Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

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

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

In after Baud. Damn.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Let me file that under fuck it.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

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

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Petty moves from a petty man.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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102Comments

  6. 6.

    Punchy

    The guy on the right has a “please PLEASE to do not look in my pockets for drugs and/or glocks” look on his face.

  8. 8.

    cmorenc

    The look on biker-chick’s biker-dude’s faces is as priceless as the obvious look of delight on biker-chick and Biden’s faces. The biker-dude’s faces plainly show the anxious concern of dudes who know they’re being out-duded by a seventy-year old guy with enough mojo to make their lady a bit hot and wet just sitting in his lap. In other words, if this was someone other than Biden doing a campaign gig and photo-op in his position with the lady, you could predict trouble would be not long forthcoming from the two dudes on either side.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    @MikeJ:

    The Onion is just going to have to work harder.

    Seriously. Their portrayal of Biden over the last few years is a work of genius, but reality just one-upped them.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    It appears that the new campaign motto is vote for me because God said so. Romney campaigned on the all important god issue this weekend and Rand Paul mentioned the god issue on CBS This Morning.

    @schrodinger’s cat: Fortunately the Secret Service was there.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Jake

    TPM has important video related to this.

    I’m looking forward to headlines along the following lines in the coming weeks: “Polls turn to Obama as Nation Discovers Romney is a Douchebag”

  16. 16.

    Another Halocene Human

    I think I’m officially in love with MHP. Such a beautiful woman but I think that “nothing is more risky than being poor in America” rant that did it.

    Don’t tell my wife.

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    Man, the secret service really needs to dress better.

    Also: “who’s” hand is that behind Biden’s left shoulder? There’s another guy in that booth next to Biden, and I think the woman is sitting in a chair in front of him, not in his lap.

  20. 20.

    EconWatcher

    I am sitting at a professional conference (financial related) listening to a complete wingnut explain our economic predicament. It’s all regulatory uncertainty, you see. Nary a word about aggregate demand or the hangover in household balance sheets. If it weren’t a ballroom with a thousand people, i would heckle.

  21. 21.

    RP

    The Onion should run an article about this that says something like “The Onion to Stop Running Articles about Imaginary Biden and Will Instead Report on the Real Biden.” Or “Real Life Biden Makes Onion Articles Unnecessary.”

  23. 23.

    PopeRatzo

    @schrodinger’s cat: Biker dude doesn’t seem happy because there are Secret Service guys all over the place and he’s got an ounce of weed and a few dozen black beauties in his jeans pocket.

    But then, Biden’s probably got an ounce of weed and a few dozen black beauties in his pocket, too.

    God bless Biden/Obama for giving us a White House with two guys that I actually recognize as human beings I might know in my life.

    I don’t know anyone in my life like Mitt Romney and if I know anyone like Paul Ryan, I’ve either pissed him off so bad he won’t talk to me any more or I’ve simply blocked it out of my consciousness.

  30. 30.

    PopeRatzo

    On closer inspection, I think biker dude on the right is slipping Biden something under the table.

    That’s exactly the face I’m make when I’m slipping someone something under the table.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Comrade Jake:

    This is OvenMitt’s most serious problem. It’s not his perpetual flip flopping, his total lack of any specificity in his policy positions.

    It’s that to know him is to loathe him.

    He…and his wife…are just not very pleasant people to be around, because they exude contempt for anyone who has an annual income lower than theirs.

  33. 33.

    Ash Can

    This photo cracks me up every time I see it. I think it could become one of the iconic photos of this campaign.

  34. 34.

    quannlace

    Biker dude doesn’t seem happy because there are Secret Service guys all

    True. At first it looked like they’re thinking ‘Dude, watch your hands.’

  35. 35.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    If you stare at the picture real hard, you will notice that she’s in her own chair, and there is someone else to Biden’s right, behind both of them. There’s a hand sticking out behind Biden’s back.

  37. 37.

    BGinCHI

    If Cole would let me I could live blog the Chicago teachers strike.

    At the end of our street is Goudy Elementary, where a big picket/protest is going on. People are cheering, cars are going by and honking, and even the cops are showing solidarity with their sirens. It’s chaotic and wonderful.

    Going to take Xavi down there and see if they’ll let me carry a sign soon, so I might actually be an embedded Balloon Juice correspondent.

    Cole, I need some credentials!

  40. 40.

    Raven

    They have a Facebook page. The have a nice Hawgs and Dawgs benefit ride for an animal shelter. Look like some pretty good folks to me.

