• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

I really should read my own blog.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The words do not have to be perfect.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Venality / McCain Wants the World to End with Him

McCain Wants the World to End with Him

by Anne Laurie|  January 14, 20154:57 pm| 100 Comments

This post is in: Republican Venality, Assholes, Bring On The Meteor, Did You Know John McCain Was A POW?

FacebookTweetEmail

They are the future MT @bungdan: "McCain is planning hearings with Kissinger, 91, Scowcroft, 89, and Brzezinski, 86." http://t.co/3bOtz63pvl

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) January 13, 2015

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, in the NYTimes:

… [S]ix years after losing the presidential election to Barack Obama, Mr. McCain finally has the only job in Washington, other than being president, that he ever wanted: chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, overseer of the American military and the nation’s defense policy. The question is whether he will use his new clout (and ability to subpoena) to make war or some accommodation with the White House.

“McCain now has the power either to destroy the president’s national security policy or shape it constructively,” said Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is the first step to see whether he is going to use his new power to clobber Obama as he has for the past six years, or whether he will use it to try to shape and improve Obama’s policy.”

For now, despite hints that he is trying to reinvent himself from cantankerous Obama critic to elder statesman, Mr. McCain still seems to be in clobber mode. In an early assertion of his new authority, he said on Tuesday that he would push legislation to block Mr. Obama from sending detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison to Yemen.

He said in an interview last Thursday that Mr. Obama’s decision not to send more American troops to Iraq to thwart the Islamic State had put America at risk. “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States,” Mr. McCain said. He repeated his frequent assessment that the president’s foreign policy is “a disaster” and “delusional.” He said “of course” he would have made a better commander in chief….

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said the president sees Mr. McCain as possessing “a very important viewpoint to consult with,” even if Mr. Obama rejects Mr. McCain’s interventionist stance. Mr. McDonough said Mr. McCain had influenced the Obama administration’s foreign policy, although when he was asked how, he paused.

“The reason I’m pausing,” he finally said, “is I’m trying to give you a concrete example.”…

In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift spoke of the Struldbrugs, born immortal but not ageless:

As soon as they have completed the term of eighty years, they are looked on as dead in law… After that period, they are held incapable of any employment of trust or profit; they cannot purchase lands, or take leases; neither are they allowed to be witnesses in any cause, either civil or criminal, not even for the decision of meers (metes) and bounds… Otherwise, as avarice is the necessary consequence of old age, those immortals would in time become proprietors of the whole nation, and engross the civil power, which, for want of abilities to manage, must end in the ruin of the public…

Three hundred years of improvements in medical science don’t seem to have had much effect on the “necessary consequences” of angry, self-centered old men.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Afternoon Open Thread: Madam President?
Next Post: Wednesday Evening Open Thread »

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 5:02 pm

    You know the NYTimes reporter was barely typing for laughing with McCain’s plans to hold hearings with even older elderly statesmen.

    He better hold ’em quick.

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    So weird to have seen “Breaking News” on CBS and ABC networks, re bomb plot against US Capitol arrest.

    And nothing up yet on NYTimes and WaPost, at least not prominently …

    Bartenders wanting to poison Boehner. ISIS (?) wanting to bomb the Capitol? Maybe we’d be safer under Democratic congressional control.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    January 14, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    Two words: Sarah Palin. No redemption for McCain. Ever.

  4. 4.

    Citizen Scientist

    January 14, 2015 at 5:07 pm

    I, for one, can’t wait to hear all of the new ideas that come out of these hearings.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    January 14, 2015 at 5:09 pm

    “The reason I’m pausing,” he finally said, “is I’m trying to give you a concrete example.”…

    Heh.

    Also, “other than being president” is very much an “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” moment. It pleases me to know that John McCain wakes up every day to the knowledge that Barack Obama is living in the White House.

  6. 6.

    kindness

    January 14, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    Whereas John McCain makes use of his new post as Senate Armed Services Committee Chair to yell and tell Obama to get off his lawn.

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 5:11 pm

    @Violet:

    Agreed!

    OT: Tom Hanks wrote a really terrific op ed for today’s NYTimes, in praise of Obama’s free community college plan. I Owe it All to Community College.

