Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Let there be snark.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Everybody saw this coming.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

The revolution will be supervised.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

This fight is for everything.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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Open thread

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This post is in: 

Nothing to say but it’s okay.

A friend sent me Faulkner’s resignation letter as postmaster of University of Mississippi. Yeah, he’s hating on the post office but it still made me laugh.

As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.

This, sir, is my resignation.

Talk about whatever.

Reader Interactions

231Comments

  2. 2.

    muddy

    I wonder what 2 cents is in today’s money? Probably a lot, the old P’s told me that hamburg was 5 cents/lb.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    I, for one, will be so happy when this election is over and I never ever have to see the word “Rmoney” typed out again.
    It is giving my dyslexia absolute fucking fits. I find myself re-reading it multiple times because I notice something wrong and I’m tuned into that for work purposes.
    I would say I’d skip the election posts and just comment in the Football ones, but…

  4. 4.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    I’m about ready to call ‘Green Balloon Juice’ on the election until November. I have more important things to worry about, like if the Mountaineers can finally break through this year and get a Nat’l Title game.

  5. 5.

    Anya

    But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.

    How’s that hating on the post office?

  6. 6.

    Hal

    Yeah, I think I’m going to have to cut political blogs down to once a week until after the election. Too much freaking out.

  8. 8.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    muddy:

    I wonder what 2 cents is in today’s money? Probably a lot, the old P’s told me that hamburg was 5 cents/lb.

    Well, a stamp today is about 45 cents, while cheap hamburger meat is about $3-$4/lb. I guess that puts the worth of a 1921 penny somewhere in the range of 22-80 cents in 2012 pennies.

    .

  10. 10.

    some guy

    reading Obama’s plan to “tweak” Social Security depresses the hell out of me. Raise retirement age, raise contributions, cut benefits. wtf are these fuckers thinking?

  11. 11.

    the Conster

    I wonder if Einstein left a similar resignation letter from his job as patent clerk. “I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every idiot submitting a patent which operates under the Newtonian paradigm.”

    Makes me wonder what the written legacy of our current generation will be – text messages? FB comments? Ugh.

  12. 12.

    gogol's wife

    @Corner Stone:

    That’s so funny! I agree with you. I don’t have dyslexia, but I’m a compulsive proofreader, and it’s driving me nuts every time I see that. It was funny the first 3000 times, but has lost its luster.

  13. 13.

    lamh35

    Saw Looper today. I think I liked it. I really don’t know. It’s weird. The movie ended and I was like huh. That was good. I guess I appreciated the way it ended, I think.

    I’m not sure how I felt about it, but I think that people should definitely see it…if that makes sense.

  17. 17.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    I’m pretty close to my “whatever” point over this election. For once I have actual things to do and worry about, so I can’t afford to obsess over polls along with Markos and Josh. It’s kinda liberating.
    But I still care and I will vote and work for Dem victories.
    I’m just not feeling this one in my DNA any more.

  18. 18.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    I’m pretty close to my “whatever” point over this election. For once I have actual things to do and worry about, so I can’t afford to obsess over polls along with Markos and Josh. It’s kinda liberating.
    But I still care and I will vote and work for Dem victories.
    I’m just not feeling this one in my DNA any more.

  20. 20.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:

    I can’t afford to obsess over polls along with Markos and Josh.

    This. There is an entire sector of the media that makes money off this zig-zag, up-down bullshit, and TPM and DKos are right in the middle of it. They are as much invested in the horse race as the NYT.

  22. 22.

    Richard Fox

    No more reading of Andrew Sullivan for me. His idiot live blog from the debate was simply the worst and he has been slinking ever lower. So to hell with him. Yes I know it should have happened way sooner. But he never annoyed me as much as he has others, till now. I have either a thick skin, or my ability to tune out nonsense has shielded me. Consider the armor pierced.

  26. 26.

    PaulW

    To any and all still playing City of Heroes, KEEP THE FAITH.

    Also, this is the month to run Shardtober event (ie: the Shard realm Task Forces). This week is Sara Moore TF. I expect to see all of you getting your Level 40-50 builds on that TF right now.

  27. 27.

    some guy

    @Professor:

    Bzzzz, incorrect, but thanks for playing.

    “Workers who are 55 or older will experience no change in their benefits from those scheduled under current law. For younger workers with average earnings, our proposal involves a gradual reduction in benefits from those scheduled under current law. For example, the reduction in benefits for a 45-yearold average earner is less than 1 percent; for a 35-year-old, less than 5 percent; and for a 25-year-old, less than 9 percent. Reductions are smaller for lower earners, and larger for higher ones.

    Our plan combines its gradual benefit reductions with a gradual increase in the payroll tax rate. The combined employer-employee payroll tax rate would rise from 12.4 percent today to 12.5 percent in 2015, 13.2 percent in 2035, 14.2 percent in 2055 and 15.4 percent in 2078; it would continue to rise slowly over time thereafter. This gradual increase in the payroll tax rate slows the decline in replacement rates for any given retirement age.”

  28. 28.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Someone’s got to keep their thumb on the pulse. But it’s not news. It’s data. News has context. Josh at least admits it’s tea leaf reading but every new poll still gets front page play. I’m not up for that level of tension and stress.
    Shit, I woke up at 4:00 am in Detroit and spent the day surrounded by German engineers in Virginia. I got worries aplenty.

  31. 31.

    some guy

    no wonder why Obama said he and Rmoney basically agreed on Social Security during the debate.

  32. 32.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @SatanicPanic:

    Anything but hand-wringing over one stupid poll

    Not so much the poll. It’s having to watch yet again while the common wisdom falls into line behind the Republican.

    One debate is all it took. One off night. All the emo-tards like Sullivan went all a-flutter over style, and the Turnips decided to fall in. Sorry, but that is some Grade A, 14-Karat Bullshit, that right there.

    What does the Village care? None of them will be affected by war in Iran, the repeal of ACA, or a $17,000 deductible cap.

  33. 33.

