Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Republicans don’t trust women.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We still have time to mess this up!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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107Comments

  3. 3.

    Hill Dweller

    There was some wingnut chatter about Obama not saluting a Marine when getting on Marine One, but the video made those people look stupid…again.

  6. 6.

    mclaren

    Still waiting for someone somewhere to blame the fucking Republicans for the tornado damage in Moore OK and the hurricane damage in New York city because of their relentless climate change denial.

    But that would be, like, engaging with the real world…and nowadays our politicians don’t do that sort of thing.

  7. 7.

    the Conster

    The pundits REALLY don’t like talking about GITMO – not sure if it’s because they’re too stupid to discuss it intelligently, or because they haven’t found the spin yet that deflects the issue away from the Republicans in Congress where Obama left it, or probably both. One thing you can be sure of – there won’t be GITMOgate.

  11. 11.

    NickT

    There’s always Non-gate-gate, which proves that the media are totes evil libruls and lying to poor innocent fluffy bunny conservatives.

  13. 13.

    Suffern ACE

    @the Conster: Are they at least talking about it? I’d have assumed that they’d have gone with the “he’s arrogant and naiive to close it down during wartime.”

  14. 14.

    Bruce S

    Yeah – Lawrence O’Donnell has busted open 401(c4)Gate:

    Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code defines tax-exempt social welfare groups like this:

    Civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.

    In 1959, under the administration of Dwight Eisenhower, the meaning of this section was changed dramatically when the IRS decided the word “exclusively” could, in effect, be read as “primarily.”

    “For 54 years, the IRS has gotten away with the crime of changing the word ‘exclusively’ to ‘primarily,” said Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word Monday. “The IRS took a hard, clear word like ‘exclusively’ and changed it into a soft word ’primarily’ and then left it to the IRS agents to determine if your organization was primarily concerned with the promotion of social welfare.”

    This is the real IRS scandal – the agency has been applying an “interpretation” to 501(c4)s that is totally in conflict with the clear intent of the law that established them.

  15. 15.

    Matt McIrvin

    @mclaren: The science on the connection between climate change and tornado outbreaks is actually unclear.

    On the other hand, there is some evidence that it ought to increase the strength if not the frequency of hurricanes, and certainly sea-level rise makes coastal cities and towns more vulnerable to storm surges. So whether or not global warming caused Sandy, it ought to lead us to expect more Sandys.

  17. 17.

    Anoniminous

    The terrorist ambitions of the young Obama have been revealed by UGLYHIGHSCHOOLPROMTUXEDOGATE!!!1!!!
    ELVENTYELEVENTY!!

    Wake up Sheeple

  18. 18.

    gocart mozart

    I predict that former DefSec Robert Gates will be cought in a three way with Henry Lois Gates and Gates McFadden. This will be called Gates-Gates-Gates-Gate

  24. 24.

    Cassidy

    The Ninth Gate

    It was a shit movie and someone needs to take the blame for that shit.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Hill Dweller:

    but the video made those people look stupid…again.

    Those people look stupid all on their own; the video just just highlights the stupidity this time. It’s like the question about whether a dress makes a woman look fat; it’s usually not the dress.

  29. 29.

    gocart mozart

    The real shocker about the prom pictures is that nobody’s clothes or hair looked ridiculous. In 1979 PEOPLE! Photoshop-Gate

  31. 31.

    karen

    I just got laid off after almost 15 years of service.I want to vomit. I have RA and the insurance makes it possible for me to get my meds. Now? I don’t know. Curling up into a fetal ball may not be productive but right now it beats everything else. I realized that I probably communicate with you guys more than anyone else online so I’m just sharing on this open thread. I guess it would be RIFgate.

  32. 32.

    Anoniminous

    @catclub:

    Awe contrary!

    The real(c) scandal is the cover-up of those who designed those 1970s outfits that made every American male look like a dorkus maximus. And here is Exhibit A.

    [WARNING! Link may cause your eyeballs to bleed and then fall from your head.]

  33. 33.

    Alex S.

    So I found out that Barbara Walters dated Alan Greenspan, Republican Senator John Warner, and Republican Senator Edward Brooke.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @gocart mozart:

    The real shocker about the prom pictures is that nobody’s clothes or hair looked ridiculous.

    They may not have looked as ridiculous as their contemporaries, but a white jacket with a blue shirt and very wide pale blue tie isn’t ridiculous? Seriously? Remind me not to take your fashion advice.

  39. 39.

    chopper

    @Matt McIrvin:

    all else being equal, it should have an increasing effect on both hurricanes and tornadoes. adding heat and moisture will help both along, though there are plenty of negative variables that could increase under climate change. like shear (less is bad for mesocyclonic t-storms, more is bad for hurricanes) or the SAL, or changes in the MJO.

    data’s not in yet, but i think it’ll probably end up showing an increase. that’s my educated guess tho.