    Specifically, Chabot (Community) College in Hayward, CA.

  8. 8.

    Citizen_X

    January 14, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    What, McCain couldn’t find some WWII veterans to hold hearings with? Impeach!

  9. 9.

    chopper

    January 14, 2015 at 5:18 pm

    mr. last-in-his-class-at-annapolis? this is just great. this is the guy who has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy for the last 20 years. fuck us.

  10. 10.

    Ripley

    January 14, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    So is McCain to the right or left of Nixon? So confused; help us out, Bob in Portland.

  11. 11.

    Mustang Bobby

    January 14, 2015 at 5:22 pm

    This is his last chance to be called “young man.”

  12. 12.

    JPL

    January 14, 2015 at 5:24 pm

    @Elizabelle: When Clinton was President he was mocked when the FBI thwarted attacks against us. Now Obama will be mocked for not preventing thought to take down the Capitol.

    also I know the statement makes little sense, but the republicans will somehow use this against the President.
    Gosh I wish the President would come out and make the announcement himself.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    January 14, 2015 at 5:30 pm

    @Elizabelle: He’s only 20 years old. Have the feeling this plot wasn’t very well thought out.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    January 14, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    This is my favorite McCain clip http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/njmn0d/word-war-ii
    at 7:34 into the video you can see McCain looking for Mr. Puddles. I know you have seen it before but one can never see it enough.

  15. 15.

    Hal

    January 14, 2015 at 5:40 pm

    I shudder to think of how many wars the US would be involved in if McCain had won.

  16. 16.

    J R in WV

    January 14, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Of course, employees reporting up a chain of command to President Obama are who arrested this nutcase (no,no, not McCain, the mad bomber who wanted to blow up the US Capitol)!

    But of course the RWNJs of Congress won’t acknowledge the President’s management of the Federal security agencies who have prevented any attack on America comparable to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.

    And again, McCain wa wrong, we won’t see an attack, we will see wanna-be terrorists arrested before they can strike against us. Unlike recent Republican administrations!

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    January 14, 2015 at 5:43 pm

    This sore loser will rattle his rusty saber for the next two years, and will go to his grave a bitter old man.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 5:47 pm

    @Violet: @J R in WV:

    Thank y’all for keeping me posted. I see the WaPost put an item up at 5:18 p that I’d missed.

    Christopher Lee Cornell expressed support for the Islamic State as he readied his assault, the FBI said.

    The guy was from Ohio? What is it with people from Ohio losing their sh*t this week? (Ducks)

  19. 19.

    Hungry Joe

    January 14, 2015 at 5:51 pm

    “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”

    Right. Just like that series of 9/11-style attacks we suffered after Obama was elected. You know, because he took away our guns, enacted Sharia law, set up death panels, and put all the patriots in FEMA camps.

    All of which really happened. Or will happen soon, anyway. Same thing.

  20. 20.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    @Elizabelle: I see what you did there, even if unintentional.

  21. 21.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 5:56 pm

    @Hungry Joe: well there was that 9/11 attack on 9/11.

  22. 22.

    beltane

    January 14, 2015 at 6:00 pm

    Fashions come and go but Henry Kissenger will be with us forever.

  23. 23.

    SatanicPanic

    January 14, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    @beltane: WTF? He’s STILL ALIVE?

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: Oh noes! What have I done now …?

  25. 25.

    beltane

    January 14, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    @SatanicPanic: Henry Kissenger may not be alive but he is also not dead, like a vampire he has existed for centuries.

  26. 26.

    Hungry Joe

    January 14, 2015 at 6:06 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: After Obama was elected? I must have missed that one — I guess I got it mixed up with all the other 9/11-style attacks we’ve had since then. Let me check with Rudy “9/11” G. and get back to you. He knows all about this stuff.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 6:06 pm

    I swear, there are three year olds protesting bed time that have more mature ways of reacting to bed time than John McCain does when it comes to that one in the White House.

  28. 28.

    divF

    January 14, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    @Elizabelle: Re: Tom Hanks column. A great and touching piece. I’m seeing it happen for another generation with my nephew as we put him through the Peralta community colleges (the ones just north of Chabot).