    Howard Beale IV

    An incredible slap in the face to the NeoPharisees:

    “I am tired of self-described Christians calling Me a liar and flagrantly disobeying Me. I placed abundant evidence in nature to reveal the way it works, and I gave certain humans the skill and insight to interpret that evidence. I gave others the insight to study My sayings and interpret them as well. I expressed Myself in language so obviously figurative that no honest, rational human could fail to see I was speaking in imagery. You chose to ignore the evidence before you, and to disrespect the authorities to whom I gave understanding. I told you explicitly to submit to those in lawful authority, but instead you conjured up false prophets and created cults worshiping a literal seven day creation and intricate End Time scenarios, and you listen to people who lie and distort their professional credentials, raising crackpots and charlatans to the status of “experts” to justify your refusal to accept reality. You will not listen to Me and the people to whom I gave lawful authority, why should I listen to you?”

    …

    You could have won in 2008. Instead, you chose to make Christians a laughingstock among thinking people by denying evolution, climate change, and peak oil, using fake evidence and phony experts to justify your anti-intellectualism to yourselves. Now it is your turn in the wilderness. The sooner you start blaming the people who were really at fault – yourselves – the sooner you can come in from the heat.

  36. 36.

    PaulW

    @Capt. Seaweed:

    Still no NHL. I’m being deafened by the howls of protest.

    That’s odd. Most of the people around here are screaming for the head of Skip Holtz (HC of the USF Bulls)…

    As noted, the chilling silence of NHL fans (and there are many) ought to be a sign to the hockey owners that lockouts are more shooting themselves in the collective foot than it is about keeping the game solvent. How solvent can you make it when there’s no revenue coming in, and the players seem content this time around to putter over to other nations’ leagues?

    Personally, I’d love to see a Kickstarter movement by hockey fans – especially in Canada, hi guys! – to start their own league. NOW is a perfect time to start up a new World Hockey Assn…

  37. 37.

    TD

    Got something of my own published. Would love feedback from you juicers. The more curses the better!

    Also, errrr…some “likes” would be wonderful, too.

  38. 38.

    muddy

    @JGabriel: That’s about what I was thinking. One time I was reminiscing to when I was in HS and both gas and cigarettes were about 50 cents. This guy asks me, What was a stamp? I said I had no clue, I said I was in HS then, not like I was paying bills.

  39. 39.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @ Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ

    Nothing to say but it’s okay.
    Good morning, good morning
    Good morning,

  40. 40.

    eemom

    @Richard Fox:

    No more reading of Andrew Sullivan for me.

    It’s gotten to the point where I am glad to see this comment, in hopes a To Read Sullivan or Not To Read Sullivan thread might take root and displace the pollapalooza.

  41. 41.

    James E. Powell

    Living in Los Angeles, and in a deep blue part of the city, there is not much I can do to impact Obama/Biden’s EV total.

    I do not know anyone who does not already know for whom they will vote. I believe that all of them have known for a very long time for whom they would vote. I suspect any of them who tell me that they are undecided are just Romney/Ryan voters who don’t want to get into it with me. I am, if nothing else, a rabid partisan.

    And I’m too broke to donate any money to anyone.

    So what do I do till election day?

  43. 43.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    “One debate is all it took. One off night. All the emo-tards like Sullivan went all a-flutter over style, and the Turnips decided to fall in. Sorry, but that is some Grade A, 14-Karat Bullshit, that right there.”

    Yep. One report had a focus group during the debate saying it was fairly even, and only after hearing all the buzz did they start to fall in line with it and rate it as a big “loss”.

    Pundits and the more fanatic supporters in both camps were the ones most looking for a kick boxing match, a lot of others were actually interested in hearing the two candidates discuss and debate their approaches to governing to help them decide which of them to vote for. Of course a lot of them dropped that idea once everyone told them it was kick boxing and who “won”.

    And Sullivan is, was, and has always been an idiot.

  44. 44.

    handy

    @Capt. Seaweed:

    Speaking of sporting events most Americans could give a crap about, why in God’s name did they decide to switch the format of the division series games? Yeah let’s give the lower-seeded team homefield at the start of the series, what could possibly go wrong with that?

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    @JGabriel:

    Measuring Worth has a very detailed, nuanced calculator that takes into consideration whether you want to measure inflation, compare the costs of a commodity or track the value of income/wealth or a “project” (capital-expenditure type things).

    Shorter: 2 cents in 1921 would be worth between 20 cents and $3.95 today, depending on what you’re comparing.

    Very good details and explanations at the link.

  46. 46.

    Spankyslappybottom

    Sullivan is more than an idiot. Less 48 hours after the 9/11 attacks, Sullivan said the left would be “a fifth column” in this new “war.”

    He also deliberately solicited unsafe sex in the 90s–when he knew he was HIV positive–while lecturing everyone else about safe sex and abstinence.

    He’s morally appalling and temperamentally unstable. Read (and fuck) at your own risk.

  50. 50.

    the Conster

    Remember the collective freakout about Scott Brown’s election and all the DOOOOOOOM about passing the ACA? Good times.

  51. 51.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @PaulW:
    I forget what number lockout this is (maybe 3rd, right?) over the past 12 years or so and I find myself as one of the chillingly silent ones. The players seem to have figured it out, just agree to play in the Motherland for some Russian oil magnate and, well, screw us fans. It’s FYIGM on ice. Right now I really don’t care if they come back this year.

    Pity, really. I have always been an ice hockey fan and this lockout seems so senseless.

  60. 60.

    Davis X. Machina

    @gogol’s wife: You don’t like the name? Hell, we can change the name. We can have a focus group on that by Wednesday. We’ve already settled on several alternatives….

  61. 61.

    fleeting expletive

    Someone early in this thread was wondering what the literary legacy of this generation would be. Both my parents were weather radio operators for the army in WWII, stationed thousands of miles apart. In between their scheduled duties they would ticker tape, I guess in Morse Code, to each other during the wee hours. (They were engaged at the time). I have inherited a nice fat bag of their ticker tapes. I’d like to get them out and find out what’s on them. My daughter, and anthropologist, said “Oh, they were tweeting!).

  62. 62.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @PaulW: In America it is football till the end of the season, then basketball college and pro will fill in nicely plus NASCAR starts in February. Then comes spring training, so by then, who outside the original six plus Canada will miss it. Well played Gary Bettman and the NHL Board of Governors, well played sirs. NBC Sports Network, thanks you. Shame that Notre Dame isn’t in the ACC, Big East B-Ball is in decline.

