Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

This fight is for everything.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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Reader Interactions

196Comments

  1. 1.

    Violet

    Posted this in the last thread, but it’s OT there, so I’ll repost here:

    Romney is seriously out of touch:

    Romney and Jindal spent close to an hour meeting with first responders and local officials. Romney shook hands with National Guardsmen outside the U.S. Post Office and talked with a local resident, Jodie Chiarello, 42, who lost her home in Isaac’s flooding.
    __
    “He just told me to, um, there’s assistance out there,” Chiarello said of her conversation with Romney. “He said, go home and call 211.” That’s a public service number offered in many states.

    Go home and call 211? WTF? She’s lost her home. She can’t exactly “go home”. And it’s not like there’s a dead possum in the street. That’s the kind of thing you call 211 for. She needs state and federal assistance. Mitt is an idiot and completely out of touch.

  4. 4.

    Poopyman

    Tom Friedman on bass!

    Well, it’s nice to know he has another career if his writing gig doesn’t work out.

  6. 6.

    chopper

    According to UIUC, sea ice area dropped below 2.5 million sq km. lowest ever, by a long shot.

    the arctic death spiral continues.

  7. 7.

    rlrr

    According to UIUC, sea ice area dropped below 2.5 million sq km. lowest ever, by a long shot. the arctic death spiral continues.

    Don’t worry, the invisible hand of the free market will fix it…

  10. 10.

    becca

    I just saw Romney on tv.

    I think he’s had his eyes done.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just an idle observation.

  11. 11.

    Violet

    Both-sides-do-it is alive and well. David Frum is trying to play off Ryan’s marathon time lie with this crap:

    Headline: politicians exaggerate their personal stories. See Barack Obama’s uncle, military experiences of. http://cbsn.ws/OJzu9D

    Obama mixed up Auschwitz and Buchenwald as the camp that his uncle was part of liberating. And this is an exaggeration of Obama’s personal story how?

    And this:

    If Dems challenge Ryan’s marathon times, Reps should demand White House release the president’s golf scores

    Yes, because the President is running around claiming to golf better than half the PGA Tour right now.

    He also reminds Dems of Hillary and the Bosnia thing, which was stupid on her part, but give me a break. Hillary isn’t running for anything. If she decides to run for something in the future, we can look at her statements then. Ryan IS running for VP and his pathological lying is relevant.

    Modern day pundits: Equivalency uber alles.

  13. 13.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Going to watch college football, though I am sick of ESPN’s wanking over Penn St. And can anyone tell me why is Notre Dame is relevant anymore?

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @Cassidy: You too? I did one sub-3 marathon last night before bed, and just because I felt like it I climbed a couple of fourteeners before breakfast.

  16. 16.

    Ben Franklin

    In passing i saw a portion of Romney’s speech just now. I swear, as he was talking about Job Creators, he referred to himself as the God of Jobs.

  17. 17.

    Schlemizel

    @Cassidy: I’m guessing from that statement that you have the primary requirement for the job – you can lie with a straight face. There is a bright future for you in the GOP

  19. 19.

    amk

    @Violet: That bosnia thing sank HRC’s campaign (aling with other things). So let punk, lying ryan do the same.

    Wasn’t it the same frum who was disgusted with his own party ? Or is there another frum?

  20. 20.

    Cassidy

    I has the fourteeners scheduled for after breakfast, but I took too long wrestling the shark. It brought a frikkin’ laser beam and that was so not what we agreed on.

  23. 23.

    Todd

    Ruben Navarette needs to get clubbed like a baby harp seal. He is humping the leg of his readership like a demented and chained Rottweiler on meth over the whole idea of a potential horse race.

  25. 25.

    Wag

    @rlrr:

    The invisible hand of the free market wants to have access to the Northwest Passage to speed the shipping of goods around the world.

  26. 26.

    anibundel

    I got so mad at watching Mehta on Nerdland today I ended up watching Barefoot Contessa instead.
    I blame Cooking Channel’s inability to run Iron Chef Japan and Alton Brown 24-7 that this lapse into white privilege happened.

  27. 27.

