Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

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

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

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

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

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Thursday Night Open Thread: Readership Capture

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    sb

    Well, I spent the day indoctrinating young, captive minds in that cauldron of evil known as the public high school classroom.

  2. 2.

    Cantrip

    Washington State: Voted straight democratic ticket, for marriage equality, against Tim Eyman’s latest subversion, and said Thank you and keep it up” to the nice woman who called to remind me to vote for Obama :)

  3. 3.

    Todd

    I again affirmed my daughters attitudes toward being in control of their own bodies, disdained those who would make policy based on racial and gender stereotypes, and drank to excess.

  4. 4.

    NCSteve

    Fuck me, but I needed that. I was just about completely toxed out on all the flopsweat lying and hysteria. Thank you.

  7. 7.

    Raven

    Staten Island folks bitchin like mad about not getting any help. “They are pumping water out of the tunnel for the marathon and we are pulling bodies out of the water”.

  9. 9.

    Dream On

    All I know is with the President’s Christie-praised Hurricane Sandy response so far, matched with the new jobs report – this is all clearly good news for Mitt Romney!

  10. 10.

    lamh35

    @Raven: I saw that on Lawrence. I’m not sure who they are mad at though. I get the anger, but not sure how to alleviate it. I’m guessing that the reason POTUS didn’t go was because of how bad it would be for him to be there. Lawrence did say that Janet Napolitano will be there tomorrow.

  11. 11.

    wonkie

    I voted today.

    Other than that… not much I guess. I also vote in WA and I voted for the legalizing marijuana initiative and against Tim Eyeman who is genuinely evil.

  12. 12.

    Raven

    @lamh35: Yea and Lawrence just reported that the guard is there and FEMA is on the way. It’s not going to be hard to find people who are in trouble, I know you know that better than most. If I was in that position and someone stuck a mic in my face I’d do the same thing. The weather guy on MSNBC this morning predicted that this is going to get really ugly in the next few days. The marathon may be a bad idea.

  13. 13.

    lamh35

    @Raven: why in the world are they still holding the marathon.

    NOLA did hold Mardi Gras after Katrina, but that was 5 months later. It makes no sense and kinda is a slap in the face to those without power and resources.

    Also, not for nothing, but from what I’ve read about Staten Island arent’ they pretty conservative. It’s a bit of irony that they have historically voted for the worse of the GOP non-“big”government pols. And now guess what, big government is what they need the most now.

  14. 14.

    Raven

    @lamh35:

    To us the marathon really epitomizes the spirit of New York City, the vitality, the tenacity, the determination of New Yorkers,” New York Road Runners President Mary Wittenberg said Wednesday shortly before Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed that the race was on. “Now our every effort is to once again tell the world that New York City, as the mayor would say, is open for business, and we welcome the support of the world at this trying time.”

  15. 15.

    Linnaeus

    Voted. Also doing my part to help my company’s clients understand the need for and importance of environmental regulations.

  16. 16.

    Davis X. Machina

    Mock election yesterday, at the h.s. here in the shadow of Mt. Washington.

    Winners — Obama, Angus King, Rep. Pingree (D-ME 1) and marriage equality.

    The adults here, in the real election, will break the other way… King might take the county in a squeaker, but it’ll be Romney, Summers, and whatever palooka the state GOP sent out to get beat by Pingree. And of course the gays will lose.

    Appalachia, with lobsters.

  17. 17.

    DCLaw1

    Random thought. This is admittedly unscientific, but hear me out.

    It’s known that the president receives the BLS unemployment numbers the day before their official Friday release each month. I’ve noticed in past months that Obama has seemed relatively subdued/down on the Thursdays before crappy or mediocre jobs reports. A prominent example, for me, was Obama’s convention speech the day before a disappointing report for August. He simply lacked his usual snap that night, many people noticed.

    Today, Obama looked positively supercharged. Admittedly, quite a bit of that is likely due to The Math showing a resilient and widening polling lead over Romney, and some of it is from Chris Christie’s big bear hug, etc. – but a part of me wonders if some of the bounce in his step today may have been due to his having previewed strong September unemployment numbers. Not that the figures will be spectacular, and not that it will make much difference this late in the game, but if I’m right about this, the BLS numbers could be decent to good, further showing an economy on a true mend.

    Anyway, we’ll know by tomorrow morning.

    [Please pardon the repost from an earlier thread. This open thread seemed more appropriate.]

  18. 18.

    beltane

    @Raven: I signed a petition to demand that the marathon be postponed. The welfare of the city’s residents should come before a sporting event.

