Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Everybody saw this coming.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Consistently wrong since 2002

Usually wrong but never in doubt

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Second rate reporter says what?

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

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Open Thread

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Bill Maher was awesome tonight. He had a guy talking about a ballot in California regarding food labeling as his interview, then his panel was Goldie Taylor (I can’t decide if I want to kiss her or do shots or both), the horribly weaselly John Fund always who does to the truth what he does with his girlfriends, some jackass named Boris Epshteyn who was so scummy he could be on Fox but is apparently a US News and World Report contributor and whose every utterance made me wish Tina Brown will move from Newsweek (now that her work is done killing that joint) to US NEWS- at several points when he was talking I wondered if I had finally witnessed someone dumber than James Pethokoukis, and the always awesome Matt Taibbi.

It will never cease to amaze me how these right wing douchebags lie with such ease and vigor, but Fund and Epshteyn were no exception to the rule.

BTW- I have not posted much yesterday and today, and probably will not until next Friday, because I have a lady friend in town and we are busy DOING IT ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE. IT’s SOME SERIOUS JUNGLE MONKEY LOVE GOING ON, AND WE ARE ONLY STOPPING FOR PEDIALYTE TO REPLENISH FLUIDS, PISS BREAKS, AMYL NITRATE, LUBE, VITAMIN E SHOTS (FOR ME), AND ENERGY DRINKS. Wakka wakka.

We’re actually just watching tube and playing Warcraft and walking the dogs and eating and we have a viewing of the extended version of LOTR planned, but I know how you gossipy bitches are in the comments, so I might as well just play along.

*** Update ***

I am such a moron. I just talked to Imani and told her she was my second favorite black lady now that I saw Goldie on Maher, and Imani told me- “Jackass. You met Goldie at the DNC. She sat right behind us with Joy Reid during the Michelle speech.”

I blame it on scotch and the altitude in the arena.

Reader Interactions

213Comments

  1. 1.

    James Hare

    Glad to hear you have a lady friend in town. I hope y’all have a pleasant time together that Rick Santorum would approve of.

  5. 5.

    ? Martin

    I imagine a lot of the pressure to find a girlfriend has come off now that you can regularly get to 2nd base with Lily.

  6. 6.

    Comrade Mary

    BTW- I have not posted much yesterday and today, and probably will not until next Friday, because I have a lady friend in town and we are busy DOING IT ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE. IT’s SOME SERIOUS JUNGLE MONKEY LOVE GOING ON, AND WE ARE ONLY STOPPING FOR PEDIALYTE TO REPLENISH FLUIDS, PISS BREAKS, AMYL NITRATE, LUBE, VITAMIN E SHOTS (FOR ME), AND ENERGY DRINKS. Wakka wakka

    John is shagging Ms. Pac-Man. Pass it on.

  8. 8.

    DCLaw1

    I actually thought Real Time was awful tonight, and for the same reason I usually find the show disappointing. Particularly when there are two conservatives on the panel, Maher is simply outgunned and does not deliver the counterpoints he should.

    Among the torrent of other BS from Fund, I heard him say more than once that Pennsylvania was somehow in play in the election (as well as Nevada). Total nonsense, and all Bill could do was nod and say something like, “Oh yes, we could be in trouble, very close race.”

    Romney will lose in both Pennsylvania and Nevada (among other swing states). Full stop. Not sure what Maher does during the six days between shows, but he could do a bit more research and stop getting caught flatfooted again and again.

    I should not be the one delivering the best counterarguments to their conservative panelists, from my living room.

  10. 10.

    lamh35

    God, u are funny as hell. That last bit was hella funny. Are all the white people in WV as cray-cray as you are…lol.

    So I was thinking about the election being 18 days out, and Not for nothing, but in 17 days, I’ll be 1 year older and 4 years closer to 40!!! Age ain’t nothing but a number to me, but I swear I feel like I’m still in my 20s. I’m realizing now, that my brain arrested at like 28 years old…that’s 7 years ago. 7 years ago…Katrina happened. I think I just had one of those “light bulb” epiphany moment…lol.

  13. 13.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    Note. When lady friend is over, probably not a good time to talk about desire to kiss random TV talk show guests. It makes you sound easy and you’re not that kind of boy.

  14. 14.

    Hill Dweller

    The LA Times is reporting the attack in Benghazi wasn’t carried out by any Al Qaeda related groups.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    If you’re not doing it on the dining room table in orc costumes, it’s not kinky enough.

  16. 16.

    Hill Dweller

    @DCLaw1:

    I actually thought Real Time was awful tonight, and for the same reason I usually find the show disappointing. Particularly when there are two conservatives on the panel, Maher is simply outgunned and does not deliver the counterpoints he should.

    Same here. Maher isn’t very bright. The liberal panelist was awful, too.

  17. 17.

    Jay

    Goldie Taylor is a total boss; Marine (There are no “ex” Marines. Even I, a civilian, know that. As a service vet, I trust you do, too, Mr. Cole.), former communications hand for Kasim Reed, (the current Atlanta Mayor and knockout Obama surrogate), and completely accessible to fans. Seriously, Cole, if you tweeted her about guest-blogging here, I bet she’d do it. Ask away, sir!

  18. 18.