    Schlemizel

    @arguingwithsignposts: Yeah Paul RAyn’s claim reminded me of the swim record Mao was supposed to have set in the Yellow River or Kim Jung Il’s golf round that included 18 hole-in-ones. What is it about petty dictators that they not only lie about something so silly but they lie at a level were you don’t even need to look up the truth to know they are liars?

  30. 30.

    Cassidy

    @Schlemizel: It’s not a lie when it’s snark. For the record my best time ever is 11:27 for a 2 mile run on a PT test when I was 21 years old. The likelihood of me maintaining that pace for a marathon is somewhere around me voting for Romney.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Violet:

    What idiots like Frum don’t realize is that in the running community, a “misstatement” of your PR (personal record) like that is a shunning offense. It’s a matter of personal honor, and it’s plainly obvious that RuizRyan has no personal honor. He wasn’t off by a few minutes, he was off by well over an hour…he turned a 4 hour plus time into a sub 3 time, which is an egregious lie.

    This goes far beyond misstatments of what concentration camp your uncle liberated, or even Hillary’s totally idiotic runway story. This is something that within the culture that you’re trying to impress is something you should know, and furthermore, you should know that records are kept and can be checked.

    You do not lie about something that is so trivially easy to check. It signals arrogance and disrespect for the community that you’re attempting to insinuate yourself into.

  33. 33.

    Violet

    @amk: It’s the same David Frum. He’s trying to position himself as a “sensible conservative” but he says he’s still going to vote for Romney. Asshat.

    @Cassidy: I’d planned to wrestle a shark, but the lion-taming took too long. Damned lion brought a rhino buddy along he’d met down at the local watering hole and the stupid thing kept bumping into the bi-plane I had all set up for afternoon wing-walking.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    Maybe it’s time to remind folks to donate to the Obama campaign. I’m two years away from medicare eligibility and my out of pocket expenses would be sky high under the Romney plan. Because of that I decided to donate as much as I can afford. This is coming from a person who shops second hand stores and just cut down some limbs. btw.. it is humid and muggy today. Do what you can folks.
    I do have a question though, I have give a few dollars to both the Senate and House campaigns but avoided the DNC. Is that a wise?

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Schlemizel:

    It’s a test of the loyalty of the listener. If you scoff at such outrageous claims, they you’re the enemy, and whatever happens to you next you clearly deserved.

    The measure of your loyalty is how big a lie you’re willing to swallow.

  38. 38.

    kindness

    I don’t know about the rest of you but it seems the little side ads web sites have,the patterns have changed. I’m not getting any diversity. Typical political ads & very focused commercial stuff. Lots of the same things. Granted it’s tracking my Amazon et al visits and I can understand those. But the diversity of different ads isn’t as apparent as it used to be. If only there was a way to tell them ‘Hey! I bought that crap so you can stop showing me that’. It doesn’t work. Talking to the computer only reinforces the notion of the family that I’m crazy.

  40. 40.

    Violet

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, I know. It’s the kind of little thing that actually is very big. It just signals a lack of respect for the sport and a need to promote oneself at any cost. It’s a stupid, stupid lie and not the kind of mistake one could make accidentally. And if you look at the actual conversation, he says it twice. And he says he was “fast when he was younger”:

    HH: But you did run marathons at some point?
    __
    PR: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.
    __
    HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?
    __
    PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.
    __
    HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University

    __
    PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.

    This is not a casual lie. It’s a lie, a double down, and a boast. He’s a pathological liar.

  51. 51.

    raven

    Just to be a pain in the ass, who gives a fuck about this Ryan bullshit? It always annoyed me that people tried to make a big deal out of McCain being a shitty student and pilot when there was so much real to attack him about. This is chickenshit.

  52. 52.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    Over at MOJO “Can an iPhone Keep Election Officials From Blocking Your Vote?”

    Is it just me, or do others find this to be pretty stupid? The intersection between people with enough disposable income to buy a smartphone (even prepaid, since you have to scrounge the cash to buy one out-of-pocket) and those who will get disenfranchised has got to be vanishingly small.

    This seems like #whitepeopleproblems to me.