  41. 41.

    dmsilev

    @BGinCHI: I walked past an elementary school on the way in to work this morning, and there was a picket line (and about 6 news trucks) outside. And a bagpiper.

  45. 45.

    El Cid

    @GregB: Wanted Biden to head out of the biker booth and peel out in his bitchin’ Camaro — or even better, T-top Trans-Am with the chicken on the hood.

  46. 46.

    BGinCHI

    @dmsilev: Ooh, bagpipes. So far no Scots presence or music here.

    Will keep my ears open.

    Interesting to see how Rahm handled this in negotiations and in the media. So far from what I heard he’s been acting like King Rahm.

  50. 50.

    Hal

    We’ll know if the Romney internal polling is really bad when a shirtless Paul Ryan leads residents of the Villages in a P90X workout in place of the VP debate. Of course that might kill a large number of Romney’s constituents, but since that’s pretty much what’s going to happen under Ryan’s budget plan, it really is just another cost cutting measure from Mister Numbers.

  51. 51.

    EconWatcher

    @jibeaux: In fairness, she has now included “the fiscal cliff” as part of the “regulatory uncertainty” holding us back; would have to agree with that. She also did make one interesting point: that our recent growth has been export-driven, and the export part of the economy is more capital intensive, so less jobs growth from that kind of economic growth. But still 95 percent wingnut bs.

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @EconWatcher:

    It’s interesting how “regulatory uncertainty” now includes the entire scam that is MERS. Something that was designed to bypass government regulators.

  53. 53.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Face: MHP = Melissa Harris-Perry. She was a frequent guest on UP With Chris Hayes (which was the only weekend snooze show I could stand) and then they gave her her own show. She quickly found her stride and is getting smoother with the teleprompter, too. She teaches me something every week.

    I think she also guest-hosted in the week.

    Believe she’s a professor at Tulane and has a doctorate in divinity. VERY different perspective from most of the crap on tv and I kind of feel like I’m back in college!

  58. 58.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Joe Biden on the cover of Outlaw Biker or Easyriders, maybe a role in Sons Of Anarchy, that would be cool.

  61. 61.

    Ash Can

    @BGinCHI: I’ve heard very limited local scuttlebutt that Rahm isn’t terribly friendly to unions in general, but I don’t know any details, or how accurate that assessment is. My question is of whether Brizard (the schools superintendent and an Emanuel appointee, for the non-Chicagoans here) consulted the teachers union at all before implementing his changes, or if he simply started implementing changes by fiat. The answer to that question basically indicates whose fault this strike is. As for Emanuel, the best that can be said for him is that he’s stuck in the position of having to defend his appointee in public. What’s going on behind the scenes, I don’t know (but I think I’ll start talking to people around the neighborhood here and find out).

  63. 63.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ash Can:

    My question is of whether Brizard (the schools superintendent and an Emanuel appointee, for the non-Chicagoans here) consulted the teachers union at all before implementing his changes, or if he simply started implementing changes by fiat. The answer to that question basically indicates whose fault this strike is.

    You know, that’s a question I’d like answered, as well.

    I suspect, knowing what I do of the personality of Rahm Emmanuel, that he directed Brizard to do it by fiat, to create a confrontation, to show to his corporate sponsors that he’s “doing something” about those disgusting peasants.

  65. 65.

    BGinCHI

    @Ash Can:

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The insider info I have, from CPS teachers, is that Brizard is in over his head (“he’s a lightweight” is the actual quote). He wasn’t prepared for the hardball the CTU would play and perhaps did not take into account the history of what CPS teachers have had to swallow for quite a few years now. Rahm has, by all accounts, been unyielding in pushing for what he wants. Some of these things are vital (longer school day and several reforms), but carrying them out on the backs of teachers isn’t going to happen in a climate of teacher and public employee attacks going on at all levels.

    Pension “reform” is another example. The state reneged on its obligations and now the funds are not there. This is being blamed on public employees who upheld their obligations. Yes, there need to be pension reforms, but again, these need to be done in a smart, collaborative way and not by fiat.

    Much of what IL pols are doing is poor stewardship and then ass-covering.

  66. 66.

    Raven

    @Another Halocene Human: Harris-Perry is also professor of political science at Tulane University, where she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She previously served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Princeton University.

  67. 67.

    PaulW

    Is this leading up to Biden making appearances during the last few episodes of this season’s “Sons of Anarchy” as a mysterious vigilante on a Big Dog?

  69. 69.

