Reading through Zandar and DougJ’s posts about this town, DC, brought this song to mind, and this little spat:
It has become a well-documented and nationally recognized sugary turf war over ice cream sales in a city of 15,000.
Sno Kone Joe’s operators, Amanda Scott and Joshua Malatino, were arrested earlier this month on stalking and harassment charges for allegedly tailgating a Mr. Ding-A-Ling truck around Gloversville, blaring their jingles and trying to pry away Mr. Ding-A-Ling customers by offering free ice cream.
As was recounted in court Tuesday, Malatino has been accused of shouting to the Mr. Ding-A-Ling driver: “I own this town!” and his competition “doesn’t stand a chance!” and “will never make it here!”
Discuss whether it’s a make you town, or a break you town, or anything else, in this open thread..
Poopyman
Finally! A trial I’d really want to be on the jury for.
srv
France had these itty-bitty micro Haagan-Dazs bars, quite the rip-off from the US. But the other brands were more American sized.
Gelato was sporatically available, but they were quite liberal with the helpings.
Didn’t really see many fat people until I got on the plane back. Apparently that French crowd travels a lot.
patroclus
We built this city! We built this city! We built this city on rock and roll!
The “town” turning on Obama was entirely predictable. This whole media-generated scandal stuff reminds me of the WH Travel Office non-scandal and the Presidential Haircut on the Tarmac non-scandal. The IRS should review applications for non-profit tax-exempt status with a fine-toothed comb. Leaks of classified information should be investigated by the DOJ. Usually, the media waits until summer for the silly season – we’re just getting it early this year. Evidently, they’re tired of endless policy discussions and they want to do some scandal coverage; for which they probably will get better ratings. The American citizenry will just have to suffer through it until they get it out of their system.
piratedan
ty for the Go-Go’s shout out ;-)
piratedan
shaking my head at the msn.com headline about the triple “scandals” threatening Obama’s agenda… um excuse me, with the Republican held Congress, ain’t none of Obama’s agenda getting passed so please lets stop this bullshit that the scandals are the reason that nothing is getting done. Nothing is getting done because the R’s damn well won’t let anything get done unless it has the possibility of making the current administration look bad, period.
jl
The page with the full story about the ice-cream war won’t load, but from your extract, c’mon dude, no way the Village Media could handle that sucker. It looks way over their heads.
Yesterday I fretted in a comment that things would not be fun for awhile, but sooner or later the GOP would start acting crazy enough to jump their wet dreams in the foot of the shark (like that one, huh?)
So, from what I heard on the radio machine thins morning, it looks like it will be sooner rather than later, and the GOP over-reachenenening and craaaaazy has begun!
So, Boehner is yelling about ‘Where’s the jail time already?” on the IRS ‘scandal’,
Rubio is publicly yelling that nothing is important except the “Benghazi!” roadshow, and why is the press covering the AP story?
Wow, what karma gave Obama enemies like these? He ain’t a saint now, but he must have been one in some recent life times.
Just Some Fuckhead
I scream, you scream, we all scream “I own this town!”
Reasonable 4ce
I’m so old I remember when the Press Corpse bent over backwards to explain how Both Sides Do It and Opinions Differ. That was fun.
Just Some Fuckhead
@piratedan: I know it seems tough but think of it this way: Republicans and Obama probably can’t actively make things worse during the next 3 years of Scandalgate.
Boots Day
Stay on the streets of this town, and they’ll be carving you up all night.
Nah, the Go-Go’s were better.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@mistermix
So close, yet so far away- that is, right era, wrong song. The correct answer is…
Monkeyfister
Discuss whether it’s a make you town, or a break you town…
To pick up on a theme from the other day: “First they’re gonna make it, and then they’re gonna shake it ’til it falls apart.”
Tractarian
I’m gonna go with “F**k you town”
Ash Can
@patroclus: I don’t get the idea of the town turning on Obama at all. They were never on his side in the first place. He was always too much of an outsider, too aloof, too uppity, too black for them. He never gave a crap about their poor delicate sensibilities, and that’s made them cry ever since he first took office. I suppose “turning” on him could mean being more vocal and open about their dislike of him, in which case they’ll all just come off looking like the bunch of whiners that they are.
TaMara (BHF)
Twice a day I click through on all the newsmax headlines, opening them in new tabs. Then I go through and click those tabs closed without ever having to view them. For some reason, this makes me very, very happy.
The Red Pen
@piratedan:
You know they’re touring, right?
