(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
.
So, today is Darwin Day, and of course the Republican Party is looking forward to this evening’s many opportunities to ‘refute’ evolutionary theory via political kabuki. Dave Weigel at Slate, among his predictions for tonight, highlights a detail I hadn’t noticed:
…In all of the soft-focus stories on the speech’s invited guests, two names matter: Ted Nugent and Gabrielle Giffords. Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, an embarrassing member of the class of 1994 who lost in 1996 but managed to come back in 2012, has invited Nugent to attend the speech, despite Nugent being (humorously!) on record threatening the president’s life. Giffords, invited by Sen. John McCain, is the most compelling figure in the gun control (sorry, “gun safety”) movement. Democrats know that the mere sight of Giffords, or the sound of her voice, spurs a Pavlovian response: The listener cannot help but hear and think about ammo clips and background checks. Stockman knows … actually, there’s no way to end that sentence.
The Very Serious People at the NYTimes deign to notice, for once, the ideas on which President Obama actually campaigned and won:
President Obama on Tuesday will seek to move beyond the politics of the moment to define a second-term agenda built around restoring economic prosperity to the middle class, using his State of the Union address to unveil initiatives in education, infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing.
Having secured four more years in the White House by arguing that the nation’s economy is tilted against ordinary Americans, Mr. Obama will vow to use the power of his office to recapture robust job growth and economic expansion, according to White House officials who have seen the speech. Both eluded him during his first term.
Mr. Obama will insist that only “a thriving middle class” can stimulate long-term growth and that Americans must be given the tools to succeed, according to the officials, who discussed the speech on the condition of anonymity. His call for new government investments — many of which Republicans successfully blocked in his first term — is an effort to shift the emphasis away from simply reducing the deficit and will serve in part as an answer to Republican criticism that he has not focused enough on jobs…
Not sure I’m going to be able to watch the State of the Union live — anybody here planning to do so?
henqiguai
Well, me; assuming I can stay awake. Rise time is 05:00 so ‘late nights’ frollicking with the political class is bothersome.
ETA: Hey! Where the heck *is* everybody? Me first in?
dmsilev
Not me; I have a ticket to the theater (_Julius Caesar_; say what you want about our politics, at least the knives are usually metaphorical).
Heliopause
What channel will be showing the Christopher Dorner Show?
Cris (without an H)
I want to want to watch the State of the Union.
But it’s just so much theater, so much talk with no hope of real action, so much coded language, and so many petulant reaction shots, I can barely stand it. Even when it’s our current President doing the talking.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Not me. It would be too sad to see all those proposals simply being lined up against the wall for the Congressional firing squad.
Cacti
Nice cartoon.
Both sides do it.
Cris (without an H)
Watching John try to crack a safe.
jharp
Who is in charge of assigning seats?
I’d hate to subject Gabrielle Giffords to sitting next to the Madman but I’ll bet she’d have the guts to do it.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.)
I saw that cartoon in the newspaper this morning. It kind of pissed me off that it takes that fucking Broderesque “Both sides do it!” line. I thought Toles was smarter than that, but maybe he has to follow the Broder line to keep his spot at the Post.
Maude
An embarrassing Republican. Keyword, an.
There are three to start off a 2013 list of Whose The Craziest Republican in Congress.
I have:
Graham
Cruz
Stockman.
Maude
@Cris (without an H):
Wow. Are you always this self defeating or is it the weather?
BGinCHI
Probably watch House of Cards on Netflix and then turn on the post-speech coverage to see if I can tell the difference between the fictional and real worlds of American politics.
BGinCHI
@dmsilev: Supposed to be good. That director knows what he’s doing.
I’d avoid the Henry VIII that’s coming up, unless you’re just curious to see a play that’s hardly ever performed.
Not one of my faves.
Anne Laurie
@Cacti:
I read it as Toles presenting the President, and the forces of reality, combatting the witless relentless entropy of Weepy Orange John and his Repub allies.
Violet
I’m going to record it as I’ll be out until about half an hour after the network coverage starts.
jl
Can’t watch due to other commitments. Sorry not enough of a political junkie to plan my schedule around speeches weeks in advance.