  65. 65.

    The Red Pen

    Anyone else notice that when Obama’s polls go up it’s a “bump” but when Romney goes up it’s a “surge”?

    Liberal media!

  66. 66.

    Spankyslappybottom

    Now’s probably as good a time as any to ask:

    If Obama loses next month, does he run again in 2016? Discuss.

  67. 67.

    Davis X. Machina

    @fleeting expletive: There are quite a few texting abbreviations that are identical to those long used by hams communicating via Morse.

    20 words (100 characters) a minute is a respectable clip sending and receiving Morse code. That’s a tweet a minute…

  69. 69.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @handy:
    As a Mariner fan I traditionally give up paying attention to MLB right after Seattle is eliminated from the pennant race, which is usually a couple weeks before the All-Star break, but I’m a Baltimore boy from waaaay back and it’s refreshing to see the Orioles have such a nice year. I have 13-14 FB friends who still live in Mobtown and were pretty stoked to see BAL beat TEX in the one game playoff. One game playoff? WTF, how is that any fun for the losing fans?

    Everybody can have an off night ~cough Barack Obama debate cough cough~ and it’s a bit harsh to have an entire season thrown out the window because of one bad night. Jeez go best of 5 at least. Gins up more excitement, the fans will be much happier and the owners make a lot more money with more games. And isn’t making money the end-all?

  70. 70.

    PurpleGirl

    @some guy: Do you have a cite for this? Is this supposed to be part of a grand bargain? I’ve been scared that he’d support something on this line. (But I’ll still vote for him.)

  73. 73.

    Steeplejack

    @some guy:

    Still waiting for a link to your source.

    You appear to have taken your quote from the text of the Diamond-Orszag plan. I Googled

    "social security" "for a 35-year-old, less than 5 percent;"

    on both BarackObama.com and WhiteHouse.gov and didn’t get a hit.

  74. 74.

    muddy

    @gogol’s wife: Around the house we just call him “That entitled douche”.

    My sister asked me the other day if it was appropriate to call a woman a douche (she was describing someone in traffic, and it did fit perfectly. I said I hadn’t heard it, but didn’t see why not. Let us not be sexist. So now Ann can be “That blond entitled douche”.

  75. 75.

    Corner Stone

    @Bill E Pilgrim: It’s not a big deal. What’s odd is that I sometimes hear spoken numbers in the wrong order as well. So when a woman tells me her number I always seem to screw it up writing it down and some plumbing service always answers.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: Ah. Well, Obama hired Orzag, so there ya go. Willard Romney once hired Jonathan Gruber, so Willard must be all out for Obamacare now.

  79. 79.

    ding dong

    Nate silvers got Obamas chances at 75 percent. Still rather have these numbers than Rmoneyz.

  80. 80.

    muddy

    Are you sure you got it wrong? Maybe she told it wrong. It’s funny to have it be plumbing and not carpentry.

  81. 81.

    Eric U.

    I started watching NHL on year for some crazy reason, and I really enjoyed it. Then the star on my team had a career-ending injury administered by the goon on the opposing team. The announcers were blaming the victim and explaining that it was a legal hit, and that’s the last game I watched. Screw it, it’s a good game that is ruined by the violence. I don’t see why the victims team shouldn’t be allowed to beat the goon to death at that point.

  82. 82.

    some guy

    @Hob:

    I am quoting the Diamond-Orzag plan Team Obama (very very quietly) endorses, and plans to enact.

    Would you prefer the direct Obama quote from his State of the Union (“To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations. We must do it without putting at risk current retirees, the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities; without slashing benefits for future generations; and without subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market.”) or maybe the OFA boilerplate (President Obama is committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security for future generations, without putting current retirees at risk. He won’t accept reform that slashes benefits for future generations or turns Social Security over to Wall Street.) ?

    so we know he won’t be “slashing” benefits, but cutting benefits and raising contributions, as well as raising retirement age is all good. and of course they need to keep this on the down low, which is why the only time the OFA site mentions Diamond and Orzag is when they use their study to attack Romney for doing savagely what they themselves propose to do in a gentlemanly manner.

    No slashing! feh.

  83. 83.

    SatanicPanic

    @Capt. Seaweed: I agree, that one game playoff is ridiculous, especially in baseball. I really don’t want MLB to get like the NFL, where it seems like the playoffs go on forever and every last game is of earthshattering importance.

  85. 85.

    TD

    @WereBear: Thanks! It’s been awhile since I’ve had anything published. I had a delusion that maybe someplace like the American Prospect might be interested in what I had to say. Been pitching various things (primarily political, as opposed to the travel theme) unsuccessfully for around a month now. Discouraging. Will try for the Kos, mayhaps.

  86. 86.

    blingee

    Surely you can find some gloom porn somewhere DougJ. Why no “I’m worried about the election” concern trolling? You can even cherry pick a few polls to reinforce your meme.

  88. 88.

    Hob

    @Steeplejack: Indeed, “some guy” is quoting the Diamond-Orszag plan, from 2005.

    A bunch of blogs seized on this in 2009– Obama had not said anything about adopting that plan as his, but he had hired Orszag and was making placating noises at Blue Dogs in general, and that plan was obviously the kind of thing Blue Dogs would go for, so that turned into “Obama has embraced the Diamond-Orszag plan” as far as Daily Kos and Firedoglake were concerned.

    Orszag left the administration after a year and a half. Much of that plan unsurprisingly made its way into Blue Dog proposals in the Bowles-Simpson Commission, and it’s now received wisdom among firebaggers that the (unagreed-upon, un-sent-to-Congress) recommendations of Blue Dogs on the Bowles-Simpson Commission are to be regarded in every detail as Obama’s own policy proposals. Even for firebaggers, I’d say quoting the Diamond-Orszag plan without attribution while pretending it’s something Obama wrote is quite a stretch, so “some guy” is to be commended on pushing the obfuscation envelope.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @some guy:

    I am quoting the Diamond-Orzag plan Team Obama (very very quietly) endorses

    Your credibility would be enhanced if you could back your shit up.

