I’ve never been to jail (except as a visitor to an incarcerated uncle and once to bail out a bone-headed friend who got busted for DUI). I hope to maintain my lifelong record of non-incarceration. Jail is so unpleasant.
But prison movies / television shows — now there’s a genre that just seems to inspire brilliance: Papillon. Shawshank Redemption. Cool Hand Luke. Oz. Orange is the New Black. Even campy shit like Prisoner: Cell Block H. What makes it work so well?
Elizabelle
I wanna see Jail: Jamie Dimon Style. Citibankers in Cells. Countrywide in Solitary.
Iowa Old Lady
@Elizabelle: Paris Hilton’s stint in jail was hilarious too, though on a more shallow level.
dedc79
Cool Hand Luke is one of my all-time-favorites. I thought Shawshank was a pale imitation.
Also – no love for Midnight Express?
Another Holocene Human
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/04/male_rape_in_america_a_new_study_reveals_that_men_are_sexually_assaulted.html
Male rape in America including work on the incarcerated, turns out sexual assaults in US prisons by guards are common, no surprise there.
Cracked has a really good article on the front page about male victims of rape as well.
Hint: it’s not just about men raping men (although that’s important too)
Violet
MSNBC is nothing but prison shows on the weekend. Apparently they’re highly rated. They seem awful to me.
Another Holocene Human
Boom.
Now is it time to talk about rape culture?
Another Holocene Human
@Violet: I know multiple people who decided to get into corrections from a different blue collar field. Because it pays better and I think for some of them the small taste of power looks appealing.
Another Holocene Human
I would not want to step into a prison in a million years. Not even for charitable work. I’d rather be poor than entertain being a prison guard. What a crock.
burnspbesq
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m a little lost here. Is that supposed to be a way to treat the second through ninth high school football players who sodomize a drunk 14-year-old girl from defendants into victims? That doesn’t seem to make a lick of sense.
Unabogie
Prison stories are so effective precisely because so few people actually go to prison. It’s the ultimate challenge for a character, and they work best when the hero is innocent and must survive in a brutal environment where all of their agency and freedom are stripped away. That’s why prison shows are even better when they have a hero who’s not so innocent.
David in NY
Best movie with a prison scene I know is “Sullivan’s Travels,” maybe Preston Sturges’s best. It’s not most of the movie but it’s great.
Corner Stone
@dedc79:
I’ve got some love for Midnight Marauder, long may he rain.
/O-bot AWAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!
dedc79
I did a criminal justice clinic in law school. We represented people who’d been charged with misdemeanor offenses (simple assault, shoplifting, marijuana possession, etc..) and also handled parole cases. As a result I spent a bunch of time at DC Jail. They had one of the more unintentionally funny signs I’ve ever seen. It said something like “Anyone caught smuggling any form of contraband (weapons, drugs, etc…) into this facility will be permanently banned from the premises.”
Another Holocene Human
Jail is different from prison, although with the way they make poor people who can’t make bail sit and rot, maybe it’s a distinction without a difference. All I know is the local county jail is worlds away from the state prisons and the jailbirds are quite a different beast from the prisoners. Ya, both come out on work gangs, although jail also has day release and work release, not sure how many US states allow prisoners out during the day unsupervised. (Heard of it in other countries.)
Prisons ought to be better controlled and more stable than jails who have a transient population and less security overall (plenty of people get assaulted in the “tanks” since they dump people willy-nilly in there … kinda weird seems like in Europe they don’t do that, stick people in single bare cells, but it’s SOP in the US, whereas European prisons are like our min-sec country club prisons and the US loves to dump prisoners in solitary), but it sure doesn’t seem that way with overcrowding, rise of prison gangs, lousy discipline among prison guards, disinvestment, punishment not rehabilitation attitudes and so on.
aarrgghh
hogan’s heroes, anyone?
SuperHrefna
I think it’s Jane Austen’s principle: “three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on”. Instead of a village with a handful of families, it’s a small community with clear – yet – complex social rules and a limited number of inhabitants. Good for drama.
mai naem mobile
@Another Holocene Human: i knew somebody who worked in corrections In Maricopa County several years ago (Sheriff Joe Arpaio) and the pay per hour isn’t all that great but you get a bunch of overtime. Also really good benefits – defined pension plan and almost free healthcare benefits.
