.
Consider yourself PSA’d. As an additional rouser, the NYTimes‘ Jennifer Steinhauer profiles Nancy Pelosi:
The quarterback Brett Favre has long retired. Cher shut down her most recent tour. Representative Nancy Pelosi — repeatedly written off and derided since her party lost the House in 2010 — powers on.
Ms. Pelosi, 74, maintains unwavering control over Democratic members of the House on legislation — in contrast to the House speaker, John A. Boehner, who continues to struggle with his cacophonous caucus — and she may be a surprisingly vital tool for the White House at the end of President Obama’s tenure.
Her lasting authority was demonstrated this week when she helped pass a measure from the Senate to avoid yet another government shutdown. That vote “strengthened our hand,” Ms. Pelosi said, a sentiment that many Republicans, who are eager to show that they can effectively govern, agree with, teeth clenched.
On the same day that she helped the vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security sail through the House thanks to Democratic support, Ms. Pelosi, the minority leader, served as the embodiment of White House rage over a speech by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to a joint meeting of Congress….
“If they thought I was rude,” Ms. Pelosi said during an interview in her Capitol Hill office as snow fell outside, “you can’t imagine how restrained I was!” Breaking for a millisecond from her normal studied dismissal of her omnipresent critics, she added, “I have endured so many around here.”
Ms. Pelosi’s continued reign often surprises, but it is based largely on her ability to manage her members, one at a time. It is generally easier to maintain cohesion in the minority, where members live to block the will of the majority. Further, two Republican waves in the House swept out most moderate Democrats, rendering the caucus more ideologically unified against Republicans, and more aligned with her brand of liberalism.
“I don’t think it takes a lot of skill to vote against an agenda,” said Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania…
And if there’s anyone who’s got experience in that area, it would be our modern Republican member.
Gotta love the barely-concealed Media Villager pique that Rep. Pelosi — who, in their estimation, is just another high-dollar entertainer like Favre or Cher — will not take their advice to retire already, and let them have a fresh new chew toy. Or, at the very least, she could curl up in the media-approved Democrat Fetal Position(tm), and stop insisting on doing her job while the toddlers on the other side of the aisle scream & fling poo. Rep. Pelosi raised five kids before getting into Congress, she’s got plenty experience dealing with cranky tantrums.
***********
Apart from such minor irritations, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
The switch to daylight savings time means one less hour of sleep for you, and one less hour at work for me. Note that I didn’t say one less hour of work for me, as a couple of systems blew up right as the time changed.
And I am simultaneous working here and up in Grand Forks for the WCHA women’s hockey final four. You can see the pictures here.
Ruckus
Saturday was a great day. The WH site didn’t work, probably overloaded, CSpan3 didn’t work so 2 down. Then just in time Iowa Old Lady mentioned that the president’s speech was on YouTube. Got to see John Lewis and then the president give a wonderful speech. Also found a wonderful PBS video series called Craft in America. The first one I looked at was about vets finding themselves in craftwork, and it was a government program that provided the classes and info that got them started. The show, while not as grand as the presidents speech, has moved me much more than I could have imagined it would. I went for a short run. I haven’t done that in about 5 yrs. I managed to make it around one entire block. It was a great Saturday. Sunday can’t be as good but I’ll give it a go anyway.
NotMax
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym
The one distinct memory of the only time was in Grand Forks (on the way to visit a friend in East Grand Forks, MN) was the pervasive odor of old potatoes evident from about 10 miles outside of town.
Well, that and being pleasantly surprised at being served a pretty decent pizza in Grand Forks.
Hal
I’ve been binge watching the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix and I’m loving it. Tituss Burgess and Elie Kemper are great, along with the rest of the cast. It’s a wee bit too 30 Rock influenced at times, but overall, a really funny show.
My one problem with Netflix shows when I find one a really like; once it’s over you can either re-watch a million times, or wait months and months for another season. I’m might try and make this last awhile, but I’m already 5 episodes into the show.
Amir Khalid
It’s the first anniversary of MH370’s disappearance. Today is a day of commemoration in Malaysia.
OzarkHillbilly
The Iron Lady.
NotMax
@Hal
Was glad to see that Vicious granted a second season.
Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as two old queens who’ve lived as a couple for 50 years. Scenery chewing par excellence.
Plus the spooky-eyed kid from Misfits as their upstairs neighbor.
NotMax
Fixed for italics error.
@Hal
Was glad to see that Vicious granted a second season.
Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as two old queens who’ve lived as a couple for 50 years. Scenery chewing par excellence.
Plus the spooky-eyed kid from Misfits as their upstairs neighbor.
Mustang Bobby
@NotMax: I love Vicious because it reminds me of two of my closest friends, and Derek Jacobi with that beard is a dead ringer for one of my college classmates who I had a slight crush on 45 years ago and gets better with age.
Off this morning for the annual Biltmore Way classic car show in downtown Coral Gables, hoping the “chance of showers” prediction passes before the sun comes up an hour later than normal today.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@NotMax: They have an Olive Garden there now.
raven
We’re watching Top of the Lake with Elisabeth Moss and directed by Jane Campion. It’s a weird New Zealand murder mystery than I’m not sure we really like but what the hey!
