Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

I really should read my own blog.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

How stupid are these people?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / I wish I could just turn you on; Put a battery in and make you talk

I wish I could just turn you on; Put a battery in and make you talk

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Is it just me, or does anyone else here watch Ann Romney and think that maybe Mitt’s the expressive one?

I’m not sure the delivery could be any flatter.  And notice the cadence–it’s the “I’ve reached the end of the line on the teleprompter (move eyes back to the left) and now tell humorous story (move eyes back to the left) LAUGH at punchline (move eyes back to the left)…

Open thread.

 

Per usual, Tbogg nails it.

UPDATE:  Oh, look. Color me unsurprised.
RNC Attendee Allegedly Threw Nuts At Black CNN Camerawoman, said “this is how we feed animals.”
Ni(CLANG) is any moment now.

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  3. 3.

    jwb

    Twitter seems strangely divided on Anne’s performance, and, no, it’s not just a Dem-GOP thing, since I follow almost exclusively lefties.

  6. 6.

    Violet

    @DCLaw1: Do you have a good link to follow along?

    I’ve always thought Ann Romney was icy cold. Not surprised her delivery is chilly and robotic. Mitt has always seemed the more human of the two. Do not fuck with Ann. You can see her attitude reflected in her sons.

  8. 8.

    vickijean

    She is lovely, articulate, bright, and yet, I do not like her. To me she seems smug and self satisfied. And as they accuse Michelle Obama of being (unfairly) she seems to me to be angry. I think part of what you and I are feeling is that these are not her words. She did not write this speech. She is performing it.

  9. 9.

    pseudonymous in nc

    For example, she has said that when Mitt was in college, the two of them were so financially strapped that they had to liquidate some of their stock portfolio to get by. At the time Mrs. Romney said that she was engaged in a “struggle” to bring up her children, the family was living in a seven bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom mock-Colonial mansion in Belmont, Massachusetts, while spending summers at their five-thousand-square-foot vacation home, which sits on eleven lakefront acres in New Hampshire.

    The indignity.

  10. 10.

    PurpleGirl

    I had her on for about a minute, just to try and see if whe was using a teleprompter. I really didn’t keep it on all that long (changed the channel back to a repeat of Criminal Minds). I don’t want to hear anything more about how we got married right away and didn’t have anything… bitch, he had stocks he could sell… those are assets.

    ETA: If it was that hard, she could have gone to work.

  11. 11.

    HOYA

    I don’t even think the most devoted GOPer could stand 3 straight nights of “we built it” lines. Move on to something else.

  13. 13.

    hhex65

    Basically she is saying President Obama is an affirmative action President– fairly well on-message, I guess

  14. 14.

    The Dangerman

    I feel for her; she’s clearly not a public speaker and not the one running. That said…

    …if she’s in the arena, she’s fair game. I can’t imagine a swing voter listening to that and being swayed.

  15. 15.

    GregB

    Ann says that Mitt won’t fuck America in the back seat of a Rambler on the way home from a school dance.

    Callista Gingrich could not make the same assertion.

  18. 18.

    Concerned Citizen

    Fuck, I swore I wouldn’t watch any of it. Is anyone watching David Gregory fluff Ann Romney? It’s bizarre and creepy.

  20. 20.

    Ann Rynd

    Not flat, a little giddy. Something like drunk girl on SNL. I had to turn her off. Like Vickijean above says, she seems smug. And self satisfied but still a little resentful she’s not getting more respect.

  21. 21.

    jwb

    @Valdivia: No one thought it was brilliant or anything (well, there were a few who said that, but they were clearly speaking in jest). But many thought that she came off as warm and that it was the best speech of the night by quite a lot. On the other hand, many also thought it was wooden, insincere and horribly written, and she was tripped out too much like a reincarnation of Nancy Reagan.

  22. 22.

    El Cid

    Not, not, not watching any of it. Not a bit. Occasional video clip commentary by the MSNBC crew reacting.

    But I’m not watching these fucks. Not gonna do it.

  25. 25.

    MikeJ

    Since this is a soonergrunt thread and he knows windows better than I, why does my win7 box lose dns about once a day for about five minutes? Everything works ok after a few minutes. If I use the linux box gateway everything is hunky dory. I fired up a win xp box to test and it got through fine.

    Fixes or workarounds welcome.