Tonal (visible) Crow
Once again, the NYT is burying the lede in its haste to appease Republicans. From deep in the second page of nytimes.com/2013/05/15/us/politics/report-on-irs-audits-cites-ineffective-management.html?pagewanted… :
Whaaaaat? You mean this *isn’t* just about the Pee Party? Well, NYT, aren’t you going to tell us more?
No, they aren’t. There’s zero followup, but plenty more about the Pee Party in the remainder of the article. Well done, NYT. Sincerely, Rupert Murdoch.
Roger Moore
@patroclus:
We really need a punchy, snarky word for a ginned-up fake scandal. Being able to ridicule them quickly and repeatedly would help to point out how stupid this crap is.
Tractarian
@patroclus:
Right. Not only that, but the IRS should have the discretion to apply different levels of scrutiny to different groups.
For instance, an applicant entitled “American Association of Friendly Soccer Moms Against Breast Cancer” would receive normal scrutiny.
Whereas, an applicant entitled “Union of Americans Who Believe All Taxes Are Evil And Must Be Resisted With Lethal Force” would receive slightly heightened scrutiny.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Tractarian:
I always wondered what the letters in TEA PARTY stood for. Thanks for the answer.
scav
@Tonal (visible) Crow: Do you think we can get them to complain and scream about how they were totally the worst nightmare opposition and threat to the government and why weren’t they singled out and targeted more aggressively, huh!? That’s an affront and a total dis to their manly dangerous honordom! Obambi is Soft on Threats!
Hal
Meanwhile the deficit continues to go down and the economy is getting better. Republicans know they can’t run on economics in 2016 if things keep improving so hey, let’s keep talking about the IRS.
jl
@Ash Can:
True. And the fact that Obama did not have the political and personal weaknesses of Clinton made it worse. That was infuriating, and the fury has been simmering for almost five years.
The efforts to ‘ghettoize’ Obama sunk like a rock, while the white trashing of Bill Clinton worked very well (partly because there was something about it that resonated with the public). Remember when they tried to whip some good ol’ country stereotyping about some in-law or aunt living with the Obama family? Went nowhere.
Too bad Clinton wasn’t a Lincoln disciple. Man, if he had let goats into the White House (and maybe some generators?) that would have so cool. the press would have loved it.
punkdavid
youtube.com/watch?v=3uR9OvK5zxg
“L.A.” by Neil Young
In a matter of time,
There’ll be a friend of mine
Gonna come to the coast,
You’re gonna see him
Up close for a minute or two
While the ground cracks under you.
By the look in your eyes
You’d think that it was a surprise
But you seem to forget
Something somebody said
About the bubbles in the sea
And an ocean full of trees.
And you now, L.A.
Uptight, city in the smog, city in the smog.
Don’t you wish that you could be here too?
Don’t you wish that you could be here too?
Don’t you wish that you could be here too?
Well, it’s hard to believe
So you get up to leave
And you laugh at the door
That you heard it all before
Oh it’s so good to know
That it’s all just a show for you.
But when the suppers are planned
And the freeways are crammed
And the mountains erupt
And the valley is sucked
Into cracks in the earth
Will I finally be heard by you?
L.A.
Uptight, city in the smog, city in the smog.
Don’t you wish that you could be here too?
Don’t you wish that you could be here too?
Don’t you wish that you could be here too?
patroclus
@Ash Can: I agree that the D.C. media hasn’t been on Obama’s side, but they’ve been in a “both sides do it” mode for years, and now they’ve turned it into an “everything’s Obama’s fault” mode. And they’ve been very vocal about it now for about two weeks and I don’t see any signs of let-up at all. Even MSNBC and TDS are in on it, as well as virtually the entire political media. The same thing happened to Clinton and Carter at various points in their Presidencies. And the congressional Dems are running for the hills and even the supposed liberals are piling on. This is the silly season and it seems likely to last.
The Dangerman
So, if I drove around a vehicle with “Mr. Dong-a-Long” on the side panel, I wonder what music I should play?
Tonal (visible) Crow
@scav:
I would not be surprised to see them spin it that way. Really Republicans are this || far from becoming completely self-satirizing.
Tractarian
@Ash Can:
This. The idea of the “town turning against Obama” is contingent on the idea (devoutly held by all right-wingers) that Obama is a media darling. Admittedly, the media might have been fawning in late 2007 and 2008 when he first started making inroads against Hillary, but that’s ancient history. Since he took office, the media has simply carried water for the right wing. If it looked like the media was going easy on him, it’s only because the Administration just didn’t give them any ammunition.
