I’ve got nothing but inchoate rage and depression that can best be expressed as blaaaarrrgh!!!! — and who wants to talk about that? No one, especially me. So let’s look at these lemurs licking lollipops instead:
My god, are those lemurs cute! Open thread.
[H/T: Salon for the licking lemurs]
Keith G
Hanging out at news-driven blogs can really put downward pressure on “gladness”. Lately, I have spent a lot more of my online time checking out other types of places and, frankly, have been the happier for it.
Phylllis
Can’t help but love the distinct lollipop-ingesting styles going on there.
Elie
Leon Panetta is the lowest piece of shit walking…
Whatever he believes, tearing down the President right now — in the middle of all that is going on tells a lot about him —
He is a horrible, horrible example of how you serve an administration.
Yatsuno
So yeah. We’re having this technical issue where we can’t update a particular log so I’ve been keeping a record of it on my computer. Today I got a negative evaluation from my boss saying that the logs weren’t updated on the main system that we can’t access. Can you say BUCK and NO??? So I’ve been spending the better part of the morning dealing with this. And oh yeah this is the same month my yearly evaluation is due. Guess how my mood is right now. No go on. Guess!
Tenar Darell
Reminds me of the old Tootsie Pop commercial.
ulee
Thank you Betty. This was the antidote. My rage and depression can not compete with these sweethearts.
burnspbesq
Lemurs are cute, but if you want the weapons-grade cuteness you need otters.
Karen in GA
Iggy makes a request. I’m thinking no.
Betty Cracker
@Elie: Link? I’ve missed this brouhaha somehow. (Where “somehow” = What Keith G said).
@burnspbesq: I cannot disagree. Otters have long been my spirit animal.
Comrade Luke
If you’re in a bad mood, I highly suggest Put You In A Better Mood.
Actually, I suggest that you go there anyway, every day. I have never once visited that site and not gone away smiling.
My current favorite.
danielx
Perhaps not your blaaaarrrgh!!!, Betty, but a good portion of wingnut world commentary consists of…
1. monitoring those conservative “thought leaders” who make a living screaming ARRRRGH! BLAAARGH! about the outrage de jour, and
2. screaming BLAAARGH!!! about it too.
Also, too, stripping wallpaper truly sucks, as household tasks go.
catclub
@Elie: The NPR interview did not help. Interviewer was looking to bring back torture – to make sure we are safe. gaaaah.
burnspbesq
@Karen in GA:
Iggy needs a trip to Athens for a play-date with Travis.
http://acatcalledtravis.tumblr.com
catclub
@danielx:
Need to pick a different expensive prep school.
Elie
@Betty Cracker:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/07/leon-panetta-book-obama_n_5946208.html
sorry about the HP link — is the easiest to get.. CNN also highlighting
Elie
@catclub:
I missed that… now what?!!! Can you summarize — who did they interview?
burnspbesq
@catclub:
Inavonoldfarms rage just doesn’t scan well.
Villago Delenda Est
@danielx: No one screams ARRRRGH! BLAAARGH! with more craven stupidity than the Ole’ Perfesser, Instapuke.
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub: I don’t suppose a few “enhanced interrogation techniques” sessions will dissuade said NPR interviewer from that particular line of questioning.
Bob In Portland
Meanwhile, in Ukraine…
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
NPR only tortures listeners, not staff.
catclub
Panetta:
“The result, I felt, was a blow to American credibility. When the president as commander in chief draws a red line [no matter how stupid and arbitrary], it is critical that he act if the line is crossed”
Oh, baloney.
Thunderbird
@Bob In Portland: Speaking of “BLAAARGH!”….
Roger Moore
@Elie:
To the opposition on a platter.
catclub
@Elie: They interviewed Panetta. Enjoy :(
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/07/354230874/panetta-fight-against-terror-will-be-a-long-sustained-war
geg6
@Elie:
Couldn’t agree more. What a piece of shit.
And all to sell his shitty book and kiss up to the Village, the only assholes stupid enough to read that hunk of garbage.
kindness
@burnspbesq:
True. NPR tortured me and I chose to stop giving them any monies. They continued to torture me with their Fox-Lite presentation of ‘news’ to the point where I don’t listen to them any longer. Not so strangely, I’m much happier now.
burnspbesq
@catclub:
Apparently, achieving our objective (the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons) by threatening but not actually using force is somehow akin to a massage with no happy ending.