  19. 19.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Raven: I can’t help but think this is a dumb – and possibly dangerous – idea. It’s a fucking race. People are without power, water, food, housing. It would seem resources could be better directed toward alleviating those issues than hosting visiting marathoners. But nobody asked me.

  20. 20.

    Geoduck

    I’m also in WA state, tho I dropped off my ballot several days ago. Here in Thurston County, there’s a grassroots effort underway to pull the power-company franchise away from foreign-owned Puget Sound Energy and have the local PUD run it. Unsurprisingly, PSE has been carpetbombing the county with scare-ads; one report says they’ve spent half a million dollars, which is five times the previous top amount spent on any political campaign in the county’s entire history. I have no idea how this first-step vote will go.

  23. 23.

    beltane

    @lamh35: Staten Island is mostly inhabited by small-government conservatives who belong to public sector unions and are employed by the city, the MTA, or the Port Authority. You know the type.

  28. 28.

    danielx

    Pointed out to a Republican friend that one of Guvnor Mitch Daniel’s keystone initiatives (completion of I-69 from Indianapolis to Evansville) will not be completed – ever – because…the state ran out of money to finish the last leg from Bloomington to Indianapolis. The money, of course, came from one of his other keystone initiatives, the sale of the Indiana Toll Road to “a joint-venture between Spanish Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte and Australian Macquarie Atlas Roads”.

    You’d think that a math whiz like GEORGE W. BUSH’S FORMER BUDGET DIRECTOR would make sure that there was sufficient funding for a project of this magnitude.

    Oh, wait…

    Anyway, the guy was appalled – general reaction was “how could My Man Mitch fuck up like that?” Of course, I jumped right on that – he was Bush’s budget director, and his performance right there should have disqualified him for any higher office than being a shitpicker in Bedford, except that people like you voted for him. You gonna up the ante by voting for Mike Pence and Richard Mourdock, both of whom are not only wingnut assholes but dumber than a barrel of hair in the bargain?

    A big no on that…my work for the day was done at that point.

  30. 30.

    Dee Loralei

    Britty, I got to the thread too late yesterday to comment on the loss of your beloved cat. I am so sorry.

    And I love that video.

  32. 32.

    some guy

    knocking on doors for President Kill List, getting Early Voters to vote early.

    3 paper cuts from those damn door hangers

  33. 33.

    The Bobs

    Me: done

    My wife who is in Nevada caring for her elderly mom (so she voted in Nevada!): done

    Her 94 year old mom, who never voted for a Democrat in her life until Obama, and is likely voting for the last time in her life: done

  35. 35.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    I cut short this guy’s argument that Obama is allowing voter fraud to occur in order to get reelected. When I pointed out that the Texas AG, a Republican, couldn’t find any evidence of voter fraud, he tried to give me a look that said “that just proves it’s happening.” But I kept throwing enough stuff at him he finally shut up about it.

  36. 36.

    DCLaw1

    Speaking of voting, at the Pentagon City Metro station today (just outside DC in Northern Virginia), Democratic GOTVers were handing out absentee voting locations and instructions for folks who didn’t want to deal with it on Election Day. They had a woman playing a guitar and singing a dumb/funny song about absentee voting and the mood overall was spirited and optimistic. Again, totally unscientific, but I’m sensing good things for Dem turnout. The mood is rising, people smell victory, and they will want to be a part of it.

  38. 38.

    Redshift

    Filling in the remaining holes in my polling place volunteer schedule for Election Day. Trying to decide exactly how many canvassing shifts I’m going to do this weekend, and if I can talk my boss into letting me take Monday off as well as Tuesday.

    Tomorrow I’m going to vote and pick up my box of supplies for Election Day.

    Oh, and also scattered comments in various corners of the Internet, which I’m sure are having a great influence on undecided voters…

  41. 41.

    Anne Laurie

    @Raven:

    Staten Island folks bitchin like mad.

    All that needs to be said, in most New Yorkers’ opinions.

    Nothing like a semi-rural island full of blue-collar government employees & retirees to encourage the Gated Community mentality. They’ve been officially trying to secede from the city since at least 1990, although I remember calls for secession going back to my childhood in the 1960s. As a result, even when the inhabitants have legitimate complaints — like now — the bureaucratic impulse is to tune them out as yet more of the neverending whinge.

    The NYC (mercantalist) impulse, for the last 300+ years, has been to push through every crisis; that’s why Wall Street reopened so soon. There are excellent arguments in favor of cancelling this year’s marathon (I don’t think you can re-schedule any later in November, between inclement weather & holiday traffic). But doing so goes against the grain for Noo Yawkers, and never more so than when a bunch of “outsiders” wag fingers & sign petitions.