    DCLaw1

    Another thing on debating conservatives: when they start bloviating about the potential for voter fraud, without offering actual cases, the response is not befuddled silence and stammering but:

    With a right as fundamental and profound as the right to vote, you need to show that there is an actual – not potential – problem on a significant scale before asking government (emphasize government) to impose any obstacles whatsoever to exercising that right. You have shown no such actual, widespread voter fraud. Short of that, because your proposals disproportionately affect minorities and the poor, we have to presume that your reasons for doing so are simply to suppress their votes.

    Something on that order. They must not be permitted to make the potential fraud argument, because it’s a red herring.

  22. 22.

    Foxhunter

    @DCLaw1:

    It was almost unwatchable. Three loudmouths yellin the while time. Even Taibbi couldn’t get a word in, which is unusual for him.

  25. 25.

    handy

    @Hill Dweller:

    He’s just not a good debater. Even when he invited D’Souza on his show a couple months ago for the express purpose of cock-punching him he still let that twerp get away with some pretty blatant BS.

  27. 27.

    JGabriel

    __
    __

    BTW- I have not posted much yesterday and today, and probably will not until next Friday, because I have a lady friend in town and we are busy DOING IT ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE. IT’s SOME SERIOUS JUNGLE MONKEY LOVE GOING ON, AND WE ARE ONLY STOPPING FOR PEDIALYTE TO REPLENISH FLUIDS, PISS BREAKS, AMYL NITRATE, LUBE, VITAMIN E SHOTS (FOR ME), AND ENERGY DRINKS.

    Ah, yes. I remember when I was 40.

    .

  30. 30.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jay: She completely blew the Marriott criticism. She was trying to criticize Willard for the “Son of Boss” scandal, but completely f’d it up, and let Fund look like he knew what he was talking about.

  33. 33.

    mkd

    John, pedialyte is a undervalued restorative. After a goofy 100 degree high mountain run for which I was not rightly hydrated, my H saw that i was seriously in need of electrolytes and fed me pedialyte with its sweet bunnies and such on the label, which as the day worn on, mixed nicely with wine. Party on with a thought for nutrients and electrolytes and such needed things

  36. 36.

    DCLaw1

    @Hill Dweller: I wasn’t all that impressed with her either, but I chalk a lot of that up to the fact that Boris Prickface to her right kept boorishly interrupting her.

    And Fund has got to be the world’s slipperiest hack I’ve ever seen.

  38. 38.

    Genine

    DOING IT ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE. IT’s SOME SERIOUS JUNGLE MONKEY LOVE GOING ON, AND WE ARE ONLY STOPPING FOR PEDIALYTE TO REPLENISH FLUIDS, PISS BREAKS, AMYL NITRATE, LUBE, VITAMIN E SHOTS (FOR ME), AND ENERGY DRINKS.

    There’s no way that’s happening.

    Cole on having sex on the dining room table:

    “Ew! Unsanitary! I eat my breakfast here.”

    Cole on having monkey love: “I haven’t been able to bend that way since 1995.”

    Cole on drinking Pedialyte: “I want a beer.”

    Piss breaks? Yeah. Probably in the middle of it, too.

    Cole on AMYL NITRATE: “I’m too old for that shit.”

    Cole on Energy drinks: “I’m not drinking a fucking Red Bull at fucking midnight! I will never get to sleep!”

    All-in-all very unbelievable. Now if Cole said “We’re going fool around for about 10 minutes then cuddle and watch T.V.” Then I’d know this is a true romantic liaison.

  40. 40.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I don’t watch Maher because he’s a douchebag, but the only style conservatives know is shout over everyone until you get your point across. Almost makes me long for William F. Buckley. Or at least a host who would have a mute button on their mics and use it often.

  41. 41.

    Luthe

    Can we get an ActBlue page for Chris Murphy? He’s running to replace Lieber-douche, but he’s getting hammered in the ad war by Linda “I got rich off fake wrestling” McMahon. She’s outspent him 3-to-1 and is leading in the polls.

  43. 43.

    Keith G

    Oh, and speaking of getting lucky:

    I want to change my ISP. Where I am at the “best” choices for basic high speed internet only seem to be AT&T and Comcast. Are they both equally evil? Do they cap and/or throttle?

  46. 46.

    Sandy M

    John, enjoy your visit with your lady friend. As for Bill Maher, I was disappointed tonight, those 2 GOP hacks just-did-not-shut-up! They were channelling Romney in his debate performances…just talking over everyone and just being insufferable jerks! The lady panelist was good, but she really had trouble getting a word in edgewise because of those two ‘Romney-lite’ hacks. Maher tried and his initial point was right on track – those GOP folks are just in their little fact-free bubble. I think he just got worn down by the GOP hacks, but I wish Maher would have had a bit more control over the show.

  47. 47.

    mai naem

    @DCLaw1: I was disappointed tonight too. Didn’t help that my cable box kept on cutting up so I had to refresh when Taibbi came in. Gonna have to watch the whole thing later. But, Maher didn’t say a word about Dinesh D’Souza which I am shocked about. I really thought he would go to town on it. Goldie wasn’t bad just outgunned by Lund and whoever the other chickenhawk coward POS was. Very punchable face.

  50. 50.

