Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I was promised a recession.

“woke” is the new caravan.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

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

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Oh Joy

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Oh Joy

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Another Repub’s going be “responding” — or, it looks like, live-blogging — President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight:

… unless, of course, the minions of Rand Paul/Mike Lee/Ted Cruz manage to hunt him down first. (I’m not gonna pay attention to Cathy McMorris Rogers, because neither are her ‘fellow’ Republicans.)

Apart from readying the drinking games, what’s on the agenda?

Reader Interactions

175Comments

  3. 3.

    shortstop

    Every time Dick Morris’s name comes up, it provides another opportunity to mention this. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I never tire of it.

  4. 4.

    Aji

    Agenda includes enjoying our brand-new Pets of Balloon Juice 2014 Calendar, which is now hanging on the wall.

    Also includes sitting here with an icepack on my right foot, onaccounta a horse just stepped on it.

    Also includes trying to raise $$ for Okiciyap, a Cheyenne River Reservation food pantry and community center, for their elders’ heating program. Every year, we lose elders to the freezing temps, and now the propane shortage has both doubled the cost of their fuel and made it even more scarce. 15 degrees there at the moment, with a wind chill of 3, and going to get much worse. So if you can help spread the word, we’d appreciate it. A friend’s diary is here, if you want background and details on how to donate.

  5. 5.

    shortstop

    (I’m not gonna pay attention to Cathy McMorris Ro[d]gers, because neither are her ‘fellow’ Republicans.)

    You got that right. She’s the invisible ubiquitous token V-A.

  6. 6.

    kindness

    Does every peon on the right think it is their job to rebut the President or are their egos (dicks) so large (tiny) that they insert them where they don’t belong?

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    my recollection is that McMorris-Rodgers was brought in to fix the optics of the House Leadership being all old white men, and they were too scared to name Marsha Blackburn?

    Also, too, outreach

    Conservative radio host Sean Hannity on Monday proposed that women create an “adopt-a-woman” program to provide birth control to those who cannot afford it, while discussing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s (R) comments last week that the government should not help women who can’t control “their libido or their reproductive system.”

    Hannity will be the guest of Louie Goehmert tonight, which raises the key question, which one of them is dumb, and which is dumberer?

  9. 9.

    Aimai

    I am going to love the moment when the msm asks jay carney what the president thought of the republican rebuttal and he just says, blandly, “which one?”

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    Republican Rep. invites Duck Dynasty member to State of the Union:

    Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister, R, invited Willie Robertson, a character on the A&E reality show, to be his guest at tonight’s annual speech on Capitol Hill.

    “I am proud to have my close friend, constituent and small business owner, Willie Robertson, attend tonight’s State of the Union Address as my special guest,” McAllister said in a statement. … “I look forward to the two of us representing the Fifth District in DC this evening and bringing some diversity to our nation’s capitol.”

    Right. Diversity. Because white male conservatives are so under-represented in Congress.

    .

  14. 14.

    goblue72

    @Jebediah, RBG: For a party in disarray, the Republicans have secured control of HALF the Federal government – a large majority in the House and control the majority of seats on SCOTUS. On top of that, they’ve held the Senate to a standstill. And control a large majority of state legislatures and state governorships. And in 2014, the odds are in their favor of taking the Senate.

    Not bad for a party in disarray. If they ever get their act together, we are in completely deep poo.

  15. 15.

    TaMara (BHF)

    I’ll be working, because I could not focus today and have a deadline to meet. A peril of working from home. But, on the plus side, I’ll also be watching while I work, because the boss says I can.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Anne Laurie, did you have a book chat last night to finish up This Town? I was at the ballet and would have missed it anyhow, but it just occurred to me to scroll back through last evening’s threads and I didn’t see anything about it.

    Maybe you gave it up as a bad idea — or maybe you’ve rescheduled. I know a lot of people thought it was pretty worthless, but I found it a rather interesting series of insights by an insider.

    Just curious.

  23. 23.

    BlueDWarrior

    I haven’t commented here in awhile, but good god, can’t the Republicans just stick to two people giving responses.

    I know they technically cannot control whatever their membership says on the intertubes, but they could at least conviently ignore them. Or give them no more than a patronizing pat on the head, metaphorically.

