Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Cole is on a roll !

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

T R E 4 5 O N

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Open Thread: Let My People Vote (NSFW)

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    black onion

    The whining about football can stop now.

    After three weeks of blown calls, no calls and reversed calls; of physical contact and verbal intimidation; of confused Vegas bookmakers and infuriated fantasy players; and less than 48 hours after what is perhaps the most bizarre ending to a football game not involving a Stanford trombone player, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association reached an agreement Wednesday.
    “Our officials will be back on the field starting [Thursday] night,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, referring to the Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens contest.

    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl–nfl-gives-into-public-pressure-and-does-right-thing-by-bringing-back-regular-officials.html

    also, this:
    https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/301344_10151175484918850_1137296310_n.jpg

  3. 3.

    Schlemizel

    Catholic Bishop: Vote For A Democrat And You’ll Probably Go To Hell

    Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki says that any Catholic who votes for a Democrat very well may go to Hell, because a vote for any member of a party that supports sin makes the voter “morally complicit.”

    http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/catholic-bishop-vote-for-a-democrat-and-youll-probably-go-to-hell/politics/2012/09/26/49801?utm_source=feedburner

    Just in case you need a little boos to your blood pressure this morning

  5. 5.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @PeakVT: quite a lot of my once catholic relatives would agree with that statement and feel the need to do penance for their support of the priests.

  6. 6.

    Schlemizel

    @TheMightyTrowel:

    So, you say they are moral, decent people, unlike – oh say – Bill Donahue.

    @PeakVT:
    I’d cut them some slack, it would have been possible for a reasonable person to not know the depth and breadth of the rape cult the RCC has built even 20 years ago. People who support the church today have no excuses; if they give money or support to the organization at any level they are not only complicit in the rape of children they are making a prima facia case that they are OK with that.

    Look at the number of people who want to boycott a pastime because of some marginally competent officiating that (as far as we know) sexually violated nobody. But there is no similar hue and cry to boycott an organization that has been shown to aid and abet child rapists, to protect them from justice and to promote them into positions where they can do the same for others. Not occasionally, not in isolated cases not in certain decades but world-wide, repeatedly and for decades, perhaps longer. It is indefensible.

  9. 9.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @raven: There’s a simple solution for that. Of course, it would probably cost him his spot on MSNBC as the token host for the 1 percent.

  11. 11.

    Schlemizel

    @PeakVT:
    Oh no, I didn’t think you were. You got it right and the fact that his hypocrisy doesn’t cause the Hairy Thunderer to strike him blind is evidence of the absence of one. At least one who is loving & just.

  13. 13.

    amk

    wapo

    President Obama’s support among Catholic voters has surged since June, according to a new poll, despite a summer that included the Catholic bishops’ religious freedom campaign and the naming of Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic, as the GOP’s vice-presidential candidate.

    On June 17, Obama held a slight edge over Mitt Romney among Catholics (49-47 percent), according to the Pew Research Center. Since then, Obama has surged ahead, and now leads 54-39 percent, according to a Pew poll conducted on Sept. 16.

  16. 16.

    Schlemizel

    @amk:

    Nothing short of an alien invasion would do more to bring Republicans and Democrats together than the election of some third party schmuck.

    The fantasy is that Paul could form “rolling coalitions” around each thing he wants to do. In this dream D&R forces would support his brilliant ideas in small groups for issues they believe in. The reality is that those coalitions would form against his proposals & they would have a lot of support from both parties leadership.

    If those Quixotes think Obama has seen obstruction! Imagine the work that could not be done if the Dems joined the GOP in the “work”

  17. 17.

    Schlemizel

    @xian:

    Remember that one day? I forget which one, but it was that day when JC was not cranky? Man, that was something!

  21. 21.

    The Red Pen

    The wingnuts have been hammering this narrative about how the Obama administration “lied” about or tried to cover up what really happened in Bengazi. This also includes stories about how Obama ignored warnings in his intelligence briefings. I haven’t seen evidence that this is getting much traction outside of the fever swamp.