CONGRATULATIONS!
A total and deliberate lack of truth or honesty about what jail is and what it gets used for, combined with the absolute love Americans have for shitting on the less fortunate. Can’t miss TV.
Tokyokie
Riot in Cell Block 11 and Le trou. Just saying. From the great Don Siegel and the great Jacques Becker. And both available on Criterion.
Another Holocene Human
@mai naem mobile: The pay sucks but it’s relative to what else is out there.
Big step up from service professions, especially instead of sucking it up you can take it all out if the “client” disrespects you. Though, the money I think is the greater enticement.
(Not everyone I’ve known in corrections had personality problems… just some of them, not even the majority. Still, there is that type.)
(Kinda like cops or, ha, former cops, persecution+power/revenge fantasies, just the cops are better educated/higher on the totem pole than corrections.)
mai naem mobile
I kind of like watching Locked Up Abroad.although its kind of formulaic. X needs money for stupid reason. X meets stereotypical drug dealer character Y.Naive X does drug smuggling for Y. “Waaaa, I thought he was paying me $10k for smuggling special Jack.and the Beanstalk seeds, WTF drugs?” X goes to hell hole filthy prison where he stands up stereotypical thug and kills/maims him. X cries about what he put mommy and daddy through. X meets patient love of life in foreign country(nah, she didn’t marry me for a green card nuh uh.) X goes.home and says not worth it. Not one minute. Your deterrence message.
Elizabelle
Watching an old Law & Order and the mouthy old union member — it’s Eli Wallach. 1992, Season 2. Paul Sorvino and Chris Noth.
Wallach character’s complaining about gentrification and how even yuppies can’t afford the apartment he raised 3 kids in. Vic was a takeover Wall Street shark.
The more things change …
burnspbesq
This oughta make Kay pretty happy: former Ohio Guv Ted Strickland is going to take on Portman.
Another Holocene Human
@CONGRATULATIONS!: That’s my take on it. Fantasy. I find the prison fiction unwatchable. Prison reality shows I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch but they are interesting. Since they’re more documentary style, and less scripted. I find the differences between US prisons and prisons in other countries to be nothing short of astounding.
WereBear
It’s because it’s a defined, restricted, and exotic place.
Islands, shipwrecks, random strangers trapped in a motel, a jetliner with damaged gear so it can’t land… these are all made-to-order pressure cookers that are just the right size.
Mike in NC
The prison break scene in “Grand Budapest Hotel” was pretty funny. I hope that flick does well at the Academy Awards.
Elizabelle
Newtown decided not to include Nancy Lanza among a list of her son’s victims to whom a report is dedicated.
I’m down with that. No sympathy for that delusional soul. All that money and the kid went untreated. Although not unarmed.
Arclite
And who can forget Hogan’s Heroes!
Mike in NC
“Birdman of Alcatraz” with Burt Lancaster was entertaining.
Villago Delenda Est
@Arclite: Or Stalag 17 which inspired it.
Southern Beale
So apparently some Americans, including one guy from Tennessee, tried to overthrow the government of Gambia and install a Texas businessman named Cherno Njie as its interim leader.
Seems like an interesting story. Maybe our esteemed cable news gasbags will devote some attention to it? Nah who am I kidding! It’s gonna be MITTENS!!!!
WereBear
Hey, what about Caged Heat, Women in Chains, and Caged?
Though admittedly it’s a genre just asking for sexploitation, and often delivers.
Brute Force is just fantastic, possibly my favorite.
ThresherK
I spent some time getting my “junkyard cred” the last couple weeks, coming back with two inexpensive used coils to fix my well-used Sentra. Replaced the part without much trouble (or creating one of those “I tried to fix it myself” situations which puts $$$ into any mechanic’s eyes), and put things back together.
Was going to the hardware store for a shakedown cruise, and to pick up a couple things. Fired up the engine, no problem. Turned on the lights and one of my low-beams blew.
Don’t know if it’s a sign to persevere on this rig, or to get rid of in the late spring as we’ve been mulling.
But I thnk I will stop talking about other cars while I’m in this one.
Another Holocene Human
@Southern Beale: They’re ex-pats, kinda like those douchebags that filmed that anti-Mohammed movie that sparked all the protests–BENGHAZI!!! Plus, old news.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: How about Women In Uniform, the feature that was Banned in New York!
