Sorry for the flurry of posts today, but I feel reinvigorated. That election last night has me FIRED THE FUCK UP.
And let’s make sure that we fucking win the midterms and throw those God Damned Republicans out of the house.
Open Thread
This post is in: Open Threads
arguingwithsignposts
Haven’t you been reading the other posts? Obama has already failed us because he’s preemptively given up the New Deal because Boehner and McConnell are meanies. Or something.
MobiusKlein
2014 Is damned important. I want the house Rs to hear hoofbeats approaching them.
Joel
Fuck yeah!
Michael
@arguingwithsignposts: As has been his master plan since before the Tea Party!
Hill Dweller
Without the ’10 wave election and subsequent Republican gerrymandering, the Dems would have taken over the House last night.
Unfortunately, it is going to be very hard to take back the House until the next census.
mclaren
Ejecting the Republicans from the House is even more important than the presidency. Turn the House democratic, and you can jump-start the economy and end the war in Afghanistan and shut down Gitmo and revoke the NDAA and pass a law making Citizens V. United illegal.
arguingwithsignposts
@mclaren: If you’re not being snarky, I will ignore the several other unicorn ponies you propose and note that, as discussed on LGM,
is not an option. It was a Supreme Court ruling overturning an existing law, and would require an *amendment* to make illegal
jharp
Read somewhere today that Pennsylvania, even though pretty solid D, sends only 5 democrats out of 18 Congressman to Washington.
mattH
Just be sure to bring the same fire to the lame duck session.
suzanne
It’s looking probable that Arizona will have 5 of 9 Congressional seats filled by Dems. The state, it sloooooowly enpurples.
2014? Fired UP, ready to GO!
Punchy
Really, jackass? 2014 already?
Michael
@arguingwithsignposts: Its also Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, not Citizens v United
arguingwithsignposts
@Michael: good catch! I just went for the obvious fail.
redshirt
So……
Who’s the Dem nominee in 2016? I’m hoping Halperin’s got a take tomorrow morning.
Michael
@arguingwithsignposts: Hard not too.
TooManyJens
Joe Biden to appear on Parks and Recreation
I may have made a very undignified sound.
joel hanes
If you want more and better Democrats in the House,
stop giving money to the national party, especially the DCCC, and give money strictly to Act Blue or Blue America.
And write Nancy Pelosi and Steve Israel and Debbie W-S, telling that you’re doing so, and why. Don’t forget to add “fuck you” on the copy you send to Steve Israel.
If the DCCC were worth one single damn, we’d have been rid of Buck McKeon last night, and maybe Michelle Bachmann.
? Martin
@mclaren:
Obamacare will help with the economy, in part by liberating a lot of workers from jobs they fear leaving worried that they can get their health care back. Afghanistan will end in 2014 no matter what – nothing is really going to change on that.
Good luck on Gitmo, though. Most of the Dems voted against moving it as well. Honestly, all of Congress are cowardly fucks on that issue.
amk
@mclaren: For once, we agree (with unintended mistake and all) ….
Heh, how is that for bipartisanship?
The Moar You Know
@mclaren: I know you live in some God-forsaken Middle Eastern shithole and have no appropriate frame of reference, but we don’t live in a monarchy here. The President cannot order any of these things done. If the legislative body – the House and Congress – won’t play ball then these things don’t happen. End of story.
Not that I expect you to understand, because, as you’ve made very clear in your years of posting here, you’re incapable of understanding how the American political process works.
mclaren
@arguingwithsignposts:
As usual you are 100% completely utterly totally wrong. Fuck constitutional amendments, here’s how you overturn Citizens v. United:
STEP 1: House passes a law making Citizens V. United illegal;
STEP 2: Obama appoints a liberal on the supreme court to replace one of the wacko far-right justices when he retires/dies;
STEP 3: Liberals appeal verdicts against the new law the supreme court;
STEP 4: New supreme court reverses Citizen V. United, declares the old law valid again, voids Citizen v. United, everything hunky-dory again (and if you think this sort of thing doesn’t happen, you’re as ignorant as you are clueless: consider the history of Plessy v Ferguson).
Before you open your mouth about the law, you’ll want to learn something about it.