    DCLaw1

    Then again, if these conservatives want to convince themselves they are heading to 1980 REDUX LANDSLIDE OVER BLACK JIMMY CARTER!!1!1!! then fine. Be my guest – believe Pennsylvania is in reach and Wisconsin is itching to go red. It will make the satisfaction of victory Nov. 6 all the sweeter.

    Not that your prior delusions will at all prevent you from loudly blaming Romney’s liberal-moderate apostasy within two seconds of seeing Ohio called for Obama.

  51. 51.

    Tonal Crow

    we have a viewing of the extended version of LOTR planned

    My very favorite part is where Romney gloats too vigorously on the Ring and falls into the Fire.

  52. 52.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @lamh35: It doesn’t change. I still feel like I’m in my 20s, almost 40 years later.

    Well, except maybe for the lower back. And sometimes the knees.

  56. 56.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    As a reminder, tomorrow is National Archeology Day. Archeologists, always interesting folk in my book, will make themselves extra huggable and available for public adulation.

  57. 57.

    jibeaux

    How can someone’s real name be Epshteyn? You sound like you’re taking an antisemitic jab just saying it…

  58. 58.

    TooManyJens

    @Keith G: We switched from AT&T DSL to Comcast and have never regretted it. They’re both evil on a corporate level, but we get better service from Comcast. (AT&T basically didn’t give a shit about building out their network where I live.) We watch a lot of Netflix streaming and have never been capped or throttled. I think I looked up our usage once and we weren’t even close to the cap. If you do a lot of torrenting or something things might be different. I pretty much only torrent Doctor Who and Sherlock these days.

  59. 59.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @James E. Powell: he has been practically absent on the airwaves for months. Which kind of sucks when your opponents major charge against you is that you were a no show Congessman.

  60. 60.

    DCLaw1

    Oh, and speaking of the election, Charlie Cook sez:

    While this election is still competitive and could go either way, President Obama has built a lead over Mitt Romney of about four or five points in private polling [the super-good polls campaigns use for their own analysis – ed.], with leads in nine of the 11 traditional battleground states. Without some significant event or development in the coming weeks, something to substantially change the current trajectory of this race, Romney will lose.

    http://cookpolitical.com

    More or less the narrative version of what the Princeton Election Consortium and (to a more subdued extent) 538 have been saying in numeric form.

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Comrade Mary: I am trying to find the right groove for this evening. Not there yet. In addition to what I have linked, I have tried the Hold Steady, Francoise Hardy, Jethro Tull, and Dessa. My quest goes on.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @DCLaw1: Tweety had Chuck Todd and a dink from Politico tonight who were all but assured that Obama’s only hope is a narrow EC win, the popular vote is DOOOOMED. I don’t get it> Romney’s gone from a high single-digit lead in FL to 1 or 3, according to two polls today. Obama has been consistently strong in Iowa and Wisconsin, and I just checked TPM, which tends to overweight Rasmussen I think, and Obama is up five in NV and three in CO. Four nat’l polls show Obama lead, Ras shows tied, Gallup Romney +7 in measurements they admit are based in subjective evaluations of “enthusiasm”.

  64. 64.

    burnspbesq

    If there is a just and righteous God, at approximately 10:30 Eastern time tomorrow night Duke will celebrate becoming bowl-eligible for the first time in 18 years by ringing the Victory Bell after beating the crap out of the gaddam Tarheels.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    and Maher really hurt his own show when he accepted RW complaints that it was unfair that he didn’t let bullies dominate his show. Fund is a boor, Stephen MOore is not a well man, I saw Reihan Salan (sp?) a few weeks back, whom I’ve always seen touted as a thoughtful and compelling young conservative, he was pretty Laura Ingraham in man drag, barking with semi-coherent rage

  67. 67.

    DCLaw1

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know – that Chuck Todd/Jonathan Martin segment had a lot of people scratching their head over at Kos, and I was befuddled when I saw it too. Trolling for viewers? Trolling for Dems to get motivated? I have no idea. But I’ve seen utterly no evidentiary basis for such a weird prognosis.

    They were like, “Obama halted Romney’s momentum, but Romney could suddenly surge (for some reason) in the final weeks and get a landslide. It’s either Obama by an electoral college squeaker or a Romney landslide.”

    Herrrn?

  68. 68.

    Comrade Mary

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh, I never knew Ronnie worked with Joey. That was so sweet. I just found this little story she told about working with him. (Oh, man, Joey died in 2001? He’s been gone for 11 years? I thought it was more recent than that.)

    The person who put that up on YT played it twice in succession, and that makes sense, because it really is the kind of song you want to play over and over.

    And now I have to dig out the original from Johnny. It still kills me what a sweet voice he had.

  70. 70.

    Hill Dweller

    @DCLaw1: The likely voter screens(by nearly every pollster) have been complete bullshit for the last couple of months. Obama has a much better ground game, and the enthusiasm gap the Village hacks have been pushing is nonsense.

    I’m not sure is this was done to ensure a horse race, or the result of Republican pressure, but I’ll be interested to see if the polls start reflecting the reality on the ground as we get closer to Nov. 6th.

  71. 71.

