Even plague-ridden weasels gotta pay their dues, play those small-venue tours. Alex Morris at NYMag finds a professional ratfcker at a low ebb in the electoral cycle:
The agents of truth are massing. They wear pleated slacks and wire-frame glasses, button-downs and blazers, sensible shoes. They congregate over muffins and oatmeal in a beigeish room on the twelfth floor of a Hilton in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. There are two people of color, but otherwise the agents appear blissfully Anglo-Saxon; some wear tea-party pins. The average age looks to be roughly 63, though that figure would be a few digits higher were it not for the eventual arrival of 28-year-old keynote speaker James O’Keefe, most famous for secretly filming a video that seems to show workers from the liberal community group acorn advising him on how to conceal income from an imaginary brothel. This, among other gonzo YouTube videos revealing alleged liberal misdeeds and hypocrisies, makes him a hero in this room. The agents of truth want to be like O’Keefe, rooting out liberal bias, shining light into the dark corners of corrupt government, and, perhaps most important, getting linked to by Drudge.
And so, on a sunny April morning, here they are at a Citizen Watchdog Summit aimed at training them in the art of citizen journalism, an event sponsored by the conservative Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which was created with support from David and Charles Koch…
O’Keefe assures his aging army that it’s a daunting task to break through the “media firewall” and portray the truth. There will be suffering, maybe even public disgrace, like what O’Keefe faced when he was arrested at the office of Senator Mary Landrieu after entering the federal property under false pretenses. “You can only imagine what it feels like to be shackled to your waist with a leather belt and chains and a Timothy McVeigh jumpsuit, put on the front page of the New York Times; you can only imagine how difficult it would be to continue. But I continued. Are you willing to make the sacrifices? Are you willing to be slandered and defamed, falsely accused?”
An older woman in a flowered turtleneck shirt raises her hand.
“Yes?”
“My husband and I are fighting with our local township,” she says, her voice brimming with indignation. “What they came and did was end the curb so all the road’s storm water runs down our driveway, and in the winter it makes our driveway one solid sheet of ice. And thank you for the YouTube. We have photographs of the icy driveway, and we’ll be working on publishing.”…
After his presentation, O’Keefe can be found at a window near the back that looks out over his home state’s highways and warehouses. As a part of his three-year probation, he can’t travel without permission from a judge, a U.S. attorney, and a probation officer, he says.* This makes it hard for him to round up his army of citizen watchdogs, though he tells me that, along with continuing to make his videos, it is “definitely one of the more important things that I do.” Not that the law is the only obstacle. “To be a disrupter, to go against the grain—the hardest part for me is just getting them to do that. They’re all 50-plus. They’re always older. Probably the most frustrating thing about what I do is that people who have lived through a lot can identify more, but once you have a family, a house, you’re entrenched.” He pauses. “People in their twenties are going to be more likely to make sacrifices, but they’re just not there yet.”
It’s like the old joke about the circus worker following the elephants with a shovel and a bucket. Sure, O’Keefe could find a (semi-) honest job fetching coffee and tweeting Reason links, but then he’d have to give up show business!
***********
Apart from the inescapable bucket work, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
BGinCHI
It must be depressing to want to be the new Andrew Breitbart but to be too stupid to pull it off.
Do conservatives get depressed?
Schlemizel
I spent the day cleaning up a mess my boss made because he is too lazy to ask & too stupid to admit he does not know.
I hate my job more than I thought humanly possible. I plan on drinking to excess tonight & know that will piss off the woman stupid enough to marry me.
I am a quiet drunk so there is not danger to the outside world
Frankensteinbeck
What do you think is the ROI for the money the Kochs are spending here? Also, our greatest hope and advantage are O’Keefe’s own words: ‘They’re all 50-plus. They’re always older.’ The GOP is doing a lousy job of attracting new members.
Violet
@BGinCHI: No of course not, because pull yourself up by your bootstraps too busy to be depressed shut up that’s why.
Changing the subject, someone was discussing the weed killer Roundup in the previous thread. Roundup residue is now being found in food. Yay for Roundup-ready crops. Ugh.
Schlemizel
@BGinCHI:
No, it takes empathy and some level of awareness to be depressed. Conservatives have neither which allows them to be flaming assholes, totally obtuse any angry, not depressed.
BGinCHI
@Violet: Would spraying Roundup on O’Keefe rid us of this weed?
Inquiring minds.
khead
Open thread needs kitteh video.
SweetPea goalie practice.
BGinCHI
@Schlemizel: Damn. I was hoping there might be a pill they could take that would cure them. Of their right wing asshattery, I mean.
lamh35
Well it finally happened. Dropped my iPhone on the floor & cracked the face! It’s pretty bad. Feel like I’m going to cut myself if I just pan up. Unfortunately I don’t can’t upgrade. I currently have AT&T. I’m looking to change. I don’t want T-Mobile or Verizon, so I’m looking towards Sprint or last resort Virgin. I’ve always had the IPhone since it first came out, but now I’m looking for something new.
So help a sista out, alright peeps phone survey: HTC or Samsung Galaxy; Virgin vs Sprint.
ranchandsyrup
@Frankensteinbeck: It’s throwaway $$ for the Kochtopus. Jimmy’s still living off of the ACORN thingy and the fact that their provocateur bench is so thin that no one can take his place.