The Moar You Know
@redshirt: Seems pretty clear that Biden’s interested in the job.
Hill Dweller
@jharp:
ThinkProgress had a good piece on this today. It all goes back to the 2010 election. Republicans took control of more state legislatures than that’d controlled since the 1920’s. To make matters worse, it was during a redistricting year, and they took full advantage.
Again, without the gerrymandering, the Dems take over the House last night. The Republicans have given themselves a cushion with the redistricting, and it will be hard to take back the House until the next census/redistricting.
arguingwithsignposts
@mclaren:
bwahahahahaha!
That’s a fuck’s sight more complicated than your little formula above indicated, dipshit.
TaMara (BHF)
Had a John Cole moment today. I’m going to start this by saying everyone is ok. I witnessed a horrific accident. Sitting at a red light and watching an SUV coming from the opposite direction and quickly realize he’s not going to stop. Amazing how things go all slow motion at that moment. I looked to see if maybe he’d make it without hitting anyone and I see a fuel tanker coming into the intersection. There’s a lot of horror and helplessness realizing something and not being able to stop it.
They collide, the SUV missing the fuel portion by feet, hitting just behind the cab. I pull over and get out and realize the SUV is on fire and the driver side is completely collapsed in. All I can think is I’m too tiny to pull this guy out. Luckily there was a construction crew within running distance. One of the crew got there and got the guy out.
I got him over to the grass while they looked at the SUV. The guy was pretty shaken, bruised and some glass cuts, but otherwise, walking and talking (ok, sitting and talking after I convinced him to sit his ass down). Even though the fire dept was literally one house down from the accident, the car was fully engulfed in moments before they could get there. We realized we were a bit close and we moved the guy a safe distance away.
The guy in the semi was physically fine, but in a lot more shock than he was willing to admit. I talked with him for a few minutes, he was understandably upset, I couldn’t get him sit down.
I was fine all through waiting for the ambulance, giving a statement to the fire chief and then the police. Then I got in the car, started to drive away and could not stop shaking. And realized I was covered in a considerable bit of blood. It was hours ago and I’m still a mess. Can’t even imagine what could have happened and how much worse it could have been.
(sorry comment so long!)
Mister Harvest
STEP 3: Profit!
Assuming rather a lot there, aren’t we?
Redshift
@MobiusKlein: 2013! For anyone who’s up for campaigning and within striking range of VA, you don’t have to wait for 2014. We have elections for governor and the House of Delegates in 2013, and we’re almost certainly going to have wingnut AG Cuccinelli as the GOP nominee (the one who sued over climate change, sued over health care reform, and on and on.) We’re seriously fired up already.
In addition, it would be sweet to use the OFA-built machine to kill that conventional wisdom of “the president’s party always loses the Virginia governor’s race the next year.”
JoyfulA
We need a full-time head of the DNC to work toward 2014, preferably a community organizer.
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@mclaren: Is this the law about that guy who got his guitar broken on the airplane? Cause I’m with you 100% on that, bro, fuck that noise.
redshirt
@The Moar You Know: But what about Hillary? Won’t Obama owe the “Clinton Machine?” And how ’bout up-and-comers like one of the Gore girls, or maybe Amy Carter can throw her hat in the ring?
And on the Repub side, how many young Princes are there of House Bush? Run ’em all!
arguingwithsignposts
BTW, Plessy v. Ferguson took about half a century to overturn.
suzanne
@TaMara (BHF): Hugs! That was a great thing you did! Have a drink. It’ll take a while for the shaky feeling to go away. I witnessed a horrible wreck a few years ago and helped pull the people out, and I still get shakes when I drive through that intersection.
srv
@TaMara (BHF): Good work.
redshirt
@TaMara (BHF): Wow! Nice job all around!
Grumpy Code Monkey
Don’t know if it’s already been posted in a previous thread, but I have to share this:
Awesomest picture of this or any other election.
It’s actually got me a little verklempt.
Redshift
@TaMara (BHF): Wow! I’m glad you’re all right. Even if you weren’t in the accident, that’s still a pretty horrible thing to go through.
