety of off-screen pix of Pharaoh and Isis :-)
Violet
@jibeaux: That is genius! Of course other Dems can say what they want, but if Mitt points that out he”ll just look like an even bigger whiner.
Jane2
In 3rd place at 10:11…
@VividBlueDotty
Voted for LST.
hamletta
Thank you Anne Laurie, and thank you, Juicers!
We’re having a memorial service today, and I stuck a poster in the narthex (Lutheran for “lobby”). The deceased was the wife of one pastor and the mother of another, so I’m sure she’d approve.
Off to the GOS to do some more pimpin’.
eohippus
I voted. Lutheran Services is currently running in third place with 14% of the votes.