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I’m with DougJ- I used to watch every second of every convention, Democratic or Republican, and I have not so much as watched an instant of it. They are just lying and then parading the 15 or so minorities in the GOP before the camera. What’s the point of watching that?

Think I’ll play some Civ V Gods and Kings while watching the Steelers. Speaking of the Steelers, mom and dad are at the game. They decided to go up, have a good dinner, then go to the game to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  1. 1.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    First congratulations to your folks, I don’t watch these stupid things, I will probably watch some college football, and do some Netflix.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    Congrats to your folks! How many years is it?

    I’m going to make chicken tacos with some leftover chicken, make some guac to go with, and watch down some stuff on the DVR. I might skim the primetime stuff, but probably will just follow along on some liveblogs. They’re more fun anyway.

  4. 4.

    cathyx

    I say we all pile in the car and go to John’s house and have a party instead. Who wants to drive?

  5. 5.

    Birthmarker

    Dumb and ot question–do fans have to pay to attend preseason games??

    It is stunning how the repubs parade these minorities through. So cynical…A FB friend posted a pic of the female Hispanic Republican gov of NM today. No context whatsoever. Just posted the pic. It’s like, “We got one!!”

  6. 6.

    waratah

    They have had more minority’s on the stage than in the audience.

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I am watching Jeb Bush speak for the first time and he has not impressed me in any way.

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    Cole, you going drinking again tonight?

    It does help your late-night posts, with all due respect.

  8. 8.

    Bud

    I am right with you, John. I’m the exact same way….every convention, no matter GOP or Dem and no matter if I liked the candidate or hated the candidate. In addition to skipping this entire GOP circus this week, I doubt I will watch more than Obama’s speech next week.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Christie started the trend and they’re all doing it–Rubio, Condi, Christie, JEB! You name a possible candidate, except for maybe Ryan who is trying to play Purity Ball Son to Daddy Romney, and they’re all there to promote themselves and their 2016 brand.

    And Romney knows it. He may be ignoring it, but he knows it. That’s gotta sting. It’s also going to throw him off his game. Look for more gaffes.

  11. 11.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I’ve watched most of it. I created a drinking game where I do a shot of whiskey every time a Republican lies. I’ve blacked out a half dozen times and died once.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    And there’s the 0% Romney got in that poll from African-American voters. Pretty remarkable, considering that in any poll there’s a few who don’t understand the question, and that 0% really means less than 0.5%, otherwise it would have rounded up to 1%. It’s an achievement. So, if the question is “Romney?” the answer is “No, no, no, No-no-no-no, You’re not the one for me”:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vklWbjPrd8c&feature=related

  14. 14.

    MikeJ

    Seattlites! Slog tells me Vessel is back! The only bar in town that challenges Zig-Zag for quality.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    @Birthmarker:

    Dumb and ot question—do fans have to pay to attend preseason games??

    Yes, of course they do. People are willing to pay money to watch them, so the teams are naturally going to cash in. The same thing is true of spring training games in baseball. If they just gave the tickets away, a lot of them would wind up being sold at a big markup by scalpers, so the teams might as well charge for them and keep the money themselves.

  16. 16.

    Mino

    A little something we have to look forward to when the oligarchy comes. South African police shoot 34 of the men in a crowd protesting before the platinum mine, and then the entire crowd of miners is charged with their murder. Kafka has nothing on this.

  18. 18.

    DonkeyKong

    I did watch an hour of last nights dystopian funhouse and ended up pounding the floor with my fist like Charlton Heston at the last scene in Planet of the Apes.

  20. 20.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    In fact, preseason games are part of the season ticket package, and you pay exactly the same amount for an “exhibition” game as you do for the “real thing.”

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    There wasn’t any doubt 2 years ago that the heavy hitters were sitting this one out.

    The result was the klown kar kavalcade of the GOP primary season.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    Congrats to your parents, Cole! How many years? They have a beautiful evening and what looks to be a blowout of a game. Hope they went to a nice place in town. There are lots of them these days.

    I, too, have not watched a minute of the GOP fail parade. A very odd thing for a lifelong political junkie like me. I vaguely remember LBJ v. Goldwater, but ’68 was the first time I watched both conventions obsessively and with enough knowledge to know what was happening. I’ve never missed a convention of either party since. Until now. I just can’t subject myself to the blatant lies and casual cruelty that is the RNC in 2012.

