Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Petty moves from a petty man.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

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

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

“But what about the lurkers?”

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Republicans in disarray!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You cannot shame the shameless.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

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

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Bleg / Open thread

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    Spatula

    I have seen pics of Mittens in Mom jeans.

    I did not know PBO has committed the same fashion atrocity.

  2. 2.

    MaxxLange

    I made with a donation, finally. I had been so alienated by incessant phone calls that I almost said screw it. And it enrages me that I just basically transferred money that I need to some local station conglomerate media company in Ohio. And that elections are decided by money. But I just can’t bring myself to give nothing.

    Are political campaigns aware that their endless junk emails and other CRM-style efforts alienate some people? Surely they must be. Calling my phone 2 and 3 times a day is not the way to get me to answer your calls.

  5. 5.

    RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    You jest, but this storm comes at a really bad time. It can take a while for emergency response to ramp up after a disaster, no matter how prepared they are. If it looks like Obama ‘abandoned’ Virginia or whatever that could give Mitt unearned talking points right before the voting.
    I’m not concern trolling, just extrapolating from previous natural disasters and the immediate politicization.

    ETA: and anything that goes wrong with teh response/remediation, whether state, county or local will be portrayed as Obama’s Katrina. You know it will.

  6. 6.

    Raven

    Can’t go home if you’re going by the mill
    Cause the bridge’ washed out at the bottom of the hill
    Big Creek’s up, Little Creek’s level,
    Plow my corn with a double shovel

    Stay all night, stay a little longer
    Dance all night, dance a little longer
    Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
    Don’t see why you can’t stay a little longer.

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    I assume GOP voters will ignore Sandy, since they don’t seem to give a shit about women in any other context.

  8. 8.

    Anibundel

    Obama’s canceled all his gigs for the next 48 hours in order to be ready to respond to Sandy.
    meanwhile, the gas lines here in VA are 19070s-esque.
    People: we’re not in the eye of the storm here. We’re well south: IT’S JUST GOING TO RAIN.

  9. 9.

    BGinCHI

    These two lines have been earworming me like crazy the last few days:

    The heroine does heroin she reads her Elmore Leonard every day;

    She’s the one who finds the body, he’s the one who gets away.

  10. 10.

    Raven

    @BGinCHI:

    Well, I pawned my Smith Corona
    And I went to meet my man
    He hangs out down on Alvarado Street
    By the Pioneer chicken stand

  11. 11.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @MaxxLange:
    I have a different experience. I get a couple calls a day from Team Obama reminding me to vote. I enjoy talking to them and making the connection with like-minded people. We are universally optimistic about what’s gonna happen next Tuesday.

    Being an Oregonian I auto-voted on Monday this week. Drove my Honda up to the drive-in window at a trailer/kiosk set up in the parking lot of the county elections office and handed the nice man who leaned out my ballot. No one tried to harass me or yell at me or wave a sign in my face or question my ID or interfere in any way/shape/form with my right to vote. Waited in line 30 seconds. Then went to our well funded library to pick up the DVDs I reserved on their website. Oregon really makes it easy. Liberals did that.

  12. 12.

    IowaOldLady

    Question for those of you who read right wing blogs. (I can’t. I’m old and it’s bad for my blood pressure.)

    Are they talking about early voting like a lot of posts I see on LW blogs? The lefty posts all says “heavy turnout and excited voters.” What’s the talk from right-wing world?

  14. 14.

    Raven

    And the ever popular

    To some I’m a wise man, to some I’m a fool
    But I need a little something to keep my cool
    I sleep with the sun and I rise with the moon
    And I feel alright with my needle and spoon

  15. 15.

    RK

    Got a bad feeling about this election. Sensing critical movement over to Romney in the final days. Hope I’s wrong.

  16. 16.

    MaxxLange

    @Capt. Seaweed: I gave a lot in 2008, which seems to have put me in a fundraising queue for this year. I’m sort of embarrassed by what I admit is a childish reaction to a pretty minor annoyance, but there it is.