  90. 90.

    James E. Powell

    @some guy:

    the only time the OFA site mentions Diamond and Orzag is when they use their study to attack Romney for doing savagely what they themselves propose to do in a gentlemanly manner.

    And what should I do about this? Vote for a third party or just stay home on election day?

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @some guy:

    I am quoting the Diamond-Orzag plan Team Obama (very very quietly) endorses, and plans to enact.

    Thank God we have you so we don’t have to rely on actual evidence to figure out what Obama is going to do.

  92. 92.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Spent the weekend in Tasmania and (largely) away from the internet (except for garden threads: thanks for the advice and inspiration, ladies and gents!!) and boy am I glad I did.

    ladies, gentlemen, trolls, please unplug your internet for a couple of days and look at the beauty around you. Hug your cats/children/DVD collection and breathe some fresh clear air. I promise you’ll sleep better for it.

  93. 93.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Corner Stone: That’s funny, when women give me their numbers and I call I always get plumbing services too. And the weird thing is, I’m not dyslexic at all!

    Okay I’m kidding.

    I mean It’s true that I’m not dyslexic but I’ve also never had anyone give me her number. I mean, give me her plumber’s number. I mean I’ve never had anyone’s plumber give me…

    I think my dyslexia is just with entire sentences, not letters.

  94. 94.

    The Other Bob

    Nate Silver has a new – and as usual calming – post up tonight. A must read for those who are freaking today. I recommend also reading his jobs report post, if you haven’t yet. Nate is also on Piers tonight.

  96. 96.

    Violet

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    Ezra Klein wasn’t much better (check his twitter feed from that night). “Media likes Winners.” Not truth. Not substance. Winners.

    People like winners in general. That’s why there’s a surge in excitement and support in a city or university when a sports team is winning versus having a crappy season. Now, one would hope that our crappy media would focus on facts and substance instead of flash and “who won”, since that’s their job and all, but they aren’t immune to the effect. Being associated with winners makes you look good, so people jump on the bandwagon. And the folks in the media want to be able to claim, “We knew he’d win all along” so have incentive to declare a winner and move toward that winner.

    It’s stupid and our country would be better served if the media did their job, but that’s the reality.

  97. 97.

    some guy

    Ezra Klein, writing in WaPo yesterday:

    This is basically right. Both Obama and the Republicans have simply refused to name major Social Security cuts, taxes, or reforms in their budgets. But insofar as that hides a consensus, it’s a procedural consensus: Both sides believe that changes to Social Security are too dangerous to attempt without bipartisan cover. Whether a bipartisan process would lead to agreement on how to change Social Security remains, I think, an open question. But this answer does get at one truth: Obama is a lot more open to cutting Social Security as part of a “grand bargain” than many liberals would like.

  98. 98.

    Chyron HR

    @some guy:

    How do you feel about Romney’s announcement that he’s going to start using nukes in the Middle East?

    (Well, he gave a speech where he made vague platitudes about returning to the foreign policy of Harry Truman, so the ONLY POSSIBLE CONCLUSION…)

  99. 99.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @Eric U.:
    No doubt the NHL has it’s problems. They need to address and decide whether fighting is going to remain part of the game. With millions of dollars and the fates of entire franchises wrapped up in the health of just one player maybe it’s time to set some limits on the violence. Also: diving.

  100. 100.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @SatanicPanic:
    Even if it were best 2 of 3. A one game playoff is unfair, it seems to me. This seems like something they need to fix next year. And I agree with you as to The Neverending Season. I’m a hockey fan. Ice hockey in June? I’m surprised they could even get the ice to freeze in LA last season. First round should be best of 5, but I really like the best of 7 format.

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    @Capt. Seaweed:

    Yeah, that one-game play-in is complete bullshit in baseball, in which, of all the major sports, one game has the least to do with success. To reduce the whole season to one game is ridiculous. Hell, I know people who grouse about the five-games series vs. the seven-game ones.

  102. 102.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Corner Stone:
    @Comrade Mary:

    I’ll see your dyslexia and raise you some ADHD.

    Amateurs, the two of you.

    I have CDO. That’s like OCD, but in alphabetical order the way it’s supposed to be.

    /not original, but still makes me laugh

  103. 103.

    blingee

    @The Other Bob: Gotta luv Nate Silver. Can always count on him to tell it like it is with reams of data and historical evidence to back it up.

    Now that he is selling a book I am a bit more cautious about what he says though.

  108. 108.

    some guy

    http://www.barackobama.com/truth-team/entry/how-president-obama-and-mitt-romney-compare-on-preserving-social-security

    Any reform should strengthen Social Security for future generations and restore long-term solvency.

    The administration will oppose any measures that privatize or weaken the Social Security system.

    While all measures to strengthen solvency should be on the table, the administration will not accept an approach that slashes benefits for future generations.

    No current beneficiaries should see their basic benefits reduced.

    Reforms should strengthen retirement security for the most vulnerable, including low-income seniors.

    Reform should maintain robust disability and survivors’ benefits.

    yup, except for the structure, wording, and assumptions, it’s nothing like Diamond-Orzag, nothing at all.

  109. 109.

    Hob

    @some guy: Bullshit. You wrote this: “reading Obama’s plan to ‘tweak’ Social Security depresses the hell out of me.” You obviously intended for people reading that to think that this was a policy statement by the Obama campaign, not a 7-year-old paper co-authored by one of his former employees. You quoted two full paragraphs without any attribution, and you only admitted it was Diamond-Orszag after two people had already pointed that out.

    On the off chance that you actually believe what you’re saying… that is some very strange logic you’re using there. I don’t mean the idea that Obama might have bad plans for SS; that’s not in itself crazy, it’s not unimaginable that he could support a crappy policy. But what you just said there is that 1. the fact that the Obama campaign quoted Orszag in the context of attacking Romney is actually a “very, very quiet”– yet ironclad– endorsement of the entire Diamond-Orszag plan, and 2. the fact that all of Obama’s actual quotes are unobjectionable boilerplate is either meaningless or an even more sinister sign, since clearly “not slashing benefits” is just another way of saying “cutting benefits.”

