Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

T R E 4 5 O N

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

Republicans in disarray!

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

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

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Second rate reporter says what?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Black Jimmy Carter / What he said…

What he said…

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I think this tweet from Van Jones captures a lot of my feelings this morning:

VanJones_on_2nd_Inaugural

The wails of wingnut rage sound like sweet music as they continue their war against reality. Yes, they are dangerous and they will continue to do great damage, but today I am filled with hope. Hope that these losers are on a fast track to the dustbin of history.

And yet–just like four years ago–I’m sure they are making new plots for a comeback. I wonder where Luntz, Newt, McConnell,  Ryan and the gang will meet for dinner tonight to make their plans for another four years of epic fail. Their playbook is exhausted. Perhaps an enterprising reporter will follow Luntz around tonight to report on which failed tactics they’ll repeat this time around. Regardless of what they try this time around, the President and the rest of us will be ready for them.

It is a great day.

Cheers

 

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  3. 3.

    redshirt

    I’m already fired up for 2014. I think whats even more important than re-gaining the House is kicking out Republican governors in nominally Democratic states.

  4. 4.

    Patricia Kayden

    Try watching Fox News this morning. Couldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Such a beautiful day!!

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    All of what everybody said. Word. This.

    And how lovely to see Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter looking so well and so happy. Both of the Clintons look exhausted, although happy. I hope they have a chance for a nice long rest before they gear up for whatever is next for them, jointly and separately.

  6. 6.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    We know a lot of the tactics, and they involve more gerrymandering to increase white Republicans in Congress even as their numbers get smaller. We have to combat that by getting all of the Democrats out to vote in 2014.

  7. 7.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    It’s good to see Hillary. This is the first good look I’ve gotten at her, since her bout with blood clots. She looks well. Billy looks like he’s at a funeral. It sucks for him not to be Prez.

    The Carters look well, in spite of the years.

  10. 10.

    Davis X. Machina

    Their playbook is exhausted.

    If what you want is for you to win, and the other guy to lose, but you are willing to settle for having the other guy not-win, then their playbook is not exhausted, not even close.

    Not until the Civil War is over. I’m an optimist, I don’t think the CSA has it in them to hold out more than another 30 years.

    They’re on a fast track to the dustbin of history.

    More like a Green Line D trolley to Riverside…
    11 miles, 50 minutes

  12. 12.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    Feinstein and McCain seem to be avoiding one another’s gaze. Can’t imagine why soulmates would be at odds. Must have caught them on an off moment.

  13. 13.

    bemused

    I’m watching Current TV. It was either that or CSpan. I didn’t think I could stand watching the whole inaugural event even on msnbc. I heard Chuck Todd early this morning saying americans are “screaming” for cooperation between R’s and D’s or some crap like that.

  15. 15.

    GregB

    One of my greatest moments in life was berating Frank Luntz loudly on a street corner in Manchester, NH.

    I told him to do something good with all of his money instead of dedicating it to destroying the English language.

  16. 16.

    Ann Rynd

    Jennifer Rubin couldn’t be worse today. I had to use visine after reading to get the filth out of my eyes. She needs to be put in restraints or she’ll hurt someone.

  17. 17.

    flukebucket

    When you consider the time, effort and money spent trying to destroy his first term it is damn amazing that we are doing as well as we are as a country. I have no reason to believe the next four years will not be as bad or maybe even worse than the first four even though he cannot be re-elected. I just want him to stay strong and get to 2016. I want to visit his library and read his memoirs one of these days

  20. 20.

    ruemara

    All I know is, from a distance, Mich O’s coat looks like a high tech ninja. And I love her bangs, but I’m glad she loves her bangs, since the opinions of people on the internet are worth doodly/squat. just enjoying the day. The Carters look great, the Clintons look great and it ain’t Romney up there, bitches! Happy Day, indeed.

  22. 22.

    Linda Featheringill

    That’s a lovely quote, very poetic. But I don’t think it was as inevitable as the dawn.

    Still, this inauguration is an indication of a process that is just beautiful. Over half of the population has achieved post-racial status. Over half of the population doesn’t automatically believe everything rich people say. Over half of the population is trying to cope with reality, as opposed to denying it.