  43. 43.

    geg6

    Well, being in PA, we don’t have the early vote. But I’m scheduled for phone banking and/or canvassing on Saturday. On Tuesday, I have an afternoon shift of driving voters to the polls. I don’t yet know where I’ll be sent on Tuesday, but I get my assignment on Saturday. I’m hoping I get to pick up a bunch of elderly black people, just to piss off the wingnuts who will, no doubtedly, be making their presence known in majority African American precincts. I’m thinking Aliquippa is the most likely place.

  45. 45.

    Hill Dweller

    That piece of shit they call a Secretary of State in Ohio is already making excuses for problems they’re having with absentee voting requests. Apparently a “computer glitch” prevented thousands of absentee ballots from being sent out. It’s just a big coincidence that the bulk of them were concentrated in Cuyahoga County, which is expected to go for Obama by a significant margin.

    I’m sure the Obama campaign is already on this, but this sort of shit is infuriating.

  46. 46.

    AA+ Bonds

    If the Democrats were socialists “Bowles-Simpson” would be the swear word it should be. I mean Alan Simpson and Erskine fucking Bowles? What the shit?

  47. 47.

    Davis X. Machina

    @geg6: One of the best Sports Illustrated pieces I ever read was about football and Aliquippa.

    (My son goes to school in Pittsburgh, we’ve roamed around the area a lot. and I’ve come to respect the people in SW PA, what they and their cities and their culture have been through, what with decades of de-industrialization…)

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    Whollee shit, Silver’s dropped Willard’s chances to 19.2%. That’s two dumps in a day, and excellent news for John McCain. Obama’s electoral count at 303.

    Where’s Taco to talk us down?

  49. 49.

    some guy

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Don’t be silly, everyone on thois blog knows Obama abhors Simpson-Bowles, Obama has absolutely no intention of replacing Tim Geithner with Erskine Bowles, and there is no way he will negotiate a Grand Bargain right after he is elected.

    that’s crazy talk.

  50. 50.

    WarMunchkin

    Just a really random thing regarding Sandy (I live in affected area).

    I just find it really weird that nobody is pointing fingers. Hurricane Irene should have been a wake up call for the city and surrounding areas that we were not prepared to deal with a hurricane. In the context of climate change, it’s obvious that elected officials failed to adequately modify the power grid or push companies to have a good plan for restoring power afterwards.

    Yes, it was historic – but again, Irene also knocked out a lot of power and came close to flooding the subways. Why wasn’t there a plan, why will it take 2 weeks to restore power, how come power grid/the subway system wasn’t redesigned to be more modular and waterpoof, how come tunnels weren’t modified to have emergency pumping?

    I’m just mad because it seems that the officials (Christie, Bloomberg) are being really self-congratulatory (there’s a media narrative right now of government competence, and I just don’t see it), when there should be a real discussion about what improvements can be made/could have been made in order to have less people out of power/a faster recovery – and why those improvements weren’t made.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    @Wag:
    Heh, the stalkmeister returneth. That’s a great pic of McTurtle leading the post. I hope his home-staters are proud as punch of the bang-up job he’s doing to grind the gummint to a halt.

  52. 52.

    beltane

    @Anne Laurie: It’s not the outsiders who are pushing to postpone the marathon to the spring, it’s NYers. This is a little like the snowstorm a few years ago where the rich parts of Manhattan were plowed while everyone else was snowbound for days on end. It is unconscionable that they’re going to divert resources to stage a marathon when old ladies are trapped in their apartments with no water or electricity.

  53. 53.

    danielx

    @Davis X. Machina:

    I can’t make that choice. Kind of like choosing between the original of Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett and the version by Buddy Guy, except that both of those are good things.

    However, I’ve also convinced the spousal unit to vote Democratic – her family tends to be conservative and she voted for W – once. This time she thinks Romney is a creep, the rest of the Republican candidates were completely looney tunes and Richard Mourdock is just totally…offensive. None of which, granted, are exactly earthshaking news, but at this point when I detect critical thinking from someone who isn’t a political junkie it’s a cause for celebration.

    Every vote counts, and I am truly nervous that somehow, some way, votes will be tampered with. Of course there are probably ten people saying the same thing on winger sites, with threats added. The big difference being that CEOs and owners of firms that manufacture and/or supply voting machines are generally not big Obama supporters – to put it mildly. Rather the converse…

  54. 54.

    beltane

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Staten Island’s conservatism is almost completely due to very overt racism. They would be, and have sometimes been, supportive of big-government Democrats, as long as the Democrat in question is a loudmouthed racist.