    But I don’t think you believe what you’re saying, or really you just don’t give a shit. You’ve said before that you think there’s a significant faction of pro-austerity commenters on Balloon Juice. No one who gives a shit what they’re saying could possibly think that. Fuck off.

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack

    @some guy:

    You still haven’t provided a source for that.

    I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt up to now, but the troll-whiff is getting strong.

  111. 111.

    SatanicPanic

    @Steeplejack: I wonder if that’s next. More wildcard teams each with a 7 game series. Every team but the Astros gets in to the playoffs. World Series takes place between Christmas and New Year’s.

  112. 112.

    max

    @jayboat: I think I am finally done with Sullivan. Excitable phuck ready to slit his wrists…

    Sully links fairly nicely. So there’s that. I think he means well. Otherwise, well, I tune him to see what the gobshites are saying.

    Sully would be an absolutely horrible, awful general (a decade of reading him should tell you that) and you never want to put him in charge of anything like that. So when he starts explaining how everything has gone to shit/worst thing ever, that’s interesting from the point of view of knowing what the idiots are thinking, since there’s no anticipating stupid.

    Thing is, I was sorta watching Jeopardy when they had all the political types on, and I got to watch one with Tweety, Friedman and some woman from the business channels. She did ok – she only buzzed when she knew the answer. Tweety flailed and was wrong half the time but at least he was trying. Friedman was apparently lovingly hand-carved by Polynesian craftsman, making me (seriously) wonder if his columns are ghostwritten.

    Sully may be one of the more intelligent members of the species and yes, that’s as insulting as you think it is.

    max
    [‘So somebody bring the Biden already.’]

  114. 114.

    Spankyslappybottom

    Wow. Sullivan has officially gone insane:

    This race is now Romney’s to lose. Not just because Romney is shameless liar and opportunist. But because Obama just essentially forfeited the election. In the first match-up between the two candidates, one was a potential president; the other a dithering wonk. I’m still reeling. I’m sorry if these are not things an Obama supporter should say at this point. But the demoralization is profound.

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WereBear:

    That is just the sweetest story. And little Bors is adorable.

    What did young Tristan think of the temporary interloper?

  116. 116.

    some guy

    @Professor:

    I have read it, as well as the WhiteHouse.gov statements. What part of “all reforms should be on the table” and “current beneficiaries” is confusing to you?

  117. 117.

    Darrel Johansen

    How many people recognize your lyric quotes? Some of us old timers do. Today, obviously, the Fab Four.

  119. 119.

    gwangung

    @some guy: You’d be more persuasive if you set your hair on fire and ran around in a panic.

    There’s a large set of alternative hypothesis that fit the observable facts. You’ve quite simply failed to make any sort of case that your favored hypothesis fits best.

  121. 121.

    some guy

    @Hob:

    Hob: ” the fact that all of Obama’s actual quotes are unobjectionable boilerplate ”

    Obama: “I suspect that on Social Security, we’ve [Romney and Obama] got a somewhat similar position,” Obama said. “Social Security is structurally sound. It’s going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Speaker — Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill. But it is — the basic structure is sound.”

    this also begs the question about why the Obama website cites Diamond-Orzag in their blogpost on Friday defending themselves on Social Security. this isn’t seven years old, this is from the debates, but sure, feel free to pretend O didn’t say what he said.

  122. 122.

    Yutsano

    @gwangung: Because he said he was gonna do it! Just like all those other times he said he would but then he didn’t but he REALLY means it this time!!

  124. 124.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    They’re running ads on the old jobs numbers anyway.

    Curiously, I haven’t seen ads except during the evening news hour and the game show hour afterward. Heard my first radio ad yesterday. The closest thing we have to a decent radio station here is Clear Channel, so I’m not surprised. Oh, and OfA was running ads during the games Saturday and Sunday.

  125. 125.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Spankyslappybottom: See? “Wonk” was his problem. Quelle horreur.

    Yes, better a square-jawed brazen liar, that’s “Presidential”. Someone who didn’t make anyone think too deeply, because if they did they’d realize that he was completely full of shit.

  126. 126.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @Yutsano:
    Don’t they need a team first? Phoenix, perhaps? I forget the numbers but a dozen+ teams lost money last season. Take your pick! Who wouldn’t want the Blue Jackets to move to town =)

  129. 129.

    Chyron HR

    @some guy:

    sources are the Diamond-Orzag plan, BarackObama.com and whitehouse.gov

    Why don’t you just refer to it as the Obama-Orzag plan for short? It wouldn’t be any less dishonest than you already are.

  130. 130.

    FlipYrWhig

    @some guy: No, no, fucking well no. You don’t get to do this: because Obama makes vague noises that you don’t like _now_ (“all reforms should be on the table”) he must be really truly deep down pointing back to a very specific plan from 2005. This is some shit you’re pulling.

  131. 131.

    Baud

    @some guy:

    But it is—the basic structure is sound.”

    Awesome. It’s so good to know Obama has committed to protect Social Security. I’m going to work extra hard to reelect him. Thanks, some guy!

  132. 132.

    FlipYrWhig

    @some guy: Dude, the “similar position” could be that minor, not radical, adjustments are necessary before 70-whatever years from now. What put you on this now? Because it smells like a rat fucking a rotten fish.

  133. 133.

    Spankyslappybottom

    @Hill Dweller: From a few minutes ago. Read the rest over there, if you must. Sullivan is acting like some hot Nazi officer made him send his favorite beagle to the gas chamber. Silent scream drama queen freak-out on aisle 6.

  134. 134.

    Steeplejack

    @some guy:

    You still have not tied your Diamond-Orszag quote to either of those sites. Looks like the pie filter for you, troll-butt!

  135. 135.

    Jenn

    @fleeting expletive: That is AWESOME! I used to be a poor Morse Code ‘speaker’, and gone downhill from there (and I’ve never been very good at listening to anything complex), but it’s fun!

  136. 136.

    different-church-lady

    Firebaggers: they are like a species of weeds that only grow deep in drainage culverts under certain precise conditions.

    The internet provides those conditions.