    It is a good day.

  23. 23.

    Roger Moore

    Their playbook is exhausted.

    Which doesn’t mean they won’t keep going back to it. They’ve got to do something to stop the Kenyan Usurper, their playbook tells them things to do, so they must keep doing them.

  24. 24.

    raven

    MLK Day and the inauguration. Save your confederate money boys cuz your ass is grass and I’m the lawnmower!

  25. 25.

    Violet

    Oh, the President’s smile…..swoon! He is such a good looking man. Michelle is gorgeous. The girls are beautiful. Such a gorgeous family.

  26. 26.

    DFH no.6

    Yes, it is a great day.

    It was a wonderful experience actually being on The Mall 4 years ago (damn cold as it was, starting our train trip into town from Fredericksburg around 3am). By far the largest crowd I am sure I will ever be a part of.

    Sitting in my office a couple thousand miles away this time, more sober-minded than I was then.

    Fascists on a fast track to the dustbin of history? It would be pretty to think so.

    But I’m afraid those fuckers are with us always. Eternal struggle and all that.

  27. 27.

    Steeplejack

    Ugh, Schumer is an awful speaker.

    I landed on CBS, but Bob Schieffer is driving me nuts. Better channel to watch?

  28. 28.

    Suffern ACE

    @Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.): Nah. They love them some Straight Shooting from the Hip cowboy Republicans. They’ll complain that the Dems are overreacting nanny staters and pine for those days when men were men and not afraid to brandish iron. Then they’ll get out the history book and talk about that ONE incident in 150 where a Senator was caned by another, note that a Democrat did it then, and that times then were worse then, which will bury the whole thing.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    Both Obama girls are gorgeous, of course, but I’m struck by what a beautiful young woman Malia has become right before our eyes. She and my daughter share the same birth month and year. By the time the second term is over, they’ll both be legally adults. Holy crap!

  34. 34.

    Violet

    @Omnes Omnibus: The thing I like about Michelle Obama’s bangs is that she is confident enough to change her hair right before such a big event. She always looks gorgeous and if she likes her new hair style, that’s what counts.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    When your nutty acquaintance/relative/co-worker starts carping about some of the huge hanging flags behind the platform, with the stars in a circular pattern, they are symbolic – the so-called “Betsy Ross flag” design, not an O for Obama.

  36. 36.

    gbear

    I’ll bet that the Best Buy stores in wingnut strongholds have a very good week making sure that televisions that have been shot by raging gun nuts are replaced before the superbowl.

  37. 37.

    mir13

    @Steeplejack: c- span. Just pictures, and location sound. No extraneous yapping or fapping. Mrs. 13 had it on ABC, but after I heard George Effing Will name-drop John Wilkes Booth in his analysis, I made her change it. Fuckhead thinks he’s clever. Must be the tie.

  38. 38.

    bemused

    @Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.):

    Their lovely paychecks dictate their “reporting” and it’s the company they keep. I think many of those reporters who came from modest beginnings become very disconnected from the reality most americans live in the longer they are in that village world. They wouldn’t have jobs or connections if they bucked the corporate and village mindset. I’ve seen the same thing happen to people I know who grew up in struggling families but ended up quite wealthy or very comfortable. Over the years, their memories of their earlier lives dims and many of them turned into conservative assholes.

  42. 42.

    gogol's wife

    @Violet:

    I first saw them on the video they sent out for Organizing whatever-it-is. That evening somebody at a dinner party said to me, “What do you think about Michelle’s bangs?” as if it were a big news story. I said, “Oh, yeah, she did have bangs, didn’t she?” I really don’t pay that much attention to her hair. Doesn’t she change her hairstyle all the time?

  45. 45.

    kindness

    I want video footage of all the Republican Illuminati who meet to try and bring down the Black Muslim Soshulist today with one caveat. I want to see greet each other and sit down to their meeting…..with woopie cushions on their chairs. Yea, that would be a Youtube sensation. Make it like the bean eating scene out of Blazing Saddles.

    Juvinile? You bet! On par with Republicans ethical and intelligence quotient? Nailed it. I want it now….