    I’ve got the Steelers on and may tune in to Project Runway later. I’m off tomorrow, I’m +3, and I just wanna relax and forget about Mittens tonight.

  25. 25.

    Ash Can

    Congrats to the Cole parents! Sounds like a great time.

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    I created a drinking game where I do a shot of whiskey every time a Republican lies.

    And the way you play it is, you fly down to the Jack Daniels distillery and dive into one of the tanks.

  27. 27.

    Birthmarker

    I am watching the Steelers/Panthers on the NFL online preseason package, which is actually a pretty good deal for $20. The Panthers’ 2nd string QB, Anderson, isn’t too bad. Just kind of a workhorse kind of guy. Not flashy.

  29. 29.

    Larkspur

    Ooh, happy anniversary to the lovely people what spawned our Cole.

    I am house-sitting at a place with cable TV and I am not going to waste it on the RNC. I’m going to catch up on Suits. Also, last night I watched an independent documentary entitled Mine, about the companion animal rescues post-Katrina, and subsequent attempts to re-connect people with their lost pets. It’s part feel-good and part hugely troubling.

  33. 33.

    Bob h

    Ditto. Watching Republican conventions is in a category with prostate biopsies, etc. Spent afternoon at movies: Compliance and Ccsmopolis, both excellent.

  34. 34.

    Bob h

    Ditto. Watching Republican conventions is in a category with prostate biopsies, etc. Spent afternoon at movies: Compliance and Ccsmopolis, both excellent.

  35. 35.

    mamayaga

    The 2008 Dem convention is the only one I’ve watched at all in a long, long time. Even though I’ve been acutely aware of politics since the 60s, and have seen and even participated in a lot of turmoil, recently every election has seemed like the most crucial electoral situation I’ve ever seen. The anxiety goes right up to 11 when it looks like the media is going to grease the way for liars and scumbags again, and I just have to turn away.

    One thing that has kept me from going too far off the deep end in the last year is watching the ever-tightening web around Rupert Murdoch and News Corp due to his minions’ habitual phone hacking, bribing, computer hacking, and most recently, obstruction of justice. Today Tom Crone, corporate lawyer, long time fixture in Rupie’s shop, and previously a right hand to the man himself, was arrested. This is someone in a position to drop a dime on Rupert’s son James. It’s getting good…

  40. 40.

    chopper

    @MattF:

    to be fair, the poll was rigged. the question was ‘romney?’ and the choice was 1) no and 2) hell no.

    funny tho, #2 still got over 99% of responses.

  41. 41.

    Maude

    The SEAL guy will be on 60 Minutes. His voice will be disguised and his face blurred.
    It’s to protect his identity.
    Who will come out with his name in ten minutes after the show?
    This is stupid. It isn’t cranking up the attention he had hoped for.

  43. 43.

    Corner Store Operator

    So who was the big mystery guest that was supposed to speak at the RNC? Did that happen yet?

  50. 50.

    Anne Laurie

    @Violet:

    You name a possible candidate, except for maybe Ryan who is trying to play Purity Ball Son to Daddy Romney, and they’re all there to promote themselves and their 2016 brand.

    You are correct, and I am so stealing that metaphor!

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    Wow, some blah woman just said of Willard, “He struck me then, and strikes me now…”

    Didn’t know Willard was an abuser.

  53. 53.

    Foggy F Follansbye

    Watching now, and apparently Romney is going to promise to appoint a lot of diverse feminazis to his cabinet.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    Stephen Covey is “late?” Didn’t know that.

    “The seven habits of dead people” should be the next Breitbart moovee.

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    Kim’s let herself go since the Olympics. Or maybe skeeters can be chunky (not that there’s anything…).

  66. 66.

    Foggy F Follansbye

    The RNC crowd has no idea how to respond to these liberal democrat Bennetton Olympians praising Mitt.

  67. 67.

    mai naem

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I’m just glad the Dems are going to have their own heavy hitters by then – Hillary,Biden, Martin O’Malley, Dan Malloy, Warner,the Udalls, Deval Patrick, Cuomo, Schweitzer, Hickenlooper, folks from Obama’s cabinet – if Obamacare goes as planned by the Dems, Sebelius is going to be looking pretty damn good.