Oh wait, that was harshly critical of the MIC and therefore beloved only by academics. Next!
jl
” I’ve never been to jail (except as a visitor to an incarcerated uncle and once to bail out a bone-headed friend who got busted for DUI). I hope to maintain my lifelong record of non-incarceration. Jail is so unpleasant. ”
I think it’s best to just fess up and tell us what you have done, Betty. There are a lot of lawyers here at BJ who can help you. We will give money. I am sure there are some other BJers in FL, or even some not but who are willing to go there (not me but I will send money) to bail you out.
Pogonip
I have a bad cold and consider myself fortunate; so far this Year’s vicious flu has missed me. A lady I know ended up in the ER with a fever of 105. She was sending out delirious tweets, much to the amusement of all who know her now that she’s recovered.
The Delirious Tweets would be a good name for a band.
NCSteve
@mai naem mobile: If you don’t read closely, you could mistake that for the formula for “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.” Just need to add the climatic “Ramsey finally browbeats owner in denial into facing reality that food is disgusting and restaurant is a shambles, resulting in emotional rebirth and eventual self-actualization of owner” scene.
Another Holocene Human
@Mike in NC:
The American Sniper of its day, but the product of smug liberals instead of raging conservatives.
Wikipedia on Stroud and the movie (well sourced for a wikipedia article).
Stroud went to prison for murder and continued to commit murders while in prison, foiling his mother’s strenuous attempts to get his sentence commuted (going so far as to appeal to the president of the United States). He was extremely violent and this resulted in his segregation from the rest of the prison population. It is also said he had a reputation for raping other prisoners.
SatanicPanic
@Elizabelle: she bought the guns for him! sometimes victim-blaming isn’t wrong
Monty
Speaking as a former jailbird, I think I speak with some authority on this issue: jail sucks. It is largely approximate to high school detention except with pajamas, pinochle, and avoiding aging alcoholics in the throes of DTs. The inmate population was more or less evenly distributed between various misdemeanoids comprised of DUI, B&E, and various drug-related offenses, with some domestic/sexual assault for variance.
On a personal level, I found the experience both humiliating and instructive. Most interesting (to me, anyway) was the incorporation of sign language used to communicate with the guards: (three fingers down, two fingers up refers to your cell: 3rd cell from the stairway on the 2nd tier) and the nigga/gangsta speech rhythm that took me nearly a month to quit post release. I haven’t been in lockup for nearly 20 years but those patterns became so ingrained that I could pick them up in a second.
Also, it is apparent that most people who have never spent “quality time” in jail tend to confuse jail with prison. The difference is in the social tenor on display, which is likely attributed to the difference between populations of misdemeanors v felons (I’ve never been to prison) and their respective degrees of separation from normal, “civilized” society. Jail life simply doesn’t involve the life-preservation skills that seem to be so elemental to prison life: there no roving gangs of various stripe and virtually zero violence.
Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke, and The Longest Yard (original version, because fuck Adam Sandler) are all ok in their own way, and maybe I’m wrong in thinking that such comeraderie in prison life is a fiction, but I’ve always preferred Runaway Train and Escape from Alcatraz. Bad Boys was IMO pretty good but whatevs.
ThresherK
@NCSteve: There’s a reason that the Archer episode with the show Bastard Chef made me laugh myself sick.
Southern Beale
@Another Holocene Human:
Really? Old News??? This is totally the first time I’ve heard about this.
smintheus
“What makes it work so well?”
Prison is a nearly universal human experience. Most of us call it “high school”.
ETA: As Monty pointed out.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Yes, found that all out just recently.
But whitewashing reality was a studio obsession for decades. I doubt Lancaster could have gotten it made at all if it had been realistic.
keestadoll
Betty et al: Do yourself a favor and rent “I Want to Live” starring Susan Hayward who played real-life convicted murderer Barbara Graham. Hayward won the oscar that year against Elizabeth Taylor (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), Rosalind Russell (“Auntie Mame”), Shirley MacLaine (“Some Came Running”), and Deborah Kerr (“Separate Tables”). Very fierce competition and all actresses vying had amazing performances. Amazing film.
Dick Dastardly
Go to your favourite torrent or download site and download Un Prophete (A Prophet). It’s a masterpiece and in the top five films I’ve ever seen.