NCSteve
I love lemurs. They’re like someone took all the cute out of cats, shook all the obnoxious and nasty out of monkeys and mixed them up with a big dollop of Anime.
catclub
@Roger Moore: Given that Obama is not running again. I think this makes zero difference. Irritating, but to be forgotten in less than a week.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: Hey Bob, how are you celebrating Putin’s birthday today?
Karen in GA
@burnspbesq: Travis is lovely.
@Betty Cracker: Otters? My left arm.
We later added his wife on my inner arm. Ouch.
burnspbesq
@kindness:
Nah. I’m still a member of KCRW. “Morning Becomes Eclectic” more than makes up for all the NPR stuff. And I support KKJZ, WBGO, and KUSC because if you want jazz or classical on the radio, you gotta pay.
If I lived in Seattle I would absolutely support KEXP.
Karen in GA
Moderation? Too many links, I think. Anyway. Otters on my arm:
Ralph.
His long-suffering wife.
raven
I’m happy to report that my back-to-back appointments at the VA for my hearing aid and the DMV for a license renewal went well. I got the device and it is smokin. A resound linx 9 that synchs right up with my iPhone. I’ve already used it to make a phone call! Got my license as well and I have now realized that my football season tickets were in my lost wallet. The Dawgs are on the road until the middle of November so I hope I can get them replaced by then.
burnspbesq
@Gin & Tonic:
Are you sure you want to know? Got brain bleach handy?
shelley
Hey, the guy’s got a paper door-stop to sell. Think he’d be on the talk circuit blithering about Syria if he didn’t?
Yatsuno
@Bob In Portland: Well then. I guess Ukraine should just give up their sovereignty now & return to the glorious Russian empire immediately then?
Villago Delenda Est
@Elie:
Counsel for the entire House GOP caucus is on line two, demanding that you take that back, you’re infringing on their trademarks.
raven
And for all you South haters, from Athens, GA:
El Caganer
@Bob In Portland: The government is on the verge of collapse. I don’t really see how that can be good for anybody, including the Russians.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq: Brain bleach in the handy full barrel container?
burnspbesq
It’s Otter Time.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3yKxquOQyNI
Betty Cracker
@NCSteve: Exactly!
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
I was thinking 18-wheel tank truck.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
An important point: most people give money to their local station that’s affiliated with NPR but has a whole bunch of other stuff, not to NPR directly. I would be a lot happier with KPCC if they found a different source of national news then NPR, but their local coverage beats any of the radio competition, and they have other good stuff like Fresh Air and This American Life.
That said, I think the best thing that could possible happen to NPR would be for the Republicans to make good on their threats to cut off funding. It’s their main leverage to get favorable coverage. It would be a pain for NPR to deal with the lost revenue- they might have to fire some of their overpriced on-air talent- but it would give them back some independence, which would be more valuable.
Gin & Tonic
@El Caganer: Source?
Bobby B.
Liz Lemon had the “blurgh” down perfectly.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
KCRW produces “Left, Right, and Center” for PRI. Most Fridays, Robert Scheer pisses me off more than Rich Lowry.
big ole hound
I hate tinted glass and you cannot get all clear glass for almost any car. All dark rear and back glass makes me feel like I driving at night in a tunnel. Car makers are always in lockstep.
FlipYrWhig
@catclub: @burnspbesq: Get Andover it.
El Caganer
@Gin & Tonic: Admittedly a projection on my part, but on top of having an economy that’s been in the tank for a long time, they may not have any heat this winter. ( http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-braces-winter-without-russian-gas-205122164.html ). Changing governments wouldn’t necessarily solve that problem, but I can’t see people supporting the current government while freezing. While I hope that the Russians decide to honor the earlier price that was agreed to, I don’t think that’s very likely. As I said before, I don’t think this is good for anybody.
Felanius Kootea
Looks like most of my comments are now marked as spam and deleted. How do I reverse this?