Schlemizel
@Violet:
Plus roundup ready GMO = death to the human race. COME ON APOCALYPSE!
Death of bees, heated, acidic ocean, MDRB, yeah, we are a dead species walking
Schlemizel
@BGinCHI:
Oh, there is a pill that can cure it. cyanide.
Davis X. Machina
That’s how you get to be the boss…..
Mike in NC
Read where a handful of local 50-something wingnuts have recently formed themselves into what they’re calling “Heritage Sentinels”. It didn’t take too long to figure out that their job is to lobby (and perhaps harass) politicians on behalf of the right-wing Heritage Foundation.
Ben Franklin
Old Folks Army doesn’t quite do it.
How about The Greatest Degeneration ?
Trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
I suspect the Kochs are at the honey-badger phase of their lives and just don’t give a shit about ROI. Which, for some reason, reminds me of Obama’s Saturday zinger asking why Sheldon Adelson didn’t just offer him the hundred-mil directly? “Michelle would have taken it.”
I seem to recall the camera cutting away to Newt during that segment.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Dude, the people in their twenties are chaining themselves to stuff and going to jail to prevent construction of tar sands pipelines. They don’t care about you or your ‘issues’.
Violet
@BGinCHI: Eventually, probably. Might take a few years.
Ben Franklin
@Violet:
Round-up is good for you.
Haydnseek
@Schlemizel: You are not alone……
Schlemizel
@lamh35:
I love my galaxy except recently it has been throwing a lot of errors that it insists on mailing to my gmail account instead of to someone who gives a shit. I find that turning it off every week & rebooting it is not a bad idea,
The carriers are all scum, pick your poison. I went with Sprint years ago when I traveled for work all the time & they had the very best coverage, don’t know if that is still true. I get unlimited data but have figured out that they intentionally throttle it (will explain later but I have 2 Sprint phones & the one I pay for has much worse data throughput then the government phone). Verizon has decent data from what I have seen but it costs.
Haydnseek
@BGinCHI: No, you need the much more expensive anti-dickweed formula to accomplish that.
NotMax
Snake oil sales have always been lucrative.
Violet
@Ben Franklin: Not for me it isn’t.
From the article at the top:
James O’Keefe is 28. Where did the time go? He’s pushing 30, so not exactly one of those fresh-faced recent college grads aged 21 or 22. If he’s the youngest they’ve got, the Republicans are in trouble.
Schlemizel
@Ben Franklin:
I have written lyrics & wish I could perform (no talent what so ever) a song to the tune of the Who’s “Talkin Bout My Generation” Titled Talkin Bout My Degeneration
If you are old you can already imagine the words
ruemara
I wish I could pull of a grift of this magnitude. Or toss him down a bottomless pit.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
It really depresses ME that James O’Keefe is still able to grift, given how thoroughly he’s been shown to be a lying shit-weasel.
Ben Franklin
@Schlemizel:
I am, and I can.
Schlemizel
@Violet:
You forget that there is always some nonzero number of entitled asswipes graduating after 6 years on daddys money. Thinking they know shit and looking for a cheap and easy way to fame and fortune. SHitheels like Jimmy believe those filthy mud people have it coming and they deserve the income from fucking them over
The supply will be limitless as long as the 1% breeds
quannlace
Why do I doubt this? Or if true, must have been an extreeeeemly slow news day.
Kay
Parents in FL beat Michelle Rhee and Jeb Bush’s latest privatization scheme in FL today. Failed in the state Senate. Beaten by the PTA! Must be humiliating for big national.players like Bush and Rhee.
Jeb Bush can’t even sell this garbage in FL.
I may have to re-evaluate him as a presidential candidate.
Gravenstone
@BGinCHI: I’d suggest we go right to the flamethrowers that raven linked in the previous thread. Sadly, only LP powered. Sometimes there really is no substitute for napalm.
brendancalling
On the agenda: last week of training for the Broad Street Run. Did 11.55 miles yesterday, running to my local Drinking Liberally chapter tonight (about 4 miles). Debating taking transit home or running. Guess it depends how much I drink…
Hungry Joe
From “Twelfth Night” … sort of: Some are born creepy, some achieve creepiness, and others have creepiness thrust upon them.
O’Keefe has managed all three.
Violet
@Schlemizel: No, I didn’t forget it. But my point is that there isn’t another younger person who as achieved any prominence or notoriety. O’Keefe is as young as they’ve got. And he’s not that young.
quannlace
It doesn’t say, but did these people pay actual folding money to attend this ‘summit.’ And if so, how much?
scav
Yeah, but does that Iced Up Driveway emit rainbows, huh!? What about all those mineralized floride gay-marrying nanobots they’ve got in there! Gotta be vigilant. Bet they’re in Betty’s dishwasher, just waiting to Erupt! Etching and spotting the glassware in the meantime because they’re bored and roll that way.
NotMax
@Kay
Jeb cannot be unaware of brother Neil’s involvement in gainfully slurping at the education money trough.
Been a cash-COW* for him.
*The company’s claim to fame is a unit called Curriculum On Wheels, or COW.