  54. 54.

    Violet

    @Yutsano: Yep. He can’t just say, “I was mistaken.” He has to find someone to blame. Why not blame his brother? He’s pathological about it. It’s not good coming on the heels of his #LyinRyan speech. Just reinforces the impression.

    He’s also claimed to have climbed almost 40 of Colorado’s “fourteeners”. I wonder if mountain climbers are as obsessive about that kind of thing as runners. I know there’s a Summit Registry. Maybe someone should look into it…

  56. 56.

    Linda Featheringill

    I find it encouraging that the running community is so pissed off about Ryan’s lie. Perhaps they’ll be inspired to vote. And they certainly will talk about it and spread the word that Ryan is a liar.

    Now if we can just get him to lie about something else.

  58. 58.

    robertdsc-iPhone 4

    Dad has been a USC fan for 50+ years. Today is his first game. A colleague at work offered me tickets & I got them for him. He’s very excited.

  61. 61.

    Violet

    @raven: Well, runners care because it’s their sport and PBs are a big deal. Ryan kind of shit on their sport.

    As I said upthread, in and of itself it’s not a big deal. But it reinforces the “Ryan is a liar” trend that has been out there since his speech at the convention. And it’s a stupid, checkable lie, the kind of lie normal people think, “Huh? Why would he lie about that?” and it leaves a bad taste in their mouth.

    So it’s relevant because it continues to show him as the liar he is and adds a level of “why would he lie about something personal and so stupid? What else is he lying about.”

    As for McCain, those things didn’t fit the image that was being portrayed so they didn’t stick. If McCain had already been shown to be a liar, and it was a trend, they would have received more attention.

  64. 64.

    Violet

    @Linda Featheringill: I hope someone looks into his claims of climbing almost 40 fourteeners, and there’s also some claim of being a “skiing expert” or something. And has anyone verified his P90X claims?

  65. 65.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    @raven: I can sympathize with that POV.

    But also, if he’ll lie about something so inconsequential, with no upside to it, to me that speaks to a profound lack of honesty and character. Or shorter: “Who lies about this stuff?”

  68. 68.

    Violet

    @Anya: I don’t know. The whole thing was kind of baffling to me. The best move is just to ignore it or say it was kind of stupid or a mistake and move on. Trying to go the both-sides-do-it route just looks pathetic.

  69. 69.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Yutsano:

    If I’m his brother, well, that’s past tense, now. He’s slammed me, and his slime now is on my running shoes, too.

    @raven:

    The thing about McCain’s grades and his aviation skills (remember, guys who fly Navy planes are aviators, not pilots…that’s for bus drivers in the USAF) is that it’s pretty obvious he got into the elite world of the aviator because of who his daddy was, not because of his own accomplishments.

    I knew an officer whose dad was a four star, who shared his name, and who went out of his way to downplay that relationship and to demonstrate that he was a good officer on his own merits and accomplishments. His dad may have gotten him though the door, but he was demonstrating through his own deeds that he had a place there.

    McCain actually bragged about who his daddy was. This is very poor form, indeed, in an organization that is supposed to be about merit.

  70. 70.

    trollhattan

    @Violet:
    Somebody compared him to Tommy Flanagan yesterday and I think it’s letter-perfect. “Yeah, I ran a marathon in record time–I finished before I started–then went home to schtupp my wife Morgan Fairchild, whom I’ve seen naked.”

    “Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

  72. 72.

    Violet

    @raven: Ah, well, you probably know more about it than I do. The running community online seems to be offended by it. We’ll see if it has legs. It certainly has comedic potential.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    On the “both sides do it” journalism watch:

    NYTimes article today, with html title: fact-checkers-howl-but-both-sides-cling-to-false-ads

    However, they got Mark Halperin — MARK HALPERIN — on record

    from Mark Halperin, people!: “But at this point I think the Romney campaign is besting them in making these distortions and untruths a bigger part of their message,” he said.

    link: Campaigns Play Loose With Truth in a Fact-Check Age

    Glenn Kessler is never mentioned. The horror.