One of the things I like about Obama the most (although I concede that it’s not terribly helpful in terms of enacting a policy agenda) is his unwillingness to play the traditional Washington game of schmoozing, his refusal to indulge the media’s cocktail-party-circuit fantasies. So it’s no surprise that they dislike him.
James Hare
As a lifelong DC-area resident it always offends me to hear the Villagers describing it as “their town.” They don’t know the area — they know their limited selection of the area. The DC area is HUGE. Trying to distill the whole area down to the political stuff really misses the forest for the trees.
scav
@The Dangerman: Bloody Masterpiece of the Rhetorical question.
MikeJ
@The Dangerman:
youtube.com/watch?v=UaEC-lWSlmI
Tonal (visible) Crow
@Roger Moore:
I suggest “pseudandle” or “propagandle”.
pamelabrown53
Has anyone seen the rec. listed diary on GOS by a front-pager? The title: “Isn’t it time for Holder& Co. to go”?. The author posits it’s not for the over-zealousness of Justice re: AP and leaks but because Lanny Breuer made a mess by “coddling” the banks. He ends his post with”Holder’s tenure at Main Justice has been one mess after another…”.
I guess what bothered me is there was 0 mention of Holder’s Justice department in civil rights and fighting states’ voter suppression laws.
Any thoughts?
jl
@Roger Moore:
” We really need a punchy, snarky word for a ginned-up fake scandal.”
But there are so many varieties of giiined up fake scandals, will just one word do?
I can think of at least plandals, blandals, scamdals and cramdals.
If it true, as a commneter referencing that deep in a NYT story that liberal groups were targeted as well as teebaggers, and the whole thing is about incompetent management, and incompetent (or perhaps desperate given the lack or resources) methods, then the IRS thing is a blandal.
The AP thing might be a plandal, the AP is pushed out a misleading and sensational story for some ulterior purpose.
“Benghazi!” might be a cramdal, since it looks like the GOP is desperately trying to cram a lot of pet political themes and gimmicks that fits its narrative for swing voters and plans for the next election into the tragic events. Which also makes it a shondal since it what the GOP is doing is shameful and they are guilty of immoral use of death and serious foreign policy issues for narrow partisan gain.
In a scamdal somebody cooks up or uses a fake scandal for money. To the extent that the GOP is using false or exagerrated storyline to beg money off its impaired gullible and feckless base, all of these are scamdals.
Edit: I reformed some of the spelling in the post. EFf English spelling. I don;t give a shit, but I done tried to reform it, for the sake of our Western Civilization, and decency, etc.
Keith G
@Ash Can:
I think thats a little too easy. Sure, for some that was very true, but you can’t accurately pin that on a large number of those people.
FWIW, I consider this the first part of Obama’s final exam as one of the best presidents. Successfully managing a multidimensional shit storm, whether fair or not, is one of the prime requirements for greatness. Fortunately, as shit storms go this one is not that terrible.
Let’s see what type of game our guy has as we keep our eyes on the really important task of making sure those among us with the least have access to better opportunities. After all, that’s all this shit really is just a diversion.
jibeaux
Mr. Ding-A-Ling is a simply terrible name for an ice cream truck. That is all.
Tone In DC
The media is just playing up things like this:
newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/08/121008fa_fact_freeland?currentPage=all
birnspbesq
I’ve been to Gloversville, and it’s probably true that that washed-up, left-behind dump of a town can only support one ice cream truck. But I’m in favor of consumer choice. Let the kiddies decide who wins!
birnspbesq
@jl:
May I suggest “bullshit” as an appropriate all-purpose descriptor?
jl
Also too in addition, the corporate media has ‘administration in crisis’ templates waiting to fill in and pump out for some corporate ‘news information product’.
Been pretty slim on the fake scandal front for Obama, and no one will read that kind of information product if its too late in the administration, and then it is time to push the ‘whats the legacy’ news analysis product.
$$$$ in my pocket suckas! What do you think drives everything all the time in our great Democratic Republick, just as the Founders intended?
Suffern ACE
@jl: Yeah. They need to turn back to “There’s no peace in the middle east! We need to bring peace to the Middle East! If there’s no PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST HIS LEGACY IS RUINED!”
Jeanne Dalbret
@Tonal (visible) Crow:
How about propagandal?
MomSense
@Ash Can:
I said in an earlier thread that the country doesn’t even like “the town”. The President just won reelection by bashing DC every day. The villagers need to get out more.
scav
@Jeanne Dalbret: Simultaneously creating “Gandal” as the noun for the individual / group that benefits.