  56. 56.

    lamh35

    so basically Dems are banking more first time registered voters than GOP. Voters who missed the likely voters screen. so if Obama gets his likely voters to the polls and the new first time registered voters then he can win Florida right?

    Democrats Pulling In Sporadic Florida Voters

    “A Democratic operative sent the Tampa Bay Times some data on the early vote in Florida so far “to make the point that President Obama is crushing Mitt Romney when it comes to banking the votes of sporadic and infrequent voters before election day.”

    “So far more than 3 million Floridians have cast a ballot by absentee, mail-in ballot or in-person early vote ballot. Democrats lead by more than 60,000 votes, but it’s the unlikely voter numbers that jump out: Of the nearly 414,000 Floridians who did not vote in the last three general elections, Democrats have an advantage of more than 53,000 votes. Of the more than 482,000 Floridians who have only voted in one of the last three general elections, Democrats lead by more than 77,000 — a total of” more than 132,000.”

  57. 57.

    The Bobs

    I don’t know if the Gov. Chris Christie twitter account is real, it looks real to me. If it is him, he is a pretty funny guy.

    “Gov. Chris Christie ‏@GovChristieNJ
    Yes, Rush Limbaugh, I’m fat. Yes, I can be a fool. But at least I’m not a thrice-divorced fat fool caught illegally scoring painkillers.”

    “Gov. Chris Christie ‏@GovChristieNJ
    In light of a new nor’easter possibly hitting NJ next week, I have proposed offering up Donald Trump as a sacrifice to the weather gods.”

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @MikeJ:
    My election anxieties are starting to slough away. Turned in my ballot today at city hall, most of the critical numbers are breaking for Obama and Willard is publicly being the bestest Willard he can be, which seems to qualify him to run a Papa John’s franchise. I’m ready to hoist the “Chill the fuck out” banner.

    Lots left to fret over but I’m weary from fretting.

  60. 60.

    catclub

    @WarMunchkin: yeah. next thing you know, the phrase whoocoodanode starts popping up.

    I heard that given the sep 2001 foofawrah, more companies should have come up with backup plans and such. The people who decided to put the backup generators in a basement that floods will either be fired or have already been promoted.

  63. 63.

    danah gaz

    @Cantrip: I’m also from Washington state. I voted straight Democratic except for two positions.

    One of them I forget – I voted last week, but it was a Democrat vs. Green Party rep. No republican, I voted green.

    On the presidential ticket I voted for (-gasp-) Jill Stein, but *only* because I knew that you and the vast majority of other people in my state were voting for Obama. =)

    Adding I’d vote to jail Eyeman if I could, and although I’m not gay, I am queer, and support gay rights even when they don’t always support mine (looking at YOU Anderson Cooper, you prick!)

  64. 64.

    WarMunchkin

    @catclub: Funny you should say that because ConEd actually *did* use the “nobody could have predicted” defense.

    http://www.idahopress.com/news/national/coned-prepped-for-big-storm-got-even-bigger-one/article_b2cf5c08-c843-5bc0-bdcf-aa634bfb2f79.html

    Personally, I think we should start doing research on how to implement electrical solutions underwater. If global warming makes good on its promises, it would be valuable research for our new waterdome cities.

  65. 65.

    mandarama

    Early voted with both my boys (11 & 8) peering over my shoulders excitedly as I tapped the Obama/Biden selection bar. Youngest has to make a campaign poster for school, pretending he is running for president, so he chose our golden retriever Murphy as his VP candidate and I got pics of both of them wearing ties. Party platform is that Murphy loves everyone no matter what color they are or how much money they have, he shares with anyone and everyone, and he is a pacifist. So their slogan is “Equality, Generosity, Civility.” To tell you the truth, I was tempted to encourage my kid to put on the poster, “I can do better math in the third grade then the Romney campaign’s tax advisors.” But I figure I’ve brainwashed the offspring enough. Not the dog, though…he was born a liberal.

  69. 69.

    danah gaz

    @MikeJ: The only thing that concerned me was the spread. Anyone that thought Romney had a chance to win this thing was deluding themselves, and could have saved themselves a lot of pain by just listening to me ever since *before* Romney was nominated in the GOP primaries. I said he’d win the Nom and lose the general. For the first time in my life, I had put money on that. No punters though. =(

    I’d have loved to bet Romney himself. I could really use ten thousand dollars.

  70. 70.

    burnspbesq

    On the presidential ticket I voted for (-gasp-) Jill Stein, but only because I knew that you and the vast majority of other people in my state were voting for Obama. =)

    Selfish or stupid? Inquiring minds want to know.

  71. 71.

    dance around in your bones

    Just watching Colbert right now (lefty coast).