SatanicPanic
@catclub: So not following through on something stupid, is a bad thing? What an ass
Face
I was wondering just how in the hell this happens in America, until I scrolled down and saw the color of the man’s skin. THEN it all became clear.
And I especially love the completely subjective, completely bullshit excuse of “hands where the officer couldn’t see them” justification for busting a window and tasering the guy. Let’s review: if he doesn’t reach for a wallet, he is tased because of it. If he reaches for his wallet and hands go out of view, he’s tased and/or shot dead.
DWB has now morphed to PWB (Passengering While Blah) and now carries a very significant non-zero percent chance of grave bodily injury. Fucking crazy.
FlipYrWhig
@SatanicPanic: This is orthodox Show Of Force/Loss Of Face theory. I thought only Republicans subscribed to it, though.
Belafon
@raven: How long until the state overrides that? If that happened here in Texas, Perry would call a special session just to deal with it.
Felanius Kootea
Grading America’s Governors: Sam Brownback: A, Andrew Cuomo: B, Jerry Brown: F, John Hickenlooper: F, any sane Democrat: F.
The latest from a right leaning think tank (can’t link because my post gets flagged as spam when I try to).
Villago Delenda Est
@Felanius Kootea: Sacrifice a virgin by throwing him or her into a FYWP volcano near you.
Won’t guarantee any solace for you, but FYWP must be appeased with no anticipation of actually delivering your comment back to the thread.
Villago Delenda Est
@Felanius Kootea: Could be that the right leaning “think” tank operates a spamhaus on the side.
jeffreyw
Variations on a chili theme.
SatanicPanic
@FlipYrWhig: That’s weird. You’d think someone who holds himself up as an expert wouldn’t be espousing this hokum, but then again, that seems to be a common thing in DC
PhoningItIn
@Yatsuno: I feel your pain, buddy. Hang in there. Remember, they mostly recall three months back, and if it’s this close to review, it may not hit the paper if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, your boss is an idiot for focusing on “how have you disappointed me lately”–and if he’s making that mistake, he’s making bigger ones. It’s not likely your mistake is the only thing that’s gone wrong in his (his?) day.
Felanius Kootea
@Villago Delenda Est: I have a feeling that’s it. The spam filter really doesn’t like the C A T O I n s t i t u t e.
ETA: I don’t blame the filter
SatanicPanic
@Felanius Kootea: hmm, I wonder what their criteria is. Their scoring sounds Michelle Rhee style questionable.
danielx
@Villago Delenda Est:
I dunno, there are so many contenders. Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Louie Gohmert, Ted Nugent,Steve King…lot of viable contestants, although each has strengths in different areas. You know, amount of spittle emitted during live appearances, that kind of thing.
However, my personal fave? I have to think that Michelle Malkin could give ol’ Glenn a run for the money, at least in the long term. For all-round malevolent dumbness, she has to rank right up there at the very top.
Felanius Kootea
@SatanicPanic: “The governors who cut taxes and spending the most receive an A, while the governors who increase taxes and spending the most receive an F.”
Thank God for Jerry Brown and the newly sane voters of California. Now public servants get paid checks instead of IOU’s, our congressional districts are rationally drawn, and our budget is balanced. I hope he gets many more F’s from them. New York on the other hand needs to figure out something soon.
dmsilev
Rush Limbaugh solves the GOP single-women problem:
Theory: Rush is looking for wives #5-50.
SatanicPanic
@Felanius Kootea: You mean you don’t want to be like Kansas?
Roger Moore
@Felanius Kootea:
So to the think tank that must not be named, cutting taxes is more important than balancing the budget. I remember the days when fiscal conservatism was about living within your means, not about giving away the store to the 0.001%.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
To the VSPs, it’s more important to agree with the rest of the VSPs than to agree with reality.
catclub
@Felanius Kootea: What about Inspector Clouseau’s Kato?
Start up the Silver Hornet, Kato.
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
Is this a new, non-halal broadcasting technology that I’m only learning about for the first time?
Felanius Kootea
@Amir Khalid: The man is swine anyway, so that’s perfect.
Steeplejack
@Felanius Kootea:
Hmm, maybe FYWP doesn’t like the name of the source. Here’s a tiny URL that should work: “Grading America’s Governors.”