Another Holocene Human
@Monty: I’ll bet there was camaraderie among prisoners in the notorious plantation prisons of the Deep South, especially during the late 19th century convict-labor period and the early to mid 20th century period when there was lower violent crime and lower rates of incarceration. Imprisonment was highly racialized, and enacted for trivial or bogus offenses.
That probably changed in the 70s and 80s when the crime wave that began in the 60s hit the prisons (they graduated juvie), the overcrowding, the gangs took over, much more violent, depraved, out of control people crammed in there until they were running the place.
A lot of prison fiction in our popular culture (until recently, I guess) stems from narratives about POWs or political prisoners. Mass imprisonment of dissidents or “potential dissidents” among ethnic groups on the political outs at the moment was a fact of life in Europe throughout the modern period and into the Industrial Age and didn’t really end until the post WWII peace and social democracy (of course in Eastern Europe the USSR was also practicing mass political transportation and imprisonment).
Iowa Old Lady
@Monty: The things I learn on BJ!
Another Holocene Human
Also, given the racialized use of the death penalty prior to the SCOTUS banning it for a while it’s likely that the most violent Black offenders were executed, not imprisoned. Of course a lot of innocents were executed (just as the prisons were full of the morally if not legally innocent).
srv
God Fucking Bless Texas. A real headshot to libtards everywhere.
Lord Baldrick
Patrick McGoohan put together an interesting take on the Prisoner topic.
Another Holocene Human
And because of racist “justice” plenty of violent bastards never crossed paths with a lawman to start with!
During the conflict-labor system, you landed in prison for being employable and in plain sight. It was a kidnapping system. Life on the prison plantations was basically a continuation of slavery, including the renting of prisoners for profit, just a few of the details changed. It was legal due to the loophole in the Constitution that allows the enslavement of “felons”.
Another Holocene Human
@Southern Beale: Yup, their attempted coup was more of a face plant. Look at your story, it says 3rd co-conspirator. The other two were already identified.
Maybe the news came out during the holidays and you missed it?
JCT
@Elizabelle: There was a recent report detailing just how concerned some of the therapists at Yale were about the depths of Adam’s illness. And she apparently refused to engage. The bunker mentality that can develop when you have a child with significant mental illness is tragic.
And hey Betty – did you see the Politico piece about “JEB!” and Michael Schiavo? The democrats better hang that horror show around his neck nice and tight. My “favorite” part was how old Jeb thought about going after Michael for abuse/foul play for the original episode MONTHS after the poor woman finally died. Despicable behavior. What a scumbag.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Another Holocene Human: Both my wife and mother were surprised I wanted nothing to do with Orange Is The New Black.
Here’s the thing: I visited a prison (Soledad) back in the late 1990s as part of a psych class I was in. Prison isn’t entertaining, and neither are prisoners. Prison is FUCKING HORRIBLE. I will always remember the smell. BO and terror.
As for the people in there, Richard Pryor did a skit a long time ago on people in prison. It adequately reflected my sentiments.
RSA
My theory is that the environment allows for direct examination of moral questions in the context of life-and-death situations. That is, it’s the same reason that movies and TV shows about cops, gangsters, cowboys, and doctors (the latter more on TV) have such continuing popularity.
smintheus
@srv: He wanted to call it “American Fighting Men’s Day”, but Carter had already used that one in honoring Lt. William Calley.
max
@ThresherK: Was going to the hardware store for a shakedown cruise, and to pick up a couple things. Fired up the engine, no problem. Turned on the lights and one of my low-beams blew. Don’t know if it’s a sign to persevere on this rig, or to get rid of in the late spring as we’ve been mulling.
That’s actually pretty normal. In old cars (particularly if one headlamp was replaced), the older headlamp will tend to blow easily when you change components in the electrical. A vehicle electrical system is not like the electrical system in a house – a house is A/C, and has various voltage damping mechanisms built in, but a car is DC depends on the voltage regulator for voltage control. Replacing a component in the circuit can cause initial unusual shifts in the voltage which can do just what you describe – blow an older/weaker bulb (or fuse). A new coil (capacitor) in the system probably meant some funny surges in the electrical system during charging, and bob’s your uncle.
