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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2014 / Open Thread: “Such A Bargain!”

Open Thread: “Such A Bargain!”

by Anne Laurie|  September 10, 20148:00 pm| 53 Comments

This post is in: Election 2014, Open Threads

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Ed Kilgore, at the Washington Monthly:

… To put it another way, Cuomo spent $60.62 per vote, and Teachout $1.57. Now it’s hard to put a value on four years as governor of New York. But it’s probably safe to say that the hold on Cuomo’s presidential ambitions that many Teachout voters were probably hoping for was—priceless.

On the Bronx streets where I grew up, we said Takka mitseya, such a bargain! — which we thought was Yiddish for “paid too much for something that wasn’t worth having in the first place”. But now I can’t find that on Google, so either I’m spelling it wrong or there weren’t enough native Yiddish speakers in University Heights in the 1960s…

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Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    September 10, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    Anne, Please put up a thread where we bloviate about what the President is going to say. The NYTimes is reporting that Saudi is going to provide a base where we can train Syria moderates to help with ISIL.
    That’s excellent news. The country supporting ISIL now wants to provide us with bases to defeat ISIL.

  2. 2.

    Seonachan

    September 10, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    “Take a metsie” is probably close to the YIVO transliteration. More colloquially you’ll probably find it under “Tahkeh a Metsieh”.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    I never really saw Cuomo as a serious presidential contender. If this puts a kibosh on his plans, all the better.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:11 pm

    @JPL:

    The Saudis are as inconsistent as Rand Paul.

  5. 5.

    Anoniminous

    September 10, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    The people who think Cuomo has a shot at the Presidency are the same goofballs who thought Bloomberg – remember him? – had a shot.

  6. 6.

    Howard Beale IV

    September 10, 2014 at 8:14 pm

    More like the entrenched crooks had to spend $60 per vote while those who had nothing to lose spent $1.67 per vote. Even The Tiger Beat on the Potomac had to sit back and take note.

    But at the end of the day, ya got the same same result and the same crooks in control.

  7. 7.

    mellowjohn

    September 10, 2014 at 8:14 pm

    Anoniminous: by which you mean the acela corridor media?

  8. 8.

    JPL

    September 10, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    @Baud: I don’t think so. They want to rid Syria of Assad. It has nothing to do with ISIL.

    BTW.. A friend told me that she heard a news reporter say they only say ISIS cuz it’s earlier. Most Americans don’t understand Levant. wtf.. Why not explain , the territory.

  9. 9.

    big ole hound

    September 10, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    Cuomo is not a bargain in any language. He dissolved the NY “political ethics committee” just like Perry. We crazies in the left coast have heard enough about his slime to stay away.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    @JPL:

    I prefer ISIS. ISIL sounds like a chemical compound. IS is hard to pronounce in a sentence.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    September 10, 2014 at 8:23 pm

    @mellowjohn:

    That’s one of the reasons the media originally decided that Obama didn’t have a chance against Hillary — after all, Hillary had solid East Coast credentials by that point. Obama didn’t even live on a coast, fer chrissakes.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    September 10, 2014 at 8:23 pm

    @Baud: That is why the media get paid big bucks. Actually maybe not.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    September 10, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    That was great to watch. I just found the whole thing very upbeat and hopeful. I knew she wasn’t going to win but I love an upset and I always think everyone will BE the upset, so I was looking for one despite knowing better.

    I don’t know how she managed to appear so calm and completely tranquil through that whole thing. I’d see these pictures on Twitter where she looked like she was strolling down a street and just happened to be shaking hands with everyone. “Making it look easy” is an understatement.

  14. 14.

    Anoniminous

    September 10, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    @mellowjohn:

    Yup. Them who can’t use a mirror to shave because their brilliance is blinding.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:26 pm

    @Kay:

    I don’t know how she managed to appear so calm and completely tranquil through that whole thing.

    Her name is Zephyr Teachout. How could she not be calm?

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    @Baud: I haven’t been able to figure out why everyone readily changed from ISIS to IS

    “oh, the horrible, evil people who are massacring all these people and beheading children and journalists want to be called IS instead of ISIS – well, we wouldn’t want to offend them, now would we?”

  17. 17.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    The cynical side of me wants to say that the media didn’t want to suggest that ISIS/ISIL/IS was somehow only a Middle East problem. But who really knows?

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    September 10, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    @Howard Beale IV: This was serious pressure from the left. Ms. Teachout won rural counties.

    I’ll vote for Cuomo, because it’s likely the Republicans will run a shifty-eyed lunatic with bestiality issues (like last time,) and because, of course.

    And because I’ve never voted for a Republican, and I doubt that will change in the next, oh, 20 years.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    @Baud: I think the stupid media just falls in line, just like they mostly take dictation these days instead of behaving like journalists.

  20. 20.

    Dog On Porch

    September 10, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    The Bronx in the ’60’s? Do your posterity and countrymen a favor, record your memories, and submit them to the Library of Congress.