But I will tune in later to listen to Ted Nugent’s thoughtful commentary.
Should fact that rising star hip hopping ‘up the last couple of decades’ Tupac familiar wither Senator Rubio, fresh new face of the GOP who will appeal to all sorta new demos, found a weak ass reason to vote against the Violence Against Women Act be part of the countdown?
TPMLIVEWIRE
Rubio Explains Vote Against Violence Against Women Act
Pema Levy
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/rubio-votes-against-violence-against-women-act
the Conster
New shiny object for the media, so Obama will have to strip naked, announce that his nefarious plan to destroy the country is halfway to completion, and show his actual Kenyan long form live birth to a white lady certificate while reading his speech from the teleprompter you could see from space to pry them away.
jl
@the Conster: I dunno, sounds kind of like ‘uppity’ behavior to me. NYT editors won’t like it.
ranchandsyrup
My wife bought a bike trailer for me for xmas. I realized my heavy old mtn bike was on its last legs so I got all excited and went bike shopping. Ended up getting a trek hybrid but the trailer coupling doesn’t work with trek. I’m gonna take the dremel to the coupler to make it fit. Good times.
PeakVT
Not watching. I can’t remember the last time I watched the SOTU speech.
eemom
@Cris (without an H):
My sentiments exactly. If I want to see theater, I’ll do like @dmsilev and opt for the real thing.
the Conster
@jl:
I forgot to mention he needs to swing his massive dick while shooting Ted Nugent and Alito one handed with his skeet gun all the while screaming “how do you like me now, mothafuckas!” Go all in, as it were.
IowaOldLady
My writing group is meeting, so I’ll miss it live. I hope something fun happens, by which I mean something that once again shows the clown party for what they are.
Eric U.
I almost never watch speeches, and particularly not the SOTU. It’s evidence of a personality deficit on my part. Can’t believe they invited Nugent, we are doomed
srv
Alright, well, listen everybody
To what I got to say
There’s hope for tomorrow
If we wake up today
Well, it happened long ago
In the new magic land The Indians and the buffalo
They existed hand in hand
Well, the Indians needed food
And skins for a roof
Well they took what they needed
Millions of buffalo were the proof
I said, “Hey”
But then came the white man
With his thick and empty head
He couldn’t see past billfold
He wanted all the buffalo dead
…
Maybe Ted will stand up and sing for us tonight.
NotMax
Gawd, the wall-to-wall ‘coverage’ (violence voyeurism) of California, casual speculation and armchair psychoanalysis is ludicrous. Turned it off.
If something happens, report that. Otherwise move on to other things. The world did not stop spinning because a criminal is holed up in a cabin.
David in NY
@Violet: Regarding medical costs. Don’t know if this will be aggravation or consolation …
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/price-for-a-new-hip-many-hospitals-are-stumped/?ref=health
NotMax
As for the speech, will probably do what I try to do with all major addresses – listen to it on the the radio. Always feel that I get a purer rendition without the distraction of TV pictures (much TV’s less babbling heads).
EriktheRed
I’ll be watching at least one episode of House of Cards. I’ve already watched 8.
Redshift
I haven’t decided. My local Democrats are having a watch party (at a bar, even), but for the most part, they’re not as much fun to hang out with as the Juicers were last night, so I’ll probably stay home.
I’ll probably watch some of it, but since Obama doesn’t give Clinton-length speeches, I may actually watch the whole thing.
minutemaid
They aren’t actually going to let the draft dodging child molester in are they? Secret Service can just say no and they will right? May as well invite Westboro Baptist Church too.
geg6
I always watch if I can. It’s that old polisci major singing its siren song. I even sat through C+ Augustus’. I took two semesters in presidential rhetoric with one of the greatest profs I had in my entire education. I totally geek out on this stuff.
Violet
@David in NY: Thanks. I replied to you in the previous thread. Just amazing.
the Conster
@geg6:
For some reason I can’t watch, can only listen, otherwise you’re my political doppelganger.