  18. 18.

    Geoduck

    @RK:

    Sensing critical movement over to Romney in the final days.

    Where exactly are you sensing this? Obama is going to win, at least in the Electoral Collage. The popular vote and Congress are more up in the air.

  19. 19.

    Zippity

    Hey very smart BJ commenters-my wingnut brother, and others, are posting about how Pres Obama watched the part of the attack in Libya in the Situation Room and then went to bed. Saying that he personally made the decision to not send help to the consulate when they called for help twice. Any idea where this info is coming from? They are all up in arms that this info is completely being ignored by the “liberal media”. My brother is a retired Major, so people think he knows what he’s talking about.

  21. 21.

    Capt. Seaweed

    @MaxxLange:
    I gave $100 early on to ActBlue and that’s been all this cycle. I was a Deaniac in 2004 and every time they put that f’in baseball bat up I’d donate $100. Pavlovian, it was.

    I learned my lesson.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    So the pres has a conference call on Tues. which I could listen to. I assume that means he wants more money and I could give more money. Does it really matter if I give money directly rather than Act Blue?

  23. 23.

    James E. Powell

    From what I can tell, Obama is definitely losing the Guys Who Only Read the Sports Section vote, but is way ahead in the Kids Who Vote the Opposite of Their Parents to Piss Them Off demographic.

  24. 24.

    IowaOldLady

    @RK: PPP just released their Ohio numbers and show 51-47 for Obama. Breathe. Don’t let up but don’t panic either.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @Zippity:

    Watching it how? Does your friend brother think the attackers were wearing cameras like Seal Team 6 was and sending the feed to the situation room? Or that the embassy staff walk around wearing helmet cams 24/7?

  27. 27.

    kay

    @RK:

    PPP has O up from last week in Ohio, which we needed because OH Democrats love the OH newspaper poll, which came out today, and has them even.

    So now we can all calm down. Until 20 minutes from now :)

  30. 30.

    debbie

    @ RK:

    Got a bad feeling about this election.

    Rest easy. This morning, Newt predicted Romney would win 53-47%. Knowing his track record when it comes to predictions, it’s in the bag for Obama.

  31. 31.

    Cacti

    @RK:

    Got a bad feeling about this election. Sensing critical movement over to Romney in the final days. Hope I’s wrong.

    Strangely, neither Nate Silver nor Sam Wang are showing “critical movement” over to Romney. Quite the opposite, actually.

    But your senses are duly noted, concern Spider Man.

  32. 32.

    Comrade Mary

    The one thing that concerns me about states like Ohio is that Ralph Reed is out there again trying to drive the evangelical vote. IIRC, one of the reasons why OH and other states tipped red in 2004 was motivated right wing churchgoers.

    I’ve seen reports here and elsewhere that there is a lot of obvious GOTV activity from Democrats and almost none from Republicans in several states, but don’t let that lull you into complacency. They may not be going from door to door, but they are pretty damn certain to be doing a lot through churches.

  33. 33.

    Sparrowgal

    @ BGinCHI: In what proved to be a kind of cathartic exercise, I took you up on your challenge, and revamped that 1800’s cartoon slightly. Nothing gave me more pleasure than having the AfAm gentleman hand Sununu an anvil. Unfortunately not legible, the bottom of the anvil is imprinted with Toledo, Ohio. Let’s hope this turns out to be prophetic!!

    This Bud’s for you.

  35. 35.

    Chris

    @Zippity:

    Whenever I hear a story like this relayed by a Foxbot, I generally assume it’s the wingnut media throwing out the daily ration of slop for the pigs to come to. Because, well, it usually is. You’d go completely insane if you tried to refute every Fox-story-of-the-day that they try to pass off as “fact.” It’s like trying to argue with GOSPLAN reports on the state of the Soviet economy.

  37. 37.

    TR

    If you’re feeling nervous about the election, do something.