  29. 29.

    dedc79

    January 14, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    Oh no, now we’re going to have to see him on Meet the Press every Sunday.
    Oh wait…

  30. 30.

    Hungry Joe

    January 14, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    @SatanicPanic: Re Kissinger: I refer you to the Billy Joel song. Not the one about a piano player.

  31. 31.

    PsiFighter37

    January 14, 2015 at 6:10 pm

    The answer to any question about John McCain’s judgment is this: he picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

    Everyone can shut the fuck after that please, thank you very much.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    @divF: The reader comments are wonderful.

    Lots of people who started at community college, loved the education they got there, went on to 4-year degrees and up. (And I think a lot of people need a few more years to buckle down to college work. It’s great to have an alternative. Wish we had a “gap” year in the US.)

    A very, very few people against the idea of free community college. The usual suspects, and they must not know much about college costs today.

  33. 33.

    Mike in NC

    January 14, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    @beltane: Kissinger, like Dick Cheney, sleeps in a coffin filled with dirt from his native country.

  34. 34.

    SatanicPanic

    January 14, 2015 at 6:18 pm

    @Hungry Joe: I’m drawing a blank Hungry Joe… Uptown Girl?

  35. 35.

    Peale

    January 14, 2015 at 6:19 pm

    @Hungry Joe: I agree with someone above. The fact that ISIS is even thinking about hitting us is too much to bear. Plotting crosses the line, but we will hold Obambi accountable for not preventing thinking.

    Jeebus. I think henceforthwith, all attacks anywhere in the world should be signs of Obama’s failure.

  36. 36.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    @SatanicPanic: good night Saigon?

  37. 37.

    Calouste

    January 14, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    @SatanicPanic: Goodnight Saigon.

  38. 38.

    liberal

    January 14, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    @Hal: not too many after he started WWIII with Russia over Georgia.

  39. 39.

    Mike G

    January 14, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    Obama’s decision not to send more American troops to Iraq to thwart the Islamic State had put America at risk. “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States,” Mr. McCain said.

    “How the fuck do more troops in Iraq stop an attack in the US? Hell if I know, but I’ve got a boner to send troops everywhere, so shut up.”

  40. 40.

    liberal

    January 14, 2015 at 6:23 pm

    @beltane: sadly, he has a better take on the whole Ukraine thing than a lot of liberal bloggers and comets, IIRC.

  41. 41.

    liberal

    January 14, 2015 at 6:24 pm

    Comet ==> commenters

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 6:27 pm

    @Mike G: I think you’ve nailed it.

    Sending troops directly to fight ISIL/ISIS is more likely to result in an attack on US soil. This is how asymmetrical warfare works, after all.

  43. 43.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    @Hungry Joe: no, the one on 9/11/01.

  44. 44.

    SatanicPanic

    January 14, 2015 at 6:31 pm

    @Calouste: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  45. 45.

    Redshift

    January 14, 2015 at 6:31 pm

    This bit is pretty mystifying:

    “McCain now has the power either to destroy the president’s national security policy or shape it constructively,”

    Destroy the president’s national security policy? How, exactly? He can be a pain in the ass, like every other Republican committee chair. He can try to force the administration’s hand through the appropriations process, which is not actually very easy. Or… What?

    The Obama administration had been pretty successful at making Republicans who try to “destroy” them look like fools (assisted by the fact that they usually are folks.) What’s different here, except that the Beltway media have the bizarre idea that McCain is some kind of elder statesman?

  46. 46.

    Cervantes

    January 14, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    @SatanicPanic:

    “Honesty.”

    Not to mention “Only the Good Die Young.”

    But you knew that.

  47. 47.

    catclub

    January 14, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    @Mike G: also, in 2009 we still DID have troops in Iraq, and ther was an attack at Ft Hood.

    Also, no Love for Don Rumsfeld. He is 82.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    The Yosemite climbers succeeded their El Capitan free climb.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 6:35 pm

    @Redshift:

    except that the Beltway media have the bizarre idea that McCain is some kind of elder statesman

    Bingo.