22over7
@Violet:
Not true! Here’s another young gun, groomed by the best the republicans have to offer:
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2013/04/24/fear-and-fapping-on-campaign-trail-2012/
Schlemizel
@Violet:
Give it time. Sadly, like buses on SUnday, it may take a bit but the next one will be along
edit:
@22over7: Yeah, like that!
Violet
@22over7: Such a fine example of a young Republican! Criminals, the lot of them.
raven
My 63 year old ass just came in from more deck demolition and lenten rose relocation and I’ll now cook dinner for the princess and whistling this!
MattR
@lamh35: I like my HTC Rezound, but I also work from home so I don’t use it all too much (I use my personal desktop for music and web surfing while working on the laptop). And I am not around other people’s phones all too much so I don’t have a good basis for comparison.
Kay
@NotMax:
The bill was disgusting. Included the obligatory Bush mandate for online education.
The Bush’s are so wealthy. Is it really necessary that they steal from 2nd graders?
FL media did a great job. They first produced a video of “concerned FL parents” that came out of a lobby shop in CA. So that’s one strike on credibility. Next they produced a petition with 1200 signatures (1200 signatures is a joke in a state as populous as FL). A newspaper contacted the signers and some of them insisted they never signed it. So that’s Lie #2.
One FL paper said they then had ” credibility problems” which led some Republicans to break ranks.
Flying Squirrel Girl
@22over7: You just can’t make this stuff up.
MattR
@raven: About how far is the drive from the Atlanta airport to Athens? And how bad does the rush hour traffic get on the roads I’ll have to take?
catclub
@Trollhattan: A good next line for cutting to Newt.
“Of Course, Newt was against that solution.”
Eric U.
I have not been paying attention. Is the parole from the break-in at the senator’s office or the boat fiasco? Dunno why he didn’t stick to dressing up in pimp outfits
Suffern ACE
I have a catholic question. I went to a former convent today (order of the Poor Clares) and a former monastery (Jesuits). The poor clares were very clearly a mendicant order and the Jesuits’ digs were quite fancy. I’ve been trying to figure out if there are or were non-mendicant nuns that would have the frills and gilded ceilings. Not all of those unmarried daughters of the nobility would have been sent to a poor order. Do nuns always live poor?
raven
@MattR: About 66 miles. 285 to 20 East to 138 in Conyers and then to 78 in Monroe is by far the best route. Rush hour sucks all the way to 138 on a good day. One wreck and it shuts down. When do you arrive? Do you need a car or would the shuttle do?
lamh35
@Schlemizel: yeah. the unlimited date seems to be the best bit about Sprint. To be honest, I rarely use my phone for calls. I almost always use it to text and surf and such, so the data plan is a winner.
Unless you were a customer since forever, AT&T doesn’t have unlimited data.
As for the Galaxy, seems like everyone I know loves the Galaxy, so I decided to go with Sprint and the Galaxy.
Kay
@Eric U.:
I think they should take him off probation. He’s a train wreck. He’ll screw up in a matter of months. Weeks. Give him enough rope, by all means. I want to see him reach his full potential.
Maus
Sorry O’Keefe, you’ll never be Glenn Beck. You’re less likable than Glenn Beck. Let’s let that sink in…
22over7
@Flying Squirrel Girl:
Oh, eww! Yeah, I saw that. Just ew.
Villago Delenda Est
@Schlemizel:
The important thing is that the quarterly profits report looks good!
JPL
@Suffern ACE: I’ve only been in two convents and both were dark and dank.
Poopyman
@Kay:
You could have stopped there.
gelfling545
@Schlemizel: Only too well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay:
Yes. Because they’d give all their wealth up for just a little bit more.
MattR
@raven: IIRC, my sister hated that shuttle :)
Just scouting out the basics in case I miraculously manage to score Neutral Milk Hotel tickets when they go on sale on Friday (The two concerts are in October at the 40 Watt and I expect the ~1000 total tickets to be gone in under a minute)
EDIT: I should count on at least 90 minutes door to door by car, right?
lamh35
@MattR: thanks, too late to edit my last comment, but I’ve decided to go with the Galaxy and Sprint.
@lamh35:
raven
@MattR: Too bad they aren’t at the Theater, my connects are way better there. The shuttle does suck.
The Moar You Know
Huh. Oddly enough, he’s living a worse punishment than the one I’d thought up for him: irrelevance.
different-church-lady
I’m still fucking steamed by the buckets of stupid on yesterday’s “Infowars Mope” thread (which I just read this afternoon).
Memo to you wankers: do not presume to tell the residents of Watertown what our own fuckin’ emotional state was, from afar, based on what you saw on your TV screen.
NotMax
@Kay
Presume that is a rhetorical question.
The educational scamming is, IMHO, based on the flawed premise that they are setting up a factory with a lucratively lubricated production line.
No costs for an endless stream of raw material (students), and profit from pushing them through a one size fits all process (attempted to be made palatable with a generous helping of secret – that is, proprietary – sauce), then spitting them out, missing only the step of applying an “As Is. No warranty.” tattoo.
gbear
@Ben Franklin: How ’bout the Get Off My Lawn Squad?
