Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Second rate reporter says what?

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Infrastructure week. at last.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

I was promised a recession.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

People are complicated. Love is not.

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

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Reader Interactions

88Comments

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    What’s on the agenda for the evening?

    I think I’ll do some whining, moaning, and complaining about the terrible state of the frontpagers on Balloon-Juice. Seriously do you always have to ask that question?

  4. 4.

    cathyx

    And a bigger penalty than lying to congress. Shouldn’t Liz get a promotion like Clapper?

    ETA: Maybe if Obama issued the licenses she’d be OK.

  5. 5.

    geg6

    Good to see at least one Cheney has to face the music for something. Even such a minor thing warms the cockles of my heart.

    As for me, watching Master Chef and then Top Chef after finishing up these delicious chicken thighs in hunter’s sauce with pasta and carrots that John made tonight. Yummy!

  7. 7.

    eldorado

    i’m going to go out on a limb here and say lying about your hunting/fishing license might be a pretty big deal in wyoming

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    There are many things I like about my Fitbit Flex, but it’s very irritating that if the site goes down, you can’t get any info at all from the stupid thing, because the web app and the phone app both connect to the webite — gah!

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    About the NYC Mayoral Debate:

    MODO had been proven to be a liar BEFORE NOON TODAY – look at the time on this…author had to have time to research the piece, and write it…it was posted at 12:15 pm..so Quinn knew THIS MORNING for sure that it was bullshyt..

    SOOOO

    why the fuck is she mentioning it in a debate?

    ………………………….

    Today at 12:15 PM
    Comment

    Maureen Dowd’s Frankenstein Quote Gave Christine Quinn a Temporary Opening on de Blasio

    By Joe Coscarelli

    Christine Quinn won herself some headlines this morning by expressing outrage at Chirlane McCray, the wife of her suddenly viable mayoral rival Bill de Blasio, for her remarks about families in a Mauren Dowd column. McCray, as quoted, said Quinn is “not accessible … She’s not the kind of person I feel I can go up to and talk to about issues like taking care of children at a young age and paid sick leave,” giving Quinn the opportunity to take umbrage at a perceived slight for being a childless lesbian. “[To] criticize me as not understanding what young families go through because I might not have children is over the line,” she said.

    But if the counterattack already seemed like a stretch, some of the blame can go to Dowd for stitching together McCray’s full quote in a way that left it open to an offensive interpretation.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/08/maureen-dowd-misquote-gave-quinn-an-opening.html

  12. 12.

    JPL

    OMG.. I love you for having a new thread. Did Jane shut down her site and did they just show up here?

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    The only question I have is how long will it be until Cheney the Younger accidentally snags a fishhook in the cheek of one of her fishing companions. And how long will it take before said companion apologizes to her.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    HBM and I are going to the beach later to see the full moon on the ocean. He is making remarkable progress and I slept all day. Meatloaf and rice for dinner.

  15. 15.

    MikeJ

    I agree Cheney helped lie us into a war.

    Any chance Hillary will have anything to say about it in her campaign? Any chance she might regret voting for it, or regret being taken in?

  18. 18.

    scav

    @Roger Moore: Yes, for he is not jealous the FSM and many are created and beloved — the parmesan, the ricotta, the mozzarella, the stringy, the laughing, yea! verily unto the humble orange brick. The whey to salvation is broad.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: Well she was right about Al Gore inventing the internet wasn’t she.
    It’s time for the NYTimes to let her go. Fox news is hiring.

  23. 23.

    Suffern ACE

    @scav: do you by chance make cheese? Because that pun is exactly what Apis would like. He’s mirthful, and, lets face it, a person who makes puns like that probably should be slaughtered anyway.

  25. 25.

    Keith P.

    I’m expecting the license clerk’s apology for Liz Cheney having to pay that fine in 3…2…1.

  26. 26.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @efgoldman: After reading that news I am going to hide myself in a corner and drink heavily. WTF? It is bad enough that Sean Hannity and his ilk are blaming Obama for the bailout which happened before he was elected but blaming him for the Katrina response? I give up.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just to piss off my phan club: What’s on the agenda for the evening?