    One of the crumbiest things about getting older is watching your music idols age – man, David Byrne’s hair is silver-white! Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

  73. 73.

    Exurban Mom

    @danah gaz: You understand that the President really needs to win both the popular vote and the electoral college to avoid all kinds of shitty complaining, right? Right? Guess not. Do whatchuwant, but don’t put a damn smiley-face at the end of that shit.

  74. 74.

    danah gaz

    @burnspbesq: Do you care to explain to me how support for Stein will shift the electoral outcome of my state?

    When you’re done explaining that, maybe you can explain whether your monetary support for a criminal organization that protects and enables child molesters is NOT selfish, stupid, and sick.

    And furthermore, how your career of helping wealthy people weasel their way out of paying taxes is not selfish and stupid…

    or not.

    Maybe it’s a better idea to just remember the last several times we butted heads and you were left roundly mocked and weeping, exposed for the moral coward and intellectual failure that you are. Or haven’t you learned your lesson yet?

  76. 76.

    jibeaux

    My son had to do a sixth grade voting activity, where they voted for Obama or Romney, and then they voted for Candidate X or Candidate Y after comparing their official platforms in several areas. Mine decided that being in favor of equal pay for women was a good thing (vs. not having a position on it, is how it was presented to him) and went with the candidate who had certainly better be Obama.
    The modern Republican party: against principles that are completely self-evident even to 11 year old white boys most interested in football and video games. Can’t say that it bodes well.

  77. 77.

    Geoduck

    @Exurban Mom:

    You understand that the President really needs to win both the popular vote and the electoral college to avoid all kinds of shitty complaining, right?

    Do you really think that any Obama win, however massive, will curtail the shitty complaining?

  78. 78.

    jibeaux

    Oh Lord, we’ve gotten onto whatever Nader is named this year. Love the song, but new thread! Here’s a good video: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Thrift Shop. Srsly, not political, but it’s hilarious.

  80. 80.

    danah gaz

    @jibeaux: For the record, I hate the firebaggers, and I don’t even bitch about Obama approaching election season.

    That said, simply stated, I agree with Noam Chomsky about voting strategy: If you live in a swing state, vote Democrat, otherwise, vote liberal. It works to get some momentum and recognition for a liberal party. I don’t thing it’s for everyone. In fact, I’m glad a lot of people disagree, otherwise I couldn’t do it – which is the irony of the situation. However, anyone that wants to say I shouldn’t, or call me some sort of ratfvcker or something because of it can GFY. And Burnpest can go fvck himself, on general principle.

  82. 82.

    merrinc

    @beltane:

    It’s not the outsiders who are pushing to postpone the marathon to the spring, it’s NYers.

    Yeah, I know that data is not the plural of anecdote, but from reading several running groups on FB, I would tend to agree with your assessment. Moreover, it seems most of the runners voicing an opinion are in favor of cancelation/postponement – with the glaring exception being the out-of-country runners who are quite whiny about their travel arrangements being disrupted. (Oh, pardon the fuck out of us for inconveniencing you with our freak hurricane. So very sorry.)

    Is it true that evacuees are being booted from hotels to make room for the runners coming in?

  83. 83.

    mandarama

    @jibeaux: Yep, we were talking about politics on the way home from voting, because my 6th grader realizes that a lot of his friends’ parents are Romney supporters (Catholic school, red state). I told him that when he’s older, he’ll make up his own mind about politics and might not agree with us, the way that his dad no longer agrees with his grandpa. He said, “OK, Mom, but I still think I’ll probably be a progressive. Who would think that someone is better over something dumb like skin color? That’s totally stupid.” Considering that I grew up in rural MS, realizing my 11-year-old has no acculturated notions about race made me want to cry tears of joy, to tell you the emo truth.

    I don’t know where people get their ideas about the “good old days,” but I know for a fact my boys are better people than both my grandfathers and great-grandfathers were.

  84. 84.

    mandarama

    @Ash Can: I’ll see if I can post a pic when he gets the poster finished. He came up with all the ideas on his own, based on the concept that people should be more like dogs. I just helped him with vocabulary. Of course, based on all the eavesdropping he does on the discussions b/t me and my husband, he’s a larval-stage lefty anyway, but he really thinks Murphy’s principles are the way to go.

    Watch some wingnut pick this up and run with “Liberals think that behaving like dogs is a good thing!”

  85. 85.

    Ash Can

    @danah gaz: So you want burns to give you an explanation of why your support for Stein matters, and when Exurban Mom does just that, you bitch at her too. Brilliant. And was that a US House race in which you voted for the Green candidate too, and was it a close race between the Dem and the Republican? If it was, that vote would be downright indefensible.