  137. 137.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Yes, better a square-jawed brazen liar, that’s “Presidential”. Someone who didn’t make anyone think too deeply, because if they did they’d realize that he was completely full of shit.

    But in the first country in the world to make ‘marketing’ a university-level discipline, on a par with philosophy and physics and history and Russian, what else could we expect?

  138. 138.

    some guy

    @gwangung:

    why should I need to persuade anyone that I myself am depressed about Obama’s plans for Social Security?

    Better reading comprehension, please.

  139. 139.

    emma

    @TheMightyTrowel: Tell me about it. I have spent five days in a beautiful city. Saw some wonderful gardens, visited marvelous museums, had some great meals. Last night I broke down and came by. Ye gods. Between the concern trolls and the panicked sheep it was hard to see for all the dust.

  144. 144.

    Steeplejack

    @SatanicPanic:

    I’m actually fine with the five-game division series. And, although I hate the idea of the playoffs being extended ad nauseam, I do think they need to fix this bullshit one-game wild-card play-in. They should make it a a three-game series hosted by the higher-finishing team. None of that home-and-away bullshit.

    MLB needs to resist the urge to become like the NHL, where everybody who can skate and hold a stick at the same time makes the playoffs.

  145. 145.

    Yutsano

    @some guy: So then if this is just your own depression, are you in a therapy session right now? Otherwise why are you screaming like a banshee about it?

    @some guy: Holy fuck. You’ve gone off the deep end.

  146. 146.

    some guy

    @Baud:

    good for you, Baud. Please don’t whine to any of us when your contributions increase and your benfits are cut, mkay?

  147. 147.

    blingee

    @PaulW: There just isn’t enough money to go around. Simple as that. Players salary expectations are not realistic and owners are too greedy as usual. Plenty of blame to go around on both sides.

  148. 148.

    different-church-lady

    @some guy: …and the quote then ends with a reference to what they said about Romney’s plan.

    Jesus, man, stop digging.

  150. 150.

    some guy

    @Yutsano:

    Please indicate where I was screaming? The bad reading comprehension of the BJ Center-Right Fight Club never fails to amaze me.

  151. 151.

    Hob

    @some guy: I was responding to what you wrote, and the Obama quotes you chose, which– until what you wrote just now— were all unobjectionable boilerplate. You do realize that everyone here is able to easily go back and read what you’ve written on this thread, don’t you?

    If the Reagan/O’Neill reference was part of what you had in mind before, you would’ve quoted it, because it actually supports your argument a bit, unlike all the other bullshit you’ve said on this thread so far. I say “a bit” because– as you’re probably hoping no one here will look up and find out– the Reagan/O’Neill deal was not the same as the Diamond-Orszag plan. It did involve an increase in retirement age (which doesn’t reach 67 until the year 2027), and in the payroll tax. It did not include the kind of cuts you’re talking about.

    …Oh, fuck it. You don’t care. You’re a shit-stirrer here, that’s what you do. You’ve successfully derailed this thread, with help from all of us who should know better by now.

  153. 153.

    some guy

    @different-church-lady:

    How can that be, when I was informed above that the Diamond Orzag plan for Social Security has NOTHING to do with Obama or with Obama’s plans for “tweaking” and “reforming” it? The two most famous “tweakers” and “reformers” of Social Security, cited on a OFA page about SS, used to discredit the Romney plan, and yet otherwise they have NOTHING to do with the Obama plan for SS.

    OK, sure. Got any bridges for sale?

  155. 155.

    SatanicPanic

    @Steeplejack: Best of 3 is fine. But I’d be just as happy if they got rid of the extra wildcard altogether. One worked just fine as a catch-all for great teams that were stuck in tough divisions. And it made the number of playoff teams an even number. Bud Selig has made some pretty boneheaded decisions though, so I don’t expect he’ll reverse this one. It could be worse. We could get instant replay.

  156. 156.

    FlipYrWhig

    @some guy: Are you fucking kidding me? Here’s the rest of the quotation, which you just happened to leave out:

    As Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Diamond and former OMB director Peter Orszag noted, his plan insists that any reform prohibit additional revenue

    “His” means “Romney’s.”

    Are you seriously saying that any citation of any policy expert automatically conveys an endorsement of everything said policy expert has ever advocated? Because, you know, BarackObama.com cites Paul Krugman frequently. And yet I don’t see you all excited about how the Obama plan is REALLY the Krugman plan.

    Dude, you’re pulling some shit. This is seriously astonishing.

  157. 157.

    Jenn

    @Spankyslappybottom: Jesus Christ. Makes me glad Sully’s too young for WW2. After Dunkirk, he’d’ve been screaming on street corners, ‘We’re doomed, we’re doomed’, and ‘Fire Churchill! No confidence!’, while rending his garments into rags. Cultivate your stiff upper lip there Sully, one skirmish does not a war make.

  161. 161.

    FlipYrWhig

    @some guy:

    remind me again why I need to do your political analysis and reading comprehension for you?

    Your abilities to provide such services appear to be on par with that woman who “restored” the fresco of Christ in Spain.

  162. 162.

    some guy

    on his own website Obama claims that he won’t cut benefits for “current beneficiaries.”

    Though he thinks all reforms should be on the table, he won’t “slash” benefits.

    the level of denial around here is pretty funny, at least by the regulars in the BJ Center-Right Fight Club. their optimism is touching

  164. 164.

    honus

    The rest of the story is that Faulkner resigned before they fired him for not delivering the mail. He apparently mostly sat around the post office reading people’s magazines they received pursuant to subscriptions. The way I heard it originally was that Faulkner said “I’ll be damned if I’ll be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch with two cents for a stamp.”
    And they’re still pissed down there in Oxford that he left his papers to UVA.

  166. 166.

    Hob

    @FlipYrWhig: It’s actually not that astonishing if you go back and look at “some guy”‘s commenting history here. He’s consistently like this, he’s convinced that we’re all a bunch of right-wing fools who aren’t worth trying to reason with, and he’s never, ever going to admit error. I’m sorry for feeding the troll.

    (I would love to think that the citations of Krugman were a sign of Obama committing to “the Krugman plan,” though. Sigh.)

  167. 167.