Todd
Continuing to lament the death of our server at the office – somehow, a heater ran all weekend and swamped the cooling unit in the server closet. The unit froze over, and the temp increased to 100, frying two hard drives. In short, no faxes or emails have come through in two days, we had no net and no printing, nor have we been able to scan.
Computer guy claims “tomorrow”, but that’s what he said yesterday.
raven
@raven: Buddy just stopped by and I asked him about the show. Big deal, I had no clue.
Schlemizel
@different-church-lady:
You are far too emotionally tangled up in this, better that outsiders tell you what you feel.
Am I glad I missed that thread?
gbear
@Trollhattan:
I hope their children and grandchildren hate their guts for eternity for this.
different-church-lady
@Schlemizel:
Some people comported themselves well, some did not, and the breakdown was unsurprising for the most part.
To be fair, it’s not just on BJ where this is happening. It appears there are segments of the left who are just as happy to live in alternate realities as those on the right.
scuffletuffle
@lamh35: I have the galaxy 3 and love it.
Trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
Keep yelling it, because these dipshits only understand (unnerstanistan) yelling. Drive them away with Bruins fans, if need be.
raven
@MattR: Oh yes, at least. There is no home game that weekend but traffic on Friday is especially bad. I’d try to get to the ATL by mid-afternoon. Of course the big deal bands won’t start until at least 11 so, if you don’t care about Elf Power there is that.
Redshift
@quannlace:
If it was Koch/AFP “sponsored,” I would guess not. One of our local Dems told me about going to local TPer meetings to see what they were up to, and one thing he said was that they never talked about raising money or how they were going to pay for anything (travel to protests, etc.); it was clear that astroturf money paid for it all.
lamh35
@scuffletuffle: Thx. Sprint has a deal on the Galaxy 4. $100 discount and also my company discount.
So I’ve decided to go with Sprint and the Galaxy 4. I’ve got 30 days to decide if I like it. So I hope I do. If not, I’ll just stay with Sprint and go ahead an get the Iphone 5
Kay
@NotMax:
I followed the Bush II edu-scam. Remember when Barbara Bush “donated” Neil’s edu-product to poor children?
So incredibly generous, that woman.
Redshift
@Kay:
As in re-evaluate downward? Based on his family name and his awkward single-day triple-flip-flop on immigration, I already had him in the dead man walking category.
gogol's wife
@different-church-lady:
Very annoying thread.
Trollhattan
@gbear:
They’ve certainly earned the enmity of their offspring, but one wonders how much the daily money baths soften it? After all, they followed in their daddy’s fascist bootsteps, John Birch Society and all.
Ben Franklin
Good stuff..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324030704578424650479285218.html
Fifty-seven percent of the world’s population still lives under some sort of autocratic regime. In the span of a decade, the world’s autocracies will go from having a minority of their citizens online to a majority. From Tehran to Beijing, autocrats are building the technology and training the personnel to suppress democratic dissent, often with the help of Western companies.
Of course, this is no easy task—and it isn’t cheap. The world’s autocrats will have to spend a great deal of money to build systems capable of monitoring and containing dissident energy. They will need cell towers and servers, large data centers, specialized software, legions of trained personnel and reliable supplies of basic resources like electricity and Internet connectivity. Once such an infrastructure is in place, repressive regimes then will need supercomputers to manage the glut of information.
Redshift
@NotMax:
Awesome. The state standardized tests in Virginia are still called the Standards of Learning, or SOL. Apparently our state officials who created them were not familiar with the acronym for “shit out of luck”…
lamh35
Daughter Of Newtown Victim Confronts Ayotte Over Gun Check Vote
different-church-lady
@Trollhattan: Heh. I was never proud of the “fuck you” side of my city until this month.
The sad thing is it’s making me increasingly suspicious of everything I read in left-blogistan. I used to think they were fighting to the good fight, and now I think they’re something straight out of The Iceman Cometh. If you’re gonna pull shit out of your ass about what me and my friends and neighbors think of something, then what else are you pulling out of your ass?
Baud
@different-church-lady:
I’ve been there for a couple of years, now. It is sad.
Trollhattan
@lamh35:
Oh lord. I hope the senator had a very bad, not so good day after that.
“Who can rid me of these meddlesome victims?”
How about reducing the number of future victims?
Redshift
@lamh35:
I loved mine until a few weeks go ago, when it started crashing constantly. I’ve since done a wipe and factory reset and an OS upgrade, which don’t seem to have helped. If anybody has any experience with this and can point me to any other suggestions, I’d appreciate it.
Google has become less useful in the past few years now that there are many more forums where people can easily post their ideas. I used to find useful technical answers a lot; now I mostly find people who are sure some random thing they did is the answer, and know just enough to make it sound like they might know what they’re talking about.
MattR
@lamh35: That is the phone I wanted but my blackberry was broken so I could not wait the three months for it to be released.
@raven: Yeah. I actually have what would normally be a decent connection, but with a show like this there are so many people trying to call in favors. Oh well. White people problems. (EDIT: We would fly in Tuesday and leave Thursday so weekend traffic should not be a problem. If I do go, I kinda have to see Elf Power since my brother in law used to play with them – hence my connection)
NotMax
@Kay
Noblesse oblige.
At least one could get a doughnut and coffee for the dimes Rockefeller gave out.