  76. 76.

    patrick II

    @Violet:

    and just because I felt like it I climbed a couple of fourteeners before breakfast.

    I am not sure what that means, but if I was you I’d be careful about saying it publicly.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    @Violet:

    We’ll see if it has legs.

    IC what you did there.

    Running is one of those suspicious DFH activities and I’ll guess the country club set and the country double-wide set couldn’t care less.

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Elizabelle:

    So, Halperin is saying, “Romney lies better than Obama, therefore he’w winning!”

    Somewhere, Joseph Goebbels is laughing his boney ass off.

  81. 81.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Villago Delenda Est: True Dat, the old farts who run the networks trying to foist that tired program on a generation of fans, who want to watch the SEC, PAC-12 and others. Oh BTW I am watching the Friends Of Coal Bowl between Marshall and West Virginia, I think the Miners will be forced to watch this game, they will not be paid and forced to buy the beer. But I guess that it is better than watching that Penn State wankfest on ESPN.

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    @danah gaz (fka gaz):
    Heh, the comic possibilities…. “I used to race sprint cars. On foot.”

    Can somebody dust off the old Nike “Bo knows” campaign and plant Ryan’s mug on Bo’s face?

  83. 83.

    Violet

    @patrick II: Ha! I’ll be more careful in future. But I’m only following Ryan. He’s the one climbing those fourteeners.

    @trollhattan: Maybe. Marathon running has become such a big sport though. Used to be, our local marathon you could just sign up close to the time. Now there’s a lottery system even to get to register and they’ve had to add other marathons close to the time for those that really just want to run an official marathon and don’t care which one particularly. A lot of suburban swing voters run in those marathons and care about their times, and know about running lingo and traditions if they’ve trained with a group.

  84. 84.

    danah gaz

    heheheheh =)

    ETA: I have a 2nd cousin that used to race those things. Personally, I don’t see the appeal, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @Violet: My old man was a fanatic runner. He ran in Chuck Taylor’s and galoshes in the winter in Chicago in the early 60’s. It wasn’t until I was running the sports programs in Urbana that I came face to face with the “running community”. We had a 10k that drew about 5000 runners. I measured the course on my motorcycle and when these dudes found out I thought they were going to lynch me. It was back out with the wheel and get it to the foot! After that I understood a bit more and never made that mistake again. After I had to give up the hoops I ran for about 8 years, nothing more than 10k’s but I know the culture. Now I am relegated to doing the swim leg of sprint Tri’s.

  86. 86.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @raven:

    You’re supposed to go along with the official line.

    McCain violated that rule, and got away with it.

    Until he was given a command (after he came back from the Hanoi Hilton) and then his career in the Navy ended.

    It’s difficult not to speculate that the command did not go well, and he was quietly pushed out the door. No stars for Admiral McCain’s boy.

  87. 87.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Violet: #64

    Climbing fourteeners:

    I’m sure some climbers can look into this. I look forward to their reports.

    [Whatthehell is a Fourteener?]

  88. 88.

    JPL

    @raven: Okay pain in the ass, more attention should be paid on the Ryan/Romney policies but unfortunately, we no longer have real reporters or journalist.
    If the Lyin Ryan meme catches on, good. I don’t care what brings the assholes down.

  92. 92.

    Violet

    @Linda Featheringill: A fourteener is a mountain peak over 14,000 feet. Some are accessible easily, via roads or good trails. Some you have to actually climb. It’s a big deal in the hiking/climbing community to summit those fourteeners and there is a Register for summits.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Yeah, I loved Halperin’s use of “besting them” in attributing terrible behavior.

    Always good for McCain in Halperin-land.

    However, he’s on record in a paper of record.

  96. 96.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Linda Featheringill:

    [Whatthehell is a Fourteener?]

    14,000 + foot altitude mountain.

    Colorado’s got a shitload of them, but the catch is, the base of them is a mile high, so they don’t seem nearly as impressive as Mt. Rainier in Washington State, which you view from near sea level in Seattle or Tacoma.

  97. 97.