  50. 50.

    Redshift

    January 14, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    @Mike G: Sending ground troops somewhere in response to terrorist attacks worked out great before! Everybody thinks so; that’s why McCain won in a landslide in 2008!

  51. 51.

    catclub

    January 14, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: So they say being strong and forceful on foreign policy will prevent attacks.
    But we were attacked on 9/11/2001 when George Bush was president. I guess that means he was not strong and forceful on foreign policy. I will keep that in mind. Weak GOP presidents bring on attacks.

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    @Redshift:

    except that the Beltway media have the bizarre idea that McCain is some kind of elder statesman?

    The Villagers have a lot of bizarre ideas, this is just one of those that stands out because it is so incredibly stupid.

    Anyone who picks Sarah Palin, of all people, to be his running mate, has demonstrated that they are far, far too stupid to be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.

  53. 53.

    SatanicPanic

    January 14, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    @Cervantes: I didn’t know he wrote those songs. I thought “only the good die young” was Bob Seger or something- I don’t know classic rock all that well. HJ must have been talking about that one.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    @SatanicPanic:

    I thought “only the good die young” was Bob Seger or something

    clutches chest; keels over

  55. 55.

    JPL

    January 14, 2015 at 6:41 pm

    @Elizabelle: NBC was streaming the last several hours. Staring at granite for hours, was quite exciting. NYTimes has an interactive with Dawn Wall which shows just how amazing the climb was. NBC is covering it now on network news.

  56. 56.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    @Hungry Joe: We were soul mates, in an asylum.

  57. 57.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    “McCain is planning hearings with Kissinger, 91, Scowcroft, 89, and Brzezinski, 86.”

    What? Can’t get any of the old China hands to rise from their graves to chime in on this?

  58. 58.

    Cervantes

    January 14, 2015 at 6:47 pm

    @SatanicPanic:

    I’m sure there are hundreds of songs you know (if not more) that I’ve never heard of.

    What would you sing for Kissinger?

  59. 59.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    @Cervantes: Seeger, Leanin on my Dream

    well I got up and turned off the tv set
    and to tell you I was feelin’ mean
    an I thought a while
    tryin to make some sense
    out of everything that I have seen

    I was addin’ the score when there’s a knock on the door
    was a letter addressed to me
    It read “greetings from the president, united states”
    I fell down on my knees

  60. 60.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:51 pm

    @Cervantes: Sky Pilot

  61. 61.

    Mike E

    January 14, 2015 at 6:52 pm

    @Cervantes:
    Henry Kissinger
    How I’m missing yer
    You’re the Doctor of my dreams
    With your crinkly hair and your glassy stare
    And your machiavellian schemes
    I know they say that you are very vain
    And short and fat and pushy but at least you’re not insane
    Henry Kissinger
    How I’m missing yer
    And wishing you were here
    Henry Kissinger
    How I’m missing yer
    You’re so chubby and so neat
    With your funny clothes and your squishy nose
    You’re like a German parakeet
    All right so people say that you don’t care
    But you’ve got nicer legs than Hitler
    And bigger tits than Cher
    Henry Kissinger
    How I’m missing yer
    And wishing you were here

  62. 62.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:53 pm

    @Cervantes: Or Killing Floor

    Nice intro my my pal, LBJ!

  63. 63.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    This nice song with and intro from LBJ!

  64. 64.

    SatanicPanic

    January 14, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    @Cervantes: I don’t know, maybe Holiday in Cambodia

  65. 65.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    Lyndon Baines Johnson intro for Henry.

  66. 66.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    what the fuck

  67. 67.

    jl

    January 14, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    @Peale:

    ” I think henceforthwith, all attacks any thing whatever anywhere in the world should be signs of Obama’s failure. “

  68. 68.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    Moderation for mentioning the Electric Flag???

  69. 69.

    El Cruzado

    January 14, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: Yup, back when Clinton was president.

  70. 70.

    jl

    January 14, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    Let McCain have his hearings. I will worry when he starts calling people like Bolton. The younger RWNJs are the dangerous ones.