    Donate money, donate time, donate both.

  38. 38.

    Schlemizel

    anybody know what hospital Mr. Cole is in? Maybe one of us could call & talk to him to find out how he is doing since his damn kid isn’t sharing

  41. 41.

    MaxxLange

    A cheer-up story. I found out that a guy on my main Internet haunt, who has for years been the hard-right character, bringing us all the good news about the free market and spreading freedom with cluster bombs, has actually changed his registration to Democratic this year, and is supporting Obama.

  42. 42.

    Turgidson

    @RK:

    PPP: Obama 51, Mittens 47 in Ohio; Obama 49, Mittens 47 in NH.

    Mittmentum is a figment of Chuck Todd and Wolf Blitzer’s acid trips, nothing more.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @Zippity:

    Also, too, Snopes.com is currently investigation but has not put up any conclusions yet (they just got the story sent to them yesterday). I would check back there in a few days to see if they’ve had time to debunk it. But it sounds like dirty tricks to me since the claims are being promulgated right before the election.

    @RK:

    You are experiencing an attack of funk. Turn off the computer, pour yourself a drink, and watch a movie or read a book that’s completely non-election related and the feeling will pass.

  45. 45.

    YellowJournalism

    @Raven: That was even getting air time up here on the Canadian talk radio. They played an interview Beck did with the father of one of the fallen SEALs. The father claimed that Clinton told him they were going to arrest the video creator and said Clinton was disingenuous and Obama was a cold fish who seeme disinterested in meeting the families. I call bullshit and think these family members are either bein exploited and played upon or they had prejudices that just got stronger in their anger over the deaths.

  46. 46.

    TheMightyTrowel

    OMG song of the decade: Yeasayers Reagan’s Skeleton

    Don't fear the red eyes, fear the satellite overhead
    That's Reagan's skeleton, marching our way
    Sentimental violence, leading his armies in a fog eternally

    And as her face grew sick her nails tore out my heart
    Blood trickled down, economically

  47. 47.

    Sparrowgal

    @BGinCHI: Thanks!! My rudimentary Photoshop skillz were sorely tried, but this was fun. Hand out of the water was original. Middle finger was per the original article’s intent.

  48. 48.

    James E. Powell

    @Comrade Mary:

    The thing is, in 2004, they Republicans needed to whip up the wingers because there was such widespread disillusionment with Bush. Many people were beginning to sour on the Iraq invasion because it was dragging on with no apparent progress. That’s why they put all those anti-gay/lesbian issues on the ballot in swing states, including Ohio.

    This year, the Republicans do not need to whip up the wingers. They have been whipped up since January 20, 2009. They hate the president. Ralph Reed can’t get anyone to the polls who wasn’t already planning on going.

  51. 51.

    Zippity

    @Mnemosyne: I know-we don’t ever talk politics, so I’m not going to make a single comment back, but I’m seeing other relatives buy into what he’s saying. He served with one of the guys who died in Afghanistan, so he’s making it seem like he has inside information. “My sources” and “I’ve discovered” phrases. We didn’t speak for over a year after his “Ambien and alcohol” fueled texts on election night in 2008.

  52. 52.

    gogol's wife

    @1badbaba3:

    But can you imagine if that had been Obama instead of Romney standing there with Meatloaf? It would be replayed every 15 minutes on every cable news show 24/7.

  53. 53.

    YellowJournalism

    @Raven: I heard the dad talking and something just didn’t add up in his story. Although I could actually believe the one about Biden and the brass balls comment.

  55. 55.

    Comrade Mary

    @James E. Powell: That’s a good argument. I still want to see the right kind of storm surge in Democratic GOTV. Things look better now than they have for a few weeks, but this is still a little too close for comfort.

  62. 62.

    CW in LA

    @1badbaba3: But… but Meatloaf! That’s HUGE (in more than one sense)! I mean, can the surviving members of The Knack be far behind? Or even… Styx! We’re all gonna DIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

    (Sorry, all – Andrew Sullivan got ahold of my account there for a moment.)

