(Mike Thompson via GoComics.com)
Why I love Mr. Charles P. Pierce — “The Greatest. Poll. Ever“:
I am going to print out this poll and, perhaps, put it on my wall in a gilded frame. I hope every cable teevee haircut who plans to ride the Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI! train to riches and fame and glory does the same thing because this is the best result in a poll in the history of results from polls. Forty-one percent of Republicans polled believe that this is the biggest political scandal in American history. (And roasting on adjoining spits in hell, John Mitchell, Harry Daugherty, and the members of the Whiskey Ring have a collective sad.) But that’s not the truly golden part. That would be this, as PPP shows a gift for deadpan comedy I had not anticipated.
One interesting thing about the voters who think Benghazi is the biggest political scandal in American history is that 39% of them don’t actually know where it is. 10% think it’s in Egypt, 9% in Iran, 6% in Cuba, 5% in Syria, 4% in Iraq, and 1% each in North Korea and Liberia with 4% not willing to venture a guess.
Am I a bad liberal if I assume that some considerable percentage of these people couldn’t find New York or San Francisco on a map, either?
Or their own arses, even with their heads stuck up them?
beltane
How can this be. Aren’t these people members of the white native American tribe that Jason Richwine says are endowed with superior intelligence?
NotMax
10 + 9 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 4 = 40. Not 39.
cleek
maybe not, but 47% of Obama voters in that poll couldn’t place Benghazi, either.
disinterest in the topic, i assume.
catclub
@NotMax: Rounding may have been involved.
MattF
My favorite topologically complex insult: “He has his head so far up his ass that he has to open his mouth to blow his nose.”
jl
“Couldn’t Find It on A Map”
I thought this post was going to be on the GOP and their reactionary goofball friends’ ability to whip up a fake scandal.
I want my money back.
gbear
@cleek:
But then again, the Obama voters aren’t soiling their shorts over this.
Patrick
@NotMax:
They didn’t provide decimals which I assume would make it 39, not 40…
catclub
Ask em where the shores of Tripoli are, in the Marine Corps hymn!
cleek
@gbear:
right: disinterest.
just sayin that a general “don’t know geography” thing might not be the way to go :)
beltane
@catclub: They’re right next to the Halls of Montezuma. In Mexico. Duh.
BGinCHI
First they came for the illiterate toothless old jackasses, and I clapped as hard as I could….
BGinCHI
I’m sure it’s been said but the FONT is TOO FUCKING SMALL in the comments.
I have no idea how all the olds here can even see it.
Gex
As soon as the dumbfucks in this country took the GOP’s planted meme, that intellectualism and knowing things are bad, we were condemned to be a country run randomly by emotional tempter-tantrumism. Is any policy position from the right anything more than a tantrum full of bluster, irrationality, and an inability to actually satisfy the garbled request?
raven
@BGinCHI: Smile when you say that dawg. . .
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@cleek: Did the poll say how many Obama voters thought it was in Cuba?
I think what that 39% really shows is how many Conservatives who scream “Bengahzi” have no clue what they are talking about. For all most of them know, it’s probably about Obama trying to muslimize Ben Gay.
Gex
Font is small, but the template supports increasing the text size. Command + on a Mac running FF. I assume browsers on MS offer the same. Since font size is a very individual taste, I actually like the current size, why not adjust it at the individual level?
MattF
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): And it rhymes with sodomy. Sort of.
TooManyJens
@BGinCHI: If you have the Stylish extension for your browser, this helps: http://userstyles.org/styles/87533/balloonjuice2013
Cris (without an H)
Ssome people out there in our nation don’t have maps.
RSA
Charlie must not read PPP regularly. From May, 2011 (PDF)
gbear
@BGinCHI: We olds use Ctrl +.