    Personally, I hope McCain decides to follow Mitt and run for president. Then the GOP primaries could a kind of reunion Olden GOP Goldies tour. Could have advertisements on late night TV selling CD ROMs by mail. It would be cool, and might draw in younger demo.

    Would be nice to have Bobdole too, but I think he is just a little too old, and even at his age, his wisecracks would go over the heads of the GOP primary voters and the media hacks. So, hate to say it, but Bobdole probably shouldn’t join in. And he’d be way too liberal.

  71. 71.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    @raven: Who knows what FYWP finds objectionable? I think a mention of Dead or Alive would probably qualify.

    Or not…

  72. 72.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    @jl:

    So, hate to say it, but Bobdole probably shouldn’t join in. And he’s bee way too liberal.

    Well, he agreed to be that fucking commie Ford’s running mate, so yeah, way too liberal.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    @Mike E: Monty Python, eh? Never heard this. Funny, though. German parakeet.

  74. 74.

    Howard Beale IV

    January 14, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    I would wish that McCain would vapor lock soon.

  75. 75.

    jl

    January 14, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”

    “That attack you saw in Oklahoma City? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”

    Horrible to say it, but the US would be lucky to only have attacks as bad as the recent one in Paris. Deranged nutjubs, usually white, usually kill and maim more in their nutjob mass shootings. But, those are just the price of (gun nut) freedom, right? Right.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    Andy Borowitz:

    Citing Security Concerns, Boehner to Do All Drinking at Work

  77. 77.

    jl

    January 14, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I saw the typos in time. Whew… that was close. Thanks.

  78. 78.

    Hungry Joe

    January 14, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    @raven: Ah, the asylum. I remember you well. Good times.

    And yeah, I was thinking of “Only the Good Die Young.”

  79. 79.

    Mike E

    January 14, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    @Elizabelle: It’s from their Contractual Obligation album. We A/V nerds at my high school got a few of the tracks broadcast during morning announcements over the classroom intercoms, virtually without notice. Booyah!

  80. 80.

    pluege

    January 14, 2015 at 7:21 pm

    trying to reinvent himself from cantankerous Obama critic to elder statesman

    Ha! mccinsane hasn’t the personality or character to pull that off…or even want to.

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 14, 2015 at 7:23 pm

    @jl: As they say, this is a full service family oriented blog.

  82. 82.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    @Mike E: Go geeks!

    NBC has a late afternoon pic of Yosemite, with the shadows lengthening. Beautiful. Love Yosemite.

    Wonder how long until the film about the free climbers will hit theatres? Did not realize they’d been planning and preparing for 7 years.

  83. 83.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    @Hungry Joe: Ft Campbell wasn’t PI but it was “rigorous”.

  84. 84.

    JPL

    January 14, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    @Elizabelle: Spiderman IV

  85. 85.

    srv

    January 14, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    Talk about old men:

    10 years ago today, the pilot episode of Battlestar Galactica aired on the Sci-Fi channel—back before the Sci-Fi channel forgot how to spell its own name. The episode was called “33.” It wouldn’t be quite fair to call it the best pilot episode in the history of dramatic television; the show technically started 13 months earlier, with a two-part miniseries that introduced the universe of Battlestar Galactica, then basically destroyed that entire universe.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    January 14, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    “The chair welcomes you and we are ready to hear your opening statement.”

    “What?”

    “The committee awaits your opening statement.”

    “What?”

    “THE COMMITTEE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO ORDER AND -.”

    “Thank you for asking. I’ll have tuna on whole wheat, hold the mayo.”

  87. 87.

    raven

    January 14, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    Killing Floor

    eta Must have been the youtube link to the Electric Flag song.

  88. 88.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Actually, I’d be kind of interested in what a Bob Seger cover would sound like.

  89. 89.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    @Mike E:

    Henry Kissinger
    How I’m missing yer
    You’re the Doctor of my dreams

    Nah. Tom Baker ftw.

  90. 90.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 14, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @El Cruzado: Heh.

  91. 91.

    Splitting Image

    January 14, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    @Cervantes:

    What would you sing for Kissinger?

    Elvis Costello, “Tramp the Dirt Down“.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    January 14, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    @Splitting Image: Ah yes. That was aimed at Margaret Thatcher.