Practical advice – replace *both* headlamps at the same time (or you’ll likely blow the working one when the new lamp is powered up). In general, replace both members of a pair of bulbs (brake lights, blinkers, headlamps, what have you) when you go to swap the one. This also saves effort over time, although not money.
max
[‘The upside of keeping it – you don’t have to buy it again.’]
David in NY
@dedc79: Green Haven prison in New York has a funnier sign as you enter the parking lot before its great wall: “No taking pictures on or off the premises.” Pretty broad, I’d say.
Fred
Prison is our modern idea of hell. And there is nothing more moving than the possibility of redemption from hell. Isn’t redemption what all those movies are about?
Don’t forget “The Hurricane” with Denzel Washington. Absolute redemption. And “The Bird Man of Alcatraz”.
Another Holocene Human
@smintheus: Americans love to idolize a good psychopath.
Another Holocene Human
@David in NY: Sounds like their attitude towards suspicious persons with cameras (==any person with camera) in general. Cue myriad tales of transit photographers on the platform (with permits, even!) being hustled off with threats by transit police.
Elizabelle
Your prognostications as to whether music mogul Suge Knight will see the inside of a jail cell?
Killing someone with a truck is still killing someone.
Another Holocene Human
@Fred: The Birdman of Alcatraz was an indictment of the US prison system of the time, just as American Sniper is an occasionally thoughtful (with some limitations) movie about the horrors of war and the difficulty of reintegrating into society, but unfortunately both flicks used the real stories of violent, deceptive psychopaths as their material.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Stalag 17” was a good film, or at least seemed so on last viewing decades ago.
Found out only recently a friend’s dad was a POW in Germany after being shot down. The astonishing bit was his prison was literally “open-door” and the POWs were allowed to go into town, where they would barter with the locals using items from their Red Cross packages. The rule to remember was to never go into the woods, as “You will be shot” was more than an idle threat and so prevented them from keeping walking.
On being liberated he learned it was friendly fire that brought him down, as a rookie in their squadron pulled up too early on a strafing run, hitting his P-51.
My life has been darn dull.
tybee
i once went to interview a convicted felon in reidsville state prison.
pretty scary place.
Randy P
@trollhattan: I’ve seen it a couple of times, and loved it each time. The connection to Hogan’s Heroes was pretty obvious right from the start, but Stalag 17 is much darker, and Sgt. Schulz is not at all the cuddly guy from the TV show. But Hogan was a pretty close approximation of William Holden’s cynical wheeler-dealer character.
Loved seeing Peter Graves as a bad guy, having grown up seeing him on Mission: Impossible.
Since we’re expanding “prison movies” to include POW movies, how about “The Great Escape”? And “Chicken Run”?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Elizabelle:
He’s actually out on bail right now for another offense, so he’s in big trouble. Ironically, he’ll be in more trouble for leaving the scene of the accident than he will be for the death — it will be hard to prove that he killed his friend on purpose, but they throw the book at you if you leave the scene. I’m assuming he was probably drunk and thought a “leaving the scene” conviction would be better than another DUI.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): The cops were hedging their statements about whether he was driving this morning–has that changed?
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
No, it’s intended to cover things like statutory rape, taking advantage of a man while he’s too drunk to say no, or the like. FWIW, they mention that boys in juvenile detention are especially likely to be taken advantage of by their guards, including many women.
Elizabelle
Don’t make me laugh NBC.
Meet the Press promo: “He may hold the key to bipartisan cooperation.”
Paul Ryan.
I think “bipartisan” is NBC’s sexytime word.
Also: Super Bowl, deflated balls and safety against terrorists at the Super Bowl was top story on Nightly News. Then measles. Then Mitt.
Have fled back to Law & Order marathon.
Bystander
I think the greatest prison film of our times is “Reform School Girls”, the heir to “Caged”. Wendy O. williams gives her best performance ever, and Pat Ast delivers one of those deathless lines from the cinema.
“You’re nothing but a shitstain on the panties of Life.” How many times I’ve wanted to quote that line.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Another Holocene Human:
Here’s what’s on the LA Times site right now:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-suge-knight-compton-case-20150130-story.html
As I said, I doubt that a murder charge is going to stick, but they have him dead to rights on leaving the scene of an accident. That’s a big damn deal under California law.