Fred Fnord
…by cutting taxes, cutting social security, cutting medicare, and cutting other social spending? And with a Republican House that will let him do nothing that looks like it could possibly succeed in making life better for anyone who is not already wealthy?
That’s an interesting theory. I’ll be fascinated to see how it plays out in practice.
jl
@David in NY:
Thanks for that link:
” Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in every state last summer, seeking prices for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old grandmother who was uninsured but had the means to pay herself.
The quotes she received might surprise even hardened health care economists: only about half of the hospitals, including top-ranked orthopedic centers and community hospitals, could provide any sort of price estimate, despite repeated calls. Those that could gave quotes that varied by a factor of more than 10, from $11,100 to $125,798. ”
‘some say’ I am a health care economist. I am not surprised at all. I guess I am not hardened enough.
But remember, when you are bankrupted by medical care bills, it is your fault for not having enough ‘skin in the game’ and the damn gummint for not leaving you all on your lonesome to be a smart shopper.
And if you just broke a hip or had a stroke or a heart attack, ain’t that the time you should be smart? Hardened economists say it is and you are, so its your fault if things didn’t ‘break’ your way (hee hee, notice what I did there).
You are welcome for this very scientific consumer welfare analysis of the US health care system.
Alison
I’ll be watching it live, followed by the tape-delayed-for-the-west-coast second night of Westminster…which means hopefully being able to join folks in tweeting during SOTU without seeing anything about the dog show :P NO PUPPEH SPOILERS DAMN IT.
Ben Franklin
@PeakVT:
Was 2003 your last SOTU?
http://www.factcheck.org/bushs_16_words_on_iraq_uranium.html
? Martin
One of the deputies shot today, presumably by Dorner, died.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Alison:
The dog with four legs and a tail won.
Maude
@Redshift:
Clinton is still giving his 1997 speech even now.
Trollhattan
@? Martin:
Shit. San Bernardino county sheriff, I think. He was also in a running gunfight with two state F&G officers; luckily, neither was hit.
Trollhattan
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Not much of a tail if you ask me. ;-)
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Trollhattan:
Mine is a tail told by an idiot… :)
Alison
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: *shakes fist at you* :P
raven
Pat Lang, who continues to be on the blogroll here, would like to share his thoughts.
And think, you can access him with just a click.
SatanicPanic
@raven: If it makes you feel any better- on your reccomendation I have never clicked on his link.
mir13
@minutemaid: Why shouldn’t they let him in? He’s just one of the (good ‘ole) boys, never meanin’ no harm. Hell, he fits right in. I’m actually glad the GOP has, at long last found someone to match-up against Obama. Not like that succession of losers we”ve seen the last 4+ years. This time for sure.
jl
@raven: Thanks for sharing, but won’t click today. Lang is fussing over the fate of his Ur-American heartland Folk culture again, the nature of which is utterly and completely fixed, don’t you know. He’ll snap out of it in a few days… and then snap back in, for whatever reason.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
State of the Union Address Drinking Game
Warning: Actually attempting this with any alcoholic beverage can lead to liver relocation, Obamacarelessness, death, mopery, dopery, barratry, gratuitous Ted Nugent, memory loss, hopeless audacity, incarceration, ridicule, shrugging fountainheads, and/or inability to correctly pronounce “noo-kyoo-lar.”
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
BU finishes fourth in both the men’s and the women’s Beanpot. The wailing on that end of Commonwealth Avenue can be heard all the way
up Chestnut Hillin Newton.the Conster
@raven:
Old white authoritarian male experiences inchoate rage against imaginary Obama. Film at 11.
raven
@SatanicPanic: Yes!
Dee Loralei
Gonna watch it and drink some beer and hang out at Athenae’s place First Draft. She hosts a hell of a snarky crack van. Oh and on twitter on my phone too.
Zam
So anyone else seeing the photo floating around my facebook complaining about Obama not putting the flags at half mast for a certain dead soldier, yet doing it for Whitney Houston? It comes complete with her being labeled a bitch, whore and crackhead. No racism at all that I can see.