  66. 66.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Geoduck:

    the Electoral Collage

    This actually made me suppress a LOL in the coffee shop.

    ETA: Not to make fun of your spelling faux pas, but it just sounds so … descriptive of the whole presidential election process.

  68. 68.

    Paul

    @Zippity:

    These types of made-up stories happens 24/7 on FoxNews. Hell, they were convinced that Hillary Clinton had killed Vince Foster.

    Unless I hear about it on MSNBC, I could give a rats a$$ what right-wing media claims. They have such an embarrassing track record that it is not worth anybody’s time.

  69. 69.

    Maude

    @Lojasmo:
    He no longer has that thumb. That is a serious injury.
    We but into Cole’s life at any given time and we would like to know how Mr. Cole is doing.

  70. 70.

    max

    And give more money to the mom-jeans-wearing tyrant.

    I actually gave a little bit more (since you and Joe Biden asked), but I’ve been much more busy giving it up for Madame Orange & Black. I am almost double Obama to the House & Senate. Because goddammit, I want the House back.

    Anibundel: People: we’re not in the eye of the storm here. We’re well south: IT’S JUST GOING TO RAIN.

    They’re saying all kinds of things out here. We’re talking maybe 3-4 inches of rain (6 inches tops) and people are saying, ‘The river will flood and burst its banks!’ (20 feet?) and ‘We’re going to get three feet of snow!’ and apparently a crazy woman saying ‘We’re going to get 30 feet of snow!’ Not a generator to be found in the whole damn town.

    Red area or no red area, making fun of East coasters or not, these people are nuts.

    max
    [Well, no wonder they freak out about tornadoes.’]

  72. 72.

    Tonal Crow

    @Zippity: If it’s coming from a wingnut, P > 0.95 that it’s bullshit under ordinary conditions, and P > 0.99 that it’s bullshit this close to this election. Just look at their record.

  76. 76.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Dr. Omed: That is a classic, Joss! I like to send this to Free Republic. But do they know who Joss Whedon is? I bet Libertarian worshipers of Firefly just had their heads exploded.

  78. 78.

    Loneoak

    What’s the over/under on this being the work of DougJ?

    One of two things happened on Monday:

    1. Veteran political news analyst Cokie Roberts joined Twitter and began a hapless and uncharacteristically snarky campaign of ranting, later mistaking Twitter for Google and tweeting Applebee’s-related search queries; or
    2. Someone pretending to be Roberts decided to start a hoax account mocking the twitterphobic NPR and ABC journalist.
    The answer: No. 2.

  79. 79.

    Zippity

    @sven: I love Joss! Am getting ready to watch the whole series of Firefly. Haven’t watched it in about 4 years.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @Raven:

    Fuckin McCain said today it’s “worse than Watergate”.

    That’s the Frank-Luntz-tested, Karl-Rove-approved line they’re using: any Benghazi cover-up would be worse than Watergate, because nobody died in Watergate.

    I guess the whole “treason” part just drops away as soon as there’s a dead body.

  83. 83.

    kay

    @debbie:

    Sherrod is up nine. That’s the good news. Josh Mandel will still be the state treasurer when he loses, and he’s 15 years old. That’s the bad news.

  85. 85.

    Davis X. Machina

    @kay: What conceivable profile would a Sherrod-yes, Obama-no voter have? Brown’s one of the more progressive Senators… Not-invented-here syndrome?

  87. 87.

    Hill Dweller

    @Davis X. Machina: I suspect you already know the answer. It’s the same reason people were willing to vote for Hillary in the primary but not Obama in the general, despite them having nearly identical policy proposals.

  89. 89.

    cat48

    Those worried that Obama is in peril regarding the Election are correct. Sides at the Monkey Cage said that the electorate always blames the incumbent for natural disasters according to their research.