Actually its just the right size if YOU USE ALL CAPS! EASY TO READ!!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BGinCHI: With some difficulty? And I’m in what I think of as the “lower middle,” or slightly younger than the estimable raven.
cleek
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Obama voters x location of Benghazi:
egypt: 12%
cuba: 2%
iran: 3%
north korea: 3%
libya: 53%
syria: 8%
liberia 1%
not sure: 17%
Grumpy Code Monkey
Bigger than Watergate!
Bigger than Iran-Contragate!
Bigger than Monicagate!
Bigger than Teapot Domegate!
catclub
I suspect that the newsmax headlines are for mocking, but I would prefer that the recent posts be in that position and the newsmax further down the page.
Roger Moore
I think the traditional insult is that they couldn’t find their ass with both hands and a map. Of course, maps obviously aren’t their strong suit, are they.
cleek
@Gex:
IMO, a big problem is that the article text is already a decent size, so i don’t want to make it huge just to make the comments better.
MikeJ
And that is why they play out stoppage time.
raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): estimable indeed!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@cleek: Thanks.
You would think it would be in Fox’s interest for them to put up a map once in a while if they are going to continue with this.
Tone In DC
Nevermind the lack of geographical awareness, far too many of these brain donors do not know the first thing about WHAT HAPPENED there.
This does not keep them from being outraged, of course.
I remember reading incessantly about Whitewater 20 years ago. Biggest fishing expedition ever. You would have thought that Bill and Hillacious had stolen from Ralph Reed, James Dobson and Billy Graham then caned, waterboarded and wedged those three until the cows came home.
pokeyblow
I know everyone says “no one wants to take everyone’s guns away,” but that’s not accurate.
I’d like to take everyone’s guns away. At least everyone’s assault weapons, maybe everyone’s handguns.
Roger Moore
@RSA:
This. I seriously think they need to spin of a branch that will carry out this kind of questioning under the moniker Public Policy Trolling That’s what they’re doing when they ask the public to rate the favorability of Congress relative to the Ebola virus.
Chris
@beltane:
I’ve always wondered, when these people hear all these stories from the Bible, where exactly do they imagine “Jerusalem” and “Bethlehem” and “Jericho” and places like that to be? Somewhere in England, same as that King James who wrote the original Bible? Do they also hear “Babylon” and “Assyria” and “Egypt” and place them in Russia or Iran or wherever the enemy of the day is? There are some depths of ignorance I have a hard time imagining…
cathyx
@BGinCHI: I’m sure if you email John about the problem he will fix it.
MomSense
@BGinCHI:
If we resort to commenting only in caps, will that get the attention of Tunch who can then pester John to change it?!
Chris
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Even bigger than Fox kiboshing Firefly all these years ago, which I’m still not over.
Suffern ACE
@cleek: To be fair to all sides here, at least they pick out places where Benghazi is likely to be. Liberia sounds like Libya. There are lots of places in the middle east where our embassy could be attacked, and they might be confusing Benghazi with Guantanamo Bay’s chamber of tortures.
It’s not like they’re placing it in France or Canada. Geography isn’t the US’s strong suit. I wish it weren’t so.
Chris
@cleek:
Interesting that 17% of ours are smart enough to shut up and not guess what they don’t know, while it’s only 3% of theirs.
The Sarah Palin “you can’t blink!” unjustified-confidence-looking-suspiciously-like-true-stupidity thing is definitely stronger among Republicans.
something fabulous
Yep, gotta own up to my own brand of this dumbness: I do think there’s a difference between knowing which country the city of the scandal of the moment belongs to, and what those implications mean, vs. just being able to identify that city on an actual map. (Guess which one I am better at.)
Trollhattan
@MattF:
I believe that’s what proctologists call Klein Bottle Syndrome.
Ben Cisco
@TooManyJens: Installed it in Chrome as a Tampermonkey script. It’s golden, thanks.
Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t have to know where Benghazi is to know it’s the worst thing ever. Just like I don’t have to know where the President is putting the guns he is confiscating to know confiscating guns is terrible.
Haydnseek
@cleek: Exactly. You cannot have improvement without change, but you sure as hell can have change without improvement.