Suffern ACE
@jl: “Rubio is publicly yelling that nothing is important except the “Benghazi!” roadshow, and why is the press covering the AP story?”
That kind of leads me back to the theory that the person responsible for the leak is a Republican and probably someone close to the Greatest General.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@pamelabrown53: DKos sucks?
That’s all I have. It was a fervid swamp of fever dreams and lunacy when I left in 2006 and it got much worse afterwards. I pay no more attention to anything posted there than I do to anything posted at Stormfront.
The number and quality of anti-Obama postings are about the same at both sites, by the way.
jl
And of course, ‘schlongdal’ for personal sexy time fake public scandals. Might be a personal scandal, but not a public one.
Big Dawg, as we all know and fondly remember, inspired an epic schlongdal.
Ben Grimm
This post reminds me of the movie “Comfort and Joy,” about rival criminal ice cream trucks in Glasgow. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it.
pamelabrown53
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
Thank you so much for responding. Still, do you think Holder should resign?
Scott S.
@Roger Moore: “Raging Goddamn Fucking Bullshit.”
I will buy pizzas for the first person who describes them like that on the news networks or a WaPo/NYT column.
jl
@jl: No, gotta be ‘wangdal’, All the words have to have some assonance or alliteration or rhyme, some kind of unimaginative samey-ness or the press won’t use them. So change ‘shondal’ to ‘shandal’.
There should be special terms for GOP presidential candidate scandals, since they are so ‘special’
For Cain, something like ‘pseudowangdalscamdalshandalangle”
I’m trying to think one up for Lil’ Newtie, but the process is making me throw up in my mouth, so will have to tackle that one later, long after and long before any mealtime.
piratedan
@The Red Pen: aye and they’ll be in town with the B-52’s but I’m suffering from a physical limitation that is preventing me from going to see them (although I do want to)
raven
@Scott S.: Raging Bullwinkle Must see. Not safe at woik.
raven
@piratedan: I’m headed down to Allen’s.
Patricia Kayden
@patroclus: “Presidential Haircut on the Tarmac”
Never heard of that one. Must google it. Sounds ridiculous without even knowing the particulars.
Suffern ACE
@pamelabrown53: No. Well not any more than any attorney general eventually ends up resigning. Is he worse than Janet Reno? Albert Gonzales?
I don’t think his justice department has been extra-special messy. And if congress forces him out over something, it won’t be over “coddling the banks.” Any leverage that one thinks one is going to gain in the behavor of future AGs to go after the Banks if holder is forced out for other reasons is a pipe dream.
I thought Panetta and Geithner were far worse secretaries of their respective departments than Holder.
piratedan
@pamelabrown53: no Pam, he shouldn’t. The powers that the Deputy AG used were the same ones that Obama attempted to rein in as a Senator but hey 9/11 give up freedoms to protect us, america fuck yeah and all of that. The thing is that the DOJ did investigate the leak (the same leak that R’s stated was a threat to our folks working on our behalf around the world and we should investigate that dammit!) but found bupkis, so they went into shotgun mode to find out who spilled sensitive info to the AP. naturally the AP is pissed off because they weren’t consulted but tbh, do you think they would have complied with a DOJ request to find out who the leaker was? My initial reaction would have been fuck and no.
So where do we go from here, which is worse… that someone is leaking/has leaked sensitive anti-terrorist OP information details to the press or the AP is po’ed (properly so imho) that the police state that they refused to document was a possibility under the Patriot Act would somehow come back to bite them instead of the rest of the unsuspecting populace?
I’m torn about this, do I want the folks that conduct front line operations thwarting terrorists plots put in harms way for the sake of a story or do I want the press to be defanged by the DOJ to giving up their sources?
Patricia Kayden
@Hal: Ironically, the economy is getting better despite the obstructionism the Repubs have thrown at the President. I’m sure that burns them.
piratedan
@raven: here in Tucson, they’ll be out on the Rez, but it’s an outdoor concert in the Tucson summer and I’m a heat stroke victim waiting for a shining moment of stupidity I’m afraid.
Suffern ACE
@Patricia Kayden: After “Firing the long time barber”, “Pretty boy” clinton was accused of holding air force one at an air port for hours, preventing other flights from taking off, so that he could have a haircut from Christoph or whomever the celebrity coiffeur was at the time.