Litlebritdifrnt
Speaking of puppy news Ms. Flossie has learned how to use the doggy door! Yay! She is sleeping by my feet right now, no doubt exhausted from running in and out the doggy door all day, when I came in the house this evening she was out on the deck.
Anoniminous
Booman has a brief preview of the SOTU up.
MomSense
Having an intimate SOTU watch party tonight. We can only invite a small number because the offspring and our animal overlords take up so much space.
And after the SOTU we are joining the Obot video conference with the President!
Looking forward to it–but first to try and de-pet-hair the sofa!
jl
@the Conster: Lang endorsed Obama on his blog, so I assume voted for him. Lang has myriad quirks. Assuming there is a country heartland white folk culture in the US that is immutable is one of them. Lang likes to fuss over the problem. Not sure whether he always sees it as a problem though.
SatanicPanic
@raven: I aim to please!
El Caganer
Not watching, not anything to do with the President or the State of the Union, just I don’t like speeches. Will be spending some quality time watching the Flyers get destroyed.
raven
@jl: At best he should be in the “blogs we monitor and mock as needed” section.
the Conster
@jl:
The other choice was Romney, so perhaps Lang is just predisposed against billionaire automatons. That doesn’t explain much.
Baud
So will Obama betray his most loyal supporters tonight? Or will he unduly antagonize the Republicans with far-left ideas designed to appease his liberal base?
Why not both?
jl
@raven:
Lang’s quirks got too many for me some time ago. Probably when it became clear he thinks second amendment is a ticket to a quasi-constitutional right to shoot the place up if you get real pissed over… whatever… intolerable tyranny like national health insurance, like those commie Swiss have.
But not Medicare or Social Security… oh no, that is different.
PsiFighter37
I had one beer and I’m already tipsy. Damn this diet has been effective.
PF37 +1 Left Hand Milk Stout
MomSense
@Maude:
Probably a paid buzzkill.
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: I bet there’s not so much as a single mention of the public option tonight? And is Van Jones sitting in the box with Mrs. Obama tonight? I don’t think so…
jl
@the Conster: Quirks. One day he is railing against racism and stating a lot of criticism of Obama is racially motivated, and anticipating the day that older whites’ outdated notions of race disappear.
Next day he is worrying about the fate of his beloved ‘native’ rock ribbed independent freedom loving white American country heartland (aka racist) culture.
I can’t figure the guy out.
MomSense
@Redshift:
Is it the Frosty Note by chance??
Yutsano
Working late, so no SotU for me.
? Martin
The cabin that Dorner is supposedly holed up in is now fully on fire. No idea how/why/etc. Cameras are about 3 miles away, so not much detail.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Baud:
Obama’s most loyal supporters® are already rending their garments and looking for buses to be thrown under. The Republicans will be antagonized by anything short of Obama’s immediate resignation.
maya
Since this is the State of the Union speech I certainly hope Obama does not fail to mention how all those petitions to secede by former-current confederacy folk are coming along.
Anoniminous
Now it’s been reported they’ve found tracks leading away from the cabin to a horse corral.
Narcissus
So did they just torch the cabin or what
jl
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
” The Republicans will be antagonized by anything short of Obama’s immediate resignation. ”
Too optimistic. Retroactive resignation back to Jan 2009, with appointment of Cheney as President for Life, and a final executive order allowing Darth to make ex post facto laws by decree. That might reduce GOP grumbling to a low thunder.
JPL
@Anoniminous: what are you listening to?
Baud
@Anoniminous:
That’s it. I can’t continue to believe this is real. I think we are all being punk’d by Ashton Kutcher. Too insane.
the Conster
@jl:
Semi-self-aware white aging former uber-male existential crisis unfolding in real time? Yeah. No.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Anoniminous:
According to a report that I read, Dorner was popping smokes to cover his escape then the cops were popping smokes so that they could evacuate the wounded officers. Dorner may have taken advantage of all of the smoke and confusion.
Don’t know if it’s legally possible, but they might consider having some Special Forces types go after him while he’s still in the mountains. The cops, despite their numbers, may be over matched this time.