Keith G
@catclub: President Obama seems to have two issues that are rolled up into the problems presented by Panetta’s criticism.
First, he has been bucking the major characteristic of American foreign policy since 1945
Second, and related to the first, people within his own party are not in love with his process of leadership.
Most problematic, is the reoccurring evaluations of the President’s M.O. that have been around since 2009 (and might be part of the reason for his lowered approval ratings):
Charges that fit a familiar profile do the most damage.
It was wrong for Panetta to inject this into the public at this point. Yes, Leon wants to sell book. Deeper, I wish to suggest that this is an attempt to nudge the profile of our activities in Syria and Iraq into a more active status – an attempt to paint this administration into a corner as well as to contribute to the upcoming argument that Hillary was right (pun intended).
IMHO, Obama has not always made the wisest decisions on this front, but Panetta needed to wait to point this out.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
Ahh, so you remember 1982, when Sanctus Ronaldus Magnus took the advice of Volcker the Mad and mostly reversed the 1981 tax cuts that had been too much, too soon and threatened the recovery? No one is supposed to remember that. Report to Room 101 immediately.
Elie
@catclub:
At least Cheney and gang stand by their decisions and back each other. Who knew they would have more spine?
Long Tooth
“Inchoate rage”? Good thing you live in Florida. Go stand your ground and vent.
burnspbesq
@Elie:
Republicans have been better at message discipline than Democrats for as long as I can remember. It’s the content of the their message that is problematic.
Felanius Kootea
@Steeplejack: Ah – that’s the trick! Thanks. I will tiny url from now on when there’s a need to link to such sources.
donnah
I just got back from teaching a workshop and have spent two days unpacking, sorting materials, and getting ready for another one in two weeks. And I am trying to figure out a plan so I can get a new iPhone and also should be doing laundry and washing dishes.
So I went shopping instead, and now I’m making spaghetti for supper.
Hey, ignoring stuff can work!
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
I’m honestly stuck constantly cycling through incoherent rage and utter despondence regarding politics these days. There just seems to be precious little hope on the horizon whatsoever.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: Reality has a well known…
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G:
Aren’t these two utterly contrasting things? You can engage your opponents OR you can rally your supporters. Engaging your opponents may earn their support, but it doesn’t _rally_ support. And if you rally support, you can pretty much belittle, shame, or ignore your opponents.
Or does he mean “engage” in the military sense, rather than in the managerial sense where “engagement” is synonymous with “outreach”?
Omnes Omnibus
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Do you ever think that there are people who want you to feel that way, who want you to give up and disengage? Also, we have made progress on a whole bunch of issues and there are folks who are alarmed by that and want it to stop. Don’t let’s let them win by default.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Short: “Don’t let the bastards wear you down”!
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Exactly.
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G: Yes, he’s signing onto the Big Swinging D1ck theory of presidential influence. It’s stupid and typical. The idea that Toughness = War is deeply ingrained in the American psyche, but it doesn’t seem to be for Obama, and, you know, good.
Why isn’t Obama’s approval higher? Because bad things are happening. I don’t see why people catching a weird disease is something that has much to do with Obama, but I’m not a Beltway pundit or TV news producer.
Randy P
@danielx: Two words: plant mister. My wife is a Very Clever Person who invented that technique. Works amazingly well on those clingy bits of wallpaper tha5 don’t peel off. Just have a towel handy because the mist does start to accumulate and become more of a drip and then a puddle.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m still voting. I have to. But I’ve seen too damn much of trying to make progress even on the small scale on issues and having the majority of people swing back hard the other way out of sheer spite,as if the very act of trying to fight on an issue drove people hard the other way to where they were utterly unreachable.
FlipYrWhig
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Yup, this happens A LOT. On the plus side, most of the worst and most stubborn people in this country are old and unhealthy. So we’ve got that to look forward to: their extinction.
Keith G
@FlipYrWhig: No, they are not.
Roger Moore
@Keith G:
The real problem is that you probably think Obama’s mistakes are exactly the opposite of what Leon Panetta thinks. Most of us on the left wish he had been less aggressive and avoided getting us involved as much as possible, while Panetta and the others in the Security State wish he had gotten us more deeply involved sooner.