    Violet

    @raven: Yeah, running used to be just something you went and did. Now there’s all this gear and it’s expensive! Sweat-wicking clothes, fancy shoes, heart monitors, etc. Not saying all that isn’t helpful–it can be. But at the heart of it, you either run or you don’t. Doesn’t matter all that much what you wear.

  99. 99.

    trollhattan

    @Linda Featheringill:
    If you live in the Rockies, it’s a thing.

    http://www.14ers.com/

    Folks try to “collect” them all. Most are non-technical, Class II and III scrambles but some require true climbing skills and gear.

    I live on the left coast where there are far fewer 14k-foot peaks and not many are walk-ups. (The tallest, Whitney, has a trail to the summit.) I also live at sea level so need to aclimatize before heading above about 8k, or I’ll make myself very sick. If you live in Boulder or Leadville it’s a lot easier to drive, climb and drive home the same day.

  103. 103.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @trollhattan: Loved that commercial with Bo Jackson in other sports, him playing hockey and Wayne Gretzky looking into a camera and saying “No” plus Bo Diddly telling “Bo you don’t know Diddly!” when he tried to do some blues.

  105. 105.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Violet:

    That is indeed true.

    After running 3-4 miles every other day at Ft Lewis, I took some leave and went skiing in Colorado (Steamboat) over the holidays one year.

    I tried to do some running there, and it kicked my ass. I took that as a sign as while I might be in shape down by Puget Sound, I wasn’t in shape in the Rockies, so I should not push myself too hard on the slopes.

  110. 110.

    trollhattan

    @Mr Stagger Lee:
    Yup, total fun. Before his regrettably early exit from sports, Bo was quite the phenomenon.

    And now, he’s apparently back, somewhat paler and runnin’ for high office.

  111. 111.

    raven

    @Dennis SGMM: That’s what we had in basic, AIT and when I was in Korea. We’d run out the gate and down through the village in formation. Korea was a stinky ass place in about August. Nothin like the honeybucket filled paddies.

  115. 115.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Dennis SGMM:

    While I was in, the Army changed its philosophy on physical training (PT) attire.

    They were into doing the daily 2 to 4 miles in combat boots, but then decided that was not a good idea, so allowed the troops to wear running shoes. They were more interested in the aerobic benefits of running vs beating your feet into submission.

    The thing is, when we did a 10 mile road march in combat boots, our feet were not really prepared for that experience. Running shoes are comfortable and made just for running. Combat boots have other reasons to be, a lot of it not involving running.

    So, after we did a 10 mile road march, while I wasn’t winded or breathing hard, my dogs were barking. And barked for three days.

  119. 119.

    danah gaz

    So much for the RNC convention “bounce”.

    I just visited Nate Silver’s place and it seems as though Obama is doing better now than he was leading up to the convention.

    =)

  120. 120.

    Chuck Butcher

    Our PT on the 20 man hotshot crew (forest fire fighters) ended with a 3 mile caterpiller run to the showers at 5+K ft elv in logging boots through the mountains of NE OR. Shower and ride back in the buses, but I thought I ought to have a bit extra so I jogged back. Caterpiller run for the uninitiated is last guy in the line wind sprints to the front of the running line and when he gets there the new last guy does same.

    I thought marathons looked kind of grueling, but you could try that at the end of a day of practice line cutting for 4hrs and PTing for 3hrs. Don’t mind me if I seem seriously unimpressed with Ayn Ryan’s… toughness. I was lead tool on our crew which was a 1st out in Region 6 and we specialized in heavy timber and heavy terrain and the only water we had for a fire was what we drank and, yeah, hand tools and “one foot in the fire and one out” (slight exaggeration, but close enough that you couldn’t touch your hardhat with your bare hand).

    fuck him

  123. 123.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @raven:

    Yeoooch!

    When you consider that the medics who tend to the troops are probably as intensively trained in the finer details of their specific role as the troops are, you shudder.

  124. 124.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Ouch! And again, ouch. The Navy sent me to SERE and then to BITS (Basic Infantry Training School) at Camp Pendelton, Camp Eldon, to be exact, before I went over to that ol’ Vietnam.