Chyron HR
@Chris:
Uh, duh, of course Jerusalem is in England. It’s like their national anthem.
cleek
@Chris:
mmm. ?
Romney voter x where is Benghazi
Egypt 9%
Cuba 4%
Iran 4%
North Korea 1%
Libya 64%
Syria 7%
Iraq 1%
Liberia 2%
don’t know 9%
Citizen_X
This will never stop being funny.
BGinCHI
@TooManyJens: Thanks!
cleek
@Suffern ACE:
it was a multiple choice question. :) (Q #4)
BGinCHI
@cleek: Exactly.
I know I’ll get used to it, but old dudes like Raven are going to go blind from trying to read this and obviously from other unmentionable things.
BGinCHI
@cathyx: No way.
He’s already acting unstable and I don’t want to be the straw that breaks the clodhopper’s back.
NotMax
Wondering what the percentage of those who correctly know what a consulate is might be?
Last time the question was surveyed, 18% of Americans asserted that the Sun revolves around the Earth, and 3% were undecided.
51% of respondents in a poll about cloud computing believed stormy weather interfered with it..
ranchandsyrup
I opened a soda can at lunch and it exploded. It was a false flag operation for someone to steal my lunch. It’s all false flags these days.
BGinCHI
@NotMax: Even funnier: it wasn’t a real consulate but a CIA front.
cathyx
@BGinCHI: No really. He loves it when we email him with our complaints. Go ahead.
Calouste
In case anyone still had some delusions about Google:
Libertarian utopia, here we come.
Calming Influence
Since this IS an open thread, I’ll just throw this out there:
——————————————-
beltane
@ranchandsyrup: An exploding soda can is just like a pressure cooker filled with explosives. Alex Jones would like to have a word with you…
joel hanes
@BGinCHI:
font is too small
[CTRL] +
is your friend
ranchandsyrup
@beltane: Obumbo is coming to take everyone’s sammiches! You’ll all be sorry and hungry when you realize I’m right! Teh gubmint stuffed mentos in there! I have grainy video proof.
Trollhattan
Hey. Losers. Yeah, talkin’ about YOU. (Not me, this guy.)
“Marty Nemko, a career coach, author, columnist, and radio host, argues that the most successful and contented people prefer a heavily work-centric life over work-life balance.
The real winners of the world, the people that are the most productive, think that this notion of work-life balance is grossly overrated.
,” Nemko told Business Insider. “Most of the highly successful and not-burned out people I know work single-mindendly towards a goal they think is important, whether it’s developing a new piece of software, inventing something, or a cardiologist who’s seeing patients on nights and weekends instead of playing Monopoly with his kids on the weekend.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/real-winners-dont-have-work-life-balance-2013-5#ixzz2TOgakhG6
Sounds great! Spouses and kids are just a bunch of moocher parasites, anyhoo, so the less time around them the longer my pantcuffs will last. I’m calling Nemco-Ryan 2016 right now.
ETA I’m clearly a too much of a loser to blockquote a multi-graf cite.
catclub
OT: The recession in Europe is now six quarters ( 1.5 years) old, which is longer than the 2008 one, and getting worse.
The US budget deficit is falling far faster than predicted, which is actually bad, but still taboo to mention by the press, since it flies in the face of the need for ever more austerity.
Randy P
@Citizen_X: I suspect most of those who vote “Cuba” also don’t know where Cuba is. Including what hemisphere it’s in.
nellcote
I want PPP to poll on whether Hawaii is a state, again.
burnspbesq
@Citizen_X:
Well, “Benghazi” looks and sounds exactly like “Guantanamo,” so what’s the big deal?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Open threadiness.
Friend sent me this meme pic. IOKIYW?.
scav
@NotMax:
There are still people living where stormy weather interferes with successful lightbulb operation, so things may not be quite as dire as that. Plus the overeducated geeks that would reason that stormy weather would possibly take out telecommunications infrastructure etc etc etc. We might just be able to wrestle that number down to slightly below a majority.