  24. 24.

    scav

    @JGabriel: Ah yes, most small businessmen have TV shows and are worth however many millions in
    republicaworld. Just as the poor are those without live-in nannies, the horror! And how they are oppressed and reviled despite their suffering and struggle! Well, at least Louisiana Rep Vance McAllister has been able to purchase enough eye-candy to squire about and get some screen time for himself.

  25. 25.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @kindness: Per Alex Wagner, ever Rethug Congresscritter will have be recording their thoughts on the SOTU on an iPad after leaving the chamber.

  27. 27.

    beltane

    Are there any Republicans who are not going on TV with their SOTU response? If so, those are the ones we should keep an eye on.

  28. 28.

    Ash Can

    Live-blogging? That’s nice. How many of these rebuttals are going to be on the same actual TV screen that the prez will have just finished speaking on? Because if it involves anything more complicated than changing the channel — such as going to a certain web site, with hardware that can handle a live-stream broadcast — I really have to wonder how much exposure these “rebuttals are going to get among the actual electorate. My guess is that the usual professional gasbags are going to be discussing the bonus “rebuttals,” and not too many other people.

    @kindness:

    are their egos (dicks) so large (tiny) that they insert them where they don’t belong?

    I hope the Dems in their lives have the foresight to warn them against sticking those dicks in electrical sockets.

  29. 29.

    LanceThruster

    They could just mount those selfie hat-cams on all the Gopper congresspeoples so they could yell out, “You LIE!” at regular intervals.

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Can’t someone just install, I don’t know, Plants vs. Zombies or something on the thing and keep the GOP Reps occupied and out of the way? I mean, it sometimes works with toddlers.

  33. 33.

    gogol's wife

    @Baud:

    Still astoundingly high, though.

    I can’t watch the State of the Union because I get too nervous for Obama. It’ll be Gambit on TCM, with Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine, and Herbert Lom.

  34. 34.

    Jeremy

    @goblue72: They only have that much control due to the 2010 election, gerrymandering, and a supreme court majority due to the republicans dominating presidential elections in the past. If they lose the WH again then they could kiss the supreme court majority goodbye. Also when 2020 comes around they most likely won’t have the gerrymandered advantage they created. With the reduction of white voters and the increase in minority voters the future doesn’t look that bright for them.

  36. 36.

    Hal

    So, so pathetic. Dick Morris is never right and Allen West is a such a joke he made it exactly 2 years on a Congress full of nuts. Who truly gives 2 cents what their opinion is, even among the wingers?

  38. 38.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jebediah, RBG:
    Someone should keep track of just how much the Republican speeches disagree with each other. That should make interesting reading for everyone.

    I saw Her today. It’s a thoughtful, subtly funny bit of SF about early 21st-century tech-driven society, and the best boy-meets-smartphone-OS romance I’ll ever see. Scarlett Johansson has never looked better. ;) The ending seemed kind of abrupt, though, and had a “so long, and thanks for all the fish” feel to it. I also hope it’s wrong about high-waisted trousers coming into fashion. Plus, I wish the woman seated in front of me had not taken its theme so much to heart that she herself spent much of the movie on her own smartphone.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @Hal:

    In wingnut land, success is not about being right or thoughtful, but about how skillfully you can insult Democrats.

  41. 41.

    danielx

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Hannity will be the guest of Louie Gohmert tonight, which raises the key question, which one of them is dumb, and which is dumberer?

    I don’t know about which one is dumber, but when it comes to bringing teh crazy, Louie Gohmert has no peers. All others are pretenders to the throne.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @Amir Khalid:

    I wish the woman seated in front of me had not taken its theme so much to heart that she herself spent much of the movie on her own smartphone.

    If you were in the U.S., you could have shot her.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    Not sure if I’ll tune in to the SOTU. Definitely not interested in the multiple clown car pileup on aisle Republican. Just heard back from my ed grant application and it’s a no, with recommendations to instead attend workshops on social networking & public speaking. That’s nice. But I do think I’ll try to make beer and cauliflower soup tonight. I have a hankering.
    Has anyone given thought to collecting these folks into the same studio and accidentally filling it with concrete? Can we do that?

  45. 45.

    Ted and Hellen

    What’s the thinking on whether or not Obama will discuss how his administration drove Aaron Schwartz to suicide a year ago?

    Too much of a downer?

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @Aimai:

    I am going to love the moment when the msm asks jay carney what the president thought of the republican rebuttal and he just says, blandly, “which one?”