    Our otherwise wonderful Marine NCO (He was a Gunny Sargent) at Pendelton decided that it would be good for us to march to each and every range and exercise – even the ones that were some distance away. Said distance made even longer by the June temperatures at Pendelton.

    Those boots weren’t made for walking.

  126. 126.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Hot shots (and their close cousins, the smoke jumpers) are badass mofos.

    Got to get to know a few when I was on military lend-lease firefighting duty the year after the great Yellowstone fires.

  131. 131.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I was proud of it, even if it is not a hell of a lot more than PR – looking like you’re trying. USFS and we were the Pros. Jumpers are baaaadddasses but for 48 hours, we were 16-18 hrs/dy x7 for weeks and weeks – 7 1/2 the longest w/ 1/2 day off. OT at mid 3rd day. Bad and rude, maybe even more rude than bad.

    Not many are crazy and stupid enough to do it so measuring others by it is silly, but bragging assholes piss me off and I can counter.

  133. 133.

    Yutsano

    @Dennis SGMM: One of the aides where I do PT went through at San Diego. He was describing the beach runs they did and how it felt like he had his legs sandblasted afterwards. He also thinks Parris inductees have no reason to complain about hill hikes. Needless to say I was quite amused.

    (Yes he’s tall and built too, why do you ask? He’s a nooo touchie.)

  137. 137.

    Ann Rynd

    Who knew that a Peggy Lee thread, excuse me, a Miss Peggy Lee thread would turn out to be mostly about sports?

  138. 138.

    Chuck Butcher

    i don’t know if there is a good reason for the military to run in boots. For us there was, those suckers are heavy so built legs and then if things went south the only option was run and that might be a good long ways and fires really move out. You cannot out run one, but you might be able to run across the head of it… maybe – but you’re going to get no help.

    things do go south, been there and been there when someone didn’t make it.

  139. 139.

    raven

    @Chuck Butcher: We ran in them because that was what we had wherever we went. It was that or low-quarters.

    Another version if you haven’t heard it. Cold Missouri Waters.

    Sky had turned red, smoke was boiling
    Two hundred yards to safety, death was fifty yards behind
    I don’t know why I just thought it
    I struck a match to waist high grass running out of time
    Tried to tell them, Step into this fire I set
    We can’t make it, this is the only chance you’ll get
    But they cursed me, ran for the rocks above instead
    I lay face down and prayed above the cold Missouri waters

  140. 140.

    Ann Rynd

    It just came to me, like batshit out of a hurricane; they’re gonna lose!
    With the lyin candidates, the fascist platform, all the fuck-ups, the pastey faced convention, the way they’re perfectly set up for mockery…
    There’s no way they can win.
    They’re gon-na lose!!!

  142. 142.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @raven:

    That is a very moving song. I went to the wiki page for Mann Gulch Fire to read up on it.

    What a tragedy. Those brave, selfless men. Lost.

    Who do we have in their place? The Rmoney clan.

  144. 144.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Not many are crazy and stupid enough to do it so measuring others by it is silly, but bragging assholes piss me off and I can counter.

    And this, right here, is why they are so badass.

    They don’t need to brag to some asshole pundit about how badass they are. They let their deeds speak for them. Even then, they’re humble about it, more likely than not to self-deprecate.

    /salute

  145. 145.

    Ann Rynd

    @Yutsano: Yes, there’s that, but I have to believe that a campaign as bad as this sorry jalopy of a campaign has got to lose. Hope springs eternal…

  146. 146.

    Yutsano

    @Ann Rynd: Don’t get me wrong, Americans react better to dog and pony shows over snake oil salesmen, usually. And Willard can’t even sell snake oil.

  148. 148.

    Chuck Butcher

    @raven:
    I know Mann Gulch – we weren’t supposed to repeat that and some other disasters. Jumpers and district crews really do something about putting fires out, hotshots at best pinch them down. It only takes a couple fires to understand that you’re PR fodder – but you’re still gonna do your best and then some to kill the son of a bitch, as awesomely beautiful as the damn things are. No camera can catch it and you can’t understand why they don’t fold under the weight of 120 and more hours of a week. I’m long past it but every time I see where somebody has gone down it tears at me.