Baud
@Kay:
You go where the lunch money is.
Trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
I simply don’t know how to convince a conspiracy fetishist that sometimes, things are precisely what they seem (and in this case, isn’t the story odd enough as it is?). It does my heart good to watch them bounce off of a populace as tough as yours.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Fuck you and your church.
Ben Franklin
@Trollhattan:
I simply don’t know how to convince
Sounds like a personal problem. Mebbe it’s your style, or mebbe substance or lack thereof.
Redshift
On the home front, I am unfortunately still unemployed. Didn’t get the job that I spent about a month prepping and interviewing for, even though I thought the in-person interviews went pretty well. I hate not knowing why, and especially not knowing what to do differently for next time.
Unemployment sucks.
Kay
@Redshift:
I thought he was a good candidate, so it would be “down”
I still think he’s the best candidate they have.
Everyone in the world disagrees with me, so feel free to join :)
raven
@MattR: Oh yea, we talked about that. Great, hope it works out, I’ll buy ya dinner at the Tiger.
Ben Franklin
@gogol’s wife:
It was annoying because the obots couldn’t quite get a handle on it.
Catsy
@lamh35: I just got a Nexus 4 a few weeks ago and am LOVING it. Completely unlocked, available directly from Google without contract, so you can just replace it as the device on your current plan.
Baud
@Redshift:
Sorry to hear that. Do you feel comfortable asking the people who interviewed you why you didn’t get the job?
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: You’re a really unfunny version of the Monty Python Argument Clinic sketch, you know that don’t you?
dewzke
My dog that is the worst thing I’ve read in a long time. Normally I laugh at this stuff but no….not this time.
Litlebritdifrnt
@lamh35: Late to the thread but I have a Galaxy from US Cellular. There is a reason they call us the happiest customers in wireless.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
You think I was attempting humor while telling you to go fuck yourself?
Obviously, any sort of humor would escape your sensitive nature.
Trollhattan
Okay, this about does it. Waiter, i’ll have the pasta special, cyanide side and a comet dessert.
“Won’t somebody please think of the innocent guns?”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ariz-governor-signs-bill-requiring-buyback-guns-to-be-resold.php?ref=fpb
Darkrose
@lamh35: I have Sprint through Credo Mobile, and I hate it. Coverage is for shit; I have to go outside to use my phone because there’s no signal inside the house.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Flying Squirrel Girl:
Damn! Wonder how many kids kids pretended to faint or go into convulsions in order to escape Callista’s reading.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Hadn’t ever seen that. Just googled it. Funny. Cleese is so young.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Actual bucket work, as a matter of fact. I fertilized the flower gardens with diluted Miracle Grow from a 5 gallon pickle pail as I have twice a year for a decade.
Getting ready to board the big silver bird in the am and head to Massachusetts for work.
I haven’t been around here much because I managed to clock 148 hours of work in 2 weeks.
Redshift
@Kay:
I certainly hope he’s the best they have. :-)
However, I don’t have a particularly good track record for predicting what crazy people will do, so I’m going to try to avoid making predictions based on the fact that I think he sucks.
Trollhattan
@Ben Franklin:
I see you’re responding out of the clear blue sky to my having typed “fetishist.”
There’s a good boy! Now have a treat.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No. I thought you were attempting trolling. Specifically, the kind of trolling where you’re willing to say anything at all that will get a rise out of people.
I suppose that’s marginally less awful than if you actually believed the shit that comes off of your fingers, in that at least you’re sentient enough to be an effective asshole, rather than just being a moron. Either way, it’s your life and you get to spend it the way you want.
different-church-lady
@Trollhattan:
BATLIGHT!
Maude
@Baud:
It’s hard to tell the left from the right nowadays.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: You are an unpleasant little man, aren’t you?
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Funny that. Everything was copasetic until your ass showed up.
Baud
@Maude:
The right are the ones that have a sliver of political competence.
Ben Franklin
@Trollhattan:
Weak tea. I suspect your substance is the problem for communication purposes.
Catsy
Oh look. Inveterate mendacious troll is trolling. I may faint from surprise.
Well, the good news is that sooner or later it will commit some offense besides having virtually nothing of value to say, and get banned. And then it will eventually return under yet another pseudonym the way it always does.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
Judge Judy retorts……(snort!)
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: Positively 4th Street — last two lines.
lamh35
Obama On Jason Collins: ‘I Told Him I Couldn’t Be Prouder’ (VIDEO)
Ben Franklin
@Catsy:
Thank you very little, fuck you very much. I have the same nym as always.
Redshift
@Baud: I asked my contact this time; I’m hoping I’ll actually get something more than the bland inoffensiveness of the original turn-down.
If it’s because I’m not good enough at writing code off the top of my head at a whiteboard, I’m going to be pretty annoyed, since that’s the one thing they ask that has almost nothing to do with how I actually work on the job.
dewzke
Still being an asshole Ben Frank? lose the nick if you want to continue to be a dick..
RaflW
@Violet: I realize I only read the abstract, but good lord, if Roundup is traceable to the increase in Alzheimer’s, then Monsanto may be facing the mutha of all product liability lawsuits.
dewzke
True suckage as a human being you are.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Can’t write your own? Farming it out to an offshore account.?