    BobS

    Those stereo fat fucks and Goldie Taylor were talking over each other so much the show was nearly unwatchable. I agree she dropped the ball on the Mariott issue. If she was going to bring it up, she should have been a little more prepared to explain it. Maher also should have questioned Fund about that bullshit he spun about voters bussed from Chicago to Ohio instead of letting it go like there was anything remotely factual about the story. He needs to do more homework on the issues (for instance, 2 weeks before this election he knows polls are likely to come up in the discussion- read 538, for christsakes) and learn how to moderate the discussion more effectively while still calling bullshit on the bullshit, like Chris Hayes is able to do on his show.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @DCLaw1:

    Trolling for viewers? Trolling for Dems to get motivated?

    I doubt it. Part of Tweety’s make up is to believe that journos he likes personally are smart and honest; not that Todd or the other one are liars, but they repeat what they’ve been told by their elders; their respectable, centrist elders, of course.

  74. 74.

    mai naem

    @DCLaw1: Well, that makes me feel better. I was listening to a lot of stuff on XMPOTUS today and I finally switched channels late PM when they said Ryan is campaigning in Pennsylvania this weekend. Now, I heard either this morning or last night that Ryan was going to be in Lancaster, PA but the campaign said that it was a mistake, that he was going to the Lancaster,Ohio. So, I don’t know. I can’t believe the Romney people would do a head fake at this point. Anyhoo, I am beginning to feel like a nervous nellie. And Chuck Todd’s comments don’t help.

  77. 77.

    DCLaw1

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bill Maher just needs to let his show be the show it desperately wants to be: liberal round table featuring well-known progressives/reasonable people and special guests to talk about subjects of particular interest. There’s no shame in that. There’s enough diversity within liberal ranks to have plenty to argue, while still rooting the show in basic reality. That way, Bill can do what he does best: crack jokes and move the discussion along, not claw in vain against shameless conservative adversaries he feels a crippling need to keep happy.

  81. 81.

    handy

    @DCLaw1:

    At some point you just have to wonder if it isn’t actually all by design. Actually you don’t have to wonder. Maher doesn’t owe anybody anything, and he knows it. He’s getting what he wants.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @burnspbesq: Nah, not gonna do it. Thanks though.

    @Comrade Mary: Song three of the Omnes Omnibus Divorce Suite. Following Leonard Cohen’s “1000 Kisses Deep” and the Brains’ “Money Changes Everything” and preceding Joey Ramone’s “Wonderful World.” Yeah, I know it is too few songs for a suite, but fuck it.

  84. 84.

    punkdavid

    I realized earlier today that “Please continue, Governor” is Obama’s polite way of saying “Keep fucking that chicken!” Thank you, Balloon Juice!

  88. 88.

    Alison

    Random question for the hive mind: Has anyone here used the Rosetta Stone program for learning a language? I’m considering it but it’s a pretty penny, and I’m curious if people think it’s worth the money…

  89. 89.

    TooManyJens

    I am such a moron. I just talked to Imani and told her she was my second favorite black lady now that I saw Goldie on Maher, and Imani told me- “Jackass. You met Goldie at the DNC. She sat right behind us with Joy Reid during the Michelle speech.”

    This is the best blog.

  91. 91.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Tweety had Chuck Todd and a dink from Politico tonight who were all but assured that Obama’s only hope is a narrow EC win, the popular vote is DOOOOMED. I don’t get it> Romney’s gone from a high single-digit lead in FL to 1 or 3, according to two polls today.

    Zogby had Obama up 6 in FL today, but he doesn’t have a great reputation. CNN had Obama up 7 with RV, but Willard up 1 with LV in FL.

    Again, the likely voter screen is killing Obama in many of these polls. I think they are underestimating OFA’s ground game.

  94. 94.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I looked up “Romnesia” in search and came across this. I wonder if the Obama campaign borrowed it from this guy.

    I loved the way Obama delivered it in a “You might be a redneck…” vein.

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @suzanne: It’s not about the divorce. That only got mentioned because of the Johnny Thunders. Although, I really think the suite was a perfect musical summation of the situation – plus great tunes.

  99. 99.

    PeakVT

    @Alison: I had a copy many versions ago. It was a nicer program than another I had at the time, but language programs just don’t work for me. If you think you can learn via a program, it might be worth the extra money to get a good program (which Rosetta may or may not be at this time).

  101. 101.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @TooManyJens:

    This is the best blog.

    I dunno whether I’m proud or ashamed to agree that yes, it is. I am wasting way too much of my life following Cole, the FPers, and the commenters here.

  103. 103.

    Jewish Steel

    @Omnes Omnibus: Absolutely it does lead to the Pogues.

    I’ve just added an accordionist to my super secret new project, so I’ve been trawling my collection for accordion music for him to listen to. Lotsa Pogues

  104. 104.

    suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Well, good. I’m sure it stings at times, but I’m glad you’re not wallowing. I just saw my ex-husband earlier this evening. It took a few years to get there, but I honestly feel nothing in his direction—not angry, not bitter, not jealous, not curious, not smug, just….nothing. It’s rather nice.

  105. 105.

    Redshift

    @PeakVT: Good to know. I’m thinking of trying it, too, for Russian. I’ve had varying results from classes — I’m generally good with pronunciation and writing, but I never get good at verbal comprehension.

  106. 106.