It was a scandal borne of the need to make Clinton look like an out of touch metrosexual, before there even were metrosexuals. That long time white house barber-now he knew how to cut hair. Had been doing so since truman or something.
patroclus
@pamelabrown53: Of course Holder shouldn’t resign. He recused himself from the classified leak investigation and therefore has nothing to do with it. The IRS reviewing tax-exempt applications also has nothing to do with him. The Benghazi talking points non-scandal has nothing to do with the DOJ. Admittedly, it’s a low bar given John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst and Alberto Gonzalez, but Holder’s been one of the better AG’s this country has ever had. The prosecution against the rating agencies is ongoing; he’s re-invigorated the Civil Rights Division. His legacy is still in process, but so far, he’s been pretty good.
jl
A pandal would be a fake scandal designed to pander to a narrow or very specific political base.
I guess the supposed federal plot to destroy the second amendment and freedom by buying up all the ammunition was a pandal.
Seems to me that there haven’t been any artful and successful pandals lately. All of them have been too butt stupid and asinine to fly, even with whatever base is being pandered to.
Steeplejack
@birnspbesq:
Did you change your nym, or is that a typo?
raven
@piratedan: Not playing the Congress huh?
Gin & Tonic
@raven: How was the fishing?
piratedan
@raven: no. they’ll be at the AVA Amphitheater which is like a huge covered pavilion but it’s in July. Still should be an awesome show, if I was in better health, I would be there.
patroclus
@Suffern ACE: And, of course, after weeks and weeks of media bloviating, it turned out that no flights were delayed at all and Clinton paid the $400 out of his own pocket and no airline fuel was wasted. (But the only thing people remembered about the whole sham “scandal” was that Clinton paid $400 for a haircut from Christoph).
raven
@Gin & Tonic: The weather was awful. I had a great time Friday night. It was blowin way too hard Saturday so I did a driving tour from Galilee, Newport, Fall River and then to the Whaling Museum in new Bedford. I woke up at 4:30 Sunday and it was pouring so I ate the hotel, car and way too many FF miles and I came home. I watched the statehouse ceremony monday online and I enjoyed it but realized that it really was for those RI National Guard guys. I would have been ok if I had stayed but it was ok to split too. had pizza on Thayer by the Brown campus.
Violet
@Roger Moore:
Shamdal?
Hill Dweller
Judging from the WH daily briefing, the press has already transitioned from implying Obama was involved in the IRS to Obama has to fix the IRS mess NOW.
raven
@patroclus: Shit, Atlanta was a fucking nightmare last Friday. I was an hour-and-a-half early and barley made it. Even the Athens paper had an article saying it was the sequester.
Dave
Anyone else see this story?
bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html
Basically, Democratic-leaning 501(c)4 groups got the same letter that Tea Party groups got and have weak-kneed “liberals” like Greenwald and Stewart all be-shit.
Violet
@pamelabrown53: The readership of Daily Kos is mostly older and white, according to their own surveys. Interest in things like civil rights tends to be lower than in other things, like the banks in your example.
jl
@Hill Dweller:
Whay, oh Whay ain’t that Obummer sennin’ th’ High Sheriff to put them IRS evil doers in the jail, raahhht nayow?
That ….. muss be in on it, thas whay!
beltane
@Dave: I posted that link in a previous thread. Greenwald will undoubtedly cling to his belief that this is the worst threat to democracy since Attlia the Hun, while Stewart just looks kind of stupid on this one just as he did with the Sherrod “shamdal” (thanks, Violet).
Liberals really need to learn the when the RW Outrage Machine screams “Jump!” the proper response is not to ask how high, but to instead tell them to go f*ck themselves.
Bobby Thomson
@The Dangerman: My Dingaling. duh.
kc
Is it just me or does the new site (apart from the comments) look a lot like the old site from Cole’s Republican days?
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Ouch! Sorry to hear it didn’t work out. I was 5000 miles away and had no idea what the weather was like. At least your reunion worked.
Thayer St is useless, food-wise.
Violet
@beltane:
Yes, this.
beltane
@kc: I’m not seeing Ann Coulter in the sidebar so I guess the answer is “No”.
jl
@kc:
” Is it just me or does the new site (apart from the comments) look a lot like the old site from Cole’s Republican days? ”
Cole is a Republican (or gLibertarian) mole, and this repeated site redesign do-si-do is part of a fiendish plot to destroy the left. Everyone knows that.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
Yeah, I think that’s the closest I’ve heard to a good, general purpose word for a fake scandal.
gogol's wife
Am I the only one for whom the comments are now in tiny unreadable print?