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Hence my suggestion to go read Andrew Tobias (regularly!), who is (almost) always optimistic and also always urges one to get out and vote. Thirdly, he is the Treasurer of the Democratic Party.
Mandalay
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Well the odds are favorable for another Democrat in the White House in 2016. And in 2016 Senate Republicans will be facing the problem that Senate Democrats are facing this year: a lot of Republicans will be up for re-election in blue states. So even if the Senate is lost this year, Democrats have a good chance of regaining it two years from now.
And some recent social advances look irreversible. Republicans are never going to be able to stop the advance of gay rights, and it’s looking like our drug and sentencing laws are also headed in the right direction.
Chin up!
catclub
@Roger Moore: It is mostly forgotten that Obama insisted we go in heavier in Afghanistan, and we did. He also apparently insisted that if that does not show enough progress, we do not continue a large force there for no reason. He gets credit for neither.
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G: I would say that the critique of Obama from the left tends to be that he engages his opponents too much and doesn’t rally enough support from his own side, i.e. his base. Unless “engage” means “fight with,” as it does in the phrase “engage the enemy,” it’s hard to see how engaging your opponents and rallying your supporters can take place as two parts of one process.
catclub
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
I was reading somewhere that 1978 was a big regression year, sounds similar to 2010.
Democrats apparently get 18 months to clean up 8 years of GOP shit.
FlipYrWhig
@Mandalay: One thing that I think has been _under_-interpreted: one of the people who will benefit from “Obama fatigue” or “buyer’s remorse” or what have you is HILLARY CLINTON. You know that poll that gets trotted out fairly regularly about how Romney would win big in a rematch with Obama? Imagine what the results of a Clinton-Obama rematch poll would be.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s very simple. You use a combination of Leadership® and The Bully Pulpit® to convince everyone On Both Sides of the Aisle® that you’re right about everything. That’s the one true route to Bipartisan Solutions®.
Mnemosyne
@Felanius Kootea:
There used to be a now-banned troll who used the name of one of the think tanks as his nym, so that may have been the issue. (Did it start with a “C” and have four letters?)
Also, for some reason FYWP hates the last name of Sherlock Holmes’ doctor friend, so if that specific last name shows up in the URL as an author or something, it’s automatically deleted. Made it a pain in the ass last month when we were trying to discuss the actress who played Hermoine Grainger.
Steeplejack
@FlipYrWhig:
Old, unhealthy and stubborn people are being created every day.
Keith G
@FlipYrWhig: The sagging numbers predate ISIL and the virus.
I agree that this is a good thing, in general. That said, if one eschews that strategy, one better have a workable backup in hand and well developed.
If war can be the opiate of the masses, one better have a full supply of methadone lined up and ready to go.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: Well played! So it seems like Panetta’s problem isn’t that Obama doesn’t use the right argument-winning meta-strategy, it’s that he actually just doesn’t agree. It’d be a weird argument for Panetta to be complaining that Obama isn’t persuasively leadershippy enough to get people in line behind his lousy strategy. That’s “terrible food”/”small portions” logic.
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack: Damn it, there goes my last shred of hope, thanks a lot.
shortstop
And now the Ninth Circuit adds its smackdown to Idaho’s and Nevada’s same-sex marriage bans. We’re up to 35 states when this shakes out. Is it wrong to be enjoying the sniveling and raging going on among the anti-gay crowd?
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: My hunch is that Watşon is a verboten string because of the IBM AI product.
PurpleGirl
@Keith G: That’s why I watch Kitten Cams. Kittens are cute and do funny things. Watching them grow from newborn to a few months old, their eyes opening, their learning to walk and climb, run zoomies, etc. You gotta giggle and laugh at them. And sometimes I play on-line jigsaw puzzles or other one-person games. I also read a few craft sites. Otherwise you’d just want kill someone.
Mnemosyne
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
You may want to come spend some time with us in California. We seem to have successfully beaten back the Republicans and are actually getting shit done out here:
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
Obviously I’ve spent too much time reading DougJ’s twitter feed.
Mandalay
@Elie:
This x1000.