    I suspect that’s (actual) good news for Mitt Romney, because the last thing the Republicans need is a vigorous public debate on the costs of ignoring intelligence briefings. Nor do they need it established that the president is personally responsible for the victims of terrorism.

    Also brewing is a (so-far-failing) attempt to tar Obama for instability in Iraq. You see, George W. Bush won the Iraq war years ago, so Obama can’t take credit for ending it; Obama just gets blame for whatever happens after the troops leave because even though it was over, it wasn’t really over, so it’s Obama’s fault because of course it is.

  24. 24.

    Ash Can

    @Schlemizel: I don’t know WTF is going on downstate. First the putz in Peoria, now this guy. Maybe they’re just trying to brown-nose Francis George, trying to be “fascist-er than thou.”

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @The Red Pen:

    The wingnuts have been hammering this narrative about how the Obama administration “lied” about or tried to cover up what really happened in Bengazi.

    Unfortunately, it’s not just the wingnuts. Chris Hayes was pushing that line on his show last week. No evidence offered, of course.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    Desperate denial in Ohio.

    The polls may show him dropping in Ohio, but Mitt Romney’s Buckeye State supporters aren’t buying it.  Source

  30. 30.

    Schlemizel

    @amk:

    Sorry, I knew that & after rereading my post understand that I did not make that clear – I work for a guy who believes this those & the . . . oh, let me at least try to be nice and cal it naïveté is maddening.

    Its that thinking, not yours but theirs, that I was commenting on.

  34. 34.

    Ash Can

    @arguingwithsignposts: Heh. You have a point; downstate’s pretty goofy. Nevertheless, the bishops haven’t been this outspoken until recently. I’m sure it’s all part of the Catholic Church’s headlong rush into right-wing activism, especially in the US, under Pope Ratz.

  35. 35.

    The Red Pen

    @Schlemizel:

    Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki says that any Catholic who votes for a Democrat very well may go to Hell, because a vote for any member of a party that supports sin makes the voter “morally complicit.”

    According to Matthew 25, your eternal fate rests mainly on how you treated “the least among us.” I think you’re in a lot more trouble if you vote Republican.

    Maybe the Bishop hasn’t read his own Holy Book.

  36. 36.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Ash Can: It could be that old bishops are being replaced with new ones as they retire. And lest we lay the blame all on Pope Rat, remember that it was Saint John Paul II who elevated him to the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

    I’m not Catholic, nor do I play one on TV, but this has been building for a long time. How many times have the priests pulled the communal wafer out from in front of politicians who are pro-choice over the years?

  37. 37.

    The Red Pen

    @Schlemizel:

    Leading Analyst At Pro-Israeli Think Tank Publicly Discusses How U.S. Can Be Forced Into War With Iran

    Being dragged into wars due to diplomatic entanglements worked out pretty well in World War I.

    Yes, it was the most horrible war in human history (to date), but the upside was that people never wanted another war ever again.

    It’s the thought that counts.

  38. 38.

    beltane

    @Schlemizel: I will not claim to have my finger on the pulse of the Jewish community, but I am hearing anecdotal evidence that the anti-Obama ad featuring Netanyahu that is being aired in Florida is backfiring in ways that will not make Bibi and the neocons happy. Seems that a lot of Jewish Democrats are waking up to the fact that Netanyahu might just possibly be nuts.

  39. 39.

    The Red Pen

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    And lest we lay the blame all on Pope Rat, remember that it was Saint John Paul II who elevated him to the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

    Let’s also not lose side of the fact that PJP2 did this to maintain “balance.”

    As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that workin’ out for you?”

  42. 42.

    The Red Pen

    @NotMax:

    Elements of the RC church in America edging closer and closer to the point of having their tax-exempt status scrutinized and threatened.