    Ben Franklin

    @different-church-lady:

    Firebaggers: they are like a species of weeds that only grow deep in drainage culverts under certain precise conditions

    Well, now you’ve done it. We know where you grow your chronic.

  168. 168.

    redshirt

    Why is a one game playoff unfair? Normally, one of the teams would not even be in the playoffs. And each team had all season to try and get a better record. Win the division if you don’t want to play a one game playoff!

    I like it for adding more suspense to the end of the season.

    Imagine there was a time when only 2 teams made the playoffs!

  171. 171.

    Paula

    @some guy:

    I wouldn’t lecture people on reading comprehension when you can’t even apply possessives correctly.

    Also, type “BJ Center Right Fight Club” a few more times — it totally makes you the mature one in the conversation.

  173. 173.

    Chyron HR

    I for one am disgusted by the @some guy plan for Social Security:

    Raise retirement age, raise contributions, cut benefits.

    It’s a direct quote, so it must be true.

  175. 175.

    Steeplejack

    @some guy:

    Okay, dumbass, here’s the actual quote from the page you finally linked to:

    Mitt Romney is taking a starkly different approach to Social Security—he refuses to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share, and is proposing to close Social Security shortfalls through benefit cuts alone. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Diamond and former OMB director Peter Orszag noted, his plan insists that any reform prohibit additional revenue, and thus relies on “excessive benefit cuts that would undermine financial security for future retirees.” Analysis of a similar plan showed that typical workers in their forties would lose $2,400 a year, and workers in their twenties would lose $4,700 a year in future benefits. Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan was even the architect of a privatization plan that would have left seniors’ benefits devastated by the 2008 financial crisis.
    __
    The choice is clear: President Obama will never privatize Social Security or undermine retirement security for middle-class Americans. The same cannot be said for Romney.

    That is the only mention of Diamond-Orszag on the page, and, what is more significant, nowhere to be seen is the lengthy quote you darkly hinted at in #10 above and spewed out in #27.

    I know how Google works. A better question is: do you know how to find your way home to your little troll hut under the bridge tonight?

  182. 182.

    Hill Dweller

    Was Sullivan’s tantrum a reaction to the Pew poll(I’m not giving him the click)?

  189. 189.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Watching Ed schultz talk about Willard’s tax plan, has there been any mention of the Duduction Bucket since before the debate? I thought Willard was gonna go through the rest of this campaign with that bucket on his head

  190. 190.

    different-church-lady

    @some guy: You keep using the phrase “reading comprehension.” I don’t think it means what you think it means.

    This is not the drainage culvert you’re looking for.

  196. 196.

    bcinaz

    Sully has convinced himself that PBO has already lost the election. Very High Drama at the Dish today.

  197. 197.

    geg6

    @Spankyslappybottom:

    Yeah, Sully really has the freakout dialed up to 11. Hilarious, really. It’s so characteristic of him. Nobody does panic like Sully does. He’s saying Obama was worse in that debate than the night Ronnie manifested his impending Altzheimer’s in the first debate in 1984. That is so over-the-top that you just have to laugh at it. And the Pew poll is, apparently, just like the Blitzkrieg backing the BEF onto a small strip of sand on the French coast. And there’s little chance of any miracles at Dunkirk because Obama didn’t perform what he seems to think is the most important duty of a presidential candidate: winning the perceptions game of a presidential debate.

    The funniest part is that he’s most upset about the fact that Obama won’t be able to pull Bowles/Simpson out of his pocket (despite zero evidence that he ever planned to do so, no matter what FDL and some guy say) in order to win all those super-thoughtful undecided indies who, he says, are only looking for Bowles/Simpson as the reason to vote for someone. All because Mittens lied and said he might go for it, when we all know he won’t because of the revenue increases, aka tax increases on the wealthy. Why Sully ever thought that was the plan is as mysterious to me as the fact that Firebaggers are absolutely convinced that is Obama’s nefarious plan. To put us all in the veal pen or something, I guess.

  199. 199.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I doubt Sullivan cares, but the Pew poll is looking shadier by the minute.

    For example:
    – 69% of those polled were 50+.
    – Only 15% polled were latino/black voters(28% expected in ’12)
    – Northeast 201, Midwest 271, South 417, West 223
    – Only 30% 15-49 yrs old (57% in ’08)
    – They started with R+1 RV screen
    – Willard and Romney tied with women

  200. 200.

    Political Observer

    So now Romney has taken a COMMANDING LEAD in the last part of the election with not much time left!

    Obambi really blew it, huh?

    All that babble about Romney’s “problem with women”, turns out a few smooth lines at the debate and they come around real easy. Who woulda thought? Lol.

  201. 201.

    Political Observer

    @Hill Dweller:

    So liberals spend a whole week making fun of UnSkewedPolls.com as losers who are denying reality etc, and now they turn around and do the SAME THING as soon as the polls turn around huh?

  202. 202.

    Political Observer

    And even a swing state poll in PENNSYLVANIA you heard me, PENNSYLVANIA, has Romney down by only 2!

    The election is breaking our way every minute! Just like 1980…

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Hill Dweller: I usually read Sullivan to see what the bien pensants of teh Village are thinking. This meltdown takes me back to the decadent fifth columnist days. He quotes some looney crap from Tomasky (which surprises me) and some pop-psychologizing from Byron York, and says “the fact that we are having this discussion underlines the enormity of the Obama implosion”. ETA: “we” being him, one liberal, and an NRO conservative. Polls have shifted within the MOE>>> ZOMG! a hundred exclamation points!

    I’m okay with a little concern trolling to get us all moving, I myself decided to up my contributions today, but this is a ridiculous response to one debate.

  206. 206.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Political Observer: Sorry to burst your bubble, but:

    “The effect of the debate is looking quite a lot like another event that energized the Republican base: the addition of Paul Ryan in the VP slot. That rise occurred over about a week, and then Todd Akin shot off his mouth. At that point, the race stayed mostly immobile until the Democratic convention got things moving back toward Obama.