Citizen_X
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Oh yeah? I found out about this poll from this Wonkette post, which features a Fox News map of the Middle East. The country between Iran and Syria, WHICH WE INVADED RECENTLY, was labelled “Egypt.”
There’s a reason they’re ignorant.
Trollhattan
@catclub:
One only needs to turn to the WSJ opinionating page to note
2010: the economy is mired in recession, the deficit and debt are climbing and all are directly attributable to administration policy.
2013: the economy is showing surprising strength but there is no correlation with administration policies, which threaten to strangle recovery and raise the specter of dangerous inflation.
beltane
@Trollhattan: Nothing wrong with that. While hubby’s out there being productive and avoiding his family, his wife gets to spend his money and go on vacation with her choice of hot lovers.
gene108
@jl:
Well there’s a real scandal and that’s the IRS targeting right-wing groups and denying them tax exempt status and rounding them up for FEMA re-education camps.
NPR had a Mississippi Tea Party group on that got “denied” 501(c )4 status and the IRS kept badgering them with questions and they finally got tired and gave up. They wanted the 501(c)4 status, “in case” they were able to get donations from outside groups and so they wouldn’t have to disclose, who was giving them money.
They mostly self-fund and keep tabs on the state legislature.
The sad thing is the liberal NPR makes no mention of their FEMA re-education and their new found devotion to Dear Leader Obama.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Citizen_X: Well, in this case, and probably only this case, they might want their viewers to get it right. Though it might be hard to put up a map showing Libya and having to explain why Egypt moved. “Well, it went on vacation, and now it’s back home.”
NotMax
@BGinCHI
While it is smaller than the size of the print in the posts, it is just fine for this “old” with no changes to settings whatsoever. Same size as the print in the Blogroll list in my view here.
As with all web pages, what you see laid out on the screen in your system configuration may or may not be what others see on theirs. Key challenge of designers is to have their finished output show up both properly (as opposed to identically) as well as accessibly, cross-platform and cross-browser.
Note to mistermix: Thanks for darkening the print of the poster’s name and time stamp. Better than it was before.
lamh35
I know, I know, you all hate Eric Holder, but who among us hasn’t wanted to tell Darrell Issa this:
Holder To Issa: Your Conduct Is ‘Unacceptable’ And ‘Shameful’ (VIDEO)
Do yourselves a favor though, don’t read the comment section. The article was linked by Drudge and the trolls have taken root. There more than one O’Bammy being thrown around and not to be outdone, at least one “Holder is a nigger” comment to really make it racist.
Corner Stone
I have to believe that this whole Benghazi farump is really just a way for the supporters of Gen Betrayus to get back at the admin for throwing him under the bus.
I mean. Clinton did that whole cigar thing and got to stay president. Why shouldn’t the General get to hump on a little strange if it reduced his stress so he could be a better warrior?
Corner Stone
Tweety is having an absolute bone fest over this scandal-rama.
nellcote
Thanks to whoever it was upthread for the CTR+ tip!
lamh35
Corner Stone
Where’s Joy Reid when you really need her?
Corner Stone
@BGinCHI: There’s a bangin’ good TWSS riff in here somewhere, I just know it!
Gex
@cleek: That makes sense. The huge contrast in text sizes makes it so everyone might want to adjust one way or another.
catclub
@Corner Stone: That is not the kind of advertising that would encourage me to watch.
Trollhattan
@lamh35:
Good on Holder, although my wished-for response would be “Pretty rich, coming from a car thief arsonist. Oh, I meant to say ‘alleged.'”
The Other Chuck
I’ve updated the Better Balloon Juice stylesheet so that it no longer cuts off the troll filter headers or reply button.
If you want bigger fonts, install PeakVT’s BJ2013 stylesheet too. I’ll make it a font option in mine once I figure how to do those.
NotMax
@Trollhattan
Suppose that “You got a chicken on your lap under that desk, Senator?” would sail right over their heads.