    And now for a laugh. I was crawling around in pajamas a continent away when I committed these lyrics to memory circa 1962:

    “There’s a hold up in the Bronx,
    Brooklyn’s broken out in fights
    There’s a traffic jam in Harlem that’s backed up to Jackson Heights
    There’s a scout troop short a child
    Kruschev’s due at Idewild…

    ….Car 54 where are you?

  21. 21.

    Kay

    September 10, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    @Baud:

    She’s missing the combative adrenaline gene. It was just pitch-perfect for that race to me: “I’m the one who isn’t horrible”

    She only slipped at the end there, when she said this:

    “When people ask me why vote for you, what are you qualifications? One of them is that I’m not under federal investigation,” she said.

    Anyone would crack by then! She deserved that after all those weeks of positive campaigning.

  22. 22.

    Howard Beale IV

    September 10, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    @Baud: It’s gotten so bad that a payment solutions provider labeled ISIS has changed their name.

  23. 23.

    lamh36

    September 10, 2014 at 8:39 pm

    Hmm, so now I guess ESPN is on the case. So anyone wanna bet on what if anything will happen to Goodell.

    As a SAINTS fan, you can imagine, that we are loving seeing Goodell in crosshairs.

    Wait, so now they are saying that Ray Rice spit in Janay’s face! And security watched the incident as it happened on the control room monitors

    “One former staffer said Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back, spat in his then-fiancée’s face twice, “once outside the elevator and once inside,” prompting her to retaliate with movements that were ultimately countered with a knockout punch…

    “Get him away from her! Get him away from her!” the first responder was told by another security officer over a radio, one former security staffer told “Outside the Lines.” The staffer had full access to the security footage.

    The security staffers said they did not see any sign of injury on Palmer’s face or head but added that her hair was covering much of her face, making it hard to determine her condition. They also said they didn’t see any blood in the elevator or on the hip-level railing that Palmer’s head appeared to strike as she fell to the elevator floor.

    “The first thing he [Rice] said is, ‘She’s intoxicated. She drank too much. I’m just trying to get her to the room,'” one staffer said.

    “When she regained consciousness she said, ‘How could you do this to me? I’m the mother of your kid,'” that same staffer told “Outside the Lines.”

    With his fiancée still groggy, Rice dialed somebody on his cellphone and said, “I’m getting arrested tonight,” the staffer said. Police arrived in 10 to 15 minutes.”

    @JohnBarrESPN

    Our sources say 25-to-30 casino staffers watched Ray Rice video. Dozens more had access. So who leaked it? http://m.espn.go.com/wireless/story?storyId=11503496 …

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    September 10, 2014 at 8:41 pm

    And thanks for the nudge in the previous thread about updating passwords. My standards were getting old and it was time to revamp them.

    And I broke down and did the 2 step authentication. Jiminy!

  25. 25.

    lamh36

    September 10, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    Wait, so now they are saying that Ray Rice spit in Janay’s face! And security watched the incident as it happened on the control room monitors

    @JohnBarrESPN

    Our sources say 25-to-30 casino staffers watched Ray Rice video. Dozens more had access. So who leaked it? http://m.espn.go.com/wireless/story?storyId=11503496 …

  26. 26.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    @Howard Beale IV:

    Not quite the same, but back in the early 80s, there was a diet pill that called Ayds. Sometimes you just can’t win.

    ETA:

    @WaterGirl:

    You and I are one.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    @Howard Beale IV: It’s like that diet aid that was pronounced AIDS. I don’t recall how they spelled it, but they changed their name in a hurry and I never heard of them again.

    That’s some bad luck, to have your whole business go down in flames because of a fluke like that.

    I have trouble with ISIS because, to me, ISIS is a really cool black kitty who fetches a leather toy in the shape of a hand.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    September 10, 2014 at 8:45 pm

    Politico just hired a “labor policy editor”.

    I know it will be terrible, but I’ve decided that it’s positive that they feel like they have to do that, have that “beat”, if you will :)

  29. 29.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    September 10, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    @WaterGirl: Ayds.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who remembers far too much trivia.)
    (Who sees that Baud got there first.)

  30. 30.

    Baud

    September 10, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    @Kay:

    Maybe not. Didn’t you say that there was a WaPo education reporter that actually wasn’t in the “reform” camp.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    @Howard Beale IV: Did you get dizzy there for a moment, with Baud and I saying the same thing to you at the same time?

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I thought it was AYDS, but I couldn’t figure out what the Y would have stood for so I went with “I can’t recall the name”. :-)

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    Since it appears that we may not get a thread for the president’s address this evening, can we all agree on a thread to use for that topic?

  34. 34.

    BBA

    September 10, 2014 at 9:00 pm

    @WereBear: This time the Republican candidate is the producer of Cardinal Dolan’s radio show, who somehow got himself elected Westchester County Executive.

    I swear Westchester was normal when I grew up there…

  35. 35.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    September 10, 2014 at 9:00 pm

    @WaterGirl: Sure, but you know Randinho will bigfoot it shortly.

    I’m watching C-SPAN.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  36. 36.