    I happen to think that what we call liberals and progressives are fine and dandy on general principles, but this is a real election in the real world. I don’t give a fuck what Noam Chomsky says. Noam Chomsky never had to push laws through a House of Representatives controlled by charlatans, freaks, and traitors.

  87. 87.

    danah gaz

    @Ash Can: On the Burnspesq thing, you should read my sentence more carefully. You misread what I wrote, and I didn’t even use big words. Brilliant. What ExburbanMom said, had NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. Read my post again. Adding, she’s also completely wrong. If you need evidence, try the last FOUR YEARS of wingnut poutrage after the 2008 landslide.

    “And was that a US House race in which you voted for the Green candidate too, and was it a close race between the Dem and the Republican? ” It’s really too bad for your argument that it isn’t what this is at all, now isn’t it? Such a shame.

    “I happen to think that what we call liberals and progressives are fine and dandy on general principles, but this is a real election in the real world. I don’t give a fuck what Noam Chomsky says. Noam Chomsky never had to push laws through a House of Representatives controlled by charlatans, freaks, and traitors”

    Okay man, I hope you’re not equating me (even by implication) with actual firebagging douche-canoes because I agree with Noam Chomsky on presidential ticket voting strategy. If you are first, I’d like to know how filling in a box on a form makes me a firebagger like Chomsky is. Please, show me the history of my statements where I bitch and moan about Obama being like 9 hitlers, or exactly the same as Romney, or even *remotely* try to persuade people that they shouldn’t vote for him. I’ve got a 1500+ comment history on disqus if you’d like to check there, if that helps. I’ll wait. Oh, you can’t? Well maybe you should climb the fvck off of your stupid soapbox and drink a tall frosty of STFU, on me. Cheers.

  88. 88.

    Arthur

    Have any of you looked at this yet?

    http://t.co/0FtbqX1A

    Sean Davis (Media Trackers COO) spends two pages bloviating about how Nate Silver’s monte carlo model is worthless, a claim that we have all seen many times in the last month or more. This one is different, though. He’s not attacking the model itself. His main complaints seem to be as follows:

    1) The model is only as good as the initializing data. Bad data in a sound model produces bad results, garbage in, garbage out. This is a no brainer, I’m not sure why he took so long to get to this point

    2) We can’t always accurately predict the future by using the past as a model. This is generally true, but what of it? This is probability, not divination. That is the point of margins. More specifically, he suggests that we don’t have enough polling data to make accurate forecast models, but his only effort to support this is to compare the 538 model to the risk models used to prop up the infamous CMOs that helped to set the world on fire in 2008 with some vague hand waving about how much more Wall Street knew about the history of the market and defaults. Not only is this apples and oranges, it also completely disregards the complete and utter fuckery of the institutes responsible for risk assessment of said CMOs, the institutes playing hot potato with them, the agencies responsible for securitization, the… Well, let’s just move on.

    3) Even if the model is sound, it’s worthless because the initializing data was already there.

    Seriously, that’s his claim! He says that the model is worthless even if valid because we already have state polls! Let’s just get rid of all predictive models then. Evolutionary theory, germ theory, who needs to model future behavior when we can just look at the raw data? Snake oil indeed…

  89. 89.

    mandarama

    @trollhattan: Now that would have been genius. But I’m trying to picture getting 80 lbs. of golden retriever on top of a Honda minivan. I thought I was doing well to get him to cheerfully wear a tie!

    We did use his leash as a rope line so that we could photograph the candidates shaking hands with the constituency (3 neighbor kids and their dogs).

  91. 91.

    Petorado

    Just came back from seeing Obama in Boulder. Great, energized crowd. Barack was slightly hoarse, but delivered a barnburner nonetheless. Awesome to see him in person and pick up on his fantastic energy.

    Voting? Dude, that was soo two weeks ago. If you don’t think the campaigns are counting votes, it’s amazing to be getting congratulatory e-mails back from the campaigns about voting early.

  92. 92.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    What did I do today to promote the Kenyan Usurperist AcidAmnestyAbortion Soshulist Democratic agenda? Why, I deleted about a dozen emails asking for money.

    Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, I’ll hit the streets, though.

  94. 94.

    Cantrip

    @danah gaz: Extra awesome :).
    If the Greens had a chance here, I’d do the same… but, hell, *someone* has to vote for Obama here :).

    and I’m queer, too, or at least odd and eccentric, without being gay. I also voted for legalizing and taxing the wicked weed… perhaps with the new liquor taxes folks will stay home with friends and get stoned rather than going to bars and driving home drunk.