Violet
@nellcote:
Yes, please. I’d also like them to poll on where Washington, D.C. is located, with various states including Washington being the choices, along with none of the above. How many people will pick that it isn’t in a state?
JPL
According to TPM, the President will give a statement about the IRS at six.
Roger Moore
@Trollhattan:
IOW, the people who are most happy and successful are the people who don’t want a life outside of work. Not very helpful to the rest of us who do care about life outside work.
Trollhattan
Of zero interest to anybody not in Sac or Seattle, the NBA owners are deciding the Kings’ fate right now, in Texas. It’s the Battle of the Bylliunnnnaires.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I’m down with the control + to make the font bigger. But when I do that I get a scroll bar at the bottom along with the side scroll bar. What is the nerd solution for this?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
JEsus, I haven’t seen Tweety this splutteringly incoherent in years. He is off the rails tonight.
Hill Dweller
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He was pretty awful before and after the Obama/Cameron press conference. Josh Marshall said on twitter that Tweety was drowning in Derp.
eta: MSNBC has taken a nasty turn to the right since the first of the year. I think they’re trying to shed their “liberal” reputation, but their ratings are cratering as a result.
Trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Worse than after Obama-Romney debate #1? That’s my Tweety high-
watervodkamark.eemom
Am I the only one obsessed with the new comments’ resemblance to a sheet of address labels? I keep wanting to peel them off and stick them on stuff.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is there any way to discuss Scandalgate without sounding incoherent? Hopefully, all the incoherence will drag this thing out for about 3 years.
Corner Stone
@Trollhattan: Damn. You had me right up til “vodka”.
I’ll BRB.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: that’s some pretty good snark for Marshall. His site has become fairly humorless as it has morphed and mushroomed into whatever the hell it is now.
@Trollhattan: I still think that night he never got close to his histrionics about Clinton’s blowjobs. There were times I thought he was going to start crying as he screeched about “the PEEEEEOPLE’s HOUSE!”
Trollhattan
@eemom:
Site design suggestion: add tractor-form perforations on either side of comments!
Calming Influence
@JPL: 3 eastern, 6 pacific http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/president-obama-makes-statement-5
Violet
@eemom: Wouldn’t say obsessed, but I’ve noticed it. Everything seems to be in a box and the boxes have the curved-ish corners reminiscent of labels.
Corner Stone
@Calming Influence: He’s about to go in 5 minutes. 5pm CT
Trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Luckily, I was cable-free during the Clinton years so hadn’t made Tweety’s acquaintence back then. I got my blowhards on the “McLaughlan Group” (maybe Dana Carvey’s best running bit of all). Nevertheless, Tweety and Sully’s one-two Hawaiian punch on debate night, I’ll cherish forever.
Trollhattan
@Trollhattan:
Aaaand, it looks like the Kings stay put. Now, will the Maloofs sell anyway, or hang onto the club they’ve already scuttled just to spite…everybody?
ruemara
@Trollhattan: Nemko also doubts that race, age or gender really affects job hunting. I used to listen to him regularly to figure out where I was going wrong. I realized, I was doing what I needed to do, employers weren’t and Nemko has been self-employed at pontificatin’ for decades. -BAM!- my sunday mornings were free again.
BGinCHI
@Corner Stone: My mind is entirely too pure to have any idea what you’re talking about.
belieber
…and the bloggers around here CONTINUE to react to GOP propaganda instead of setting their own agenda. Makes me ashamed to consider myself a liberal. Go form your own party or something. Call it the GOP talkingpoints reaction party or something. Because you are fucking useless when it comes to controlling the public conversation.
agrippa
@beltane:
Yes, they are.
Villago Delenda Est
Liberia?
OK, it’s close to “Libya” as sounds go, and it’s at least on the same continent.
The important thing about this scandal, though, it’s it’s perceived as a means to bludgeon that uppity ni*CLANG* in the GOP’s executive mansion.