Anoniminous
@JPL:
here.
@Narcissus:
Fired tear gas into the cabin and it seems that started the fire.
dance around in your bones
Well, I’m going to watch. I always like watching this POTUS talk (even if I do zone out once in a while) and there’s always a chance that Ted Nugent will shout “You lie!” or some such. (I know he promised he’d be civil, but…)
May skip the pundit bloviating later. It tends to make me stabby.
Big question – will MSNBC cut away from the endless Dorner standoff? There’s black smoke coming up from the cabin, fer Gawd’s sake!!
MazeDancer
It’s actually heart breaking that GOP idiots are turning something as important as the State of the Union into a reality TV stunt by bringing Ted Nugent. Also heart breaking how easily the media will likely cater to the shiny object ploy and mention it in the same breath as 102 year old lady who had to stand in line for hours to vote or Newtown parents. Both side do it stereo.
Rubio adding the Spanish version is, actually, a smart idea. And he’s a telegenic guy who is likely to know where the camera is and not enter the frame a la Jindal, but already be ensconced at some pseudo Oval Office set.
But no matter what Rubio says, he still voted against VAWA today, and whatever malarky he trots out, it’s still gonna be GOP ideas.
So no matter what his efforts, Spanish-ing the party of “self deportation” is still gonna be lipstick on a puerco.
22over7
@Maude:
Sorry, Maude, it’s Louie Gohmert by a mile, unless you’re just counting the senate.
Watching the dog show. The only way I’d watch the SOTU is if a major news network puts a mike on Nugent and leaves it on all frickin’ night.
ranchandsyrup
Did Leeeeroy Jenkins go in too early again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVZ50qAQrpc
Yutsano
@dance around in your bones:
I heard tell the next Pope will be a Catholic too…
I’m sorry, but Ted the Draft Dodging Pedo is too much of a grandstander to sit there quietly and let THAT ONE talk without interjecting some kind of inappropriate commentary. I personally will find it quite amusing if the SS refuse to let him in because he’s threatened the President. Of course that will suck up some media oxygen as well, which is Ted’s point.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@MazeDancer:
Rubio’s Spanish version will be easy; the Spanish word for “no” is “no.”
JPL
@MazeDancer: Rubio is concerned about medicare for his grandma. Do his grandparents live here? Anyway it’s a big fu to his children though.
srv
@jl: He’s trolling the minor stuck.
Laughing a few months ago at the buffet Catholics and today calling his church medieval and volunteering to be the Pope to drag them into modernity.
handsmile
No SotU in the handsmile household: a long-standing habit broken only in the first two years of the Obama presidency, in part to watch the glorious triad of the President, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi. I’ll read the speech and selected analyses thereof tomorrow.
Atrios has a diabolical SotU drinking game for those here of sterner mettle.
At 8:00pm EST, I will be watching the latest “Frontline” program, “Cliffhanger” on Washington’s now perpetual financial crises. That should provide enough political apoplexy for any one person in a given night.
And besides, as Alison noted above (#38), tonight concludes the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Once again, the only truly deserving breed has been unjustly denied its rightful “Best in Show” trophy. (Pembroke Welsh Corgis, obviously!) We always root for the more obscure breeds to win the groups (yes, aware of the judging standards, but still!). Surprised that the Affenpinscher won the Toy Group, until I learned that it was one of the four dogs that oddsmakers (!) had selected to win the whole prize.
The Guardian, God/doG love ’em, is live-blogging the show!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/12/westminster-dog-show-2013-night-one-live?INTCMP=SRCH
Full Metal Wingnut
@Trollhattan: Wow. I officially don’t care if Dorner dies. He said in his manifesto that he doesn’t want to get out of this alive and will kill anyone who stands in his way. How do you take someone like that alive? No more dead cops. If a sniper gets a shot, take it.
NotMax
The Spanish version is pre-recorded and has been in the can for a while.
So it can’t be a response – one cannot reply to something that hasn’t yet occurred.