    He said one way to alleviate some of the damage at the ballot box is to declare it a federal disaster area quickly.

    This has all made me very angry & sad at once. Unbelievable you’re fired for a natural disaster! VA & NH & maybe OH will be affected adversely. He has a lead in PA so he thinks that state may be ok. NOT RIGHT!

  90. 90.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @cat48: Oh god. don’t start the freak out circular firing squad yet. the damn thing hasn’t even made landfall and the election isn’t for a week! Go have a chamomile tea and calm the frick down!

  92. 92.

    kay

    @Davis X. Machina:

    We have been ID’ing for both Obama and Brown for months, and the Sherrod not-Obama voter definitely exists.

    Part of it is how well they know Sherrod, statehouse, sec of state, US House, Senator and part of it is he’s genuinely responsive, he really is a good public servant, but part of it is race.

    That said, it’s a good “fit” at the top of the ticket, because they need each other, Brown and Obama. Brown brings labor enthusiasm and Obama brings AA enthusiasm, and Democrats in OH need BOTH. They’ll both benefit.

  94. 94.

    Maude

    @TheMightyTrowel:
    I don’t pay attention to the poll and It is better than getting upset.
    It is an exciting year.
    It will get more exciting around here in the next 24 hours. I’m not near the coast of NJ and am very glad.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cat48: as a fellow worrywart, let me stick up for your right to post about your anxieties, but past performance does not always guarantee results. Until 2008, it was conventional wisdom that “the curse of the Hill” meant no ticket could win with two legislators on it (true since Kennedy). Until 2008, it was conventional wisdom that no Democratic ticket could win without a Southerner (true since…. Cleveland? I’m counting Wilson as a native son of the South). The press notwithstanding, Mittmentum has actually been pretty consistently fading for the last week. The gap is even shrinking in that Gallup outlier. I still think it’s tied, my stomach’s in knots and and I think I have stress induced lockjaw, or something like it (I’m trying to stop that). But it’s far from over.

  96. 96.

    Paul

    @Davis X. Machina:

    What conceivable profile would a Sherrod-yes, Obama-no voter have? Brown’s one of the more progressive Senators… Not-invented-here syndrome?

    In a CNN exit poll in the 2008 Ohio Democratic primary, 20% of the Hillary Clinton voters voted for her mainly because of her skin color compared to Barack Obama’s.

    I recall David Gergen saying that Hillary Clinton should make a statement disavowing those who voted for her because of race. Regardless, racism is alive and well in America 2012. Not just among Republicans.

  97. 97.

    Anne Laurie

    @cat48:

    Sides at the Monkey Cage said that the electorate always blames the incumbent for natural disasters according to their research.
    __
    He said one way to alleviate some of the damage at the ballot box is to declare it a federal disaster area quickly.

    Been there, done/doing that already!

    And I doubt OfA is too modest to ask, “Who do you want in charge for the next weather catastrophe — the guy who was out there in advance, telling the bureacrats to be next to the phone with the paperwork in hand? Or the guy who thinks government shouldn’t be involved in disaster relief, because if you’re the right sort of person your church will bail your million-dollar boat shed outside your twelve-million-dollar-summer-cottage you out?”

  98. 98.

    Schlemizel

    @Lojasmo:

    Well, since you are so sure that there have been no complications (he did just have a heart attack) I guess I’ll just take your word for it. Certainly an older guy who just lost his thumb wouldn’t have any complications and his mental attitude would be very peachy. So, no worries then

  99. 99.

    cat48

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Thanks for understanding. I’ve been a wreck all month. My stomach will never be the same. I think it’s the constant hate for Mitt & my affection for the prez. I just really like him & that’s not normal for me. I don’t want him to lose to Mitt!! Not my prez!

  105. 105.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Raven: Whoa! Savoy Brown! Boy, does that take me back. Had a couple of friends in college who played them incessantly.