It sounds like you did really well, and basically saved the guy’s life by responding quickly and thinking clearly.
mclaren
@The Moar You Know:
As the original author of the treasonous USA Patriot Act and a devout acolyte of the insane unwinnable War Against Drugs as well as one of the most robust lovers of the failed and futile 2003 War in Iraq, Joe Biden is a shitstain on the fabric of American politics.
Elizabeth Warren!
Senator Elizabeth Warren for president in 2016!
cbear
Maybe someone has already posted this in another thread, but this headline today from Fox Nation is so quintessentially Gooper that I’d pay good money to see something this funny everyday.
Fox Nation-Blame Shoved Down Chris Christie’s Throat
It’s just such an absolutely perfect distillation of that always present inchoate gooper rage, coupled with a truly awesome lack of self awareness—I just can’t stop laughing.
dww44
@TaMara (BHF): No apologies necessary. Grateful that all made it out alive. Good work, but I’d love to know why the guy in the SUV ran the intersection? Did he/was he able to explain?
Comrade Luke
Obama’s response to Boner should be:
We won. Again.
Thatgaljill
And the GOP thinks Chuck Norris is all that … a list one of my friends has shared about the AMAZING Nate Silver
When Alexander Bell invented the telephone he had 3 missed calls from Nate Silver.
Nate Silver threw a grenade and killed 50 people, then it exploded.
Nate Silver can delete the Recycling Bin.
Nate Silver once got bit by a rattle snake. After three days of pain and agony… the rattle snake died.
Nate Silver doesn’t use pickup lines, he simply says, “Now.”
Nate Silver can suffocate a pillow with a man.
Nate Silver once had a heart attack; his heart lost.
Nate Silver doesn’t call the wrong number. You answer the wrong phone.
Nate Silver can speak French… In Russian.
When a zombie apocalypses starts, Nate Silver doesn’t try to survive. The zombies do.
Ghosts sit around campfires and tell Nate Silver stories.
Nate Silver lost his virginity before his dad did.
Nate Silver beat Halo 1, 2, and 3 on Legendary with a broken Guitar Hero controller.
Nate Silver can unscramble an egg.
Some magicans can walk on water, Nate Silver can swim through land.
Nate Silver can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
There used to be a street named after Nate Silver, but it was changed because nobody crosses Nate Silver and lives.
Fear of spiders is arachnophobia, fear of tight spaces is claustrophobia, fear of Nate Silver is called Logic
Nate Silver’s computer has no “backspace” button; Nate silver doesn’t make mistakes.
Nate Silver can build a snowman out of rain.
Nate Silver has already been to Mars; that’s why there’s no life there anymore.
Nate Silver can hear sign language.
Nate Silver can light a fire by rubbing two ice-cubes together.
When Nate Silver does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
Nate Silver beat the sun in a staring contest.
Nate Silver can slam a revolving door.
mai naem
2014 looks bad for the Senate Dems. Looked it up earlier. I don’t remember all of them but Rockefeller needs to stay in. Landrieu,Franken, Col Udall, Pryor, Begich and the NC chickare up. The Repubs except for Susan Collins all looked like safe seats. Don’t think Obama should pick Kerry for SOS.
Comrade Mary
@mclaren:
This is a stealth argument for drones, right?
Michael
If Obama replaces one of Scalia/Kennedy with a liberal, you don’t have to pass any national law to overturn Citizens United. Any state law (like the one in Montana that got struck down earlier this year) will do. Taking back the House is neither here nor there. It is neither necessary (don’t need the House to confirm a SCOTUS nominee or get a state law on the books) nor sufficient (can’t over turn it without a new-look SCOTUS)
Redshift
@Hill Dweller:
I’m not so certain that’s true. In redistricting, you can’t simultaneously give your party more seats than your numbers warrant, and make them safe seats; it’s one or the other (or a mix.) Redistricting to get more seats will always leave some of them vulnerable to smaller shifts in demographics and the mood of the electorate than if you redistricted fairly.
It’s not easy, because there are still more seats with an incumbency advantage, but it is possible.
freelancer
@mclaren:
…
…
Like say, getting the name of the case law right to begin with.
I totally remember when I first read about Board V. Of Education.
Comrade Mary
Whoa — TaMara! Glad everyone is basically OK, but what a horrible thing to be involved in.