This is what Panetta said to NPR about withdrawing from Iraq:
But he was the very fucker who oversaw the withdrawal, and he went to Iraq to declare the occupation at an end in a ceremony in Baghdad in 2011!
His criticism would be fine had Panetta resigned on principle. But the shitslime was more than happy to collect a paycheck for years while he oversaw a plan that he was opposed to, yet he reserved the right to stick the knife in Obama just before his book is published. Panetta is scum.
d58826
I don’t know if Obama is making the right choices with rregard to ISIS but when the 3rd largest army in NATO sits and watches the Kurds get murdered 5 miles across the border and the Turks do nothing. If htese folkswon’t help themsel;ves then there is little that theUS can do, no matter howw loudly McNutts or Calgry Cruz scream and yell
Keith G
@FlipYrWhig:
Many successful political and social leaders have lived by the notion that before setting out to confront one’s (political or other) opponents, one should endeavor to have an energized base of support at the ready. Such behavior not only informs the opponents, but tends to grow, bind, and otherwise strengthen the body of supporters. Such dual track efforts (the public rallies and the private outreach) were used by leadership as diverse as MLK and Ronald Reagan.
burnspbesq
@FlipYrWhig:
I may need some comfort food for that. Potatoes au Groton?
RaflW
@shortstop: Yep, the steamroller keeps rollin’. It seems the 9th Circuit may have just been waiting for the SCOTUS to go first??
Ash Can
Cheer up, everyone. Twitter has (finally) suspended the account of Award-Winning Journalist (TM) Chuckie C. Johnson (that’s the sociopath who lives in his MIL’s basement, as opposed to the Charles Johnson who runs LGF). Maybe it was his recent threat to release the names and addresses of the children who allegedly came in contact with the Dallas ebola patient that did it.
burnspbesq
@shortstop:
Hell no! Why would you ever think such a thing?
Keith G
@d58826: I tend to agree with what you typed before the “but”, however, after that your reasoning goes a bit off the road. Yes, in a perfect world the Turks would wish to aid anyone facing such danger, but the Turks and the Kurds have been in a very bad relationship for about 200 years with the last 96 being quite problematic and in a low-grade military conflict off and on since the early 1980’s
Betty Cracker
@d58826: This is why I think the US sticking its snout into that hornets’ next again was/is/and always shall be a huge mistake. Air power alone is of limited utility, and when it fails to stop ISIS advances, it’ll just make the US look ineffectual without really changing the facts on the ground. Even if the US were able to drive ISIS back for a time, it just delays the inevitable reckoning that must occur in that part of the world. Let them sort their shit out.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Ash Can:
Suspended for all of 30 minutes.
mai naem mobile
I listened to Pannetta s npr interview today and wanted Obama to bitchslap him. Fecking ahole cant wait till the midterms are over because who gives a shit about how tough the Obama people have it dealing with a GOP senate as long as he can do something for Hillary. The Clintons might want to remember theyre gonna need Obama for black voter turnout. Apparently they think all the thinly veiled racist shit Bill said has all been forgotten. Major league assholes. Ill vote for Hillary but only . because voting for the alternative is like voting for Baby Doc.
Felanius Kootea
@Mnemosyne: Yup, it was C A T O. That must have been one annoying troll.
Cervantes
@Comrade Luke:
Thanks but the site just annoys me, to think that people are wasting their time with it!
(Only half joking.)
raven
So, cancelled the credit cards, had my entry card to the office discontinued, got a new drivers license, freaked out because my season tickets were also in my lost wallet. I went back to the drug store where I was pretty sure I left it. Nice young lady at the counter went through all the options and said “are you sure you don’t want to talk to the manager”? I didn’t see much point since I’d already been there and the other manager checked and said “nope”. He went right to thew office, asked my name and said “I don’t know why they didn’t give it to you yesterday”. I don’t either but I have decided to be thankful instead of pissed.
d58826
@Keith G: I understand there is no love loss between the Turks and the Kurds but woiuld the Turks rather have ISIS as a neighbor? There was no love loss between Stalin and the west but Hitler was the common enemy.
Howard Beale IV
@Felanius Kootea: What did you expect from a bunch of folks who can’t make a living in the real world?