Huzzahhh !
NotMax
@Trollhattan
C’mon, Arizona, think outside the box and kick it up a notch.
Mandate that the public schools all become federally licensed gun dealers.
They’d get low cost goods and could stop selling overpriced candy bars.
Higgs Boson's Mate
The troll’s raison d’être.
SatanicPanic
@Ben Franklin: Unlike your track record of nuanced conversation and successfully winning people over to your side.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: Minnesota was a state in 1941.
gogol's wife
Once again, I feel nostalgia for cudlips and unlimited corporate cash.
Baud
@Redshift:
I’m not unemployed, so I can’t pretend to be in your shoes, but I recently changed jobs after a long and miserable job search. It worked out well for me in the end, so I hope the same is true for you.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Ben Wanklin:
We’re tired of you here. Get a new hobby. Like flying kites in thunderstorms.
MattR
@NotMax: I was kinda thinking about this but the other way around. If a municipality wanted to get around this couldn’t they find someone in the area who could become a federally licensed dealer (if not already) and who would agree to buy the guns for $5 a batch and would destroy them himself.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@MattR:
Or offer them to the public for far more than market value. They’d be for sale but would never see the light of day again.
Ben Franklin
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Get used to it.
Trollhattan
@NotMax:
It’s as though Loughner happened in Vermont and Gabby Giffords were the queen of Tonga. Ever since Janet Brewer shoved her hunk-of-jerky finger into the president’s face I’ve had a visceral distain of her that’s hard to describe.
Ben Franklin
Y’all would be better off if you understand you can’t win every argument, not that you know what the word means.
Redshift
@Baud: Thanks. I’m sure it’ll work out fine sooner or later, but there are few things I hate more than job-hunting. I’m a pretty optimistic person, which is probably good in that it sustains me through all of this, but it also means I tend to feel more confident, so each job I don’t after getting close get hits harder than it otherwise would.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: So you’re conceding? Cool with me.
Violet
@RaflW: Timeline will probably be too long to prove definitely. Monsanto will just claim ignorance or something. Unless they’ve got tobacco company-type intel on them, nothing will happen to them. It’s downright scary how our food supply is controlled by one or two companies.
Poopyman
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Not bucket work per se, but somewhere south of comment 70 I noticed the gutter on the 1st floor wing was full, being as it’s still raining here. So I just went out, got out the ladder, and rammed a coat hanger down the downspout until I busted through the blockage. A flush like a toilet and it’s draining fine again.
So endeth my house-related efforts for the day.
Trollhattan
@MattR:
Once worked in a steel mill melt shop. One day some suits showed up carrying a couple large cardboard boxes. They handed them to a foreman and watched as he pitched the contents–evidence guns no longer needed–into the furnace.
This has been my dream destination for our nation’s armor ever since.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
I concede nothing. On the contrary, you sound like your are waving the white flag
Poopyman
@Redshift:
Marco!
It’s a million years until 2016. I’m more concerned with who the Dems can come up with. I don’t want to go back to the Old Guard with Hillary.
Violet
@gogol’s wife: Yeah, me too. At least the UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH days were amusing.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: You’ll be better off when you realize you can’t win every argument.
Patrick
@Trollhattan:
I’m confused. So the Tea Party no longer believes in local control…
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Poopyman:
That’s how I like to do home repairs: one task, one tool, over before you break a sweat.
different-church-lady
@Violet:
It was like an Andy Kaufman routine.
scuffletuffle
@lamh35: Play with it alot. My understanding from people used to the Iphone is that it’s different, but they tend to really like the galaxy.
Poopyman
@Redshift:
If that’s how they decide, then they’re committing professional malpractice.
(/systems/sw engineer)
dewzke
Wow, Ben F. is officially the biggest turd on this board, It is not an argument.
You are a silly asshat. Go shit somewhere else fucko.
Trollhattan
@Ben Franklin:
What do y’all think, Black Knight or Peewee?
I’ve cut your arm off. No you haven’t!
–or–
I know you are, but what am I?
NotMax
@Trollhattan
One treasured (and totally true) factoid which includes Arizona was from the ’08 Obama/McCain campaign season.
There’s a thriving fishing village named Obama in Japan.
Arizona does contain a town named Maverick. It’s a ghost town.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
I win. But I don’t need anyone to tell me I won, especially you obots.
It would be a tragedy for me to need your narcissistic approval.
Ben Franklin
@Trollhattan:
It must be the contaminants in NY. There’s no other explanation.
Poopyman
@dewzke: He only stays because people respond to him. I wish people would recognize that. (COUGH COUGH).
dewzke
@Trollhattan: I’ll just say moron. Too much credit for Monty Python and Pee Wee.
dewzke
@Trollhattan: I’ll just say moron. Too much credit for Monty Python and Pee Wee.
gelfling545
@Suffern ACE: No. It is usually the Franciscan tradition that leans toward poverty. Others may be more or less. Jesuits were generally a pretty powerful & well connected group & no expectation of poverty conditions. Poverty, though, is often interpreted to mean no personal possessions so one may live in quite fine surroundings yet observe the vow of poverty.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvH95ALHCYU
Ben Franklin
@dewzke:
couldn’t wait to get that jewel of a thought out, could you?