    I love Jay Carney. He’s got just the right amount of rumple in his suits so as not to appear too serious. His hair is touseled similarly–not unkempt, not slick. He’s effortlessly bland. I just love watching him work. Unmemorably memorable. That makes no sense, I know. He just seems perfect for the job.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    @Amir Khalid:

    Seeing that in the next few days.

    Saw “Dallas Buyers Club” today; found it superb. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto deserve their Oscar nominations.

    2013 was a good year for movies. Only Best Actor nominee I haven’t seen is Leonardo DiCaprio in “Wolf of Wall Street”, so need to see that one too.

  49. 49.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    In wingnut land, success is not about being right or thoughtful, but about how skillfully you can insult Democrats.

    Which, frankly, does not require a lot of heavy lifting.

    Democrats! Liberals! Welfare! Take our guns! Make our kids get ghey married! BLAAARGH!

  52. 52.

    Cacti

    @Ted and Hellen:

    What’s the thinking on whether or not Obama will discuss how his administration drove Aaron Schwartz to suicide a year ago?

    It crawled out of its bottle of Wild Irish Rose to grace us with its presence again.

  53. 53.

    chopper

    what people don’t tell you is, the SoTU drinking game is meant to prepare you for the sheer derp that is the republican rebuttal(s). you need a good fifth under your belt to listen to that dreck without your brain leaking out through your ears.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    This woman had just sat through two video messages at the end of ads and trailers asking people not to use their phones during the movie. I contented myself with, um, firmly tapping the back of her seat with my foot.

  56. 56.

    kdaug

    More drinking games.

    Maybe I’ll come up with one with my dog – I get you to say “woof”, I drink a shot.

    (My liver hates me).

  60. 60.

    goblue72

    @Jeremy: You could say exactly the same thing about the Democrats – “They only have that much control due the 2006 election.” A statement that X party has control due to Y election is a tautology and thus meaningless. One party or the other definitionally has control to an election. That’s how it works!

    As for the gerrymandering excuse – parties always attempt to gerrymander – going back 200 years. So you can’t solely blame the Republicans 2010 victory at the feet of gerrymandering – since gerrymandering has been a fact of U.S. elections for a long time. Did it play a role – sure. But its not the be-all-and-end-all. Our side faces the difficult to accept issue that our voters are over-concentrated in heavily urbanized areas while their voters are spread out all over the place.

    And you got a whole lot of “IF’s” loaded into that prediction. There’s a lot that can happen just between now and 2014, let alone between now and 2020 (SEVEN years from now). A counter set of “IF’s” could have the GOP winning the WH in 2016, and thus securing even more seats on SCOTUS.

  64. 64.

    MomSense

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Because nothing says independent woman like going to ask someone if they can buy your birth control for you.

    If I pay for my health insurance I should be able to get the prescriptions I need just like a man expects from his health insurance.
    Are the republicans really this absurd?

  66. 66.

    JGabriel

    @Ash Can:

    I hope the Dems in their lives have the foresight to warn them against sticking those dicks in electrical sockets.

    But it’s funnier if they don’t.

  67. 67.

    max

    (I’m not gonna pay attention to Cathy McMorris Rogers, because neither are her ‘fellow’ Republicans.)

    I am going to ignore all the TV events because I like my brain cells and want to keep them. I’ll keep up with any liveblogging anyone is doing so I can get the jump on the non-issue of the day tomorrow.

    max
    [‘Apparently the wingers have discovered there’s a Constitution and they’ve gone and read it. They’re still working on reading for comprehension though.’]

  68. 68.

    dmsilev

    via Wonkette, I am informed that Roseanne Barr will also be delivering a response to the State of the Union.

    History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, and then? I’m going to go with ‘drunken stupor’, because I think that will be where we’ll all be by midnight tonight.

  69. 69.

    PurpleGirl

    Tuesday is the night of a science fiction chat room I often participate in. I’ll also be putting on a Livestream cam watching/waiting for a pregnant cat to start labor. She’s due any day now and will be having 6 kittens. Watching it live is incredible. (Momma cat was left behind when her humans moved and she was found by shelter workers.) I know, I’m terrible not watching the SoTU speech but I know I’ll find commentary here.

  71. 71.

    Ash Can

    @Violet:

    He just seems perfect for the job.

    It’s because all of his qualities, which you identified, make him a quintessential middle school teacher, which is precisely what the WH pressies need to keep them in line.

  72. 72.