  40. 40.

    Burnspbesq

    @Bruce S:

    O’Donnell is apparently unfamiliar with a principle of statutory interpretation known as the “legislative re-enactment doctrine.”

    Or perhaps he is aware of it and chose not to let it get in the way of a good rant.

    As explained by the Supreme Court in the Cottage Savingscase, when Congress amends a provision of the Internal Revenue Code it is presumed to be aware of IRS regulations interpreting that provision, and is presumed to have blessed that interpretation unless it does something to overturn it. Congress amended Section 501(c)(4) in 1994 to limit insiders’ ability to suck 501(c)(4) organizations dry, and did so without indicating (either in the statute itself or the legislative history) that it disapproved of the gloss put on the statutory language by the 1959 regulations.

    So O’Donneli unfortunately has badly misled his audience.

    Lawrence-gate!

  41. 41.

    Davis X. Machina

    @catclub:
    It’s my party and I’ll Quine if I want to, Quine if I want to.
    You would Quine too if it happened to you.

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    Some more news from the aftermath of the general elections here in Malaysia, which the opposition claims have been tainted. Three opposition politicians have been arrested under the, Sedition Act: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party, led by Anwar Ibrahim) vice president Tian Chua, PAS Tamrin Ghaffar and lawyer-activist Haris Ibrahim. But a magistrate ordered their release, noting that police grounds for seeking a remand order were too vague; and that, since the cops hadn’t actually been investigating the three since the arrests, they couldn’t justify a remand order anyway.

    While the fall of the Barisan Nasional government is hardly imminent, confidence in its legitimacy has seen better days. More and more Malaysians see the Pakatan Rakyat coalition as a viable alternative — it was Pakatan that won a majority of the popular vote two weeks ago — and old-school, heavy-handed suppression of the opposition is more likely to backfire now than to be seen as good strong leadership.

  48. 48.

    David Koch

    Any new ‘gates I should know about?

    There’s Bradley-Manning-Grand-Marshall-Gate.

    It was shocking that Hopey/Changey didn’t address it yesterday. Of course Manning should be the Grand Marshall of this year’s Gay Pride parade. Who represents gays and the gay movement more than Bradley?

  49. 49.

    Tonal (visible) Crow

    Republicans are now threatening impeachment over He’s-Covering-Up-The-Scandal-That-Should-Be-In-The-News-Today-gate.

  51. 51.

    Poopyman

    @karen: Welcome to LaidOffLand! I’ve been a resident for ten weeks now. You’re lucky in that you have the luxury of indulging the urge to curl into a fetal ball until after Memorial Day. Nobody’s going to think about hiring until Tuesday anyway. Knock yourself out.

    By Tuesday a lot of the emotion will be gone and you’ll be able to take a clear-eyed approach. And remember, we’re always here.

  53. 53.

    David Koch

    Any new ‘gates I should know about?

    Anyone feel uncomfortable seeing those photos of Obummer hitting on white women? It was totally inappropriate. Gawd, he’s worst than Rick James.

  54. 54.

    BGinCHI

    OT, for computer dorks.

    Suddenly about a week ago my bookmarks toolbar icons got very, very small. I didn’t do anything to change them. How can I fix this? I’d like them to get bigger (to go back to normal).

    MacBook Pro running Firefox 21.0.

    Help!

  55. 55.

    Splitting Image

    I’m currently replaying Baldur’s Gate. My party is finishing off the quests in the southern part of the map.

    My lead character is an elven thief/mage, and I have Khalid, Jaheira, Ajantis, Kivan, and Coran in my group. I have this weird goal of taking five groups through the game so that I can use all 25 NPCs at least once.

  57. 57.

    Bruce S

    @Burnspbesq:

    There is such a thing as plain language that cannot be interpreted to mean something completely different. Exclusively and primarily – especially when “priimarily” evolves to mean “49%” – don’t mean the same thing. Not at all. Not “interpretively” or any other way. Your point is valid, insofar as Congress has let this slide – perhaps unwittingly in recent years, since this legislation is over 50 years old. O’Donnell was a congressional aide for years and was shocked when he read the actual wording of the law. O’Donnell has hardly “misled” anyone pointing out this total contradiction. If this has been blessed by the courts, that’s absurd. O’Donnell has done a service by bringing up the obvious original intent of the law and the wrongful twisting of it, whether Congress was remiss in 1994 or not. This is not a defensible “interpretation” no matter what case law you might cite. If it’s “legal” it’s legal by loophole – and it’s a loophole that should be close by Congress if necessary. We’re now nearly 20 years on from the Congressional action you cite. Every member of Congress I’ve seen who made note of this was apparently oblivious of the original language. That may be disturbing, but hardly surprising. And it makes the entire phony “scandal” of the Cleveland bureaucrats engaged in an impossible and fundamentally improper task of “interpretation” totally beside the real point. None of these groups – right or left – should be sanctioned tax-exempt with donor confidentially under a provision “exclusively” for social welfare organizations. That’s the scandal.