David Koch
Cole,
What are u gonna wear to the inauguration?
Mnemosyne
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
I saved that picture for a friend of mine, but now I can’t quite decide if she’s Wonder Woman or Captain America. I think she’s wearing too much blue to be Wonder Woman.
SatanicPanic
@redshirt: Must we? Really,let’s not
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Mnemosyne: It’s clearly based on Captain America’s outfit. Which is what makes it so damned awesome.
Quicksand
John, you haven’t posted this much since the last time you went Galt.
redshirt
I think we should have an amendment that says only the children of famous people can do their jobs in the future – The Luke Law, we’ll call it – Tagg/Track in 2024!
suzanne
@freelancer:
freelancer FTW. LMMFAO.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Thatgaljill: Funny stuff, ‘jill…
Really though, one of the things we must do to assure 2014 isn’t 2010 redux is to hold goddamn media responsible for the shit they print. Now, how we actually go about holding NPR responsible, for instance, for he said/she said journalism is unclear to me, but it seems to me that putting up with unchallenged blather from bobbleheads is part of the problem. They put out a message (Obama is not reaching out to Republicans!), and before you know it, every idiot and his sister is parroting the charge.
Cain
@mai naem:
Ugh. It’s too early to start worrying about these seats! Landrieu will probably be in trouble. Franken, udall should be fine. Not sure about the others. Thanks to this year, we have a two seat cushion thanks to the unforced error by the Republicans.
Now, things could be interesting if any of those republicans are moderate and get primary challenged by tea party folks. More unforced errors please. :)
Jay in Oregon
trollhattan brought this up on another thread, but here is another quality post-election GBCW post.
http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2012/11/the-end-of-liberty-in-america-only.html
TaMara (BHF)
@dww44: I talked with him quite a bit, just to keep him calm. He said he was lost in thought, totally didn’t see the light. I was glad I could tell the officer he wasn’t on his cell phone, as he had it buttoned in a pocket on his pants, he had to go searching for it so I could call his mom and have her meet him at the hospital.
redshirt
I gotta say I was really looking forward to seeing Rmoney yard signs this morning. Like a rich Cuban wine.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@freelancer: Brutal, dude… brutal. But funny….
redshirt
@TaMara (BHF): I would have been WAY more nervous about a car fire next to a fuel truck.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Redshift: Mainly, we need to not drop the OFA machine like we did in 2008.
TaMara (BHF)
@redshirt: So here’s the funny thing. It absolutely didn’t register that it was a fuel truck and what that meant, until I was sitting in my car. That’s when I started to shake.
I mean, I knew it was a fuel truck, but the brain can really just shut down and put you in crisis mode so quickly. It was kind of like Cole said a few weeks ago – you just launch into, “what needs to be done and how do we do it.”
If I’d stopped and thought about that fuel truck I’d have been frozen in fear. I’m terrified of fire, car fires especially.
David Koch
Brian Williams said tonight he was shocked how decisive the election had turned out because all his experts had told him it would be too close to call.
sad how these guys are enumerate and get sucked in every time by the narrative grifters (eg aluminum tubes, tax cuts pay for themselves, Nooner’s Ohio “vibrations”).
Mary
I should be happy, but I’m bummed. 11 year old came home last night and cried at the dinner table. Seems when he revealed at school that he voted Obama, his friend said, “What?!? He’s not against gay marriage you know!” Then other kids joined in and my son got really uncomfortable. Tonight he reported that a kid in his class said, “It’s called the White House for a reason..” Ugh. Also had to listen to a mom at soccer practice tell her friend that she cried all day and then I had to read “friends” on FB write about how “disgusted” they are. I truly don’t get it. What has been so terrible about the last four years for these people? I feel like they are acting the way I felt in 2004, but naturally I consider the situation totally different. Right? Or did all these people think back in 2004, “What are all these Dems so sad and worried about? The past 8 years have been peachy..” I’m just looking at the reaction of my conservative friends and I am truly baffled by their fear and outrage. The only thing I can figure out is that they all seem very upset that some people on welfare might be lazy and might own fancy phones. Seriously.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Jay in Oregon: Did you scroll down to the readers’ comments? Most of them take poor Eric the Libertarian out to the woodshed for a whoopin’! What a sad, ridiculous, angry little man! Looks like a smug dick in his blog photo, too.