    Two bits of evidence suggest that Romney’s post-debate gains have come from inspiring partisan voters, as opposed to flipping nonpartisans. First, according to a recent PPP poll in Wisconsin, gains have come in the form of an increased enthusiasm among Republican voters – but not among independents. Second, the RAND survey, which tracks individual sentiment, does not show a massive wave of one-way mind-changing, which is what occurred after the Democratic convention.

    If the Romney campaign can keep their supporters fired up, the Meta-Margin should settle where the race has been all season: near Obama +3%. This seems to be a “set point” where this year’s dynamics have naturally gravitated.

    …”

    Princeton Election Consortium prediction:
    Electoral College: Obama: 307, Romney: 231

  207. 207.

    Political Observer

    @Yutsano:

    It’s moving closer every day. The election is breaking for Mitt Romeny and the Republicans. The lead with women is gone. Obambi blew it. Big time.

    BHO has quite the glass jaw, huh?

  208. 208.

    Political Observer

    Even CNN is running a story as we speak about Romney’s “surge” with women voters.

    Remember: everyone likes a winner. The Romney Bandwagon is taking off…

  209. 209.

    Elizabelle

    Gawd, you guys weren’t kidding about Andrew Sullivan.

    Someone needs to talk him down. Hide the razor blades.

    Or let one of his beagles blog, until he regains his senses.

    Chris Matthews appears to be functioning normally today.

    There is hope.

  210. 210.

    Hill Dweller

    @Political Observer: Do you think 15% non-white in any way represents the % that will vote?

    How about 69% of the electorate being 50 and above?

    Willard and Obama tied with women?

    Do you think starting with a registered voter screen of R+1 is in any way tethered to reality?

    Does 18-49 yr olds making up just 30% of the electorate sound plausible, when they were 57% in ’08?

    This Pew poll is an embarrassment for, what has to this point been, a credible pollster. The sample is laughably white, old, southern and Republican, yet Willard is only leading by 4.

  212. 212.

    Steeplejack

    @TD:

    Your subject is good, but your prose is a little loose. A few notes from a former journalist and editor:

    The sky was leaden and my breath drifted from my lips in gentle, elegant wisps.

    “Elegant” is too precious. How does a wisp look elegant? Leave it at “My breath drifted from my lips in gentle wisps.” The reader will get the visual and can decide if it’s elegant or not.

    [. . .] watching oil tankers drift idly down the Bosphorus.

    This rings false, because tankers don’t drift idly like leaves. In trying to create an image you’re tacitly implying something false, and the reader will resist that, even if subconsciously. If you want to get across the image of slow, perhaps not entirely purposeful movement, try something like “[. . .] watching oil tankers creep down the Bosphorus.” Maybe even “dawdle down the Bosphorus.” But drift is a charged verb in relation to ships. Best avoided unless you mean specifically they are really drifting.

    Having sprung for a samovar at a nearby cafe, my tea was still hot [. . .].

    Your tea arranged for a samovar? How thoughtful. Actually, this is a common grammatical error: the introductory phrase is not matched to the proper subject–you. “Having sprung for a samovar at a nearby café, I found my tea was still hot [. . .].” That’s not great, but it’s correct. Better might be: “I had sprung for a samovar at a nearby café, so my tea was still hot [. . .].”

    I had committed the most basic error a traveler can, and failed to pack appropriate clothes.

    Okay, this last one is a subtle “sound” thing that might be debatable. But to my ear the snippet “a traveler can” sort of jangles and cries out for support. The rhythm is a little off. Almost like “I had committed the most basic error a traveler can . . . [what?].” The reading voice wants a word there. I would write either “I had committed the most basic error a traveler can commit” or, perhaps better, “I had committed the most basic error that a traveler can.” That that sort of nails things down and fixes the rhythm. Either one sounds better to me than the original, but I couldn’t give you chapter and verse on that from The Elements of Style.

    And bony, not boney. Some dictionaries will allow the latter as an alternative, but bony is the main entry.

    Finally, let me say that I’m not trying to beat you down. I’m just giving you feedback–my quick reaction as if I were looking at a story that landed on my desk at Tramp Steamer Times. You’ve got a good piece. It’s just a little woolly around the edges.

    And I did give you a “like.”

  214. 214.

    Hill Dweller

    @Political Observer: Stop deflecting and answer the questions.

    Does any of Pew’s absurd sampling look anything like the electorate?

    Ari f’n Fleischer is backing away from this poll.

  219. 219.

    Political Observer

    @Mike in NC:

    Sounds like Democrats are the ones coming unhinged. Democrats are utterly panicked, flat-footed, and terrified. I think Obambi doesn’t really want to be President anymore and threw the debate on purpose, actually. He’s done with his toy.

  220. 220.

    Hill Dweller

    @Mike in NC: That halfwit doesn’t seem to understand Willard being up just 4 in a poll with a laughably white, old, southern, and Republican sampling is actually a problem for them.

  223. 223.

    1badbaba3

    Some folks out there seem determined to rain on our parade. If only they had someone as cool as Metrosexual Black Abe Lincoln on their side, maybe they wouldn’t be so mean.

  224. 224.

    Hill Dweller

    @Political Observer: You’ve got nothin’, and know it.

    Willard’s bounce lasted all of two days, before OBAMA’S BLS! saved the day with the jobs/unemployment reports.

    Willard should have went away quietly. Now he and the Village are getting the wingnuts’ hopes up, only to be crushed. I’m sure cries of voter fraud and ACORN will follow, which will be music to my ears.

  229. 229.

    PaulW

    @Chyron HR:

    What server?

    Preferably all of them. :-) But I’m normally on Champion server. (My weekly run of Tanker Tuesday most likely takes me to Justice server this Tuesday night)

  230. 230.

    PaulW

    @Political Observer:

    The odd thing is that for all the post-debate trauma coming from Andrew Sullivan, most of the commentary from non-media people seem to have gotten just this thought from the debate:

    Mitt wants to kill Big Bird.

    Seriously. That’s the buzz that I’m still seeing…

  231. 231.

    A moocher

    Meanwhile, Canada’s National Newspaper is ejaculating all over Mittten’s manly chest, all virile with the resurgence.

    Of course, it will be even more embarrassing for me if by some tragic misalignment of the stars, and against the laws of man and nature, he should after all win.

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