    DCLaw1

    @Hill Dweller: You may be right about the ground game. Most certainly about the likely voter voodoo. But even within the constraints of likely voter polls, if you exclude the obvious Gallup tracking outlier, Obama looks good heading down the final stretch.

    Plus, we haven’t even seen the effects of debate #2 in full bloom yet. Sam Wang at the Princeton Election Consortium has convincingly shown, with examples, that it typically takes 10-12 days for a politically meaningful event’s impact to be fully reflected in polls. That’s not to say that debate 2 will result in some massive wave, but it’s still too early to draw the high water mark.

    Then there’s debate 3, foreign policy. I expect Obama to continue to be on in the way he was in debate 2 and in subsequent appearances. He had a scare with debate 1 and is ready to shut this shit down.

  109. 109.

    RadioOne

    One thing I never imagined was the Democrats holding onto the Senate if Obama lost his re-election bid, given how many Dem seats are contested in this election. But no, we’re definitely keeping the Senate, we’re not going to come close to taking the House, and Barack Obama is only favored to win re-election by a tenth of a percent. After six years of wave elections, voters in America have apparently once again decided to split tickets.

    This was my nightmare.

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @RadioOne: Here is what will happen: Obama wins 52-48% with 300+ EVs, Dems gain two in the Senate, and they come within five in the House. Calme toi.

  111. 111.

    Alison

    @PeakVT: Yeah, I have no idea how the concept of learning on my own would go, but I’m not able to do a class-type thing now, so it’s my only option. But it’s an expensive option :P

  112. 112.

    DCLaw1

    @RadioOne: Obama is favored by more than a tenth of a percent. Don’t go off the Real Clear Politics average – it incorporates the blatant Gallup tracking outlier, as well as several polls from Obama’s low between the two debates. He’s up by more than that, and as a matter of probability, favored by between 68% (Nate Silver) and 90% (Sam Wang) to win.

  113. 113.

    PeakVT

    @Redshift: I’ve given up trying to learn a language without having an immediate need to do so (which I’ve never had outside of high-school classes). I’m just too ADD, and I’ve never found any information or entertainment in another language that is so compelling that it would cause me to focus on learning. That’s frustrating, since I am firmly of the belief that everyone should be able to read and converse at least functionally in more than one language. (I’m well below the functional level with French.) But oh well.

    @Alison: Does Rosetta have a money-back guarantee? If so, you might as well give it a try. What language do you want to learn?

  114. 114.

    Redshift

    I am pretty much a zombie because I got up after four hours of sleep last night to go volunteer for the Obama rally today. (Well worth it.) I don’t really have anything more to say, but I seem to feel the need to post a comment anyway.

    Braaaaaains!

  116. 116.

    Alison

    @PeakVT: They do offer a six-month money-back window, so…that helps. I want to learn Spanish, since I decided to be frou-frou in high school and take French. I just feel like knowing at least relatively decent conversational Spanish is a good thing for anyone really. As a progressive living in a state/local area with a large Hispanic/Latin@ population, I feel even more like it’s something I should do.

  121. 121.

    Steeplejack

    @Alison:

    It depends on the outcome you want (e.g., complete mastery, passable fluency on vacation, etc.) and your personal style of learning. To me, Rosetta Stone is like a 40-pound wristwatch: it does what it’s supposed to do, but it’s very ungainly.

    I prefer the Pimsleur system, which is straight-up geared toward speaking and oral fluency. (You listen to CDs or MP3 files.) You have to supplement it with books for grammar and in-depth stuff, but you have to do that with Rosetta Stone, too. Rosetta Stone is more “visual”–full-scale app on your computer–but a lot of the visual stuff seems to me to be plodding and chrome-tailfin-ish. (But, as I said, this may relate to my style of learning, and it might be a good fit for you.)

    My experience with Pimsleur is Spanish (refresh after going pretty far with it in high school and college decades ago) and Portuguese (currently learning in solidarity with my brother, whose partner is Brazilian, and also to see how Pimsleur is on a language I have no previous experience with). My brother also has Rosetta Stone. I have worked with it somewhat, but I haven’t gone through the complete course. I felt like I was getting more from Pimsleur.

    I would recommend that you go to Amazon and read the user comments for Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. There are a lot of detailed, informative comments from language weenies of all levels, and I found them very useful.

    One good thing about Pimsleur is that they have an inexpensive “starter set” (for most languages) that comprises the first 10 or 12 lessons from Level 1. It’s about $20; you could check that out and see if you want to go farther with it. I don’t think Rosetta Stone has anything similar to that.

    Finally, if you decide to continue with Pimsleur, a relatively cheap way to do it is to buy an Audible membership and download the lessons as audiobooks. I got the high-end membership for $120 and was able to get all three levels of Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese with some credits to spare.

  128. 128.

    Alison

    @Steeplejack: And now reading this comment, it sounds like Pimsleur might be the way to go for me, based on your description. I’ll look into reviews, to be sure, but definitely thanks very much for the input!

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That seems about right to me.

    The only poll I believe is the 7-Eleven one where people can get their coffee in a blue cup or a red cup. It has picked the winner of every election since 2000, and it very closely tracks the actual voting percentages. It has Obama up 60-40.

  131. 131.

    eemom

    Of all the vast sea of sewage that is the emmessemm horse race, NPR has, in its own quiet understated way, been one of the worst.