    Oh, and Go 9ers! (I can not believe the 49ers are a 5 point favorite. I was sure they were going to be the underdog. If I were a betting guy I would bet Ravens)

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.): Just reading Charlie Pierce’s recap of the Sunday shows makes me want to spit nails, politics suck because Obama is very mean to Republicans, Newt Gingrich told Bob Woodward so, and Condi Rice agrees! Then there’s this utter jibberish from Tom Brokaw
    I

    think that there’s a desperate need for the country going forward to do something about tax reforms and entitlements fitting under the umbrella of fixing the economy and creating more jobs and stop the spending.

    that’s Establishment Word Salad with a Very Serious Dressing, and then, because multi-millionaire douchebag

    We’ve been giving people things for a long time. Now they’re going to have to start reeling them in

    Read more: What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days? – Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Inauguration_Gobshitery#ixzz2Id3vGIrJ

  48. 48.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    MLK—-4/4/67


    Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us    .

    Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don’t mix, they say. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

    In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church — the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate — leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.

  49. 49.

    Heliopause

    another four years of epic fail.

    Why do you people keep saying this? The GOP agenda is for the federal government to do nothing useful, and that is precisely what it has done the past two years.

  50. 50.

    Violet

    Every time I see President Obama, I am just so glad he’s our President. Best President of my lifetime. We are so lucky to have him.

  51. 51.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I just can’t wait until he utters BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA,and I will hearing the popping sounds of wingnut heads like popcorn.
    What a beautiful rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
    A nice reminder to those wingnuts who won the Civil War.

  53. 53.

    El Cid

    Except there was never an actual risk that they would stop the dawn, partly because the Earth’s speed and direction of rotation aren’t dependent upon some local Board of Rotations somewhere just taken over by Republican loonies.

  57. 57.

    JCT

    @Heliopause: In part they are referring to Mitch McConnell’s #1 goal for Obama’s 1st term — making sure he is a one-term President. And everything they did seemed to be directed towards fucking up his Presidency. Looks like a big fail to me.

    Meanwhile, I’m loving the crowd shots — real America out there. Can you imagine the scene if Romney were being sworn in? (Yes, I just made a gesture of protection against the evil eye).

    @Violet: Apparently his family’s, goes back to the 19th century or something…

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    Where’s the diversity? That’s twice that Obama has had an old white man for Veep.

    /tongue deeply embedded in cheek

  60. 60.

    Violet

    Sasha is so fidgety. Every time they show a shot of the President with her in the background she’s fidgeting.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    @Dennis G.:

    Battle Hymn of the Republic is a stick in the eye to the Neo-Confederates…

    Well, strictly speaking, President Obama is a stick in the eye to the Neo-Confederates. The Battle Hymn is a delicious extra poke.

    Great day, indeedy!

  66. 66.

    redshirt

    @Dennis G.: I want more of this – deliberate provocations of the Wingnuts. Rub the patriotism in their eyes.

    They fucking hate America yet act like its “their country”. Fuck them all.

  73. 73.

    Mandalay

    Perhaps an enterprising reporter will follow Luntz around tonight to report on which failed tactics they’ll repeat this time around.

    Luntz may be loathsome, and he may be on the losing side, but he understands the power of language better than anyone, given that most of the population has the attention span of a fruit fly.

    He is so odious I can’t say I’d want him working with Democrats, but he is no dummy. He is a very important asset to the Republicans, and they would be much worse off without him.

  74. 74.

    Davis X. Machina

    I can lipread. Biden said to Obama “Leave all that can be spared behind. We travel light. Let’s hunt some Orc.”

  75. 75.

    gbear

    They’re just firing off those cannons as a warning to the people who are reserving homes in The Citadel.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Gotta love that Sweet Baby James sang so beautifully the song that Willard tried (AND FAILED!!) to make his own.

    Love it.

  77. 77.

    mir13

    Given what we know about the President and his Vulcan heritage, I’m glad to see FLOTUS rockin’ the Romulan look today. Quite awesome.

  78. 78.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Antonin Scalia looks like he needs some Metemucil. And WTF with the hat like he is trying to look like Thomas More.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

    @Violet:

    Sasha is so fidgety. Every time they show a shot of the President with her in the background she’s fidgeting.