El Cid
@Jay in Oregon: ‘In line with my libertarian principles, only the oppressive hand of Big Government bars me from shitting on your lawn.’
Amir Khalid
Some not-so-good news from Malaysia: there was a setback in court for the environmental activists trying to stop an Australian corporation from starting a rare-earths processing plant in Kuantan, Pahang.
The last rare-earth processing plant in Malaysia, owned by Mitsubishi of Japan, had to be closed and became a US$200 million cleanup site. This new one is to be one of the few such plants outside China, and would be a significant source of rate-earth metals for electronics manufacturers outside that country.
Thatgaljill
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): Oh, I’m totally with you on the NPR thing. There was many an afternoon where I considered running my car into a tree while listening to the Newshour folks (and it wasn’t even Friday with Bobo)
Hill Dweller
@David Koch:
He also called NBC’s pollsters the best in the business, which is laughable.
Letterman accused the media, including Williams, of pushing a false narrative about the closeness of the race.
David Koch
@Hill Dweller: When did Dave do that?
Redshift
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Exactly. Our crew is up for it, we just need to make sure that OFA knows their support is needed.
suzanne
@Jay in Oregon: HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. That is CRAZY BALLS. Like dude needs some forcible medication honest-to-God danger-to-himself-and-others crazy.
Redshift
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): That’s too bad. If all of the wingnuts took his advice, we wouldn’t have to suffer with the crazy wingnut uncle, the wingnut boss, or any of that.
redshirt
@TaMara (BHF): The tunnel vision of adrenaline. Everything narrows, constricts – there’s just that thing in front of you, whether it be friend or foe.
So impressed by your immediate reactions! Bravo TaMara!
TaMara (BHF)
@David Koch: I came away from this election thinking, why would anyone ever trust you guys (pundits, talking heads) again? They totally screwed this and they go right on talking as if they have any credibility left.
They just haven’t realized they were washed out to see by a tsunami of social change. They think they’re on a cruise.
GxB
@Democrat Partisan Asshole: Polite golf clap – and may I add “Class Action”
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): The mayor of Newark called. He said you’re stealing his thunder. Of course if he DID call Imani would have mad jelus. :)
gnomedad
@Thatgaljill:
Thanks for that; laughed myself silly.
Hill Dweller
@David Koch: Letterman was saying the media parroted the Republican lies about the state of the race. Williams said that would mean all the pollsters colluded. Letterman said something along the lines of “You said it, not me”.
TaMara (BHF)
@redshirt: I am just so grateful for the construction guy. He was the hero. He was so funny, the shaking hit him right away. He stayed by my side the whole time and kept saying, “wow, I don’t know why I did that. I’ve never done anything like that.” over and over. I just kept saying to him, “I’m awfully glad you did!”
TaMara (BHF)
@Thatgaljill: Win.
Robin G.
@TaMara (BHF): What an awful experience :( I’m glad to hear everyone’s (relatively) okay. I’d say have a drink, but since alcohol’s not a great idea as you’re recovering from an adrenaline rush/crash, a few cups of decaf tea, some soup, and something light-hearted to watch/read should probably be the order of the evening. Hope you feel better.
(Good on you, by the way, for running up to help. Not everyone does.)
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Hill Dweller:
It’s another sign of interesting times; we look to comedians for punditry and pundits for comedy.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Redshift: Oh, a lot of the comments on his blog were (I’m guessing) from progressives who were letting him have it big time. But, yes, if all the angry rightwingers/confused libertarians would go skulking off to Mordor to start their own nation (Getoffmylawnia), things would be just fine here.
Robin G.
@Thatgaljill: CRYING.
TaMara (BHF)
I am so stealing that.
Yutsano
@Thatgaljill: The Internets, they haz been won.
Redshift
@Hill Dweller: Idiots. No, Brian, it’s not that “all pollsters” showed a tight race; if it had been, then Obama wouldn’t have been above 60% to win in Nate’s projection even at his lowest. It’s that you guys decided pollsters like Gallup were the ones to listen to just because you’ve been hearing their name all your life.