    The same phans would have complained bitterly about “And that’s the way it is,” “Good night and good luck,” and “Thank you, Mr. President.” It’s your trademark, AL. If people don’t like it, fuck ’em.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Hey, Britty, that “Under Milk Wood” CD you recommended arrived in this morning’s mail delivery. I’m about to start listening. Thanks in advance, I’m sure I’ll love it.

  40. 40.

    PeakVT

    @MikeJ: I doubt Clinton will ever say she regrets it, or that she made a bad call. She’s had plenty of chances. Which is one reason I won’t support her in the primary unless I have no other choice.

    At least she passes the Penn Test this time.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Mary G:

    Enjoy that moon and that beach. Dinner sounds great too. Best to you and HBM.

    (Saw moon last night; tonight we have a thunderstorm, for a while …)

  45. 45.

    Suffern ACE

    @PeakVT:

    Making predictions is an invitation to mockery in a few years’ time. At this point in 2006, the 2008 election was supposedly going to pit Mark Warner against George Allen.

    Ok. Who? Who? Who exactly was making that prediction?

  48. 48.

    Jay in Oregon

    Watching dead-enders lose their shit on the #AlJazeeraAmerica hashtag on Twitter has had it’s moments.

  51. 51.

    Poopyman

    @Keith P.:

    I’m expecting the license clerk’s apology for Liz Cheney having to pay that fine in 3…2…1.

    And I’m expecting to read in a few years that one of her supporters paid the fine for her, and it will never have been reported.

  54. 54.

    Poopyman

    @Mary G: Here it’s moonrise in the east, thunderstorm coming in from the west,

    Just crossed the Potomac and moving through Charles Co. now ….

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @gogol’s wife

    Just now flashed back to something I overheard one time.

    Woman #1 (gentile) was waxing enthusiastic about the first bagel with lox and cream cheese she had ever tasted, mere moments before.

    Woman #2: “Now let me tell you about the rest of the religion.”

  56. 56.

    Suffern ACE

    @PeakVT: yeah. I mean, I was a fan of the possibility of President Thune as the next guy (I believe he was the first of the Not Romnies-establishment edition), what with his flown in meat, who could resist? But I can’t even remember Warner getting the “he doesn’t look natural in cowboy boots so he’s doomed in Iowa” profile.

  57. 57.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: I’m a bloody Latin teacher, and it breaks my heart, but I’m reduced to teaching my debaters the fallacy as AAB (“After Ain’t Because) because at the speed of modern debate, every letter counts — PHEPH takes too long to write on the flow…

  58. 58.

    lamh36

    Welp I called myself staying away from the interludes and choosing to read a book instead and the first thing I read is about the brutha from Prison Break officially came out of the closet in a statement condemning Russia’s gay rights stance.

    I always wonder what do you say to someone when they officially exits that closet??? Congratulations seems appropriate, or maybe a god for buddy…lol

  59. 59.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: my dad’s BLS ’46, just missed the big war. All of us (6) though went to BC High, all of us did 4 years of Latin and two of us did 3 years of Greek and went on to take classics degrees.

    I tell my English-teaching colleagues to look at me hard whenever they think about doing Portrait of the Artist, because I’m the last living guy they’ll ever meet who had Stephen Dedalus’ education.

  62. 62.

    lamh36

    @Suffern ACE: LOL. Like I said good for him, but damn there goes all those “prison fantasies” from sistas who watched Prison Breaks down the drain…LOL

  63. 63.

    scav

    @lamh36:

    I always wonder what do you say to someone when they officially exits that closet??? Congratulations seems appropriate, or maybe a god for buddy…lol

    Housewarming gift or party of some sort? They’ve got all that non-closet space finally.

  64. 64.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: My dad worked in the city of Boston schools, and when he was starting out used to bump into Latin School old timers who remembered from the pre-war days a skinny Jewish kid who used to play the piano at assemblies — name of Lenny Bernstein.

    They were a helluva trio, the old Latin Schools, both of them, and Boston English.

  66. 66.

    Mino

    The State of California will begin re-feeding its striking prisoners, in violation of their DNR instructions signed before starting the hunger strike. This is a violation of international law within the territory of the US. As political speech, it has also been considered a first amendment right.