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G: Even so it’s a very meta critique. It would have more relevance and resonance if his point were that Obama had a good idea and didn’t lock down support for it. But his point is that Obama had a bad idea and also didn’t lock down support for it. But why does he want Obama to lock down support for a bad idea? If Obama took his meta advice and it worked, the result would be less support for what Panetta seems to be saying he, Panetta, wants. Is this supposed to be a leadership critique or a strategy critique? I think it can’t be both at the same time, because, while this never stopped pundits before, taking his advice (about leadership) would mean simultaneously ignoring his advice (about what the leader should do).
FlipYrWhig
@burnspbesq: Those are good Eton.
CarolDuhart2
@Steeplejack: But the new crop is likely to be more liberal-and diverse than the previous crop. Think of how diverse the Villages, for example are likely to be 20 years from now, when the majority will be Generation Jones and the GenXers, a much browner and more generally liberal group than the previous generations.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: Reading this string of comments has been Harrow-ing.
Keith G
@d58826: Again in a better world, yes. The Turks have a Kurd problem and an ISIL problem. On one of those problems, they will not get assistance from the US.
Uncle Joe was convinced that the Western Allies were more than happy to let the Nazis and the Reds kill each other for a while before assaulting Fortress Europa
Calouste
@dmsilev: The issue with that idea is that a lot of women don’t want to date Republicans.
FlipYrWhig
@CarolDuhart2: I feel like the fewer people there are voting who still haven’t gotten over how much they hated those hippie longhairs, the better America will be.
d58826
@Keith G: I rather suspect that Uncle Joe was right.
As to the Turks and the Kurds, the President of Turkey is saying that airstrikes are not enough. It will take ground troops to defeat ISIS but he doesn’t seem willing to have them be Turkish troops or allow ther US to use Turkish bases for military operations inside Syria.
Keith G
@FlipYrWhig: I would have to read Panetta’s book to know his stated reasoning. As I note above, I wonder if this is a bit of a twofer: An attempt to nudge the White House toward a more aggressive stance (long admired by the old hands) as well as to support one of the foundational arguments that HRC will be having to make in about 30 days.
Elie
@Mandalay:
He is scum… and all that shit comes under the table to called help Hill…
Gonna be some pay back time along the way — some nice payback time…
Hillary has her prints all over Obama’s policies and actions and nothing now will make that go away…
Elie
@Betty Cracker:
I agree with you, Betty. However, for the President to hae said no to even air attacks was just not possible politically. Can you imagine the screams and uproar if we were just having to see ISIS march unchecked into wherever, without even a little bit of a slow down? While conceptually you have a point, there is no way this could happen… its almost like why didn’t mandate single payer? Cause he couldn’t. There is no way he could but I totally agree that the next problem will be as you say, to make the US look ineffective when airstrikes don’t work.
This is very tough for Obama and for our country. I also see Turkey as having no really good options because they have sleeper cells of ISIS throughout their country and not fighting them, while it may give them a little respite, aint gonna help them lnng term.. Erdogan was pretty good kicking his folks around last year when they challenged him, but I think he will find ISIS quite different. That said, we can ill afford Turkey being overtaken by ISIS.
Keith G
@Elie: I wish that this was happening later, but it is not unexpected. If a “retiring” president has strong poll numbers you wrap yourself in their policies. If the numbers are weak….
If Obama’s important successes are to be strengthened to the point of assured long term existence, we need a Democrat in the White House until at least 2020. Obama’s diminished support means that Democrats need to create space between them and the areas where Obama is seen as being the least effective.
I wonder who had the most juice on the timing of this, the author or the publisher.
rikyrah
Federal court throws out boundaries of Virginia’s 3rd District
A federal court in Richmond has thrown out the boundaries of Virginia’s only majority-black congressional seat, saying that it wrongly packs African-Americans in a single district that spans from Norfolk to Richmond.
The court ordered the Republican-dominated General Assembly to redraw the 3rd U.S. House district by April 1, 2015, saying that the election currently underway in the district should proceed as scheduled.
Changes to the 3rd will trigger revisions elsewhere, possibly jeopardizing the GOP’s 8-3 advantage in the state’s House delegation.
Three voters residing in the 3rd, which is represented by Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, a Democrat from Newport News, accused the General Assembly of racial gerrymandering by loading African-American voters into the district.