I give Dave credit for bringing up the topic in the first place, but in hindsight, the best followup would have been “so now are you going to fire your ‘experts’ and hire the people who got it right?”
redshirt
@TaMara (BHF): Go Construction Guys! Hope he was Union and he voted Obama, too!
TaMara (BHF)
@Yutsano: GRIN.
Mnemosyne
@Robin G.:
You really just don’t know how you’re going to react in a situation like that until you’re in it. Training beforehand can help because it lets you slip into automatic action without thinking about it, but even that doesn’t help sometimes and a well-trained person can freeze up while an untrained one is able to spring into action.
Myself, I tend to freeze up, or at least require clear instructions from someone else, so I am full of awe at TaMara right now. :-)
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@TaMara (BHF): I’m genuinely flattered to read that! It’s all yours….
And, Redshift (@ post#88), what you point to is an example of something I said above — any way we can, we need to hold our media responsible for printing pure, unchallenged rightwing talking points. Wish I knew how to do that….
TaMara (BHF)
@Mnemosyne: Can I tell you, I had this moment, just before the car was fully in flames thinking, John Cole said to pull the wires from the battery….hmm, I don’t think there’s a battery anymore. And I chuckled a little to myself at that.
Balloon-Juice, not just politics, but great advice for life’s critical moments.
mdblanche
I was speaking with my mother earlier tonight. It was not a good time to have to deliver her bad news because she was already so upset from the election. I had to watch what I said for fear she might sever ties.
Conservatives really aren’t going to take this well. They’ve been slapped down hard. The rest of us have just let teh gayz into their marriages and their Senate, mistreated their beloved job creators as if they were common minority voters, and disrespected their god by making use of the science of statistics. Worst of all, we’ve denied them their one overarching goal of the last four years and returned that “Marxist negro” (direct quote) to the White House. And having been denied that I think they’re going to want to take it out on those of us who voted for him.
I think they’re going to double down on making life miserable for gays, and non-whites, and women, single women especially, and the young, and the poor, and anyone who lives in a blue state. I think their fear and hate and anger has only grown. I think it only gets uglier now. The post-election optimism I felt has just been wiped out. After being denied by the rest of us I fear they’re ready to destroy the country just to have their revenge. After what we just did, they think it’s a goner anyway.
Violet
Fuck yeah! Bring on 2014!
cinesimon
FANTASTIC Maddow Show.
Look it up online if you missed it.
Ruckus
@MobiusKlein:
Hear them coming. Pft.
I want them to feel the hoofbeats raining about their heads and shoulders.
freelancer
@Jay in Oregon:
There’s a moment in the comments where, well you just have to see it for yourself:
Crackerjack group of fuckers, libertarians.
Peter Murphy
There’s been a lot of stupid tweets regarding Obama. This is the one that raised the most amusement in Australia.
Nutella
@joel hanes:
Yes, and I’d really like to see the end for the odious Dan Lipinski(D). The next time the DCCC calls me I’ll tell them I might contribute if they send me a notarized statement that not one penny would ever go to Lipinski.
Robin G.
@Mnemosyne: I wasn’t thinking of people who freeze, but that’s a very fair point, and there’s no judgment on those who do. (I tend to react to sudden stress by having a panic attack, which makes me worse than useless.) Was more thinking in terms of a friend who was mugged last week, in daylight, in view of a dozen witnesses, and none stopped. Different circumstances, but I’ve been feeling a little sour on the Good Samaritan ideals for the last few days. TaMara being all awesome has perked me up :)
Violet
@TaMara (BHF): Wow! Glad you are okay and that everyone else is as okay as could be hoped. You did a great thing.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Redshift: I posted on a dead thread: I know a bunch of people in VA, it’s time to teach them how to canvass for Governor next year.
Hell, my borough in PA is only 2 hours away from Fairfax, right?
NonyNony
@mclaren:
If you honestly believe that any of the far-right justices on this court are going to retire while Obama is in office, you’re nuts.
And any far right justice who has the poor judgment to try to die while Obama is in office will be turned into a cyborg using Koch Industries money and kept alive until Obama leaves office.