  150. 150.

    ericblair

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    After running 3-4 miles every other day at Ft Lewis, I took some leave and went skiing in Colorado (Steamboat) over the holidays one year.
    I tried to do some running there, and it kicked my ass.

    I had the opposite experience. Used to live in the high desert, then had some extended business trips to Tacoma. Went for a run: hey, I can run forever! Up and down hills no problem! Except for the next three days when I couldn’t fucking stand up straight because my cardiovascular system was now way overpowered for my muscles.

    As to runners being a bunch of granola-eating weirdos: used to be, but the population’s really changed in the last decade or so. Runner’s World has the same subscriber demographics as Golf Magazine.

  153. 153.

    GxB

    @Yutsano: This.

    FWIW short of a complete BHO meltdown/disaster/scandal I’m quite confident the R’s aren’t going to pull this one off even with all the voter suppression, misinformation, and outright cheating. That said, if we don’t get a good portion of the house and hold the senate, there isn’t going to be much progress in getting us back on track either.

  155. 155.

    Violet

    @Chuck Butcher: One of my friends was on a couple of firefighting crews out west. The physical exam just to get to be on the crew is bad enough. There’s a reason why hardly any guys over 40 are on those crews. Tough stuff.

  156. 156.

    Chuck Butcher

    @raven:
    Most times anymore it is a fuck-up, by overhead or less often somebody on the line forgets the “rules.” Sometimes it just is what it is and nothing to be done about it. We schooled, we “debriefed” if there was some time before everybody fell apart and slept – firecamp meal time the foreman would sit with the leaders and it was all about the shift. It was absolute pride that you’d never have to get told about fucking up on the line… and that nobody matched us for miles cut and quality of cut.

  159. 159.

    Baud

    @GxB:

    That said, if we don’t get a good portion of the house and hold the senate, there isn’t going to be much progress in getting us back on track either.

    The 2010 elections set us back about a decade. I’ll be quite content if we can just hold the line.

  160. 160.

    Violet

    @danah gaz:

    I just visited Nate Silver’s place and it seems as though Obama is doing better now than he was leading up to the convention.

    Have the polls factored in the convention or are they old?

  162. 162.

    Violet

    @Chuck Butcher: My friend had to help a crew in his local area and even though he wasn’t yet 40, the rest of the crew was all 18-22. They were just running up the mountain with their heavy packs and axes and shovels. He was way behind, but they had to wait for him because he was the local knowledge guy. I think that was his last fire.

  163. 163.

    Ann Rynd

    I like the empty chair, the guy sitting in it. The empty chair might have won us this election.

  166. 166.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Violet:
    My chopper load weight was 250, I weighed 176 naked and add gear and tool. I started out at 145, had same waist at 176 and at 145 I passed exam w/o problem, I was in shape. I ain’t very damn big, back to 145 again, now. 5-10

  167. 167.

    JPL

    @Violet: He received a small bounce and moved ahead of the pres according to this poll..
    link

    I did see another poll earlier this morning which showed no bounce and a little improvement in likability.

  173. 173.

    karen marie

    @Yutsano: Well, he didn’t blame his brother, he said his brother was “ribbing” him about it shortly before the reporter confronted him with the facts.

    Ryan and his staff evaded multiple requests for confirmation of where and when, but it wasn’t until just hours before someone finally dug up the truth that Ryan’s brother “reminded” him he’d never run as fast as he claimed?

    Did Romney pick Ryan because he’s an habitual liar in an attempt to appear honest in comparison?

  174. 174.

    Anya

    @Bubblegum Tate: But the guy with the “Need Work” sign is black or brown. I thought Obama was supposed to give these lazy undeserving interlopes Real American’s jobs.

  175. 175.

    gene108

    @Bubblegum Tate:

    Obama has fancied comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln. Is it because Lincoln was the Great Emancipator and Obama is the first black president? Or was it that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War and confiscated private property? He did sign the NDAA, which obliterated our fourth Amendment rights. Makes you wonder.