Villago Delenda Est
@belieber:
derp, derp, derp.
cckids
@MattF: My fav is: “I’d like to see your point of view, but I can’t get my head that far up my ass”.
Works great for Republicans of all kinds.
jl
@Trollhattan:
” Site design suggestion: add tractor-form perforations on either side of comments! ”
if that would make eemom happy, fine with me.
What the EFF is with all these commenters who obsess over fricken design trivia. GETALIFE ddamn it you PEOPLE!!!
(Sorry, I think Cole took over my brain for a sec)
Roger Moore
@belieber:
I’m sorry that you feel that way.
jl
” …and the bloggers around here CONTINUE to react to GOP propaganda instead of setting their own agenda. ”
This being a poltics / food/ / cooking / pets / garden / household gadget and repair / sports / booze / travel / science / literature / Did Cole fall down again and hurt hisself today? blog, I’m not sure what the agenda is, exactly.
Edit: and music, sorry I forgot about music, and all the other stuff, whatever it is.
I say, some good posts on picking good lottery numbers. I want out of the rat race, and I want to feel lucky!
Villago Delenda Est
@Trollhattan:
Marty here has obviously never worked an assembly line job, or digging ditches, or had an immediate supervisor who was a total asshole.
His notion is great if you’re lucky enough to have your “dream job”, something like oh, I don’t know coaching a football team, or being a grifting guest speaker at various things where you’re actually not working, not like someone cleaning out latrines, for example.
He’s basically a narrow visioned fucktard who can’t understand why someone tied to a grill at a Mickey D’s might not enjoy the work experience that much.
Trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well said. When a Master of the Universe gets a request to pull a double-shift, it’s pretty easy to answer, “yes.”
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I just got an invitation from Americans for
PovertyProsperity to join Grover Norquist for lunch tomorrow! His new campaign is called “Back in the Game”.I asked if the lunch would include tomatoes for throwing, but alas, it was a recording, so I didn’t get an answer.
jl
@Villago Delenda Est: That piece is either That Onion hacking Business Insider (and it is pretty funny, unless someone is pathetically sick and sad enough to take it seriously) or some business press social engineering for sap loser readers.
It is testimony to a sickness in U.S.society, and sadly, one that is forced on a lot of innocent hard working people.
JR in WV
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
That means you can use left and right curson keys to adjust what’s in the middle of your browser window… hopes there aren’t 21eleven answers to this question already!
Mike in NC
@Hill Dweller:
That must explain why they signed on the odious S. E. Cupp as a regular commentator.
PS: Why no Home button anymore?
Roger Moore
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
How much did he want to charge you for the privilege of hearing him lie through his teeth?
sneezy
@BGinCHI:
I agree. Also, blockquotes, in both the post itself and comments, are in a larger font than the post or comments themselves. There’s no good reason for that.
ETA: There’s no good reason for the extra space beneath blockquotes, either.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Roger Moore:
Free lunch. Something tells me that even here, they’re not expecting to get much of a crowd otherwise.
Bjacques
Prosperity: We’re all in it together!
chopper
@RSA:
yeah, this whole thing reeks of idiocracy.
Nutella
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes he has! He’s self-employed.
Narcissus
I thought “Couldn’t find it on a map” was part of the GOP motto.
Mark B.
I’m not a fan of the latest redesign, the fonts are crazy and it’s a little buggy. But then I got on my iPad, and wow! The iPad theme is great. I’m not crazy about the way it looks, it way too apple standard, but the usability is great. Much better than the basic web page. Nice menus and the commenting widget is very nice. Great job.
Mark B.
Although it’d be nice if the comment editor worked on the iPad version and the comment widget didn’t throw an error when you save a comment. Sigh.
Dolly Llama
@BGinCHI: God damn, I don’t know why that has struck me as so funny, but I’ve been sitting here laughing like a fool for a minute and a half and counting.
Splitting Image
@The Other Chuck:
Thank you very much. I was just about to email John Cole to complain about the troll problem since the changes.