Roger Moore
@beltane:
I think the correct response is “You Fuckers!“.
beltane
@gogol’s wife: For every problem there is a solution: balloon-juice.com/2013/05/15/love-what-youve-done-with-the-place/#comment-4437628
Amir Khalid
@gogol’s wife:
No, you aren’t. The more tech-savvy of pur fellow commenters have posted various solutions to this problem, involving the use of the NoSquint add-on to FireFox, or Stylish. You’ll find them in the update-related threads from the past couple of days.
Dee Loralei
@gogol’s wife: Control plus sign to embiggen
gogol's wife
@beltane:
I’m sorry, I don’t know what it means to install a style. Can’t the hosts just make the print larger?
gogol's wife
@Dee Loralei:
I have done that, and nothing happens.
pamelabrown53
@patroclus:
“…he’s reinvigorated the Civil Rights Division…” to which I say Hell Yes. The DOJ fought tirelessly against the multitude of voter suppression state laws and were very successful. While some of us progressives want to make it about coddling the banksters, for me, the right to vote is a much higher priority.
Re: the banksters: if our legislative branch made clearer and tougher laws then it would be easier for Justice to bring the criminal charges and perp walks many here desire.
LanceThruster
The first rule of Ice Cream Fight Club is: you do not talk about Ice Cream Fight Club.
eemom
@Dee Loralei: @gogol’s wife:
I think that only works on Macs.
Shakezula
I guess I’ll never get used to the multiple meanings people assign “D.C.” or “Washington.” So when I read “Washington, D.C. is hostile to Obama,” I have this moment of “What the fuck are you smoking.” But then I remember Washington in this context means “A bunch of people who talk about politics for a living and/or teabaggish GOP legislators, none of whom are from D.C.”
gogol's wife
@eemom:
I have a Mac. Am I supposed to highlight all the comments first? Actually, I tried highlighting one comment, then hitting Ctrl+, and nothing happened then either.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: I used siri “Best Pizza in Providence”. #1 was Mikes Calzone’s, they didn’t even HAVE Pizza!
Oh yea, the mayor of NP was a trip!
kc
@beltane:
Well, that is a plus.
It took me forever to get used to the old new site. Now I have to get used to the new old site.
This is annoying, I should email Cole.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
What browser and OS are you using?
Steeplejack
@eemom:
It also works in Firefox on Windows.
piratedan
@Steeplejack: having a similar issue with Firefox, posts are in a tiny format, numbering is gone and the front page still has the ads covering the original post and the first ten comments or so
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
I have prehistoric Firefox. My husband just did “zoom in,” and that seemed to help. Thanks!
scav
@gogol’s wife: The docs seem to insist that in Safari View -> Make Text Bigger has the shortcut of PuppyPaw + (aka FreewayCloverleaf + if you’re me and not my mother). Are there other browsers on Macs?
ETA so they’ve firefox too. cool.
replicnt6
@Amir Khalid:
Here’s the Stylish I’m using for my aging eyes (and general persnicketyness):
ol.commentlist { font-size: 125%; }
li.comment { margin-bottom: 15px !important; }
li.comment p { margin-bottom: 1em !important; }
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
How to modify text size in Safari on a Mac.
Eric U.
ctrl mousewheel changes font size on a PC. I had forgotten ctrl +
Steeplejack
@piratedan:
Do you have “Zoom Text Only” checked in View | Zoom (on the menu bar)? That could help.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@beltane: That’s pretty cool, I’ll have to install it at home. As for work, I can’t add anything. Oh well.
piratedan
@Steeplejack: it does with the text, still have the issue with the ads, but hey, it’s still a work in progress
Dee Loralei
@eemom: I’ve got a Dell and am using Firefox. Maybe it’s the browser. (shrug) no idea, just read it earlier today and it’s working for me. Hmmm, maybe it’s a placebo effect and I’m only thinking it’s working. Sorry, I couldn’t be more helpful.
Mnemosyne
You’re nobody till everybody in this town thinks you’re a bastard.
Chris
@jl:
I think it backfired with the public, though. The characteristics they saw as “white trash,” which appalled the national media and the country club set, probably also made him a lot more relatable with the so-called “white trash” voters that Clinton was trying to win back from the GOP.
catclub
@Dave: I figure the problem was the tea-partiers can neither read nor follow instructions, so a letter asking questions is like the inquisition, but worse, for them. The progressive groups just answered the questions ( and actually got turned down for tax exemption). Your liberal IRS at work.
Southern Beale
Anyone remember the old Doctor Demento Show and the song “My Ding A Ling”? That’s what this reminded me of.
In other news, this hilarious English language lesson/workout video/self defense class crossed my path recently. I really don’t know what to make of it.