    She’s a kid. She’s got a constitutional right to fidget.

  85. 85.

    different-church-lady

    The wails of wingnut rage sound like sweet music as they continue their war against reality.

    Wingnuts? I thought Van was talking about Fire Dog Lake.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:
    I think it’s a reverse dogwhistle with a half twist. Obama is starting to get pretty good at doing stuff he knows will set the wingnuts off and make them look crazy to the 73% of the country that isn’t in on all the latest conspiracy theories.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @mir13:

    Given what we know about the President and his Vulcan heritage, I’m glad to see FLOTUS rockin’ the Romulan look today. Quite awesome

    Good one. May all of us live long and prosper.

  88. 88.

    PsiFighter37

    This definitely comes off as more of a campaign-style speech than anything. Kind of a surprising tone to take.

    And he just used ‘takers’ in his speech. Hope that makes the Galtians whinge and moan.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Gotta love that Sweet Baby James sang so beautifully the song that Willard tried (AND FAILED!!) to make his own.

    You mean “Fire and Rain” was not about Rafalca?

  91. 91.

    Tonal Crow

    I wonder where Luntz, Newt, McConnell, Ryan and the gang will meet for dinner tonight to make their plans for another four years of epic fail. Their playbook is exhausted.

    Ha. Lies and bullshit are never exhausted. Don’t underestimate the Enemy. They have more Orcs (and worse) to throw at us in their quest to subjugate everyone to their crazy.

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    “through strength of arms and the rule of law.”

    It’s a quibble, yes, but would have preferred pride of place given to the latter.

  93. 93.

    Keith G

    It seems to me that Luntz’s job is made all the more difficult as now he is facing a experienced and wiser president who now apparently understands the complete potential of the uses of presidential power.

  99. 99.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    I wonder if someday we’ll think of this as Obama’s Gettysburg Address, and we didn’t get it the first time around.

  103. 103.

    mir13

    The Punditocracy thought he would play small ball in the second term. Ha! Dude just called his shot, and he’s swinging for the fences bitchez!

    And their pitcher has a rubber arm.

    Check and motherfuckin’ mate, motherfuckers.

  104. 104.

    Davis X. Machina

    @NotMax: Bog-standard rhetoric, figure of climax.– strongest at end.

    See Cicero’s “cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi” Let arms yield to the toga, let laurels (military success) give way to (popular) praise for the original.

  105. 105.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system. Cicero.

  107. 107.

    gbear

    @Mike in NC: Stonewall was a riot by -please forgive my slang – drag queens in New York City on June 28, 1969 when they got sick of the police raiding and harassing gay bars. It’s considered to be the first shot fired in gay rights movement, and it took the ladies to start it.

  110. 110.

    zoot

    Jones’ tweet is WAY off – couldn’t be further from the truth.. There was nothing inevitable or unstoppable about a 2nd obama term. On the contrary, obama was infinitely beatable by any moderately sane opposition given the success of republicans and corporate medias blaming obama for republican intransigence and obamadmin’s incompetence and obama’s corportist agenda and pandering of the right. Only the extremism and incompetence of the republicans from romney and all the deranged trolls they paraded out to republican white supremacy allowed obama to get reelected.

  111. 111.

    Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)

    @zoot:

    If Obama didn’t have this Republican Party, he would have had to invent them.

  113. 113.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Davis X. Machina: More like a Green Line D trolley to Riverside…

    I see you never rode the BU School Bus B Line trolley in the glory days. /scratches chin thoughtfully

  114. 114.

    mclaren

    It is indeed a great day…for the billionaires who get their Bush tax cuts cemented permanently in place by Obama’s “grand bargain.”

    It is indeed a great day…for the police and the corrupt thieving military contractors and the Pentagon brass with their snouts buried deep in the military-procurement feeding trough.

    It is indeed a great day…for the Wall Street crime lords who can laugh and laugh and laugh at all the ordinary people they impoverished with their frauds and financial crimes while Obama gives them a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card.

    It is indeed a great day…for the people who despise the Bill of Rights and agree with Richard Nixon that

    “If the president does it, that means it’s legal.” — Richard Nixon, confirmed and cemented in place by Barack Obama

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