    Exhibit A: at least two bullshit headlines about Romtron killing Obama amongst “rural” swing state voters in the last month — which upon cursory examination proved to be based on polls of laughably small numbers.

    Exhibit B: this evening’s headline ominously warning that Obama’s 2008 advantage amongst women “may be gone.”

    I mean, I know NPR’s reputation as anything OTHER than just another emmessemm hackfest in public radio clothing has long been debunked — but this is a level of lying whoredom that surprises even me.

  134. 134.

    mdblanche

    My snowbird relatives are heading down to Florida soon, which means the extended family will be celebrating Thanksgiving early tomorrow, lest we be denied the pleasure (sic) of their company. As if life wasn’t stressful enough without a visit to Burpleson Air Force Base. Hopefully if politics gets mentioned this year the debate this year will leave me feeling less suicidal than the one in 2010 between the conservative Republicans who felt it would be a good thing for someone to assassinate the President and the moderate Republicans who felt that would be a bad thing leading to riots by “those people,” dontcha know. That dinner was what I used to calibrate my expectations for the last two years, and overall I have to say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’m sure they’ll be deep enough in the Fox News cocoon that they still won’t see the Kenyan socia1ist usurper’s reelection coming, but if I’m not back by 8 tomorrow, you might want to scope out some mine shafts.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @Alison:

    I just feel like knowing at least relatively decent conversational Spanish is a good thing for anyone really.

    You should definitely check out Pimsleur, then. I did the Spanish refresh when I was at Barnes & Noble because I was given the (surprisingly large number of) Spanish-only customers when our two fluent Spanish speakers weren’t around. It was very frustrating, because I could understand them pretty well but couldn’t speak worth a damn, after so many years of not using Spanish. The Pimsleur really cleaned off the rust and got me going again. It’s a really good system for conversational fluency.

  137. 137.

    freelancer

    @Jewish Steel:

    Oh, I was going to suggest Nic Jones. I just discovered this song this past week.

    It’s weird to see one’s own name and not know about the reference, but “Nick Jones” is pretty much ungoogleable. This is catchy in its own way.

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @eemom: Sorry, love. I called 6-3 on the ACA case and people bitched that I got it wrong and blah, blah, blah…. I intend to beat the spread this time.

  139. 139.

    Haydnseek

    @Omnes Omnibus: Whaaaaat? Another Brains fan? Amazing! Back in the day, when I was in a halfway decent band, “Raeline” always got a huge response (from the thirty people there, but still…) Always gave The Brains credit for the song, even knowing how easy it would be……………..

  141. 141.

    Jewish Steel

    @John Cole: 92? Pfft. I’m ankling this rinky-dink, two bit blog. Movin up. See you at #77, The Playstation Blog, losers!

    added: is there a rock name more at odds with its hit single than Norman Greenbaum?

  142. 142.

    Redshift

    @efgoldman: Romney’s foreign policy activity during the campaign has consisted of publishing op-eds that are so ludicrously uninformed that past Republican foreign policy officials feel compelled to comment publicly, and embarrassing himself in every country he’s traveled to.

    In addition, we have anonymous campaign sources saying that he’s so uninterested in foreign policy that they’re not sure he even reads the briefings they write for him, and the fact that he has had less time to prepare than for any other debate. And he always believes he’s the smartest person in the room.

    I hate to get my expectations up too much, but this could be epic.

  146. 146.

    Goblue72

    Am the only one curious who Cole’s WoW / LOTR loving lady friend might be? Did sparks arise with Imani’s friend at the DNC? (Heather?). Gossiping minds are curious…

  147. 147.

    Redshift

    @eemom: Sam Wang says that in all but one case in modern history, if a presidential candidate wins by 3% or more, his party wins the House. So in a way, he already did.

  150. 150.

    Steeplejack

    @freelancer:

    What, are they all in the pocket of Big Rosetta? Or do they just hate all self-learning systems?

    Actually, one of my bucket list fantasies is to take a French-language “locked in a room for four weeks with Odette” immersion course and then immediately fly to France for an extended vacation.

  153. 153.

    Hill Dweller

    @Redshift: I think the Obama campaign was just taunting Willard with the “Romnesia” jokes and the “he’s not one of us” commercial in Ohio on Friday. They want him furious coming into the debate. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if Obama tried to get under his skin during the debate. Angry Mitt tends to drop the moderate facade.

  155. 155.

    Steeplejack

    I went to see Kathy Griffin at Constitution Hall tonight with bro’ man’s entourage. She was even better than I expected, and I like her a lot. Big surprise: she is a gifted mimic. In her D-list trash talking she did spot-on vocal imitations of Cher, Oprah, Céline Dion, Miley Cyrus and half the cast of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

  156. 156.

    Haydnseek

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not quite sure where you’re coming from, but I’ll take that as a compliment. I may be 60 years old, but I pay very close attention, and I’m still lucky enough to play with some very fine musicians. “I ain’t got no diamond rings, but my guitar has brand new strings.” The first one’s free.

  157. 157.