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9JEPeeohYs
Higgs Boson's Mate
@scuffletuffle:
I like the galaxy, even though I’m stuck on just one planet.
SatanicPanic
BF is really working hard to come up with the next I am aware of all internet traditions. He’s close with this one.
dewzke
Sorry about the multiple posts.
aimai
@different-church-lady:
He’ll be better off when he realizes he will never win any argument.
Baud
OT:
>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it approved the availability of the Plan B One-Step emergency contraception pill without a prescription for women 15 and older.
This move comes just weeks after a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, ordered the FDA to make the morning-after birth control pill available to women of any age, without a prescription. Tuesday’s FDA announcement, which pertains to an application from Teva Women’s Health, Inc., is not related to that, the FDA said.
“The FDA’s approval of Teva’s current application for Plan B One-Step is independent of that litigation and this decision is not intended to address the judge’s ruling,” the FDA said in a statement.
…..
The FDA decision does not pertain to the two other emergency contraceptive drugs marketed in the United States. Plan B is available from generic manufacturers over-the-counter for women 17 and older and Ella is available by prescription only, for all ages, and prevents pregnancy within five days of unprotected sex or contraceptive failure.
Ben Franklin
@dewzke:
It happens. But, go fuck yourself
different-church-lady
@aimai: He’ll be better off when he realizes he doesn’t have to start every argument.
Baud
@Baud:
FYWP Can’t edit.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: It’s true — I don’t know how that feels.
scav
@Poopyman: He manages to play with himself rather regularly though, must admit. He likes them fluttery virginal ingenues asking for guidance and him abject, but can go full solo. Luckily, bien sûr, for the whole predestinate scratched face reason. Our little rare parrot-teacher.
Trollhattan
@dewzke:
Welcome, friend, to the Magical World of FYWP. Onliest thing is now you have to buy the next round.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
That seals it, maroon. You started this fire, which is always burning while the World is turning.
Now let’s hear tales of your victimhood.
Bubblegum Tate
@lamh35:
The wingnut response–and I’m quoting here–is: “What about BENGHAZIIIIIIIIIIII?”
NotMax
@Baud
Fully realizing, biologically, why it is done (puts on helmet to deflect brickbats) it distresses me to read of 15-year-olds as “women.”
Would be equally distressed at calling 15-year-old boys “men.”
Yutsano
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: It may be one in a fwe billion, but it’s MY galaxy dammit!
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
That’s precisely your problema
Church ladies don’t get laid.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: Now you’re reduced to ripping off R.E.M? Sad.
(Odds of him falling into my simple trap here?)
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Yutsano:
The Milky Way Galaxy: Love it or leave it!
Baud
@NotMax:
I’m guessing the phrase “15 and older” limited them to “women” or “females.”
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: You’re not a founding father. I don’t go to church.
Baud
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
My galaxy — right or wrong.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Billy Joel, maroon.
bemused
I can’t stop laughing. Poor James. Here’s hoping all his summits are populated with old, cranky, white folks with drainage complaints who don’t use a computer.
NotMax
@Baud
A bit more verbose, but “all women and girls 15 and up” would do.
But then again, my journalism and editing experience was decidedly old school.
raven
Yes, football tickets purchased! Woof Woof!
Ben Franklin
@raven:
Isn’t Facebook better for you?
lojasmo
@Schlemizel:
Dunno, are you a fan of BF dickishness?
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: @different-church-lady:
The answer: 1:1!
http://brainsplotch.blogspot.com/2009/06/billy-joel-vs-rem.html
(more links to follow, as FYWP apparently doesn’t like so many in one comment)
All internet traditions, maybe. All musical urban legends, not so much.
different-church-lady
My rejoinder is stuck in moderation. Anyone else care to explain it to him?
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
A likely story.
Redshirt
Has Ben Franklin recently gone Full Troll, or has he always been like this? I don’t recall the outright assholishness, but rather your typical dumb Firebagger type stuff.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, it isn’t.
raven
@Redshirt: Since I pied him it hasn’t mattered one bit.
scav
@Redshirt: seems a little extra clingy and needy, yes.
Ben Franklin
@raven:
It’s too bad since I gave you some good advice. Facebook fits you.
Ben Franklin
@scav:
omg. The neediness is the trollops who congregate to effuse their own sense of self.
They have nothing, otherwise. Maybe you should adopt another tac.
different-church-lady
@raven: Nothing riles him quite like being pied. Ironically, nobody who pies him is aware of this. It’s then quite interesting to see him rant at people who he knows perfectly well cannot see his rantings.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: You really don’t understand how the blog works, do you?
dewzke
@Trollhattan: what type of drink you want?
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Excellent retort. Running on empty?
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
You mean, observe the pecking order and fall on your knees?
Yeah. I don’t recognize that requirement.
NotMax
@raven
Makes one (almost) pine for the days of whatever-his-nyms-were from before November 6, who would regale us with his ‘Just got a super double secret memo marked read and destroy’ tales of how Romney was going to run away with the election in an historic landslide.