That had the effect, they alleged, of freeing — for purposes of creating Republican-friendly districts — large swatches of majority-white localities. The legislature rejected an alternative plan that would have created a second predominately African-American district.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/federal-court-throws-out-boundaries-of-virginia-s-rd-district/article_a1d2cec5-fb05-5872-b16b-a91523aed028.html
Elie
@Keith G:
You have a point. Its painful, but I hear you…
Kay
I went to a local Democratic event and sat at the head table with a judge who doesn’t really like me. I didn’t see her there before I sat down or I wouldn’t have agreed to go up there. It was pouring rain and I think they had me sit there because one of the other judges didn’t show up.
Coulda been a long evening, BUT, on my other side was this person, Mr. Fry, who is running for Congress and is very funny.
He doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell but he’s great to invite if you’re having a banquet or something :)
I would pay money to watch him in Congress. He started his speech with “I don’t like to compromise” and it just got better from there.
Elie
@Keith G:
Still I gotta say — these are complex times and require strong and thoughtful leadership — which requires being on the wrong side sometimes..
So Democrats can expect to win with an approach that repudiates the policies we once wanted? To decrease our committments in the ME ? Now we are four increasing our role in the mid East and reverse engineer all of our priorities before? Remember all the bitching that Obama didn’t have us out of there soon enough?
There is no victory possible with that kind of repudiation… Hillary will not win by repudiating Obama and we have already seen that happen with Gore. People hate cowards and those without the courage of their convictions.
Panchetta doesnt do Hillary any favors. Watch
Mandalay
@Kay: I went to Bob Fry’s web site, and watched the video on his home page, and he seems like a good guy. But when I wandered around his web site it was only under the “Press” menu that I ever saw it mentioned that he was a Democrat.
Is that deliberate?
Francis
@FlipYrWhig: The New England prep school system is Groton to the core.
Kay
@Mandalay:
I don’t know. He’s a ranty populist. I liked him because he has a sly sense of humor. He’s genuinely funny. He was a little hard to follow. I thought he was headed in an anti-immigrant direction at one point in the speech but then I caught up with him and he seemed instead to be making fun of conservatives for the whole “invader children” thing a coupla weeks ago.
The thing with the judge is awkward. She’s a Democrat and her son is running for the statehouse as a Republican. That would be fine, but he’s a lawyer and I know him slightly and he is completely and utterly full of shit. He’s no more “socially conservative” than I am and yet he’s running around as the “pro life” candidate, all concerned and sanctimonious. I haven’t said anything to the judge but she knows I know her son and his real views. We have a great candidate who is opposing her son and he was there too and like an idiot the first thing I said when I sat down was “good! John’s here!” It just went downhill from there.
I’m not in her court all that much, her county is a bit of a hike for me so I’m sure it will be FINE :)
Kay
@Mandalay:
It’s a horrible cycle here, our governor candidate collapsed due to his own stupidity and arrogance, I think the state Democrats will lose every race but for maybe auditor and one state supreme court race. I’m still going to these events although it’s a bit of a funeral wake and I realized why the other night.
It’s because I like the people here who are Democrats, generally. A lot of the locals are people I would enjoy spending time with anyway. I think I could quit Democratic politicians when I’m disgusted like I am now, but I would have trouble quitting rank and file Democrats. This just occurred to me although maybe everyone else already knew it :)
Betty Cracker
@Elie: I don’t think the single payer analogy flies. Obama couldn’t get single payer through Congress because he didn’t have the votes. In the case of the airstrikes, he’s the one who is unilaterally authorizing re-engagement in the Middle East, under authority that many in his own party view as dubious. At the very least, he could have asked Congress for authorization and kicked off a public debate about it.
Manyakitty
@Comrade Luke: Thank you for that site! I suspect it will become a daily tonic for what ails me.
Hunter
Cheery news for some of us — probably most of us here: Same-sex marriage is now the law of the land in 26 states, and likely 35 within a few weeks, thanks to the Supreme Court and, as of yesterday, the 9th Circuit.
Manyakitty
@Kay: I know! WTF happened to our candidates??? Nina Turner is still pretty solid though, right?