  95. 95.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @WarMunchkin:

    elected officials failed to adequately modify the power grid

    To the best of my knowledge, the power grid is owned and operated by consortiums of utilities. Elected officials have no control over any of it.

    Since they’re going to be taking the blame, it might be better if they did.

    Nationalize it!

  96. 96.

    gwangung

    If the Greens had a chance here, I’d do the same… but, hell, someone has to vote for Obama here :).

    Personally, I think a Green vote for president is useless unless there’s a big chunk of Greens in Congress.

  97. 97.

    Cantrip

    @burnspbesq: Wow, you *are* an asshole, aren’t you? I won’t speak for Danah, but the Dems (our only sane party) need to take up the green banner as soon as possible. Shit’s getting real out in the real world; do *you*, Mr. Lawyer, want to deal with 10% of our population becoming climate refugees in the next 10 years?

  99. 99.

    danah gaz

    @Cantrip: There was one position on the ballot where there was a Democrat and a Green party candidate – and just those two. I wish I remembered which one. That’s where I voted Green – and I *did* read enough about the guy to feel comfortable that he wasn’t guano crazy. It was totally a win, win so I voted green.
    I’m fairly certain that race was on your ballot too, because the Green party isn’t active in local politics in my county. =( I could be wrong. In any case, it was like Christmas when I saw that. =) Guilt free Green vote.

    Also, last time I checked (which was admittedly a while ago) Seattle and/or King County had some Green party members, so winning in the metro area isn’t out of reach. I wouldn’t vote against a Dem in a race with a republican in it though – unless the Green was an incumbent and not in a tight race. =) I love voting a lot more when I lived in Seattle. =)

    Those tax measures were worded all crazy like. It was like they had intentional double and triple negatives. I had to be uber careful. One of them was to require a supermajority for a tax increase! (was that Eyeman?). No thank you. I saw what happened to California when they made it impossible to hike property taxes.

  100. 100.

    piratedan

    @WarMunchkin: improvements means taxes, in these days of tax hysteria, who’s gonna go to the voters and say in a reasonable tone of voice… listen Irene was our wake up call and we really need to improve things in case it happens again…..

    and then as soon as he got out of the ER as the Tea partiers finished assaulting them, then they could table it until the next disaster.

    as our AZ Lege has amply proven, the time to talk about a tragedy is when the other team is in charge…..

  102. 102.

    gwangung

    @Cantrip: Probably missed that when skipping around….

    But just wanted to re-emphasize practical politics here. I think there’s a bigger chance of getting more change if there’s a substantial cohort of progressives in power, and not just the chief executive…

  103. 103.

    Cantrip

    @danah gaz: Yeah, I had to look up several propositions on the ballot site as well. Those must have been hell for the low information voter.

  104. 104.

    danah gaz

    @gwangung: Working on that, too. Actually, mostly that, because in general, I agree – except that I’d say mostly useless, not entirely so. Anyway, it’s a bit late for a protracted flame war, so I won’t elaborate at the moment.

    I will say this though. My vote is my own, and unless someone can come at me with something compelling and rational that shows how my vote actually harms the presidential ticket they won’t get any traction with me. That, and I find that people who try to persuade me how to vote are immensely annoying. That’s why I don’t do it to other people, even Republicans. If I can’t convince people on the issues, then *that* is what’s useless. (Adding, I don’t talk to wingnuts much, but I did talk my mother out of considering another Republican in her lifetime =) – not that a vote for Romney in our state would have meant anything, but the idea that my own immediate family could entertain such an idea made me both sad and a little sick. She also thought Reagan was okay, until I explained the stuff he did. Luckily, she’s receptive, but she’s my mother, so there’s bias there. Explaining things like this to strangers is worth exactly fvck all, in general)

  105. 105.

    Cantrip

    @danah gaz: Yeah, that was Eyman’s. And please know that I’m absolutely not trying to harsh on you. You did the principled thing. So did I :).

  106. 106.

    danah gaz

    @Cantrip: That’s why I’m worried when it comes to those tax measures.

    The bitch of it was – as if to clarify (but really it just made them sound awful) was the final statement on each (quoting from memory, somewhat badly) “Do you support this *tax increase*?” That was crappy. At least one of these was a reinstatement of a tax that we had already had, but lifted *temporarily* due (I think) to the recession. Meh. How many low-info voters will mark “yes” on a *tax increase*?. Probably zero. What crap.

  107. 107.

    Cantrip

    @danah gaz: Y’know, I didn’t quite look that far… since I’m in the deepest blue part of the state (just north of downtown Seattle) I knew I wanted McDermott back because of seniority. But I’ll keep my eyes out for the green option.