    WereBear

    @Amir Khalid: I contented myself with, um, firmly tapping the back of her seat with my foot.

    I’ll speak up. But you are a gentleman :)

    I once told off a group of teenagers, who were broadcasting their insights from the book at loud volume. At the third such incident, I whipped around and told them some of us like to find these things out from the movie.

    Dead silence after. My group appreciated it.

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    @chopper: I hope they just run Jindal as a rerun. Can’t wait to see him round that corner to start his official response. Seriously, have any of these rebuttals not sucked in the past 5 years?

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    In wingnut land, success is not about being right or thoughtful, but about how skillfully you can insult Democrats.

    Fortunately for the Republican politicians, “how skillfully you can insult” is judged by Republican voters rather than people with imagination and creativity.

  77. 77.

    GregB

    West will be speaking directly to the all important insane-war-criminal-bitter-former politician demographic.

  78. 78.

    Ash Can

    @JGabriel: The idea, though, is that if a Dem says it, the reply will be, “Oh yeah? Fuck you, libtard, I’ll do what I want!” BZAP!

  79. 79.

    Mike in NC

    Beginning to sound like we might reach Peak Wingnut this evening.

    We’ll probably miss out on that if the ice storm knocks the power out.

  83. 83.

    geg6

    @Baud:

    And Walmart is practically giving away the remainders of the wall-to-wall promo items they stocked for Christmas. Don’t stop there often but it was too cold yesterday and it was the closest place to pick up the paper towels we were out of. All the tacky DD stuff was marked down, some as low as $1.

  84. 84.

    sm*t cl*de

    women create an “adopt-a-woman” program to provide birth control to those who cannot afford it

    Women should identify themselves by their XX genotype, and selectively care about the problems of other people in the same group? This sounds suspiciously like Identity Politics.
    How does Hannity feel about women voting for a presidential candidate because she’s female?

    Men should create an “adopt-a-man” program to provide erectile-dysfunction pills to other men who cannot afford them.

  85. 85.

    Violet

    @Ash Can: Yeah, I guess that’s it. It’s just so rare that a White House spokesman has that perfect blandness. Usually their personality comes through and becomes a problem. I love watching him work the press room. So unmemorable in a memorable way.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    @GregB:

    West will be speaking directly to the all important insane-war-criminal-bitter-former politician demographic.

    So the GWB administration will be paying careful attention?

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    Here’s my question about the Republican responses. Which one is likely to be the funniest? I want to point and mock. I mean there was comedy gold in Rubio’s “stay thirsty my friends” rebuttal. If we are going to have to suffer these Republican fools we should at least get a few laughs out of them.

  88. 88.

    Ash Can

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I saw on LGF that he turned up on Twitter, whining that he missed so many votes because he needed to campaign because he doesn’t have a bazillion dollars like his primary opponent Cornyn does, boo-hoo, and that he was on a boondoggle fact-finding mission to the Middle East for 10 days, and people shouldn’t be complaining because the AP was covering the trip, and what’s it to ya anyway?

  95. 95.

    Roger Moore

    @MomSense:

    I mean there was comedy gold in Rubio’s “stay thirsty my friends” rebuttal.

    The Republicans are confused and think that’s the motto of the least interesting man in the world.

  97. 97.

    geg6

    @Ted and Hellen:

    Oh that delicate flower that Obama killed! Sorry, but I care as much about that mentally ill young man of privilege as I do about poor Edward Snowden, liar and Russian/Chinese dupe. They both broke the law and neither wanted to face the music. There are people in this world who are actually and horribly persecuted and I don’t see anyone in the unicorn brigade worrying a bit about them.

  99. 99.

    ? Martin

    Conservative radio host Sean Hannity on Monday proposed that women create an “adopt-a-woman” program to provide birth control to those who cannot afford it, while discussing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s (R) comments last week that the government should not help women who can’t control “their libido or their reproductive system.”

    They already have created this program. It’s called lesbianism. The GOP has been opposing it since forever.

  101. 101.

    bemused

    @MomSense:

    Remember Kenneth the page, Jack McBrayer, doing the response to Jindal’s response on Jimmy Fallon? It was eerily funny. I can’t believe that was 5 years ago.

  108. 108.

    JPL

    We had 2 inches of snow today and this is what happened…. It took me 4 hrs. and 45 minutes to drive eleven miles to my home. If you see pictures of Atlanta traffic on the news, wave cuz that could be me.