Good times, good times.
gbear
@different-church-lady: We should just tell him he won and let him go off and run a couple hundred victory laps. Maybe he’ll buy everybody a round at the bar. Whatever. He’s got issues.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Nothing riles him quite like being pied
I welcome it with open arms. The idiots who take pride in not reading this, or that, make my postings more difficult. If all y’all who are so disposed, would pie me, I would be eternally grateful.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Franklin: Yeah, you are a real independent thinker who doesn’t let anything get in the way of his fearless pursuit of the truth.
God, I admire you.
dewzke
Maybe two so we can dump them on the resident doofus simultaneously?
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t call me God, that’s reserved for Judges.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, it isn’t.
gbear
These are words that go together well.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin:
As difficult as pie.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
So, go for it. I won’t lament in the least.
gwangung
@gbear: Oh, I give it attention every so often. It’s pretty needy.
MattR
@gbear: I kinda tried that last night.
The Other Chuck
@Ben Franklin:
Welp, that’s one Founding Father added to the troll filter.
Ben Franklin
@The Other Chuck:
Thank you.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: What? And lose this magical relationship we have?
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady:
It’s out now.
Also: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=1315388&mesg_id=1317783
Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin Says:
@MattR:
MattR Says:
@Ben Franklin: Hey. Good for you. You guessed right and Martin guessed wrong. What do you want, a cookie? Do you expect people to be awed by your powers of deduction (especially considering you couldn’t provide any evidence to back up all the assertions that led to your correct guess)? Personally, I still think you’re an idiot for dismissing as impossible the idea that shots could have pierced the boat from the inside.
Yeah. I saw that this morning. I didn’t guess anything. I saw it with my own eyes,
BTW; How many cop rounds were shot into the boat, Maritn?
Thanks for reminding me MattR.
MattR
@Ben Franklin: And yet in this day and age you weren’t (and still aren’t) able to find anything online that showed what you say you saw.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
It’s too late. Thank the moderators.
What was your point again..Jethro Tull, R.E.M.? you are losing that facile grip you’re famous for (here, only)
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: It’s not my fault you can’t keep up with the group.
gbear
Anyone who could post that formatting disaster at comment 225 and then accuse someone of losing their facile grip is a total maroon.
Ben Franklin
@gbear:
Oh yes. Because formatting and grammar typos are the MO of BJ critiques.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, it isn’t.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
reduced to two syllable replies. i love it.
You really need to get laid.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, I don’t.
dewzke
How’s about two one syllables in a row? Fuck You. Added, drop your nym. you do no justice to it. @BF
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
better ask your shrink.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, he doesn’t.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
fuck you? I hope for his sake, not.
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, it isn’t.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Then find some homeless guy. He prolly needs it as much
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, he doesn’t.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
Probably not. So you need it more?
different-church-lady
@Ben Franklin: No, it isn’t.
Ben Franklin
@different-church-lady:
you’re actually makin more sense now. Meds kickin in?
Ben Franklin
overdose….
Someone call 911
Patricia Kayden
“As a part of his three-year probation”
Had no idea that the law had caught up with O’Keefe. Good to know.
Ben Franklin
anyone….church lady exceeded her max.
Actually, she died long ago. The phantom of herself has been trolling the internet for some time/
Patricia Kayden
@BGinCHI: I’m sure since they’ve lost 2 elections (TO A BLACK MAN), they’re pretty darn depressed.
mtraven
@Violet: Re Roundup, one of the authors of the article you point to has some alarming signs of being a crank, despite a position at MIT. See here for some discussion by skeptical bloggers. She’s a big autism-caused-by-vaccine person. I’m not sure I have an opinion, but be aware that there is a controversy.
Gravenstone
@Redshirt: No, the relentless mockery and abuse he invites seems to have taken their toll. The boy has dropped all pretense of good faith engagement. Of course, this only intensifies the mockery and abuse, so he has to double down on the assholery. Enter the endless spiral.
TerryC
@Baud: You go to war with the lunch money you have.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@RaflW: One of the study’s authors (Stephanie Seneff) rang a bell. A quick google lead me to that study most beloved of the antivaxxers, Empirical Data Confirm Autism Symptoms Related to Aluminum and Acetaminophen Exposure. I’d want to look a lot closer at the Roundup study before I bought what they’re selling.
ETA: @mtraven: Jinx!
Jay in Oregon
The only injustice is that you didn’t stay there, you bottom-feeder.
StringOnAStick
I’m loving the fact that O’Keefe’s Citizens Watchdog Summit is composed of the kind of old cranks that make every HOA or city council meeting into a test of one’s ability to not shout “You fucking morons, get a life and stop wasting our time and trying our patience!”.
Seriously, the old couple with the gutter problem is completely recognizable to anyone who has been on an HOA board or in another unpaid elected municipal position- recognizable mainly as the reason why they stopped being on the HOA board or running for local office. Extra shadensauce for the fact that the reporter made sure to relate the ‘gutter couple’s’ complaint in the article; it makes Jimmy look so effective. This may indeed make the moment that O’Keefe transitioned from ‘conservative firebrand’ to ‘political prostitute’; if he still had the fire in the belly he’d be angry and depressed at what shows up to his events, but since he’s just in it for the Koch-money now, eh, it’s a living.
Jebediah
A “Timothy McVeigh” jumpsuit? Why “Timothy McVeigh”? Is that who he sees himself as?