    Ironically, the RCC has had a policy of trying to stay out of politics. Priests are no longer allowed to run for office. I guess they figured out that it doesn’t matter if they can control the electorate from the pulpit.

  45. 45.

    kay

    @NotMax:

    It’s funny, because it just makes clear that Republicans in Ohio don’t like Romney as a candidate:

    “Obama is trying to get out (the message), ‘Don’t bother voting, because it’s over with, I got it,” said Ted Wojtasik, 55, a tanker driver who attended Romney’s business roundtable here. “Romney needs to grow a set and open his mouth and go after this guy.”
    Barb Ramsey, 52, a registered nurse from Westerville, who attended Romney’s rally in a high school gym there, said Romney needs to “come out strong” if his going to “push through the press.”

    Republicans here think he’s weak, as in “a weakling”. That’s just an unforgivable sin for a Republican candidate. They ARE “winners” so they back “winners”. That’s really, really important to them.

    I think it’s a real problem for him, even among his base. They don’t care if he IS strong, as long as he projects “strength”.

  46. 46.

    MikeJ

    @kay:

    They don’t care if he IS strong, as long as he projects “strength”.

    It’s the Republican way in everything. Reality always matters less than perception.

  49. 49.

    jibeaux

    @kay: What amuses me is that every time I read about a campaign stop of the Romney campaign, it’s got the word “victory” in it. (There’s a “VICTORY IN OHIO” sign in that picture.) As in, they actually call it “Victory Rally In Dayton”, or whatever. I mean, are they bringing the Mission Accomplished banner with them to these victory rallies?

  51. 51.

    the Conster

    @kay:

    I wish the reporter would have asked Ted and Barb what they mean. All I can think is they want him to say Ni*clang.

  52. 52.

    Valdivia

    @kay:

    I have to wonder how it is that even voter-on-the-street stories have republicans repeating the talking points of the day. Do they all get a memo or what?

    I don’t think there is anything that can make Romney look strong or more human at the same time and turn his fate around. But I don’t want to get complacent either. Any reports about how things look on the ground there?

  53. 53.

    Schlemizel

    @beltane:

    Just as I am convinced that the Gaultian ubermenchs who are driving us toward destruction are really communist saboteurs (the only goal I can see coming is that they make everything so bad for so many people that there is a revolution & communism is the answer after that) I am coming to the conclusion that the Likkud is actually a Palestinian front organization designed to eliminate any American support for Israel.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @kay

    Also too, my takeaway is that those quoted are saying they blatantly, shamelessly want someone, anyone, to beat on (as in the proverbial red-headed step-child) that uppity blah guy who dared take up residence in the massa’s house in Tara-on-the-Potomac.

  55. 55.

    kay

    @MikeJ:

    I don’t think they can fix it with Romney. It’s his speech patterns, his body language, that fake laugh he does, everything. They perceive him as weak, so they’ll be mad at the media or polls for a while but eventually they’ll blame him.

    Remember, his supporters are insisting he “grow a pair”.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    @Valdivia

    Do they all get a memo or what?

    In far too many instances, it is by Rush delivery.

    And it is also not at all unheard of for a campaign to have bused in plants, present to parrot talking points to the press.

  59. 59.

    kay

    @NotMax:

    Oh, I agree. I went to an Obama event yesterday in a county with an active Tea Party group and there were protestors with the same attacks we’ve seen for years now. I could repeat the list of (alleged) Obama sins from memory (and you probably could too), but there’s no positive energy towards Romney. Maybe their mistake was running against Obama since the moment he was elected? It all just seems stale and almost rote. It’s been YEARS now.

  60. 60.

    Dennis SGMM

    @1badbaba3:

    Okay, I am new here…

    Welcome aboard. Note that there are two kinds of Balloon Juice commenters; those who have been mocked and savaged, and those who will be mocked and savaged again.

  62. 62.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Meanwhile, in other news, LGM has exploded with an extended discussion of Purity Voting, now extended through three threads. Quite interesting discussion, all brought on by that wank Conor Freidersderp.