If the Dems can hold onto the Oval Office after 2016 they’ll have a shot at replacing one or two of the conservatives (I don’t see Scalia or Kennedy BOTH being able to hold out for 8 more years), but as it stands I’m expecting that Obama will be able to replace Ginsberg and Breyer before he leaves office and that’s about it. If he gets to replace Scalia I’ll rejoice, but I’m just not holding my breath.
redshirt
@mdblanche: At least you had a few hours to enjoy it!
Spaghetti Lee
@mdblanche:
Well fuck them.
Honestly, I’m not trying to pick on you in particular, and it’s not like you’re being illogical, but FOR GOD’S SAKE, people, we just won a thrilling election and returned the best President of our lifetimes to the White House, gained two seats in the Senate when everyone said we’d lose it, kicked bloviating assholes like Joe Walsh and Allen West out of the government-yesterday. Can we give it a fucking week before going back to fear and gloom and doom and ‘oh god the Republicans will win they always win we’re all gonna die.’ We just kicked the fucking asses of the fucking Republicans. And we did it by countering everything they threw at us. They tried to block minority voters from voting, and they got organized and turned out in record numbers. They blatantly tried to steal Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and we won all three. They had a candidate who was perfectly crafted to appeal to the worst, most hateful, most selfish instincts of the electorate, and he got fucking pantsed. The Republican billionaire sugar daddies threw hundreds of millions of dollars on the bet that they would control the government, and they got a bag of dicks for their troubles. Their Mormon glory boy lost, their Senate creepazoids lost, and they have a smaller majority in the house. The homophobia brigade got killed-unequivocally killed. We elected perhaps the most universal liberal hero of the past 2 years-Elizabeth Warren-to the senate, and took back Ted Kennedy’s chair. All the lying, all the cheating, all the dirty tricks they could pull-it wasn’t enough. They lost. Karl Rove completely lost his shit live on television. The Tea Party is pulling their fucking hair out.
For the love of Christ, there will be time to fight all the battles that need fighting. For now, I beg you-can we just enjoy this?
Radio One
unfortunately, I’m way more pessimistic than you regarding the house. The GOP did a number on the new House districts with the census, obviously. I don’t think the Democrats have any chance in wining the House for a long time.
JustAnotherBob
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@TaMara (BHF): If it’s any consolation, it takes a socket wrench and several minutes for me to disconnect the battery in any of my cars. Maybe if you’re carrying a set of insulated cable cutters?
Alison
@Spaghetti Lee: EPIC FIST BUMP.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@mdblanche: I’m sorry to have read about your exchange with your mother. I had to back off politics with my own (late) parents. They read Bill O’s books and my mother once said (I think she was kind of serious) that if George W. ever came knocking on the door and wanted to run off with her, she’d do it. My dad looked sort of stunned. I, of course, wanted to vomit.
Yes, there is manifest rage and lunacy in the hearts and tiny little minds of many Republicans today. Thankfully, I think the majority of them will go back to their lives and jobs, paying their taxes, petting their cats and dogs, and being sometimes reasonable people in their actual dealings with other human beings. Of course, others will piss and moan and plot and demand to just “get their country back!” Be a-scared… be very a-scared.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@mdblanche:
We really buggered up Reconstruction after the Civil War. If the North had done the Marshall Plan for the Confederacy, maybe we’d be a bit further along now.
But right now I’m channeling Barry Goldwater from ’64. Saw off the opposition and let if float out to sea.
Spaghetti Lee
@Radio One:
I think as far as the house goes, if the current situation holds, they have a lot of power to stall and stop and delay things, but not much to actually do real harm-they’ll cook up a bunch of crazy crap, and what doesn’t get stopped by the Senate will get stopped by the Veto pen. Could be better, but could be a lot worse.
I think it hinges on the economy. If it gets a lot better before the midterms, like 6-6.5% unemployment, Obama can say, in effect, “My policies are obviously making things better, and I’m ready to move forward, but these clowns in the house are busy voting on whether to illegalize HPV vaccines for teenage girls and ban prerecorded bilingual messages on customer service calls. Get rid of them.” I don’t remember the ’98 midterms, but I think the two big things that led to the Dems gaining seats were that the economy was booming, and Clinton made the Republicans look ridiculous in the public eye. I think if we can translate those two things, we’ll be able to make at least incremental gains.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Spaghetti Lee: Wow, yes, that was it. We did great. We did, we really did all that. Re-electing Obama was great, but then we went onward and got rid of a whole slew of troglodytes. Thanks for that post.