    Comrade Mary

    @Omnes Omnibus: I love that version, and the weird thing is, I just heard the story behind the song this past weekend on the CBC. Wiki gives a decent summary:

    “Save the Last Dance for Me” is the title of a popular song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, first recorded in 1960 by Ben E. King with The Drifters. …
    __
    In the song, the narrator tells his lover she is free to mingle and socialize throughout the evening, but to make sure to save him the dance at the end of the night. During an interview on Elvis Costello’s show Spectacle, Lou Reed, who worked with Pomus, said the song was written on the day of Pomus’ wedding while the wheelchair-bound groom watched his bride dancing with their guests. Pomus had polio and at times used crutches to get around.[4] His wife, Willi Burke, however, was a Broadway actress and dancer. The song gives his perspective of telling his wife to have fun dancing, but reminds her who will be taking her home and “in whose arms you’re gonna be.”

    (Why am I still up?)

  159. 159.

    GregB

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:


    Moonbat    :

    An unthinking or insane leftist — in other words, most modern leftists.

    Moonbat can also be used as an adjective, e.g. a moonbat professor. According to the Wikipedia entry for moonbat, the word was coined in 2002 by the Editor of Samizdata, Perry de Havilland, and was a variation on the name of radical British activist and columnist George Monbiot.

  161. 161.

    freelancer

    @Steeplejack:

    It’s the stupid pop ad you see all over the web. If it works it works, but it’s in the same vein of “One weird trick to lose 40 lbs, increase your dick eleventy billion inches with one weird trick, Energy companies HATE this guy!, and so on.”

  162. 162.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Haydnseek: There weren’t a lot of Brains fans. Or else the would have been more famous. I was at a small private college in the early to mid 80s and there was a culture there of appreciation for different music. We were snotty little bastards, but our musical taste was impeccable.

  163. 163.

    freelancer

    @Steeplejack:

    It’s the stupid pop ad you see all over the web. If it works it works, but it’s in the same vein of “One weird trick to lose 40 lbs, increase your dick eleventy billion inches with one weird trick, Energy companies HATE this guy!, and so on.”

  164. 164.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Haydnseek: There weren’t a lot of Brains fans. Or else the would have been more famous. I was at a small private college in the early to mid 80s and there was a culture there of appreciation for different music. We were snotty little bastards, but our musical taste was impeccable.

  165. 165.

    eemom

    @Hill Dweller:

    All the Republicans had to do was threaten to cut their funding, and NPR fell in line.

    Deplorable. Big Bird could teach them a thing or two about integrity.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I called 6-3 on the ACA case

    Sigh. Now that Cole is safely off boinking his mysterious gf I can admit how deeply horrified I am that it ended up being as close as it was — and not because I give a shit about calling it wrong, either.

    No Virginia, the stakes in this election could NOT, in fact, be higher.

  166. 166.

    GregB

    P.S. I saw stats on the ground game earlier and Obama had over 700 field offices.

    Romney over 200.

  174. 174.

    Haydnseek

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes it was. I hauled the Brains LP out of a dusty box of used LP’s at one of my fave used record huts just for grins, and was hooked. Played it for the band and that was it, we were off to the races. It didn’t hurt that we were absolutely certain that nobody knew of this band, and we would gain a certain amount of cred for covering one of their songs. The snob was strong in our little corner of barband world. I may be an old fart now, but I still pay attention, and am lucky enough to play with some fine musicians and friends.

  179. 179.

    Alison

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, looking more into both, Pimsleur sounds like the better fit for me. The money is still bleerrrgh but I’m trying to think of it as an investment for the future, lol. If/when I ever look for work again, being bilingual around here is a big plus.

  182. 182.

    Origuy

    I’m doing the Pimsleur lessons for Russian. I did them a few years ago, but didn’t have a reason to keep it up. Now that my commute is about twice as far, I can usually do a complete lesson in one drive. Each lesson is about 27 minutes long, and you should expect to do them twice for full effect. For Russian, they don’t give a lot of vocabulary, but work the (six) case endings and basic vocabulary repeatedly. It’s good for pronunciation, too.

    Edit: check your public library. They may have some language recordings you can try out. There is also an online service called Mango that a lot of libraries subscribe to.

  183. 183.

    Yutsano

    @Alison: I’ve seen ads around offering Pimsleur for pretty cheap, so you might get the starter kit for not a lot of dough. And you’re definitely right about bilingual skill being valuable. I can speak German conversationally, and they loved me for it when I went there.

  185. 185.

    Alison

    @Origuy: The only issue with the library thing for me is, while I have endless free time, I am also a gigantoid procrastinator, plus a voracious reader, so I’d have no idea when I’d be able to get around to actually using the tapes. Having them on loan would be a PITA :P

  186. 186.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @GregB:

    Ahhh, so moonbat is someone on the left who is closer to the center than the teahadists on the right are.

    Thanks for the info!

    @Yutsano:

    So I see you are making up for the etting. ;)

  187. 187.

    eemom

    omg. What a clusterfuck.

    Riiiiight, Cole — the site works perfectly 99.9% of the time, and I’m the most miserable asshole who ever existed for suggesting otherwise.

  191. 191.

    Marshall

    @DCLaw1: Isn’t that Charlie Cook quote from a few weeks ago ? (I.e., before the first debate?) He is not saying quite the same thing today.

  192. 192.