    Ash Can

    @BGinCHI: Yep. The teachers aren’t going to do more without getting more in return. If either Emanuel or Brizard, or both, thought otherwise, they’re crazy. All I know for sure at this point is that if the changes were made in such a way that they sparked the first teachers’ strike in 20-some-odd years, then there must have been a problem with their implementation. Most of the teachers I know would be willing to put in extra time for the good of the kids, but none of them are going to stand for being taken advantage of. Having said that, I can see how the teachers’ union would see this as an opportunity to establish its power with the new administration, so I’m not willing to absolve them of all blame based on what little I already know. Nevertheless, since this is happening so soon after the city got a new mayor and new Cps head, I have to look at them first when the question of what changed is asked.

  72. 72.

    hep kitty

    So is that not Biden’s hand on her shoulder? I knew she wasn’t really sitting on his lap but I thought that was his hand.

  73. 73.

    hep kitty

    Have the Dana Loesch’s of the world started shreiking about this yet?

    Not to mention Emily Post-Jennifer Rubin

  76. 76.

    rea

    The biker named Troll (photo, right) looks concerned

    His other two patches say, “president,” and “ordained minister.” Unless facial hair and black leather freaks you out, these people don’t look scarey.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

    @patroclus:

    This reminds me of a similar “girl on lap” photo featuring Gary Hart(pence).

    Really? How’s that?

    Gary Hart had been bragging that he was not an adulterer, and challenged the press to follow him around.

    Then, whoops….

    Biden is doing a campaign appearence and having fun.

    Now, if he were doing both bikers and the biker babe, it might be a different story.

    And Biden would be a hell of a man.

  83. 83.

    Mike E

    I can’t wait for Joe to walk up to Ayn Ryan at the start of the first debate, with that gleeful smile, shake his hand and say to him, “I hope you brought a change of underpants.”

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    I walked past an elementary school on the way in to work this morning, and there was a picket line (and about 6 news trucks) outside. And a bagpiper.

    There is no description of anything, anywhere, by anyone, that cannot be massively improved by the addition of: “And a bagpiper.”

  85. 85.

    The Lodger

    @Hal: Gack. I thought you were talking about the Village People there for a second.

    “It’s fun to do the P-90-X”

  86. 86.

    Ohio Mom

    BGinChi, thanks very much for the news from Chicago. I don’t think most people understand how important this strike is. It’s not just about pay and the state’s reneging on its pension obligations. It’s about the onslaught all public schools are under.

    There’s a movement to privatize the public schools and the teachers are protesting all the ways in which the privatizers are undermining public education, among them: high-stakes testing, demonizing teachers, taking away funding and giving it to private charters (cause calling charters “public” is right out of Orwell).

    Here’s one teachers’ take on “Why I am striking.” He wants the roof leaks fixed so his students don’t get wet while he’s trying to teach them:

    http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/why-im-striking/

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @The Bobs:

    Yes, but you’ll notice that Uncle Joe hasn’t taken any pains to correct the (mis)impression that she WAS sitting in his lap. He must be enjoying the hell out of this.

    The Meme Abides.

  88. 88.

    Ed Drone

    Why is there a gold record on the wall? Despite the biker vibe, I thought this involved musicians, or record companies, or agents. Glad to see it’s actually a higher strata of society.

    Ed

  91. 91.

    CarolDuhart2

    @burnspbesq: Until Cole does respond, I think drones are the best of several bad options. Why? the fewest people killed as possible is to me the best option. Other options involve getting our own killed or risking far more innocents being killed in crossfire.

    Yes, there are real issues to be faced with drones: jurisdiction, legal process, definition of neutrals and non-combatants, privacy. But “drones bad” isn’t the way to go about this definition.

  92. 92.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Punchy: Hmm, I read their expressions more as a “Can you believe this guy?” and a “If this goes much further, grandpa is getting the sh!t kicked out of him.”

    I don’t think they give a tin sh!t about drugs or weapons. The “old man” is on somebody else’s turf here.

  93. 93.

    forked tongue

    @Ed Drone:

    It’s a gold record by the Kingston Trio. Somebody found it at a thrift shop–in a glass case behind the counter, possibly, but at a thrift shop.

  101. 101.

    graves007

    If this were any other guy they probably would have eaten his kidneys for lunch. Must be hard for them to sit back and not do anything knowing that one quiet little phone call (that never happened) from Teh VeePee could have them all killed and disappeared Dexter-style, their houses torched, their business raided and closed, and their family pets stuffed…with a side of their kidneys.

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