Chris
@Tractarian:
It’s not even that. “Obama won because he’s a media darling” is simply one of the many things right wingers tell themselves in order to avoid facing the simple truth that he’s a very popular politician. More than Bush was, more than Palin was, certainly more than McCain or Romney ever were.
Chris
@James Hare:
What’s really ironic about “Washington” being used to refer to the political scene is that the one part of the United States that isn’t allowed to send a representative to Congress… is Washington, DC.
ranchandsyrup
Holy crap Gohmert is losing his shit in the Holder hearing.
ranchandsyrup
@Southern Beale: youtube.com/watch?v=p490t_6Z9aY
dan
Sno Cone Joe sounds like a character from a 70s Springsteen song.
Southern Beale
@ranchandsyrup:
Pretty sure that shit was lost long, long ago.
raven
@Southern Beale: My Dinga Ling is a Chuck Berry song.
piratedan
@ranchandsyrup: well he’s always been a “sanity optional” kind of representative
jl
News says Holder chewing out the thug, liar, incompetent scandal monger, and damned fool, Issa?
(edit: I forgot dumbass, sorry, make that ‘dumbass, Issa’)
Well, OK, then. I still think Holder should go (though for nothing having to do with the recent fake scandals).
But, hey, way to go, Holder. Strong work.
Southern Beale
@raven:
I had no idea.
MaryJane
@beltane:
@85
ThankyouThankyou! I may be getting up there but until this morning I haven’t had to squint to read blog comments.
ranchandsyrup
@Southern Beale: @piratedan: Those are both fair points. He’s whinging that Holder is calling him names, injuring his integrity and something about asparagus or albatross.
ETA now they’re on SOLYNDRA!
Suffern ACE
@pamelabrown53: There is a certain set of people on the left (let’s forget the right for a moment) who are not going to be happy with any attorney general. It is a very powerful position. You’ve got a certain part who wants the office to be used to score political points and carry out vendettas and they aren’t going to be happy with someone like a Holder or a Reno. Then you’ve got a certain percentage who just don’t like the idea of state power being used at all by anyone, so whatever acts are taken those acts must be abuses of power of some sort. The AG is going to drive those folks nuts no matter what.
Once it became clear that this AP story had to do with an investigation of leaks that was requested by Congress and brought about by a US attorney appointed to investigate, I think we need to take a step back and tread carefully with the criticisms. Unless we are willing to pretend that watergate was about the leaks and not about the plumbers and firing the investigators, we can’t really complain if the US Attorney is pursuing an investigation this way. Optically it looks bad, but if the US Attorney is fired at this point (because he made the Administration LOOK BAD), then we’re starting to approach Watergate.
We had a huge scandal in the last administration about the relationship between US Attorney appointments and the political side of the that administration that resulted in a lot of resignations. The Democrats at that time were screeching for the head of anyone who was thought to be politicizing the independence of those US Attorneys. Think we need to be careful about what we wish for. Unless Holder was the one leaking, I don’t think he should be resigning from the investigation process of the US Attorney.
raven
@Southern Beale: Chuck
Roger Moore
@ranchandsyrup:
Dog bites man. Wake me up when Gohmert starts asking intelligent, incisive, non-partisan questions. Then we’ll know the end of days is near.
jl
@Roger Moore:There was ever a time Gohmert could hold his shit? I thought Gohmert’s shit was always lost. Huh, who woulda thunk?
Tsukune
@jibeaux: Mister Softee is a worse name for an ice cream truck.
ranchandsyrup
@Roger Moore: That sounds like a Rip Van Winkle nap, Roger. Enjoy it!
ruemara
@gogol’s wife: Try command + to enlarge.
I’m starting a twitter fight with Gregory Korte, the USA Today political correspondent over that Bloomberg article, since his headline on the front page states that liberals were given a pass. He says that if you read his article and Bloomberg, the two are not mutually exclusive. LULWUT?!
I’m probably working off some steam at my boss, who is a great person but he keeps trying to say that my total comp makes me fairly well compensated. It’s getting harder to resist the urge to point out that: 1. wages are not benefits, so shit wages are shit wages. 2. I’m capped below starting for my position versus other similar positions in the area. 3. 1999, my wages averaged $24 per hr, not including employer contribution for benefits, which means my total comp in 1999 > than $30 per hr for an even higher skilled position. I know it makes him feel better, but it does make me want to either hit him or be blunter than I’d like to be.
Hill Dweller
When going into a convenient store on the way home, I noticed the huge headline on USA Today’s front page(“IRS Gives Liberals A Pass”). That is demonstrably untrue.