Elizabelle
@Another Holocene Human: Saw a story saying Suge may have been driving the truck when he passed through an area where a video was being shot a while before the confrontation, which took place about 3:00 pm.
AP story:
Mike J
@David in NY:
I preferred “Hey Hey in the Hayloft.”
Baud
@Bystander:
I’m surprised Balloon Juice hasn’t given you the opportunity.
David Koch
BWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAH
Mitt fleeing and caving is priceless!
I’ve been swamped all day and didn’t have the time to check to news until now.
HA!
Po’ lil Mittens. He couldn’t take the ridicule he was receiving from within the establishment (like WSJ) so he’s gonna take his gold plated ball and go home to his car elevators.
And the panicked, terrified look of the face of his courtesans (Chuck Todd), now that they won’t have Mitty to save them. Oh, Chuckie, Mm, your tears are so yummy and sweet!
Of course, Mitty couldn’t tap out like a man, he had to do on a Friday news dump, while everyone is focused on the Super Bowl.
Chicken hawk coward to the bitter end.
Woodrowfan
Prison movies: Chicago! or Elvis dancing to Jailhouse Rock…
Mike in NC
@Randy P:
The Bridge on the River Kwai
King Rat
Mike in NC
@David Koch: Rmoney is merely ‘temporarily suspending his campaign’ (see McCain, John) and will resurface when he so deems it fortuitous.
Like a turd in a septic tank.
Elizabelle
@David Koch:
Where have you gone, Big Mitt Daddio
Abominations turn their lonely eyes to you
whoo whoo whoo
What’s that you say ….
Chuck Todd’s going to fellate Paul (no government aid here!) Ryan this Sunday.
He’ll ask the tough questions.
Dick Dastardly
Un Prophete is a masterpiece. It’s in my top five movies. If you can stand subtitles you should watch it.
BuddyH
@JCT: My “favorite” part was how old Jeb thought about going after Michael for abuse/foul play for the original episode MONTHS after the poor woman finally died. Despicable behavior. What a scumbag
There’s a meanness about that family. I see it in his mother. And father. Brother W.
Jeb didn’t fall far from that tree.
Elizabelle
Jeebus. Cruising the TV listings and this aberration popped up:
MSNBC Morning Joe at Night.
Live from Phoenix. In Rachel’s slot tonight; 2 hours leading into their prison lockup programming.
Cruel and unusual.
Origuy
Nobody remembers Stir Crazy? Comedy gets no respect.
Violet
@Elizabelle: TV was on MSNBC when I turned it on and I saw five seconds of that. Joe Scarborough was saying that “people close to Mitt” told him that Mitt decided not to run because he thought he’d emerge from the primary “bloodied and weaker as a candidate.” And that he was sure he’d be Jeb but wouldn’t be strong against Hillary after the primary. Total Village bullshit.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I am FB friends with a guy I knew in a college who played football. He is now a prison guard. And a tea bagging RWNJ. And so it goes…. The Sean Penn movie ‘Bad Boys’ was about a Juvie prison that I saw when I was 8 at a friend’s house in 1983. I’ve been creeped out about prison ever since. It terrorfies me.
PIGL
Jail La La.
I \heart Betty Cracker because she is so cool. To be any cooler at our age you’d have to be Sally Timms or Carol van Dijk.
Bitter Scribe
I liked Oz at first, then thought it kind of went off the rails. One thing that frosted me is that the prison board or whatever it was was so concerned with making the wimpy guy see how awful he was for accidentally killing a little girl but they didn’t give a shit that he was being horrifically abused by his cellie (J.K. Simmons).
jl
@Violet: Given the vicious loon show into which the GOP has degenerated, who will not emerge from the GOP primary bloodied and weaker? Sure, they will circle the wagons eventually, but for several reasons, the carnage of a GOP primary will be a disadvantage that any GOPer will have to deal with during the general.
Strangely, for party that the corporate media portrays as being in perpetual and severe disarray, that did not happen to the Democrats in 2008. I don’t think will happen if someone gives HRC a close run, or even wins, in 2016. Due to more cohesion on core issues, and also, well, far more sane people (at least for politicians).
I think Jeb! made things hard for Romney by successfully interfering with Romney’s potential run in early states, and the odds tipped over to not running.