    Pattonbt

    @Jewish Steel: my last name is the same as an Aussie politician who is suspected of procuring call girls on his business credit card (when he was a big union chief). Many yucks were had in th office when the big headline of the day was “X cited on dozen hookers”.

  193. 193.

    dance around in your bones

    Aw, fuck it. I thought we were getting some actual details tonight – not that I would share them with THIS crowd, doncha know.

    Just have fun, and use appropriate birth control methods, if warranted. Just sayin’.

  195. 195.

    Maude

    I learned French and German and did speak fluently where they were spoken.
    I learned the grammar of both languages. That helped so much because I could figure out how to say something.
    There used to be a Barnes and Noble German grammar book and it was fabulous.
    If you learn the basic structure of a language, you will be able to pick up the vocabulary.
    If it’s Spanish and you are around people who speak Spanish, ask them how to say things.

  196. 196.

    xian

    @DCLaw1: eh… that wouldn’t be… wait for it, “politically incorrect.”

    face it, Maher is not a liberal. He is a rich, hedonistic glibertarian with racist fantasies.

  201. 201.

    Central Planning

    I heard Boris on POTUS a few weeks ago… Standup with Pete Dominick. It was so bad I had to turn it off. He would interrupt, pivot to points that were totally unrelated, and basically be a dick.

  202. 202.

    keestadoll

    No HBO. Can anyone who watched it give me some feedback on his interview with Gary Hirshberg? Prop 37 is very near and dear to my heart out here on the left coast.

  204. 204.

    Steeplejack

    @Alison:

    Pimsleur has a lot of different programs; the intro ones can be confusing to sort out. Basically, they contain the first eight or 10 lessons from the “regular” course and may or may not include a pamphlet. You won’t learn a lot of Spanish from them, but you should be able to get a very good idea whether the Pimsleur method works for you and whether it’s worth continuing.

    Typically, you are thrown into a very simple “conversation” and asked to listen and repeat phrases to build your facility with hearing and speaking. The drilling is repetitive and builds gradually.

    I think Pimsleur’s strength is that it gives you a correct accent and really helps you “hear” Spanish when spoken. (That was a problem for me when I was first learning, especially with rapid speakers).

    Here’s one of the basic Spanish programs at Amazon–10 lessons on CD for $16.43.

    Pimsleur’s program descriptions here. You can also sign up to get a free lesson (presumably on line).

    Note: The MP3 versions of the Pimsleur courses are much cheaper than the CD versions, typically about half.

    Also, I made a mistake last night about Audible.com. The deluxe membership was $240, not $120, but with that I was able to download all three levels of Brazilian Portuguese and still have some credits left over.

  205. 205.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Steeplejack: Wouldn’t being locked in a room with Odette for four weeks count as an extended vacation? Or at least hot jungle monkey love?

  206. 206.

    Kane

    Part of me wishes that Bill Maher would resist inviting guests that live in the bubble. But then we wouldn’t have video of Christine O’Donnell. Still, when there’s more than one them on the show as there was last night, it makes it difficult to watch.

  207. 207.

    DCLaw1

    @Marshall: You could be right about that. I’m not sure why that text is right there in the current front page “Top Lines” if so. At any rate, while Obama’s lead was certainly much more solid pre-first debate, the polling is beginning to turn, and Cook’s private poll report looks even stronger for O than the commercial polls.

  208. 208.

    jake the snake

    John Fund, Bill O’Reilly, Dinesh D’Souza, etc.
    Why is it all these right wing bloviator’s personal
    lives resemble porn plots.

    BTW, off-topic, wonder what triggered the hot milf ads?

  210. 210.

    Matt McIrvin

    @DCLaw1: I’m not convinced that the LV screens other than Gallup’s are that far off. They didn’t do badly in previous election years, and I haven’t heard that there’s been much changed.

    Gallup’s, on the other hand, has a long history of producing weird results. It’s respected essentially because it was the first likely-voter screen anyone ever tried to do.

  211. 211.

    John

    @DCLaw1: God damn why is my state (FL) leaning R! Moving the fuck out of this shithole as soon as economic circumstances allow.

  212. 212.

    Bruce S

    I have to say, although I love Goldie – who is an MSNBC regular, including on Chris Hayes’ not-top-miss weekend shows – that Maher’s show was particularly awful. Why in the world would he book two – count ’em TWO – GOPer idiots to sit next to each other and reinforce their morbidly cloistered, aggressively ignorant perspective. At least Fund has some name recognition – could serve as the GOP foil if that’s what Maher is looking for – but between the two of those jerks, they made the show nearly unwatchable. Goldie tore into them, but it was kind of bizarre – and even Matt Taibbi didn’t engage their utterly asinine talking points with any precision or consistency. Maher did tell them the were fucked up. But not a show I consider worth an hour on HBO – those guys really brought it down, and in front of a different audience than Mahers, they might well have been seen to have had the better of the rest of the panel, such was their obstinacy in maintaining hard-right moron discipline.

  213. 213.

    Bill Arnold

    @DCLaw1:

    With a right as fundamental and profound as the right to vote, you need to show that there is an actual – not potential – problem on a significant scale before asking government (emphasize government) to impose any obstacles whatsoever to exercising that right.

    Has anyone asked one of these conservapundits whether it should be easier in the U.S.A to (a) vote or to (b) buy a gun?

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