    Then again, they made sure we all got tickets to the Hollywood Paladium for a triple bill of Wishbone Ash, Fleetwood Mac, and Savoy Brown, so that was OK.

  106. 106.

    gogol's wife

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Oh, God, I have that jaw thing too! I’ve actually gone to be fitted for a thing to wear at night so I stop grinding my teeth, but my husband keeps saying all I have to do is wait until Nov. 7. But that only works if the outcome is the correct one.

  107. 107.

    gene108

    @RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:

    Even if the response is perfect, the simple fact people lost power and coastal areas got flooded and can’t be repaired until flood waters recede will be enough for Fox News to declare this “[N]Obama’s Katrina”.

    Post-storm helicopter footage of flooded out areas is all they need to gin up their viewers and declare how incompetent Obama is.

    Nevermind these areas are evacuated and no one is trapped inside their homes, it just doesn’t take much to set off a Fox viewers Obama Derangement Syndrome.

  108. 108.

    Bill Arnold

    @RK:
    I’m a heavy user of news.google.com (google’s automated news aggregator), and can usually spot a Fox headline without reading any further (e.g. a story this morning about a Ohio poll). I treat Fox stories as having essentially no predictive value. Entertainment value, sure, RW cheerleading value, sure.

  109. 109.

    Anne Laurie

    @Schlemizel: We’re all curious. But, pro tip: As far as I can tell, Cole almost never reads the comments on other front-pagers’ threads (heck, it’s been established that he doesn’t always read our posts). But he does make an effort to read comments responding to his own posts. So if you want to get his attention, I’d suggest waiting for his next post, whatever the topic, and jumping in with a WHAT ABOUT YOUR DAD, JOHN? query, as close to the top as possible.

  110. 110.

    gene108

    @Raven:

    Fuckin McCain said today it’s “worse than Watergate”.

    Well no duh…in Watergate nobody died…

    Therefore all random and/or premeditated acts of murder are much worse than Watergate and demand there own Congressional hearings and potential impeachment proceedings against the President.

  111. 111.

    Cacti

    @cat48:

    Those worried that Obama is in peril regarding the Election are correct. Sides at the Monkey Cage said that the electorate always blames the incumbent for natural disasters according to their research.

    Indeed.

    Remember when Boehner’s office criticized the POTUS for his failure to take personal responsibility for the midwest drought?

  114. 114.

    Corner Stone

    @muddy:

    Seems to me like he only responds to people who really piss him off, so if you want a reply, be a total asshole about it. ;-)

    Don’t look at me, I couldn’t care less.

  117. 117.

    kay

    Democrats are running ads for Angela Zimmann in Ohio. This is meaningless to you (and it should be!) But Zimmann is running for the US House against Latta (R), she has no money, and no one thought she would win.

    So why would they all of a sudden be
    paying for ads for the long-shot Democrat if there’s all this Romnmentum out there?

  119. 119.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yeah, like he could hold a phone without an opposable thumb.

    What that opposable thumb was doing in my pajamas, I’ll never know.

    /syntax Nazi

  120. 120.

    Hill Dweller

    @kay: Willard is also releasing memos trying to spin their early voting deficits. Not exactly the behavior of a confident campaign.

  122. 122.

    jibeaux

    @russell: Mine’s voting Obama. Yes, he’s odd as all hell and has that ERratic CapitAlization that is typical of Republicans, but I’m going to chalk that up to too many drugs in the ’70s.

  125. 125.

    Lojasmo

    @Schlemizel:

    I’m saying if Old Man Cole were still ill, John would FUCKING TELL US, and he CERTAINLY not be joking about shoving the other hand in a FUCKING WOOD CHIPPER.

    Chill

  126. 126.

    dcdl

    @Capt. Seaweed: Oregon here,too. Like how we vote. Open the mailer, go over the measures and candidates at home, and drive to drop off the ballot at the new, awesome, and always busy library. No stress. I’m in a Republican area with tons of Romney/Ryan signs and one lone Obama/Biden sign.

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