I need a cigarette.
Bubblegum Tate
@Jay in Oregon:
Holy shit. You’d think it was a parody, but no.
GxB
@Bubblegum Tate: Psychotic break. That dick is having a meltdown right in his comments section and it’s all right there for everyone to read.
Strange fucking days…
Platonicspoof
@TaMara (BHF):
After a similar situation some years ago, the EMT cleaned off the blood on my hands with an antiseptic (not just a disinfectant). Maybe the first responders in your situation were too busy with other things, but obviously there’s always a possibility of blood-borne disease.
Situation similar in that a young girl had run a stop sign, her friend in the passenger seat hit her head on the dash and was barely conscious. We held her neck straight until the ambulance arrived.
Nothing I could do about the terrible guilt the poor driver (in high school cheerleader outfit) was already feeling.
You did good.
In other good news, the Oregon legislature’s House and Senate appear to both have Dem majorities now to go with our Dem governor.
JordanRules
@Spaghetti Lee: Yesss goodness!!! I’m still super charged and you, thankfully, did not help with that summary and sound-off!
Cain
@JustAnotherBob:
No they leave it to United Citizens money thinking if they throw up ads that is all that is required. The Obama machine engaged on the ground and in the end that was the defence against everything.
mdblanche
@Spaghetti Lee: Thanks for the pick-me-up. It was a great election, but it’s fallen during a pretty rough time personally so it might just be stress on both sides of the family. I got a big and very racist earful of pretty much the same sour grapes that have been coming out of the GOP all day, but it was disturbing to realize it’s not just online bravado from a few extremists and to have it directed at me personally. I hope the other side will calm down soon and learn from their loss but I fear they are not off to a good start.
PurpleGirl
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Yes, the little girl superhero is awesome. (And cute too.)
Odie Hugh Manatee
An interesting thought from member of the GoS regarding the wealthy guys throwing money at Rove and the Turdblossoms:
Yeah, what if the rich buys helped stimulate the economy, helping Obama to win?
That would be more WIN than the losers could handle.
mak
Cole, I recall that you’ve had a bug up yerass about the credit rating agencies going back to the economic meltdown. Thought you might enjoy this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20216638
aimai
@Hill Dweller:
I really wonder about what a county by county study of the census tracts would reveal in terms of lost voters. Its clear from the reporting coming out that the Republicans must have drawn those census lines/districts with an eye to maximizing the people they think of as “real voters” and minimizing the unreal non whites etc.. but
1) they can’t have redistricted out the women.
2) they don’t seem to understand that people can go from being non voters, or irregular voters, to voters in the blink of an eye.
I really wonder how many of those safe seats are truly safe if the inactive or irregular voters are really mobilized and if they continue to allow wedge issues like Pell grants, health care, rape and abortion, and immigration to be so lopsidedly in the democrats favor.
I wish that Nancy Pelosi could announce a voter mobilization drive targeting those districts right now and start sending organizers there in advance of the 2014 election to start building networks.
aimai
Ash Can
@TaMara (BHF): Late to the party, but hats off to you. Was anyone else home when you got back to your house? I can only imagine the reaction when you walked in covered in blood.
chopper
@NonyNony:
exactly.
here’s how real life would go:
1. after a wave election in 2014, a dem house passes a law aiming at overturning CU.
2. it gets filibustered in the senate.
3. oh, let’s assume we fixed the filibuster. okay, the law is signed and immediately enjoined by a federal court.
4. scotus refuses cert.
wow, what a win there, chief.
gogol's wife
@Spaghetti Lee:
Thank you. I haven’t had a chance to celebrate because we got dumped yesterday with 8 inches of snow that was supposed to be “a few flakes in the Litchfield Hills,” so your post will have to tide me over until I can see some humans to rejoice with (tomorrow evening, God willing).