  112. 112.

    scav

    @sm*t cl*de: Well, the wealthy should be able to “adopt” and infantilize the less well off, especially if the poor dears are equipped with the dreaded double-X. “Mommy and Daddy know best, they’ll handle all those tricky things better than the nasty ol theoretical free-association of equals aka governments. Now, kiss Mommy and Entirely Not A Sugar Daddy and tell them how grateful you are while they go around sneering at you for being a sluttish mooching lowlife without bootstraps.” Family Values.

  115. 115.

    Violet

    @JPL: Just saw a picture of Atlanta traffic on TV! Looked awful. I have a couple of good friends who live in Atlanta. Wondered how they fared and if they got to work.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    How was jury duty?

    I haven’t set foot outside all day long. Sorry you got caught in all that. Was the pavement actually iced over and dangerous, or was it just tens of thousands of Atlanta drivers crowding the roads?

  117. 117.

    bemused

    @MomSense:

    Bachmann! Wow, that brings back memories of her with her hands all over George Bush at one of his SOTU addresses. Creepy stalker, she was.

  118. 118.

    jl

    @? Martin: Enough with your Godless science. Enough, Sir!

    I sure hope none of the GOP / teabagger responses bring up earthquake or near earth asteroid monitoring. I believe in sympathetic magic, after Kenneth the Page made fun of volcano monitoring.

  119. 119.

    David in NY

    I think the President should just ask everybody to hold hands and sing “Turn, Turn, Turn” or “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” or even “We Shall Overcome.” Won’t be worse than the alternative.

  123. 123.

    jl

    @David in NY: Pete Seeger liked sing-a-longs like all good folk musikers. How about Nobummer having the audience join him in rousing version of that olden goldy folk tune, House GOPer?

    ” Waist deep in the House GOPer
    And the big fools say to push on.
    Waist deep in House GOPer
    And the big fools say to push on.
    Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
    Tall man’ll be over his head, we’re
    Waist deep in House GOPer!
    And the big fools say to push on! ”

    Then everyone out for a big campfire and weenie roast afterwards. It’ll be a gand, swell ol’ time!

  127. 127.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Citizen_X:

    And she’s pretty vile, too

    Not to mention being a “national security” GOPer while personally defending every right-wing terrorist in Latin America because Castro.

  129. 129.

    JPL

    @Violet: Getting to work would have been fine. Getting home not so much. There was a stretch where I went 3/10ths of mile in an hour. Actually the whole route home was like that.

    @SiubhanDuinne: Only two judges called for a jury so they sent the rest of us home at 12:30. Because of the walk to the train station, then marta, then automobile, I didn’t get home until after six.
    I had made arrangements for the pup, but my neighbor was stuck in traffic also. It took my son 3 hrs. to go two miles. He was ready to ditch his car and walk. His SO just got home now.

  130. 130.

    McJulie

    @goblue72: We saw exactly what would happen, from roughly 9/12/2001 until January 2007. It’s not pretty, no. I see their current power as largely a holdover from the “good old days” and that it is waning, not waxing. The problem is that, as they lose the power to really enact their agenda, they get more determined to do the one thing they still definitely have the power to do: frack everything all to hell.

    That is, you will notice, largely what they’ve been getting up to.

  132. 132.

    Violet

    @JPL: At least you’re home safe. What a long day though.

    Just saw the Pope made the cover of Rolling Stone. That cracks me up.

  133. 133.

    johnny aquitard

    @kindness: It also shows their disrespect. It is another way they deny Obama’s legitimacy in the office. It has no precedent at all. They did not and would not do this to a white president.

    It’s a mob of old white people having a hissy fit, each of whom is just itchin’ to throw a punch or a kick at the uppity negro themselves.

  135. 135.

    JPL

    @Violet: I just read that a baby was born on the side of 285 because they couldn’t make it to the hospital. The baby is healthy. All I did was read my book while waiting for cars to move.

  136. 136.

    Keith G

    There were other times that more than one voice was heard in the response of the SOTU. I encourage y’all to open a really cool time capsule from 26 years ago. Senate majority leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia and the speaker of the U.S. House, James Wright tag team on this speech from 1986.

    Compare the rhetorical styles and the issues from then to now. It’s 20 min.

  137. 137.