David Koch
Suge Romney made sure to back up his campaign bus back and forth over Jebbie before fleeing.
What a child.
David Koch
This is Great News for
McCainDame Lindsey Graham!Roger Moore
@jl:
I think there’s a bigger difference: the issues. When you poll people on their opinions on various topics, the Democratic positions are generally a lot more popular than the Republican ones. A long, hard nomination fight gives the candidates a big forum to talk about their positions without a lot of media filtering. That’s a big win for Democrats, because people generally like what they have to say, and a big loss for Republicans, who expose just how vile they are.
Laura
@Another Holocene Human:
Right now – and until April 26th, artist Ai Wei Wei has an amazing Art Installation On Alcatraz. It is called At Large and is a series of works of various media in a number of buildings including cell blocks. There are areas on the prison island usually off limits to the public, including the hospital wing which includes Stroud’s room in the hospital.
I cannot express how moving this exhibit is – prisoners of conscience, and how we are each a potential convict. If you have any opportunity to see this important work in a beautifully oppressive location, do it!
delk
Did anybody mention Oz? Some pretty graphic violence and full frontal male nudity.
David Koch
this is actual great news for Hillary. polls show she slaughters bush. the beltway doesn’t get it – they can’t handle the truth – bush’s name is poison.
ThresherK
@max: I replace headlamps in pairs always. Hey, after the work I put in polishing those headlights, I don’t want to lose any of those lumens.
I really don’t know that the replaced coil was defective and changing it was going to alter any load on the electrical system. Witnessed symptoms were nil at idle and under load., and I only dug into this owing a fault code causing the check engine light to go on. When I take the steps to get the code reset we’ll see.
Jacel
For a very odd LSD-laced view of prison, see the movie “Skidoo”.
I keep wishing that MSNBC would turn Rachel Maddow loose on doing something with the weekend prison programming, because she actually knows something about the subject. Her doctoral thesis at Oxford was titled “HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons”.
Elizabelle
@Jacel:
Do NOT see “Skidoo.”
I live in fear Botsplainer will show up to torment us all on that topic.
Zinsky
Airplane “Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?”
Morzer
Speaking of “campy shit”, some uppity sodomites are derailing the Mighty Boosh Part III machine:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gay-couple-buy-jebbushforpresidentcom-web-domain-and-refuse-to-sell-10014048.html
Death Panel Truck
@Monty: Jail’s not so bad if they put you in work release. After I got my DUI on December 30, 1985, I spent a night in the drunk tank. I was by myself, so I slept it off. At about 5:30 the next morning an inmate came around and asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. He gave me a green plastic coffee cup with an old cigarette burn on the rim. Worst coffee I ever had – it tasted like someone had soaked a brown Crayola in hot water.
The judge sentenced me to 24 hours in jail. I went in on a Friday afternoon and was put into the work release section, even though I didn’t have a steady job then. The guys were cool for the most part – most were as young as I was (22.) We watched TV until midnight, and then college basketball the next morning and afternoon. I met a guy who knew my oldest brother (who definitely was no stranger to jail himself.) I was due to be released at 3 p.m. At 1:55, my name was called: “Time to go.” I wasn’t about to tell him, “Dude, I’m supposed to be in until 3.”
Two things sucked: one, during the night, some SOB stole the only pack of cigarettes I’d brought with me, and two, an inmate who’d injured himself working at Iowa Beef (it’s a Tyson plant now, east of Pasco, Washington) screamed in pain off and on all night. It’s hard to sleep with guys shouting, “SHUT THE FUCK UP, GODDAMNIT!” half the night.
Full metal Wingnut
@David Koch: And Jeb would’ve also burned Mittens in his statement if he were the one dropping out. You think *any* of those Republicans have class? It’s not unique to him. When Walker wins the nomination he’s gonna make older Rethugs like Romney and even Nixon look like Mr. Fucking Rogers.
Full metal Wingnut
@David Koch: All we need is for Team Hillary to grow a pair and run some nasty Bush attack ads. Shots of Iraq in chaos, planes hitting the twin towers, chaos after Katrina, fade to black “Are You Sure You Want Another Bush?”
David Koch
@Full metal Wingnut: also too: the stock market crashing, people losing their homes, and unemployment lines as far as the eye can see.
All set to the tune: “I remember you, you’re the one that made me feel so blue”