  108. 108.

    Cantrip

    @gwangung: Yes indeed. So start small, in the primaries for local office. Lots of school boards have been completely subverted because the nutballs turn out hard in the primaries.

  109. 109.

    danah gaz

    @Cantrip: I have lived all over Seattle, for much of my adult life. I used to live at the Casa Del Rey (321, it’s sort of locally famous so you might know it) on Broadway. =) That was pretty great. My building was literally attached to a sidewalk stand that serves the best coffee in the known universe (Vivace). Yum. Also, the boutiques and consignment stores there are phenomenal. =) I still visit from time to time, for the clothes, and to visit old friends but I can’t hit the clearance sales as regularly as I used to. Those shops are so snobby the mark their entire stock down by half like every other week. =) w00t!

  110. 110.

    danah gaz

    @Cantrip: “but, hell, someone has to vote for Obama here :).”

    I never did address that. I agree with you, and thanks for that. If you didn’t vote that way, I’d have to, so don’t think it isn’t appreciated. =)

  112. 112.

    danah gaz

    @gwangung: Your comment was reasonable, so I tried to make mine measured. Apologies if it didn’t come across that way. Admittedly, my hackles are up over burns, Ash Can, and whatsermom. =) There’s still no shortage of hate for third party votes here on BJ. You’d think I lived in Ohio.

    At any rate, cheers. =)

  113. 113.

    ruemara

    @danah gaz: I’d like to say thank you for voting strategically. Sorry, but I think that, while I would prefer your presidential vote for Obama, in a safe state, I do not mind the rare peel away and I prefer in the choice between Dem and Green, a vote for the Greens. It’s the only way to build a party. So, I see your point, those of you peeved, but really, this is not the fight you need to have.

  114. 114.

    Yutsano

    @Cantrip: Well Del Bene just got lucky because her teatard opponent said something amazingly stupid. That might just tip the odds in her favour.

  115. 115.

    danah gaz

    @ruemara: Thank you.

    And on that note, I must go to bed – it’s late.

    Before I do, just so I’m crystal:

    To anyone else – none of my comments are to be read as an attempt to persuade anyone else how to vote. I stated how I voted, ripped into people who attacked me or fed me bullshit over it – with gusto, as I’m wont to do – and only vaguely stated why I voted that way. But nowhere in my comments was anything I wrote an attempt to persuade other people who to vote for on the presidential ticket. If you want to vote for Obama, great! If you don’t, that’s fine, too. I’d only ask that if you are a liberal voting in a contested state, know that a vote that isn’t for Obama *IS* a vote for Romney, whether you like it or not. As long as you understand how that works you are okay in my book. =) Please don’t read any of my comments as a persuasion of who to vote for. If something I wrote implied that, it was not intentional and I didn’t mean it that way – this is something I just don’t do – and will not do – ever. OTOH I’m happy to explain the myriad of ways that Romney is an arsehole. =)

  117. 117.

    Applejinx

    I went and packaged up about six million door hangers and swept their floor and mopped their bathroom and helped keep the local Obama headquarters (actually in New Hampshire, across the river) neat. Perked them up a bit. I’m doing the same thing today, and also in my home town.

    Physically go and do stuff!

    Understand that we have to run up the popular vote EVERYWHERE, and go counteract what danah gaz is doing, do whatever you can to bring a few more votes across the line EVERYWHERE and I mean EVERYWHERE.

  118. 118.

    Ellyn

    I phonebanked for Obama for the fifth time this week. I called Colorado and Nevada. Most of the people I talked to supported the President and many had already voted for him. I gave an extremely modest amount of $ to Elizabeth Warren and Heidi Heitkamp (sp?) and Jerry Teitleman(n?)) who is running against one of the biggest assholes known to man, Darryl Issa). I considered donating to Bob Kerrey but couldn’t bring myself to do it. Tomorrow I’m going to a GOTV kickoff at the Dem volunteer centre where there will be several politicians from the state gov’t and possibly our Congresswoman. I will bring some sort of snack and tell them I don’t want a grand bargain, that I think it’s probably better to go off the fiscal cliff and that Simpson-Bowels was a bad plan and it hasn’t gotten better with age. I will ask them to pledge to protect Social Security and Medicare because that is what real Democrats do.

  119. 119.

    danah gaz

    @JoyfulA: I really don’t think it was the person I voted for. As I said, I did read up on them a bit, so unless they have a really clever Internet campaign to paper over their actual background and positions I’m good with my vote. In any case, what’s done is done, as I sent it in last week.

    When you say “here” do you mean Washington? If so, what’s this miscreant’s name? I’ll be sure to spread the word.

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