  65. 65.

    The Red Pen

    @Schlemizel:

    Oh I’m sure he has read it, he is just smart enough to not believe it

    I didn’t realize that disbelief in “shitting on the poor is bad” was a sign of intelligence.

  67. 67.

    scav

    I just love this quote: “Still, voters like Mike Skrypak, 48, of Brecksville who works in retail, said he found Romney’s poll numbers hard to believe and wished pollsters would be more transparent about their method
    “I would really like to see — not just hear, actually see — some validation behind those polling numbers,” he said.”

    He wants the long form of scientific proof, although I don’t know if reading will be enough “seeing” for him.

  68. 68.

    mai naem

    @Schlemizel: I looked up Paprocki on Wikipedia. He’s a big marathon runner. Maybe he can run along with Paul Ryan on a marathon and they can discuss Ryan’s budget and all that good it does for lazy moochers. And, oh yeah, Ryan can tell him about the “Teaching poor people how to fish not feeding the fish” bit. Ofcourse, they won’t have much time since Paul’s marathon time is sub-3 minutes.
    That fish quote was just sooo Dan Quayle, I was laughing.

  69. 69.

    kay

    @Valdivia:

    It was a lot of fun. Obama was loose and happy, joking a lot, and he had a really enthusiastic crowd. This was (basically) a GOTV event, and those are rallies, not “speeches”. He touched on Pell Grants, etc., but this was mostly “rally”.

    The Golden Week is coming up;in Ohio one can register and vote (same day) from October 2nd to October 9th, hence, The Golden Week. It’s important for new voters because they only have to come out once, register and vote, not twice, register and then come back and vote.

    He directed the whole event to college students, because it was on-campus. They work really hard to get/update student contact info, because they’ll need it for GOTV.

    They asked a group to come out and help from the rural counties, so we did that. Most of us know one another, so we rode out there together. It was a bit of a reunion for us.

  72. 72.

    scav

    Oh, and by the by OT, that second post is actually an edit of the first post that went wildly wrong (hand wrongly placed on the keyboard). WTFWP?

  73. 73.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @debit: Just wait until Cole puts up a post calling us all assholes. It’s a regular occurrence and he’s about due. I love those.

    Those are great fun. My favorite posts are the ones where he writes “Conservative Icon X who I used to dig when I was a Republican has died. Don’t say anything rude.” They’re infrequent now, since his conversion happened so long ago, but I bet we’ll get one or two more.

  74. 74.

    Valdivia

    @kay:

    thanks for the update kay. I love this idea of the Golden Week, and hope the O team get as many youngsters registered and their votes banked then.

    I know I should be feeling confident but somehow I am just gearing up for the Village to decide it’s time to change the narrative and declare Romney victor. /having a chicken little moment

  77. 77.

    Ash Can

    @NotMax: Every mention of “Romneycare”: 1 swig. Every mention of “corporate welfare”: 1 swig. Every mention of Paul Ryan without saying Romney’s name in the same breath: 2 swigs. If anybody mentions Romney making Joe Scarborough cry: slam your drink. If Obama makes Romney cry: finish the bottle and go out and put streamers on your Obama yard sign.

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    For fans of the world’s favourite car show on TV:

    The October 2012 issue of Top Gear Malaysia is on newsstands now. The strap across the top says, in nice bold capital letters:
    AMERICA IS HOME TO 312 MILLION SIMPLETONS WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND IRONY
    — CLARKSON

    The same issue of Top Gear UK is also on newsstands here. Funnily enough, it doesn’t have that strap.

  79. 79.

    kay

    @Valdivia:

    I think that’s fine, your “chicken little”. We were saying yesterday that it’s hard for us to believe that he’s ten points up in Ohio, because FIVE points is sort of a huge lead in Ohio.