    Splitting Image

    September 10, 2014 at 9:00 pm

    Cuomo’s a piker. Rudy Giuliani spent $60 million per vote.

    Unlimited! Corporate! Cash!

  37. 37.

    Pogonip

    September 10, 2014 at 9:01 pm

    @JPL: Whichever way it goes, they’re backing the winners!

  38. 38.

    Howard Beale IV

    September 10, 2014 at 9:03 pm

    @WaterGirl: I remember Isis from that Star Trek episode with Gary Seven as his familiar.

  39. 39.

    WereBear

    September 10, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    @BBA: THIS Cardinal Dolan?

    Per Wikipedia:

    In 2011, Dolan thanked Bill Donohue for a press release, reproduced on the Archdiocese of New York website, in which Donohue referred to the non-profit support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests as a “phony victims’ group”.[57]

    Nothing like making my decisions easier, Republicans.

  40. 40.

    PurpleGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    @WereBear: I’m contemplating not voting for governor in November because I don’t want Cuomo to think he has my support. I’m not sure this means Astorino might win but I really can’t think I’m going to vote for Cuomo. I voted for him against Paladino because Paladino was just too crazy.

  41. 41.

    Anne Laurie

    September 10, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    @Seonachan: Thank you!

  42. 42.

    Anne Laurie

    September 10, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I have trouble with ISIS because, to me, ISIS is a really cool black kitty who fetches a leather toy in the shape of a hand.

    Yeah, our Isis was the world’s most adorable Victorian-style blue cream (dilute tortie) shorthair. Those ISIL goobers don’t deserve to desecrate it!

  43. 43.

    Kay

    September 10, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @Baud:

    There are two now. There’s now a younger one in addition to the bitter and cynical older reporter.

    I celebrate all small successes:

    Pittsburgh Public Schools Tuesday night announced a plan to reduce the time spent in testing by as much as half in grades K-5.
    The biggest reductions are planned in grades 3, 4 and 5 where the number of periods spent in testing are to decline from 85.5 periods to 41.5 periods. After school board member Sherry Hazuda was told one period equals 45 minutes, she said, “No wonder people are complaining when you see it like that.”

  44. 44.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    September 10, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    Good, level-headed speech.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  45. 45.

    WereBear

    September 10, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    @PurpleGirl: I’ve decided not voting is a bad thing. That’s what leads to poor turn out in the mid-terms.

    After all, nothing stops a crazy Republican from voting. And look at how much of Their Way they’ve gotten lately. Much too much.

  46. 46.

    PurpleGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @Howard Beale IV: Isis is an Egyptian goddess, wife of Osiris. She had important cult status in the Roman-Egyptian era.

    ETA: And the name of a friend’s tabby cat.

  47. 47.

    Tenar Darell

    September 10, 2014 at 10:57 pm

    @WaterGirl: Heh. I sometimes feel like emailing someone like David Gregory, and asking him where he learned to take such great dictation? (I don’t, mostly because I assume my evil would only be read by interns, like comments on Bobo’s articles).

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2014 at 11:48 pm

    @Tenar Darell: Don’t forget to cc: mo on that email. It would make my day!

  49. 49.

    Fred Fnord

    September 10, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    @Seonachan: Google sez:

    Did you mean: Take a Messiah

    No, google, I did not. And I’m pretty sure neither do the Yiddish-speakers.

  50. 50.

    Chris T.

    September 11, 2014 at 12:42 am

    @Fred Fnord: Take two and call me in the morning.

    (What is the plural of “messiah” anyway?)

    (Interesting factual aside, dictionary says the Greek spelling was “messias”; the Greek plural would then be “messies”, more or less. But since it’s from Hebrew that’s probably the wrong way to pluralize it.)

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    September 11, 2014 at 7:16 am

    @Chris T.:

    But since it’s from Hebrew that’s probably the wrong way to pluralize it.

    Wouldn’t the plural be mishegas? Or meshugah?

  52. 52.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 11, 2014 at 7:56 am

    @WereBear: It just depresses me sometimes: voting Democratic all too often gets you someone who adopts Republican policies, and the right wins. Not voting gets you Republicans, and the right wins. Rejecting the stale and pointless two-party binary usually leads you into the arms of Libertarians, who are actually even further right, and the right wins. Or to “centrist” right movements like Unity or No Labels, and the right wins. Or to progressive movements who spend most of their time shanking Democrats in the back, Republicans get elected and the right wins.

    I’m with the people who argue that the goal of voting at this point in history is harm reduction. Usually I can’t see any better thing to do than to support the furthest-left viable candidates in Democratic primaries, and then support the Democrat in general elections, so that’s what I do. But you have to come in knowing you’re not going to win, really, just hold back the damage as best you can.

  53. 53.

    Epicurus

    September 11, 2014 at 11:58 am

    @PurpleGirl: I’m right there with you, and trust me; there are not enough Republican voters in the world get Astorino to victory. I’m planning on making Cuomo’s margin the smallest possible. He’s terrible, and in a just world, would be in jail. No vote for you, Andrew! And you ain’t never gonna be President….ever.

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