JPL
@Full Metal Wingnut: I’m thankful he wasn’t driving something like an accord..
maya
@dance around in your bones:
That means we don’t have a new pope yet.
Raven
Confirmed that the cabin that is burning is the one Dorner was in. Xin Loi.
Raven
Put some willy peter on his ass, that’ll do it.
JoyfulA
@dance around in your bones: Black smoke coming up? Who’s the new pope? If it’s Joe Biden, how do we pick a new VP?
Raven
Cinque all over.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: isn’t that what the ca national guard is for? I bet they have some hellfires. Use em.
Poopyman
@? Martin: Ah, the old SLA gambit. SoCal cops going back to the old playbook.
Well, dark’s coming on soon. Had to do something before the lights went out.
Dunno if I’ll watch or not. One thing I won’t do, is Atrios’ drinking game. I’d die of alcohol poisoning.
Alison
@handsmile: I like when breeds that haven’t won much come out on top too. So far I am so totally pulling for the sheepdog just because holy crap it’s so fucking cute. A big giant mountain of fluff, basically :)
Ben Franklin
It’s amazing how much disinformation is published during a live event, such as this.
The Fog of War….
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@efgoldman: Don’t look at me, pal. I just report these things. My team hasn’t lost since *last* February and I’m fully confident that we can beat any team Hockey East throws into the NCAAs.
Poopyman
@Baud: Sounds similar to the SLA gunfight. My college roommate and I came back from the dining hall and were listening on the radio for about 10 minutes before it dawned on us that it wasn’t a radio play, but actual reportage.
Raven
@Ben Franklin: Fuckin A.
Mustang Bobby
The live coverage of the standoff in Big Bear, California between the fugitive ex-cop and the police is stepping all over the SOTU foreplay. The metaphors write themselves.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: If they gotta smoke him out, they gotta smoke him out. He’s killed enough.
Raven
@Poopyman: Except this is one dude.
PeakVT
@Ben Franklin: It might have been. I really can’t say. They’ve never impressed me, though. I think after a few Clinton SOTUs I realized the disconnect between the rhetoric and what could be actually be accomplished was so great that there was not much point in caring about what the President said.
Raven
@Full Metal Wingnut: The fucking reporters are insane. “Are you going to wait for the fire to die down or go in now”?. I know, let’s have some cops burn to death in an attempt to. . . what?
Ted & Hellen
@eemom:
l thing.
How dare you.
Are you always this self defeating? ;)
handsmile
@Ben Franklin:
Fuckin’ A+.
Raven
“How secure is the area around the house?”
Ted & Hellen
Obama seems to be losing event the Bots. Really surprised how many of you aren’t tuning in tonight.
Poopyman
@handsmile: Dorner, or SOTU? Could be either – probably both.
PeakVT
@Ben Franklin: The Fog of
Warratings-hungry producers and reporters.Raven
@Ted & Hellen: Write down what he says and give us a report numbnuts.
MikeJ
@Raven: It needs to be told how pretty it is or it just falls to pieces.
Baud
If you kill Dorner, he’ll only comer back stronger.
quannlace
Well, gonna start it at least. A glass of white wine for the SOTU. But Rand Paul (“If I was president…), that would require at least one shot of Apple Jack.
Raven
Remember “MOVE”?
dance around in your bones
@Yutsano:
It would be SO sweet to see the Secret Service wrestle him down while he wets his pants
MazeDancer
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Good reminder that no means no. Actually, may be fun to hear all the GOP cliches translated to Spanish. Probably some Spanglish Twitter moments on their way.
@JPL:
Don’t know about Rubio’s family, but he oft cites the cruelty of Cubans in FL being cut off from visiting their families in Cuba.
Cubans are in US because they have been “cut off from freedom” is his POV. You know, he will tell you, he’s a refugee, his whole family are refugees. Which is basically unAmerican in a way. Like they’re only here because they have no choice. And completely different than the other zillions of people trying to stay in the country because they love it and the freedoms.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Raven: That’s tragic. But who’s in the cabin besides Dorner? If the couple’s still in there tied up that would be disturbing, but if it’s just him, fuck that guy. He’s made it clear that he isn’t planning on living through this and has killed multiple people.