    I find the mocking of Lincoln funny, because the right-wingers seem to have been hi-jacked by the CSA. I’m surprised he still called it the Civil War and not The War of Northern Aggression.

  179. 179.

    Mike E

    @Ann Rynd:

    a Miss Peggy Lee thread would turn out to be mostly about sports

    That’s what the late Tug McGraw (Tim’s dad) called his fastball: “Is that all there is?”

  180. 180.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bubblegum Tate:
    Is the soldier reluctantly eating fairy cake, to depict the US military being forced to accept gay personnel? That is such wondrously profound symbolism. I am deeply moved. (Hee hee.)

  181. 181.

    Soonergrunt

    @Villago Delenda Est: When I was stationed at Fort Carson, we had a 60-day sanctuary on diagnostic PT tests, and 120-day sanctuary on record PT tests for new arrivals. A Soldier could volunteer to take one, but could not be required to take one.

  182. 182.

    Soonergrunt

    @Villago Delenda Est: That’s only because you weren’t Infantry. If you were, you’d have been road marching, and ruck-humping all the fucking time. Frequently just because there was nothing on the training schedule. The feet get a thick layer of callouses and a really limber quality after the first 1000 miles or so.

  183. 183.

    Mnemosyne

    @gene108:

    Or is it because Obama and Lincoln are both presidents who were elected from Illinois, though neither of them grew up there?

    Nah, not conspiratorial enough.

  184. 184.

    Soonergrunt

    @raven: the medics used to take syringes, drain the blisters on your feet, and then fill the syringe with tincture benzoin, and shoot that into the empty blister. This is called a “hot shot.”
    The first time I had one, Doc was like “you sure you want to do this? It hurts like a mother fucker.” And my squad leader was like “well, we got six miles left, and we ain’t carrying your ass.” I cried like a little girl. Nobody laughed because they all knew.

  186. 186.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Soonergrunt:

    Yup, like I said in an earlier comment yesterday, our crazy XO wanted all the officers to do the 10 mile road march to infantry time standards. Had to show how badass we were. Rest of the battery took their time, did completed about an hour after us. Still, artillery HQ troops, not used to humping rucks at all, not trained for it, lots of sore feet.

    Out in the field I never did any walking around…it was HMMWV all the way, baby!

  187. 187.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Soonergrunt:
    Never got sore feet but I’d been wearing logging boots for years and they were top quality – calves sure burned like hell first couple times and over 5K elv made lungs ache at first.

    You don’t want to know what burning poison ivy, oak, & summac smoke does to you. You don’t want to… N CA

  188. 188.

    danah gaz

    Meh. Some people’s children. (OT Venting over some bullshit at mojo)

    I propose a new rule:

    If you have not had a “sex change”, you do not have any people in your life who you are very close with that have had a “sex change” can we just agree that you shouldn’t use the fucking phrase in polite conversation?

    Or if you do, and are called out for being a jerk about it, just apologize and move the fuck on? kthx

    /headdesk

  189. 189.

    Anoniminous

    @Soonergrunt:

    We had to ride in the back of a deuce and a half and let me tell you those benches were damned uncomfortable. It was always drafty in them things which made it hard to light our cigarettes and the bouncing shook up the champagne something fierce.

    I <3 Artillery.

  190. 190.

    danah gaz

    @danah gaz: Well, the original offensive comment was redacted and apologized for by the offender, so I feel a bit better about humanity. There’s a couple of loons that are still defending his (now redacted) comment, but fuck them. They basically look ridiculous at this point, and the original commenter showed some courage and character. The rest look like clowns (especially now), by comparison.

    There’s nothing more amusing than being told to “get a grip” by some cisgendered person because I found some remark to be bigoted. Particularly when I get that from “progressives”, it really makes my fucking day.

  193. 193.

    danah gaz

    @Violet: Nate says that it’s too early to tell – he tried divining it from the TV ratings for the RNC, but his analysis is mixed.

    So, since I have some faith in him, I should add the disclaimer that we probably don’t know what the bump looks like yet. However, TV ratings for the RNC weren’t so hot, and as I said, Obama is polling better than he was before it started.

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