  58. 58.

    Barney

    Unaccountably, the claim that Obama shouldn’t have lent money to Tesla was never christened “Elon-gate”. Too late now.

  59. 59.

    Hungry Joe

    … although Gates Brown was primarily a pinch-hitter. He achieved immortality one day when, not being in the lineup, he grabbed a couple of hot dogs … whereupon the manager sent him in to pinch hit. Hiding the ‘dogs in his jersey (eating in the dugout is verboten), he lined a pitch into the gap and slid head-first into second for a double. The ‘dogs, each with a full load of ketchup and mustard, were plastered all over the front of his uniform, and a bunch of players on both teams were almost hospitalized with busted guts. In the Tigers dugout they were draped all over each other, hysterical. One of baseball’s greatest moments. Hey .. Hot-Dog Gate(s)!

  62. 62.

    Todd

    @Cassidy:

    The Ninth Gate
    …
    It was a shit movie and someone needs to take the blame for that shit.

    Two hours of watching and no goddamn payoff. Depp walking around in a lithograph. Wife and I looking at each other while muttering “dafuq” and scratching our heads.

  66. 66.

    NobodySpecial

    @BGinCHI: The fact that you call it ‘glam metal’ serves only to highlight that you’ve never actually listened to Tesla.

  68. 68.

    PurpleGirl

    @karen: If I may ask, where do you live? Any chance that you live in NYC?

    ETA: That rots, it really does. {hug}

  69. 69.

    Todd

    @Cassidy:

    Roger Ebert said the ending was lackluster, “while at the end, I didn’t yearn for spectacular special effects, I did wish for spectacular information — something awesome, not just a fade-to-white”. In his review for The New York Times, Elvis Mitchell said the movie was “about as scary as a sock-puppet re-enactment of The Blair Witch Project, and not nearly as funny”. Entertainment Weekly rated the film “D+”, and Lisa Schwarzbaum said it had an “aroma of middle-brow, art-house Euro-rot, a whiff of decay and hauteur in a film not even a star as foxed, and foxy, as Johnny Depp, himself, could save”. In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan said the film was “too laid-back, and unconcerned about the pacing of its story to be satisfying”, because “a thriller that’s not high-powered, is an intriguing concept, in reality it can hold our attention for only so long”. In the Village Voice, J. Hoberman said the film was “barely releasable hokum, stuffed with cheesy blah-blah”.

    From wikipedia.

  70. 70.

    Warren Terra

    The lack of a new scandal (or “scandal”) this week is itself prima facie evidence of a coverup. The hard part is, that is in itself a scandal, negating this week’s lack of a scandal.

  71. 71.

    Suffern ACE

    Yesterday

    Cuomo: “It’s basically democracy. Those are grownups (in the Assembly) who are picking, who pick their leader.”
    Rogers: “So if Anthony Weiner wants to run for mayor, he can run for mayor.”
    Cuomo: “He runs? He runs.”
    Rogers: “And if we elect him?”
    Cuomo: “Shame on us.”

    Today:

    When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to condemn mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner he was only joking, his office says.

    Cuomo-Weiner Spanking-gate

  73. 73.

    BGinCHI

    @NobodySpecial: It’s true, I haven’t. I based that on dudes I’ve seen wearing Tesla t-shirts.

    ETA: This scientific strategy, btw, is called “Brooksian deduction.”

  75. 75.

    piratedan

    @PeakVT: you schooled me well that time, I will warn you/help you about the only continent that I haven’t seen in use is Africa, otherwise the whole world is pretty much in play

    I only did a bit above 10K

  76. 76.

    Chris

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Nobody has to make them look stupid. Stupid is their natural state.

    “YOU MADE A FOOL OUT OF HITLER!”
    “He didn’t need our help!”
    /The Producers

  78. 78.

    Shakezula

    STEMCELLGATE

    People in the science/medicine fields should probably avoid the news for a while. The spectacle of idiots misunderstanding the shit out of what happened here will only ruin your weekends.

  79. 79.

    schrodinger's cat

    This evening I am going to stop by the International Food Store and get me some Indian and Asian groceries. I am looking for a good online resource for Vietnamese and Thai recipes any recommendations?
    Thanks!

  80. 80.