Raven
@Full Metal Wingnut: Tweety has decided,based on a moron reporter, that HE MAY BE ON THE LOOSE!
Full Metal Wingnut
@MazeDancer: Ugh Rubio. I’m Cuban and I think that guy is the antichrist.
SatanicPanic
@MazeDancer: I thought the Cuban lobby was the reason we can’t go there.
the Conster
Apparently we’re watching the 2013 version of Falling Down. WTF.
MikeJ
@MazeDancer:
And he’ll be lying. His family left before the revolution, not as a reaction to it.
NotMax
@Raven
Remember it like it was yesterday.
re: cabin burning, remember “Hello, Prudential?”
lamh35
OMG! Colin Firth Pride & Prejudice on Ovation right now. there goes my night!
Elizabelle
Had been wondering if the LA area would be getting a split screen: SOTU and the Dorner manhunt.
Although it will be dark by 6:00 p Pacific; presumably not ideal visuals for reality TV.
MikeJ
As to the SotU, my reaction.
That’s right, I’m watching one of the best movies ever made on TCM.
scav
@Full Metal Wingnut: I’m going lazy, via guard
Colin Firth or any number of things would make for a saner night. The SOTU and usual blah blah fallout will be there tomorrow. Even reality seems to be running reruns.
NotMax
As no one seems to have mentioned it, happy 204th birthday anniversary to Honest Abe.
Narcissus
This would be a great story, but I’d add more people. Instead of one cop, an elite unit of cops.
Ted & Hellen
@Raven:
Hmmm…
…oh right, you’re a gruntard, I forgot…
MikeJ
@NotMax: Lincoln didn’t get single payer passed. Worse than Bush, threw us under the bus, etc, etc.
eemom
@handsmile:
As Elizabelle noted, we did indeed speak most fondly of you at the Car Pool get together yesterday evening.
Hope there is someday a similar event at which we can transcend these petty geographical distances.
On another note — a few other names came up, too…. ; )
NotMax
Imagine if the charred remains of D.B. Cooper are found in the ashes.
Elizabelle
Been a news-packed week, hasn’t it.
I am still smiling that Ratzinger is resigning.
Suffern ACE
@MikeJ: sad, really. I bet healthcare was only 2% of the economy back then, so it could have been taken care of once and for all. Now that its closer to 20%, it’s far more complicated.
JoyfulA
@Raven: Yes, I’ll remember that forever. And I couldn’t vote for any of the candidates for mayor in the next election.
It’s one of those cases where the middle-class neighbors (lots of teachers and cops on that block) complain too much about small things, nobody pays any attention or does anything for years, and when the city does pay attention, it does so with reckless, overwhelming force. Sort of what we’re seeing coming out of LA.
the Conster
@the Conster:
LL CoolJ as Christopher Dorner in the remake.
the Conster
@the Conster:
FYWP. Moderate this: LL Cool J as Christoper Dorner in the inevitable movie.
JPL
@lamh35: What a great film, although I did enjoy his performance in Love Actually.
Poopyman
@NotMax: Jimmy Hoffa.
JPL
btw.. the boss has a Westminster Dog Show thread but if you comment on it, you will be put in moderation.
dance around in your bones
@maya:
@JoyfulA:
OMG, I had no idea the new Pope was being voted on in a cabin in Big Bear! hoocodanode?
Full Metal Wingnut
If true, good riddance http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-source-man-believed-be-fugitive-ex-los-angeles-cop-never-emerged-burning-cabin
MikeJ
@the Conster: http://i.imgur.com/dBSSF1N.jpg
the Conster
@MikeJ:
Oh fer fuck sake how early do you have to get up around here to beat the meme?
handsmile
@eemom:
Even in my decrepitude, valentines from the Kool Girlz in the class still make the heart flutter! (there’s my stammering reply to Elizabelle at the unspooled end of Tim F.’s “Open Thread”)
I do make the arduous trek to the Potomac Swamp several times each year, so I trust such an occasion, perhaps somewhat less than transcendent, can and will be arranged. :)
dance around in your bones
@Elizabelle:
We are already getting the split screen on MSNBC – pre-SOTU + and cabin still burning; multiple cops emergency vehicles in front of ER.