Is the USA Today a wingnut paper now?
eta: ruemara beat me to it.
jl
The reactionaries just cannot maintain kay fabe on these fake scandals. What is up with them? They are like toddlers. They don’t understand they have to know when to push forward and when to hang back. Can’t they wait for the Horrifying Revelations about NoBummer to develop in due time?
Fox Reporter: Do We Really Need A Firewall Between DOJ And White House?
livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/fox-reporter-do-we-really-need-firewall-between
Edit: I guess the follow-up question was, “Isn’t it unethical for you to not just effing scandalize like a drunken sailor and write our scandal stories for us, and do outrageous shit to get your ass impeached by unanimous consent every day?”
I think that would be a good question.
Josie
@gogol’s wife: On my Mac, Command and plus (+) keys worked.
f space that
@Hill Dweller: This is getting dumber by the minute. According to ABC (yeah I know) Republicans who have been audited are now questioning if the audits were politically motivated. Last time I filled out a 1040 I didn’t see the Democrat or Republican Checkbox. Anybody seen that box ? Didn’t think so.
Goddamn these idiots.
Suffern ACE
@Hill Dweller: No. And actually I was shocked by that myself. USA Today, for what it is worth, has not been a wingnut rag. I have always kind of put them on the level of the Christian Science Monitor – not the most important paper, but what they cover they are usually cover fairly and clearly.
scav
ok, they’re just trolling the world now: Disney World worker charged with watching child porn at work
beltane
@f space that: This reminds me, did Romney ever release his complete tax returns?
Chris
@jl:
They don’t have a choice. Manufacturing a hurricane of scandals out of thin air like this is how they manage to continue paralyzing the government while putting the blame on Obama so they don’t have to face the public’s angry “why aren’t you doing your jobs?” recriminations.
It’s not a great idea, but you play the hand you’ve got.
catclub
@ranchandsyrup: ETA now they’re on SOLYNDRA!
Give them time and they will get to Jimmy Carter and the Panama Canal.
Also Ameros.
Suffern ACE
@jl:” Do We Really Need A Firewall Between DOJ And White House?”
Well, I think so. We should elect the Attorney General. Or maybe he should be appointed by the Senate directly and not nominated by the Executive.
Wait- what?
beltane
@catclub: I can’t wait until they bring up Bill Ayers and Saul Alinsky. You know they will.
catclub
@f space that: I think there is evidence that Congress has effectively told the IRS to lay off rich people and audit people getting EITC. Of course, there is no money there, even if cheating were found.
Plus, Congress makes sure to limit the IRS budget, then complains about poor customer service.
Very similar to cutting the security budget for the State Department, then complaining about Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazee!
jl
@Suffern ACE:
I think the next big fake scandal should be whether Carney was attacking the press and violating the first amendment when he laughed and asked whether it was a serious question before answering.
I think that kind of totalitarian behavior should amaze and alarm every U.S. citizen.
Oh, wait, I’ll see the Fox and Friends clip on the internet soon… so… never mind.
Suffern ACE
@jl: We USED to have a way to review whether or not the relationship between the political part of the white house and the administrative part of the white house were in compliance with laws. But Ken Starr’s behavior basically put an end to that.
Also, there is also a way to check to see if the DoJ has been abusive. I believe that there is an entire independent branch of government with guys who wear black robes and sit in buildings with colums that do just that kind of thing!
JustRuss
I for one can’t wait for the Coen brothers movie inspired by the ice cream wars.
JGabriel
Clearly this is all President Obama’s fault for politicizing good American capitalist competition.
Ayn Rand has a sad, her dessicated lips turned down in a dry pouty frown.
Keith G
Eric Holder provides the template as he tells Issa how he evaluates the car thief’s actions:
Playground ethic: If they try to score over you, make them pay.
JPL
@Keith G: Now Holder gives Congress a stern speech about civility. .
Keith G
@JPL: Or, to riff off of you: Now Congress cares about DOJ going too far.
This DOJ has not been a beacon of….well….justice, but compared to the current GOP, they are boy scouts.
Suffern ACE
Remember when the bush administration just didn’t hand over emails ever and apparently just deleted everything?
Looking at the CNN team discuss the released emails makes me wonder if they just don’t have practice reading them and if they’ve ever worked in a collaborative process.
dww44
@Just Some Fuckhead: Unfortunately, they both already put in place something that will make things worse for a whole lot of innocent citizens over the next 3 years. It has a name, but, oh, I think it slipped my mind.