  68. 68.

    Suffern ACE

    So Ryan’s message was that it was his generations calling to keep everything the way it is for their is for his children. Romney’s foreign policy will be simultaneously a paradigm shift and a restoration of Truman and Reagan. Egads. What a bunch of hopeless hooey on the hill.

  69. 69.

    J.D. Rhoades

    Completely out of left field question: Does anyone know a quick and simple way to re-string a 4-string Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer? Because if I have to go through what I just went through every time I change strings, I’m going to chuck the sumbitch in the creek.

  70. 70.

    mai naem

    @Maude: They already know the name. Reuters said Al Quaeda got his name on their website but that they(reuters) wasn’t releasing his name because of security.

  72. 72.

    realbtl

    @J.D. Rhoades:
    Should be dirt simple. Unless you have one of the “authentic” ones with friction pegs. If that is the case throw the sumbitch in the crick and get one with geared tuners.

  73. 73.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Shew, Mitt uses the right lightbulbs, not those commie CFLs. Somewhere, Michelle Bachmann swooned.

  80. 80.

    Spectre

    That moment when you realize Clint Eastwood doesn’t actually act. He actually IS a confused old loon.

  82. 82.

    J.D. Rhoades

    Dear Lord, this Clint Eastwood “surprise” appearance is a complete train wreck. Stammering and stumbling? Talking to an empty chair? This is just sad.

  86. 86.

    jgaugust

    This is actually what the RNC is doing to introduce their party’s candidate for President. Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?

    Rachel Maddow absolutely teeing off on what she just saw. Holy shit that was a travesty.

  90. 90.

    Quincy

    This is the only night of the convention I’ve tuned in for so far. They haven’t all been like this have they? That Clint speech was wonderful.

  93. 93.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    What the hell did Eastwood say? That was the strangest thing I have ever heard and I thought that before Rachel Maddow came back on basically speechless.

    Wow, I have no idea what the hell Eastwood was supposed to accomplish. None, not one.

    Wow. Just wow.

  100. 100.

    Marked Hoosier

    Gotta admit, seeing Clint Eastwood at the convention endorsing Romney sucked. I am a fan, and knew he was republican, but it still stings.

  103. 103.

    FuriousPhil

    I thought McCain was the “Get off my lawn” moment, but now I’m not so sure.

    Always will like Clint and his movies, but that was…weird. Half community theater monologue, half Grampa Simpson.

  108. 108.

    mai naem

    @Foggy F Follansbye: That would not be fair. Fairer would be to stick Kirk Douglas up there. He’s 95 and would sound more coherent and, furthermore, he could talk about the good medicare did for him after his stroke.

  112. 112.

    jgaugust

    Rubio is basically giving a religious sermon on stage right now. Umm…this is the oddest hour of political primetime I’ve ever watched…

  122. 122.

    trollhattan

    Mic following Willard just picked up someone yelling, “No, no don’t touch me!” WTF?

  124. 124.

    Lurker

    Ugh. A liberal friend on Facebook got upset that President Obama granted Shell the right to “preparatory work” (but not actual DRILLING rights) in the Arctic. So he’s vowed to vote third-party this election instead of for Barack Obama.

    We’re in California, not a swing state, so it’s not like this will affect the actual outcome of the election. However, I find his willingness to risk a Romney win disturbing.

  125. 125.

    Redleg

    Phuk the phuking Steelers! Go, Bengals!

    Re: the convention- I am with you John- I haven’t been able to stomach more than 5 minute bursts of bullshit. The phuking lame-stream media better start doing their job and calling bullshit on the blatant lies and distortions. I just heard Rmoney say that the country is worse off now than when Obama took office. That is an easily disprovable proposition.

  127. 127.

    e.a.f.

    I really have a difficult time listening to some of the Republicans so i turn off the sound. It makes it very interesting when all you are focusing on it their body language & their facial expressions. That guy they have up for v.p. has the smuggest facial expression & have ever seen on a politician.

    I did watch clint for awhile, just for old times sake, he used to be soooo good looking. now he is kind of old but still when compared to some of the crowd, not too bad, I just didn’t want him to talk.

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