    Luckily, he doesn’t need ten points, so it doesn’t matter what we “believe” :)

    I think there probably will be a comeback narrative around Romney, between now and election day. I feel like I could plot it on a graph, how political media go WAY too far one way and then swing back WAY too far the other way. I think of it as addicts on a bender. They go nuts and then have this sort of hung-over reckoning period, where they realize they went nuts and recant. Then the cycle starts again.

  80. 80.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Amir Khalid: Considering that about 6.995 billion of the worlds 7 billion people don’t understand irony, it’s not much of an insult. I’m pretty sure Clarkson is in that group. Ironic, isn’t it?

  81. 81.

    IowaOldLady

    I’m still puzzling over Romney’s mental cogency. Rachel Maddow showed a tape of him saying he corrects all the errors in his ads. The interviewer says, “Even in the welfare ad?” And Romney says, “Abolutely. It’s been shown time and time again that Obama’s efforts to remove the work requirement from welfare…”

    He sounded so convinced of what he was saying. So is he lying or demented?

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    @Ash can

    And if Mitt’s artificial tan/make-up comes across as dark or darker than Obama’s complexion, Sheldon Adelson butt chugs a gallon of Clorox.

  83. 83.

    scav

    @Amir Khalid: Clarkson is such a general purpose insult-generator that I’m not sure I an identify the target or trigger. Is he another fan of convertible Lear-jets?

  84. 84.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mark S.:

    I love this sentence from the No More Mr Nice Guy post:

    But when he says it’s regrettable that people are in straitened economic circumstances, and he tries to arrange his face to suggest he feels your pain, it looks as if his entire being is recoiling at the effort to connect with the unwashed masses.

    ……’cause it’s SO true. Trying to ‘arrange his face’.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    So is he lying or demented?

    Scripted. (Or programmed – take your pick.)

    When he was governor of MA, Romney was one of the governors requesting the exact same thing Obama announced.

  86. 86.

    Nemo_N

    Attention: conservatives are pushing the whole skewed polls BS into the mainstream.

    Just now, at CNN, there was a “debate” between a democrat and a republican “analyst” about the whole skewed polls thing. Money republican quote: “I don’t fully agree with Dick Morris but he does have a point…”

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @Nemo NReadily willing to concede that polling (and the weighting of response) has become much more complicated with the boom in people who either don’t have or don’t use land lines.

    But respected polling organizations are not in business to lose that status, and are certainly cognizant of the change in the possible universe of contactees. Taking such pollsters’ results in the aggregate still represents a snapshot of the prevailing trend (especially so in the case of polls of likely, rather than just registered, voters).

  88. 88.

    Amir Khalid

    @scav:
    I believe Jeremy Clarkson’s political philosophy is Libertarian Dickishness. He expounds on it in his Times of London column, which is why I quit reading it years before Rupe had the paywall put up. One of the stupidest things he did was to publish his bank account number in the column, and challenge the hackers to do their worst. Which they refrained from doing, actually; all that happened was that a few hundred quid of his money got donated to a charity he didn’t much care for.

    He’s a big fan of anything he considers a really cool Big Boy’s Toy. Persuade him that a Learjet with a ragtop is a nifty aviation tech innovation, nd he’ll want one of those too.

  89. 89.

    Schlemizel

    @The Red Pen:

    Irrelevant – he knows the Bible is BS & has no fear of Hell so he is quite happy to shit on the poor & weak because it makes him richer and stronger.

  90. 90.

    The Red Pen

    @Schlemizel:

    Irrelevant – he knows the Bible is BS & has no fear of Hell so he is quite happy to shit on the poor & weak because it makes him richer and stronger.

    Oh come on! There’s no reason so assume he’s just in the church for money and power.

    He might be in it for the sweet, sweet choir boys.

  91. 91.

    gwangung

    @Nemo_N:

    Money republican quote: “I don’t fully agree with Dick Morris but he does have a point…”

    Only if you’re mathematically and scientifically innumerate.

    Oh. Wait. We’re talking about Republicans, aren’t we….

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