Gah.
Redshift
@handsmile: Definitely. The local Juicers are a good group; I’d like it if we could get together more often.
Ben Franklin
@Elizabelle:
Pray that a Frenchman doesn’t go up in smoke. Nostradamus has decreed it….
Anoniminous
@Poopyman:
How do you know Christopher Dorner isn’t Jimmy Hoffa? Have they ever been seen in the same room. Together. At the same time?
:dons tin foil hat:
Redshift
@dance around in your bones: CNN too. Gah, indeed.
Anoniminous
@Anoniminous:
I’m in moderation? WTF for?
FYWP
Anoniminous
and the comment complaining I was in moderation.
Is in moderation.
Comrade Mary
Sorry, wrong thread:
The feed I’m seeing at The Grauniad says that it’s the “enhanced” SOTU. Does that mean Now With Extra Horsemeat?
(I know it’s not their feed, OK?)
dance around in your bones
@Redshift:
Ok, MSNBC just shifted over to the pure SOTU.
I guess we’ll find out late if Dorner ate his own bullet whilst burning down the house.
Elizabelle
I think it’s funny that all the Congressweenies that (allegedly) lined up 10 hours early to greet the President got eclipsed by rerun footage of a burning cabin.
Take that, Michelle Bachmann wannabes.
mir13
@MikeJ: It’s like Face-Off and Rambo First Blood mashed together. We could get Nic Cage and Nic Cage and Sly Stallone and LL Cool J. It’s pratically writing itself right now. I smell franchise. Oh, no sorry, that was gas. Never mind. Forget it. You wouldn’t understand anyway.
Mark B
Idiot Gingrich on Msnbc.
Actually CNN. I was channel swapping. Gingrich is still an idiot.
lojasmo
@jl:
An $11K (or $125K) hip replacement can become a million dollar hospital charge if an 80 year old patient has a post-operative pulmonary embolism or falls and breaks the contralateral hip.
FYWP is not remembering my nym
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: Heh. I thought only the French and Japanese ate horse. I was a bit taken aback by the kerfluffle in Britain, but I guess it has more to do with false advertising than anything else.
Comrade Mary
Oh, the British are fucking furious that there’s horse in their beef, way more than, say, if there was some turkey mixed with their chicken. You just don’t eat Black Beauty.
Comrade Mary
Wow: the feed has a sidebar with extra info. I guess pop-up video style was too nineties.
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: My Gallic blood is incredibly amused at this. Of course my mother would be appalled at the thought of eating one of her horses, so I can understand the sentiment.
David in NY
@Violet: Good luck with finding out what the costs are. I had read that article because my wife’s going to have a hip replacement. We’ve got insurance, and we’ve got some money, so it’s unlikely the cost to us will be all that great. But if somebody (anesthesiologist, e.g.) were not on our insurance, we’d be hit with totally unexpected costs. It’s so weird.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Nothing wrong with a little donkey in the sausage, right?
ETA: No euphemisms were used in this comment.
PurpleGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: My friends put in a dog door for Hugo (Dobermann) to use. The cat (Rowdy) learned how to exit the house by the dog door and he would re-enter by an opening by the dryer air vent.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: You can theoretically make sausage out of any meat. Whether you should is another tale for another time. I will say that bear sausage is actually quite tasty.
/no double entendres
dmbeaster
Hosting SOTUS party with OFA, so although I usually never watch it, I will tonight.
lojasmo
@Ted & Hellen:
This is the first SOTU I’ve ever listened to.
So there.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: My aunt and uncle always make elk sausage after they bag one. Tasty too.
My typo before I corrected it was “elf sausage”.
Never make sausage out of clown. It tastes funny.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: I have cousins who are hunters. They have standing orders from my mom that whatever they bag they have to share with her and I can usually get a steak or two. Never done sausage with it although there is no real reason I couldn’t.