    Citizen_X

    @David in NY: @jl: I think the Pres should have Bruce Springsteen and a chorus come out and, just as they did with Pete at the inauguration, sing “This Land Is Your Land” in Seeger’s honor. Complete with the “I saw a sign that said, ‘Private Property’/But on the other side/it didn’t say nothing” verse that the righties love so well.

  142. 142.

    Mustang Bobby

    I heard that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said that Obama giving the federal workers a $10.10 minimum wage was an impeachable offense. Okay, but if Ronald Reagan could fire federal workers — remember the air traffic controllers in 1981? — with nary an objection from the GOP, why can’t Barack Obama give them a raise?

    Gee, I wonder what is coloring his point of view?

  149. 149.

    dmsilev

    @jl: Apparently earlier today, Mitt was blaming Benghazi!, or more specifically first Barack Obama and then Candy Crowley pointing out on live TV that Mitt didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.

  150. 150.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Maybe Chris Christie could time his response to his latest scandal to appear to be a response to the SOTU?

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev: The notion that a journalist, even Candy Crowley, overstepped her bounds by pointing out a fact is the perfect summary for our fucked up political class.

  155. 155.

    dmsilev

    @different-church-lady: How long until Michelle Bachman weighs in?

    It’s perfect, really. On one side, we have Barack Obama. On the other side, there’s a mob of gibbering loons screaming at the top of their voices, each trying to drown out the next. Nobody who isn’t a professional wingnutologist will be able to distinguish the different calls.

  156. 156.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @different-church-lady:

    The REAL state of the union is that we’re doomed because we use fiat currency and we have a blah in the White House.

    OK, you can send your checks to me now, Paulista twits.

  160. 160.

    jl

    Here is a handy dandy guide to ‘official’ GOP / teabagger responses. I guess the Morris/West tag team was added too late, or it’s ad hoc, but for whatever reason, not on the list.

    State of the Union: Why so many GOP responders?
    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2014/0128/State-of-the-Union-Why-so-many-GOP-responders

    I got some teabagger kinfolk that are way more amusing than any of the mooks mentioned in the story. Is it too late to get them a spot? Or maybe serious national bandwidth problems after the speech?

  161. 161.

    PaulW

    1) An article about the divisions the Republicans are showing in their response(s) to the SOTU… http://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2014/01/division.html

    2) I’ve gotten another short story accepted for an upcoming anthology titled “Mardi Gras Murder”. It’s from the Mystery & Horror LLC publisher who printed “Strangely Funny”, from which I’ve gotten good reviews on GoodReads! I’m not sure when Mardi Gras Murder comes out, maybe March or April… when is Mardi Gras this year anyhoo?

  162. 162.

    JGabriel

    CSMonitor via jl:

    Then there is the official Spanish-speaking party responder. That will be Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) of Florida. She’ll essentially read a translation of Rodgers’s words, with personal anecdotes and references changed or edited out.

    Because God the GOP would let a Spanish woman speak for herself.

  165. 165.

    AxelFoley

    @geg6:

    @Ted and Hellen:

    Oh that delicate flower that Obama killed! Sorry, but I care as much about that mentally ill young man of privilege as I do about poor Edward Snowden, liar and Russian/Chinese dupe. They both broke the law and neither wanted to face the music. There are people in this world who are actually and horribly persecuted and I don’t see anyone in the unicorn brigade worrying a bit about them.

    Dat ether.

  166. 166.

    jl

    @JGabriel: Not sure about your point. Ros-Lehtinen is an Hispanic born and spent her early youth in Cuba. Maybe you mean the GOP has a Cuban contingent, but no other Hispanic group?

  169. 169.

    WaterGirl

    @JGabriel: Do you know if CSPAN has an HD channel? I couldn’t seem to find one earlier when I was setting my Tivo to record.

    If not, my choice is MSNBC in HD or CSPAN without.

  172. 172.

    JGabriel

    WaterGirl:

    Do you know if CSPAN has an HD channel?

    Sorry, I don’t know. I don’t even have a TV much less cable. I get all my news/video/et. al. through the internet.

    I think there’s an HD CSPAN, but that you have to be an HD subscriber with your cable/satellite provider?

    Edited to Add: For what it’s worth, the logo on their internet video stream indicates that it’s HD.

    .

  173. 173.

    WaterGirl

    @JGabriel: Thanks! Your reply prompted me to check online. There are two CSPAN channels in my area, buy neither is HD. Interesting.

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