    Beautiful tune and vicious words (deserved, deserved).

  93. 93.

    Cacti

    January 14, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    @jl:

    “That attack you saw in Paris? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”

    “That attack you saw in Oklahoma City? You’ll see an attack in the United States.”

    Horrible to say it, but the US would be lucky to only have attacks as bad as the recent one in Paris. Deranged nutjubs, usually white, usually kill and maim more in their nutjob mass shootings. But, those are just the price of (gun nut) freedom, right? Right.

    I mean, it’s not like we have mentally unstable citizens with access to private arsenals, who might go and let’s say, shoot up a movie theatre or a class full of kindergartners.

  94. 94.

    Tommy

    January 14, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    @Violet:

    Two words: Sarah Palin. No redemption for McCain. Ever.

    Amen to that. But his pick of Palin did do one “good” thing. As I’ve said a number of times my mother was in her late 60s. Life long Republican. Never voted for a Democrat in a Presidental election, and she voted in everyone. She is a pretty informed voter. Watches CNN daily (couldn’t pay her to watch Fox Noise). Reads the local paper daily as well. Gets Time and Newsweek (when it was still published — is there even a print edition these days?).

    Mom is a smart lady. Maybe the smartest person in my entire family of men. Once she was introduced to Palin she said to me, “Tommy that women is shit all stupid. She is an affront to smart women the worldwide.” I should note my mom cusses like once a decade so she was really mad about the whole things that Palin was remotely qualified to be VP, much less POTUS.

    She voted for Obama and hasn’t looked back on her party, at least in national elections. Voted for Obama last elelction as well.

    So McCain did do that “good” thing:)!

  95. 95.

    fuckwit

    January 14, 2015 at 8:09 pm

    @jl: Not only would Bobdole be too liberal, so would Nixon, and so would (as Obama continually and gleefully loves to remind people) Reagan. And Bobdole knows this, and has said it, out loud, on national TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUfvOSmLwZ8 (and I do believe Cole FP’ed that clip back when it came out)

  96. 96.

    jayboat

    January 14, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    @Hungry Joe:
    My first thought was We Didn’t Start The Fire .

    Fuck that old bag of shit with a rusty spike.

  97. 97.

    JPL

    January 14, 2015 at 8:16 pm

    Am I the only one that thought besides water at the hearing, they’d have depends?

  98. 98.

    Mike in NC

    January 14, 2015 at 8:30 pm

    Caught an ad tonight about the latest attempt to make Palin a reality TV star. She gets a bow hunting lesson from Ted Nugent in the first episode.

    Picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue…

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    January 14, 2015 at 11:44 pm

    @jl:

    IIRC, the Navy yard shooting last (?) year had 12 victims. But Islamist terrorists are scarier than disgruntled employees.

  100. 100.

    Sherparick

    January 15, 2015 at 7:37 am

    @SatanicPanic: Satan can never die. He is immortal, although some day he will take on another form. As for ‘terrorist” events, McCain is confusing “correlation” with “causation.” ISIS is mostly focused on fighting Shia Muslims (or Shia splinter sects like the Alawites and Druze) and Kurds in Syria and Iraq. As for terrorist events, we have plenty of non-Muslim, white Christians who perpetrate them here like the Aurora shooting in 2012 that killed 12 and wounded 46 others (something that puts Paris to shame) or Sandy Hook (28 killed, one wounded). http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2014#cite_note-439

    By the way, someone should ask McCain how many American casualties would result from an Iraqi War III? McCain has indicated that he would have occupied Iraq for 100 years if he could.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - PaulB - Olympic National Park: Lake Quinault 1
Image by PaulB (5/17/25)

Recent Comments

  • Another Scott on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 17, 2025 @ 11:18pm)
  • Gin & Tonic on War for Ukraine Day 1,178: Russia Commits Another War Crime in Sumy (May 17, 2025 @ 11:18pm)
  • Jackie on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 17, 2025 @ 11:14pm)
  • RaflW on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 17, 2025 @ 11:12pm)
  • trollhattan on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 17, 2025 @ 11:09pm)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!