    David Koch

    Congress should investigate how much OFA paid Medea Benjamin to make Obambi look so good.

    fucker got a four column banner headline in the times.

  81. 81.

    Hungry Joe

    @schrodinger’s cat: Famous scene in “Gatsby” in which he displays his wealth to Daisy by showing her all his colorful hand-tailored shirts. Imagine shirts being flung at you in razzle-dazzle 3-D — kind of like the spears and arrows in early 3-D, but with French cuffs.

  83. 83.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    There’s a scene (taken straight from the book) where Gatsby tosses his shirts out from his wardrobe to show off to Daisy and Nick. Also too, everyone in that movie wears really really nice shirts.

  87. 87.

    Bill Arnold

    @piratedan:
    Got 105xx on my first try. At least got the continent right each time.
    It is really hard. Line markings and signs are similar worldwide.

  88. 88.

    Origuy

    @piratedan:

    a great way to waste time online for folks who are into maps and roads and stuff

    I’m not getting anything done the rest of the day. Is it cheating to google signs that you find? The first one was Coolgardie, Western Australia, which I nailed because I found a business sign that was unique. The second had signs in Russian, which I can read a little. I found a sign for Uralskiy Bank, googled it, and guessed Smerdlovsk, but it was Yekaterinaberg.

  89. 89.

    Bill Arnold

    @Bill Arnold:
    Plants however are a giveaway. I have a feeling a botanist with world knowledge would do very well. The one case where I tried to be clever (looking up a name on a sign) the guess based on plants would have been 2000 kilometers closer.

  90. 90.

    PeakVT

    @piratedan: 14.5K is my highest so far, out of 5 games. I got lucky on that one, with a location that was obviously the Scottish highlands. If you get the location down to 100 km it really boosts the points for the round.

  93. 93.

    Hungry Joe

    @Anoniminous: No, Fitzgerald neglected to feature pancakes in “Gatsby.” Maybe it was like the story about Tolstoy: After umpteen revisions he finally sent the “War and Peace” manuscript to the publisher. That night he awoke, sat up in bed, and screamed, “I forgot to put in a boat race!”

  96. 96.

    askew

    @karen:

    So sorry to hear that you were laid off and fingers crossed that something new comes by soon for you.

  97. 97.

    PeakVT

    @Origuy: I’m playing without searching. But I snoop around for signs that indicate location.

    @Bill Arnold: Being a botanist would certainly help. I got one location without a single sign or car in sight. Grrr! I guessed Mexico but it was the interior of Brazil.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    My coworker is finally going to give in to her 5-year-old son’s pleas and get him a cat so they can stop “visiting” everyone else’s cats. (Apparently the Do-It Center in Burbank has two resident cats that they must visit every weekend even if they don’t have any hardware to buy.) I sent her a link to WereBear’s blog so she can get some cat-choosing advice.

  99. 99.

    Bruce S

    @burnspbesq:

    What’s off base is citing a Supreme Court case that had nothing to do with the case at hand and making a typically bullshit lawyer-like case that what is clear to anyone who reads the original legislation is something other than the meaning of plain language. Good lawyer’s bullshit if you’re defending the indefensible, though. The problem is it’s completely wrong in context of the legislation and it’s clear intent. That the IRS, the courts and congress have fucked this up with some combination of negligence and misdirection is obvious, but shouldn’t frame reality for people who, uh, can read. I don’t really give a shit about obscure Supreme Court cases when they contravene clear intent. You’re arguing that neglect or worse by a combination of a bureaucracy’s misinterpretation and congress having dealt with a different issue makes these groups legitimate under the 501c4 provision. (If you’re operating under the burden of a law degree, don’t allow it make you stupid and/or a useless pedant.)

  101. 101.

    piratedan

    @PeakVT: yeah, I’m doing my best to not google or wiki anything. Map burrowing via the game is allowed though to reduce mouse loogyness (because I’m not as intuitive as I used to be and forgot that I could manipulate the map and zoom in)

  103. 103.

    Bill Arnold

    @piratedan:
    Yeah, definitely hooked. I’ve also played the Andrew Sullivan blog’s “The View From Your Window” contest a few times. That contest requires some serious image analysis, google earth, sight line analysis, etc. One I played(a long shot of air force one) I got the apartment building, but the winner got the floor/room number.

  104. 104.

    Felonius Monk

    How about ASSHOLE-gate —- where a group of about 233 rethuglican douchebags get together under a dome in Washington D.C. and fellate each other while give the middle finger to the rest of the country. Or is that the rethuglican Congress? Now I’m confused.

  105. 105.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @piratedan: I sent this to my eight year old Aspy grandson. His latest obsession is maps. I predict a complete takeover of the computer within the next half hour.

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