  27. 27.

    kc

    Ann’s got a mean little mouth, bless her heart.

    It’s Ava Gardner night on TCM. Don’t be watching that GOP shit, y’all.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    Is Christie saying that Republicans’ unpopularity is a sign of strength?

    They’re the daddies who can say no?

    Uh huh.

  33. 33.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Any truth to the rumor Christie is gonna finish his speech by swallowing a rape baby whole?

  35. 35.

    mai naem

    These people are confusing me. Ann told me to think about luuurve. And now Chris Christie comes on and tells me its about respect. Ignore the lurrrve. Make your mind up people.

  37. 37.

    DCLaw1

    Saw the alleged Christie speech on Drudge (normally never give him traffic). Can anyone confirm it is the same? As others have said, it read very much like a Christie for President speech.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    @beltane:

    She called it “pasta and tuna.”

    We called it “tuna and noodles.”

    Christie’s talking about respect over love, and “we’re taking our country back.”

    “We are the United States of America.”

    Us white people, here in this convention hall.

    sigh.

    He is running for president. So much emphasis on his accomplishments.

  42. 42.

    Mark S.

    For example, she has said that when Mitt was in college, the two of them were so financially strapped that they had to liquidate some of their stock portfolio to get by.

    Christ, did she actually say that? I wonder what else they had to do to make ends meet? Join the second most expensive golf club?

  46. 46.

    feebog

    So far I have watched reruns of “How I met Your Mother” a replay of the 2012 World Series of Poker, and two very old episodes of “Two and a Half Men”. I tuned into MSNBC for about two minutes of the Nikki Haley speech, but my wife threatend to throw her IPad at the TV, so Nikki went buh-bye really fast. Tnink I will play some online poker, or maybe just take a walk around the block. I hate Republican convention week.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    Democrats: Coddled by big government, content to “live the lie” with them.

    Republicans: their seniors are not selfish.

    “Democrats prey on their fears with misinformation ….”

    project much?!

  50. 50.

    ChrisNYC

    It really is like watching something from the thirties. He’s so big, like pols aren’t anymore and all that sort of goombah gesturing he does. Weird and anachronistic.

  52. 52.

    magurakurin

    @El Cid:

    But I’m not watching these fucks. Not gonna do it.

    wouldn’t be prudent.

    a comment related to something down below. Godfather III is to me the weakest of the three, but there are folks who like it best. My wife likes Andy Garcia, so she likes it. But in my opinion GFIII fails because the basic premise of the plot isn’t nearly as believable as the the first two. The first two films show the struggle of organized crime as it enters into a new paradigm of the “hard” crime of narcotics as opposed to the soft vices of gambling and prostitution. GFII also provides a look at the origins of the family while it continues on the “present day” struggles which began in GFI. The story is fiction but very believable because it follows the mafia into places where the viewer expects that the mafia is and was. III however leads us to some rather impossible places where we don’t normally associate organized crime to be. It could be true, but it doesn’t seem as genuinely “true” as the first two. Also, the third film has a somewhat distracting forbidden love angle which doesn’t add to the film at all.

    But I think Ann Romney is a warm and caring human being, so take my opinion with a grain or two of salt. (not really)

  53. 53.

    batgirl

    @Elizabelle:

    Republicans: their seniors are not selfish.

    Which is why the Romney/Ryan medicare plan exempts them. Not selfish at all.

    Nope, not selfish, fuck the children and grandchildren. Give me my medicare and social security but don’t tax me to make sure it is there for you.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    Why put “bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor?”

    When Republican governors and House members have already stepped up to the plate.

    Transvaginal ultrasounds in hand.

    Oh.

    And now Republicans are not “the status quo.”

    He’s learning us.

  55. 55.

    ChrisNYC

    I don’t find him a good speaker, even separate from the ideas. It all feels like a big blustery act to me. Never gonna be prez.

  58. 58.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    There’s one black usher that they keep zooming in on with the camera like he’s clapping for Republicans. First he was clapping at a bug buzzing around his head and then he was clearly slapping his hands together trying to get some goo or something off of them.

  59. 59.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @magurakurin:

    But in my opinion GFIII fails because the basic premise of the plot isn’t nearly as believable as the the first two.

    The first two parts are about the immigrant story, about “I believe in America.” Vito wants Michael to be “Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something,” part of the American establishment. He ends up, like his father, with senators and governors in his pocket. There’s no third part unless you want to do a proper “third generation pisses it all away” story.