  67. 67.

    Socoolsofresh

    So, tons of NSA news today, but seems like no FP’ers wants to talk about it. Oh well, none of it is coming from Glenn Greenwald so, I guess people here don’t care.

  68. 68.

    gbear

    @lamh36:

    I always wonder what do you say to someone when they officially exits that closet?

    If it’s like everybody that I know, it was ‘Yeah, we thought so.’

    Anybody contemplating coming out should do it the moment it is safe to do so. Don’t waste time.

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    @gbear: agreed. it’s got to be a breath of fresh air living ur life openly & not looking over ur shoulder afraid of being exposed. it gives other people power over your life without them even knowing

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    There are many pun addicts at my office. We once went on a team building exercise and picked teams at random. One of the women looked at her fellow team members and, pointing at each of them one by one, said, “No puns, no puns, no puns, no puns.”

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @gbear:

    Apparently, when my brother-in-law came out, it was during a time of other high family drama, so the reaction was basically, “That’s nice.” In other words, he picked his moment well, because by the time the other drama had subsided, too much time had passed for anyone who wanted to freak out to suddenly make an issue out of it without looking like an idiot for bringing up old news.

  75. 75.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: You can still go there as a tuition student, even if you’re from out of town, if you want to pay, but the tuition is swinging.

    Today, though for essentially the same scratch you can go to Buckingham Brown and Nichols, e.g., or St. Paul’s, or Roxbury Latin, or wherever — it doesn’t make much sense any more. The last guy I met who did that was ten years older than me, class of ’64 or ’65, (I’m pushing 57.)

    In those days, though, how many Jewish kids went to BB&N? The Latin School was a good deal, and a famous pipeline to Harvard, for people with a little money and shall we say…. restricted options.

    Bernstein is so closely associated with New York, a lot of people don’t believe he came from where he did.

  76. 76.

    gbear

    @Mnemosyne: Coming out to family can be scary. I remember driving to my parents house the night I was going to tell them and thinking that I might never be welcome in the house again. It actually went well, but you don’t have any guarantees before you blurt it out.

    I would have been beaten to a pulp if I had come out to them in my teens. My dad changed a lot as he got older.

  78. 78.

    fuckwit

    This is the place to direct the anger: on Bush, Cheney, and the spineless wonders in Congress, then and now, and, ultimately on US for electing the motherfuckers.

    Advantage: if it was our fault then it was in our power to fuck it up,, and if it was in our power to fuck it up, then it is in our power to fix it.

  81. 81.

    RaflW

    @JPL: It’s time for the NYTimes to let her go. Fox news is hiring.

    Dowd is qualified for maybe the Daily Caller. If that.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    They’re working in reverse, and yet have 3½ years to pin blame on him for Iran-Contra, Watergate and the Kennedy assassination.

    They’ll never get to the Lindbergh kidnapping and the Haymarket Square bombing at that rate.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    @Roger Moore

    Ah, that’s in reserve for the whole ‘Obama plans to subvert the 22nd Amendment and seek a third term’ meme currently cooling its heels in the wings.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    You notice the assumption in the “Obama repeals the 22nd Amendment” storyline that he would go on and win the election. And, come to think of it, if he had just gotten 3/4th of the states to ratify an amendment whose whole point was to let him run for a third term, I guess that would be a reasonable assumption.

  86. 86.

    jenn

    @schrodinger’s cat: Warning. Warning. Cuteness Overload. Warning. Warning. Cuteness Overload.

    Somewhere recently I saw someone who’d posted a picture of a TINY kitten with a little bitty teddy bear – and then the grown up cat with the same teddy bear. Wow, damn cute. Wish I knew where the heck I’d seen it!

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    Okay, I have officially taught my smartest cat a word.

    He was sitting on the back of the armchair on the other side of the room. I looked at him and said, “Keaton, toy?” and he immediately jumped down and ran over to me. I didn’t have the toy in my hand, but he knew it was playtime.

    ETA: It didn’t hurt that the toy of which I was speaking was the current Best Toy Ever that all three of them are obsessed with.

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