  61. 61.

    MikeJ

    @magurakurin:

    III however leads us to some rather impossible places where we don’t normally associate organized crime to be.

    You don’t expect the mafia to be involved with the Catholic church? That’s probably the most believable thing in G3.

  62. 62.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @AA+ Bonds: It must suck for Puerto Ricans to meekly accept the American colonization of their proud civilization and then get booed for not being Americans.

  64. 64.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    Back in the days of gang rumbles, I’d definitely want Ann as part of my crew. I suspect she’s pretty pretty mean with a switchblade. She doesn’t even need to pack one, she can just use the daggers that come out of her eyes.

    I wonder if Ann put the hit on Ron and Nicole. Make no mistake, you do not fuck with Ann Romney.

  66. 66.

    magurakurin

    @MikeJ: it’s believable but as viewers we know for a fact that the mafia was involved in Las Vegas and in Cuba. I don’t hate GFIII. It’s watchable and a decent movie but it just doesn’t compare to the first two.

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    @MikeJ:

    You don’t expect the mafia to be involved with the Catholic church? That’s probably the most believable thing in G3.

    For me, it’s not that the story is not believable. It is that the story is not compelling. GF I is the tragedy of Michael Corleone. He is the prince not groomed to be king, who tries to stay away from what he sees as the corrupt family business, but who is not only pulled in, but who excels at being the ruthless leader. GF II expands on this, and shows how he destroys all he cared about, even his own brother, to become the man his father did not want him to become. Young Vito’s rise to power is a great, if somewhat too sanitized counterpoint to Michael’s attempts to extend his control over his father’s empire.

    GF III cannot find a satisfying way of moving beyond Michael to the Andy Garcia character or to uncover anything new or interesting to say about Michael. The stuff about the Church is too byzantine to make for a good maguffin.

    And while Andy Garcia is a good actor, he is unfocused, not as charismatic as any of the leads in the first two films, and all of the life is drained out his performance any time he is on screen with the dreadfully miscast Sofia Coppola.

  68. 68.

    The Other Chuck

    Anne was about as warm as a titanium tit. She stared straight ahead and barked out each line as it was displayed. My GF said “even Palin sounded more human”. And she _despises_ Palin.

  69. 69.

    Chris T.

    @pseudonymous in nc: Amusingly (?) enough, I recently had to raise some cash by liquidating a few positions. It’s not fun, but it’s not “financially strapped” either, it’s just poor planning (I badly underestimated the cost of a major remodeling project).

  70. 70.

    JR in WV

    @Chris T.:

    Chris,

    It is impossible to overestimate a building project. In fact it is nearly impossible to correctly estimate a building project at any level.

    So don’t feel poor planning was the problem, it’s just the 3rd law of project estimating, which says it can’t be done correctly.

    I can’t force myself to watch the Rpug convention, I can’t really watch much of the Dem convention. We did watch Canidate Obama’s speech in Denver, with the Roman temple set behind him.

    I really really hope President Obama’s campaign team is correct in their understanding of the polling results. REALLY, REALLY!

    If all the hateful bigots stay home, and the Democratic party wins back the house and senate, the world may not end in our lifetime, which would be a good thing.

  71. 71.

    Soonergrunt

    @MikeJ: Can you enter your DNS settings into your internet properties? I don’t know why you’d lose your DNS unless your DNS resolver cache is corrupted.
    Open a command prompt, and at the c:\ type IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS
    and then after the command completes go back to browsing and see if the computer behaves differently.
    If you still have problems, copy the DNS server addresses from the Linux box into the Internet Properties dialog of your Win7 box.

  72. 72.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    @MikeJ: Are you sure it isn’t your router or your ISP?

    Having used win7 for years on multiple machines and in multiple environments I’ve never had that problem.

    Comcast likes to quit randomly. About once a week I have to reset the modem. Sometimes worse, sometimes better.

    And I have a cisco router that is terrible. It randomly screws up as well.

    Check your machine for spyware or trojans. One piece of AV software isn’t enough. When I suspect something is up (luckily for me, rarely) I run Spybot S&D, Adaware and Kaspersky scans. Often times two out of 3 of these will report nothing, and the other one screams bloody murder.

    I seriously doubt your problem is windows itself.

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