Keith G
My home is filled with devices that are web connected. It seems like none of them agree on the time. On my so-called smart phone, the home screen displays the time twice. I am being told that it is 4:34 and 6:34. Of course the actual CDT is 5:34.
This did not happen in the Autumn.
I want to go back to bed, but there is baking to be done.
Jay C
@OzarkHillbilly:
You just know that if Nancy Pelosi were a Republican, you would be gagging from the clouds of awed admiration the Village Media would be generating in each and every thrill-laced puff-piece they produced..
But since she’s a Democrat (and worse, an effective one), most profiles tend to treat her as a sort of eccentric-aunt type: the sort who may have been elected Mayor of the town, but all the family wants to talk about is gossip about her clothes….
satby
The dogs decided to spring forward at 5:09 this morning… which was still 4:09 on all my clocks. In my head I know I only got up one hour early but in my heart it feels like 2. To add insult to injury, the little fuckers went back to sleep and didn’t even get up to go out, leaving me wide awake in the dark. I like DST anyway, and now that it’s almost 7 am, I’m going to wake them all up and make them go out. As soon as I finish this coffee.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jay C: Yep, exactly what I was getting at.
And Republicans describe her as the Anti-Christ.
PurpleGirl
The Google doodle tells me it’s International Women’s Day. It isn’t animated but has a lot of small pictures of women doing things, for example walking in space, being a judge (Notorious RBG pictured), doing a science experiment.
ETA: RWNJ will not like it because it has a Muslim woman painting calligraphy (besides the fact (!) that it honors women.
Cervantes
@Ruckus:
Great comment!
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Having no answer is so very difficult. Hang in there.
Cervantes
@raven:
I liked it.
Was great to see Moss as the lead.
Cervantes
You’re maligning toddlers.
Zinsky
Nancy Pelosi is one classy lady and Barbara Mikulski was too. Democratic women in Congress sure have a lot more going on than their Republican counterparts! I’m only in my 50’s and I never thought I would say this about a woman in her mid-70s, but Nancy Pelosi is hot! She is still very sexy at 74. I guess it has something to do with the brain being the greatest aphrodisiac! Today I need to work on my tax return and my 26 yr. old son’s return and then pack for a seven day trip to Florida – Wahoo!
Baud
Booman:
Raven
@Cervantes: paradise is a little goofy. Strangely we are also watching Paradise because of the lead from Happy valley.
Baud
@Zinsky:
She’s still alive.
gogol's wife
@Jay C:
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the Democrat-friendly tone of that article. But I have low expectations for the Times.
Cervantes
@Raven:
Have not seen those.
It was Moss’s lead billing in Top of the Lake that caught the eye.
Zinsky
@Baud: I’m not sure which post from “Booman” you are referencing, but I wanted to say at a little about Newsmax. Newsmax, in the early days of the Internet had what they called the Newsmax Forum, which was like a series of chat rooms organized by topic. It got to be so vicious and hardcore (people were calling each other’s workplace, spouse, etc. and getting them fired or divorced) that they had to take it down! My brother-in-law and I used to go on and post under different peoples screen names (they had a very immature registration system) and cause all kinds of havoc with conservatives there – it was hilarious! One time, there was a prominent conservative who went by the screen name Daniel Boone, and we posted some things under his name saying how much he liked to dress up in womens’ clothing etc. – too funny! It was a snake pit!
Cervantes
@Zinsky:
Such shenanigans! — Nancy would surely not approve.
Baud
@Zinsky:
Family values!
Here is a link to the Booman post.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/3/8/0478/69097
Kathleen
Thanks for the post, AL. What an amazing woman. She does not get the credit she deserves.
mai naem mobile
I was looking at the pics of the Obamas walking across the bridge. Sasha’s really shot up. She looks just a little shorter than Michelle. I thought Malia was going to end up.being taller than the president when i saw a pic of them a couple of years ago but it seems like her growth spurt is over. But, damn they’re both tall. Bet they could get college basketball scholarships if they have some of their dad’s skills.
Baud
Hmm. Maybe bugging Merkel’s phone was that hard to do after all.
Zinsky
@Baud: OK, thanks for the link – it gives me some context. I agree with Booman, Newsmax is a criminal organization. Keep in mind that the editor-in-chief of Newsmax is Christopher Ruddy, who was behind a lot of the mock Clinton Scandals of the 1990s. He was a major player behind the “Vince Foster was murdered” myth, despite a complete lack of evidence that foul play was involved. He milked that cow for many years. I have noticed that Newsmax is trying to appear more bipartisan, but don’t be fooled – it is controlled by the lowest of the low right-wing scum on the planet!
Baud
@Zinsky:
I wonder if outfits like Newsmax will actually try to help Clinton win the election. It has to be much better for their bottom line.
raven
@Cervantes: I was meaning the “Paradise” in Top of the Lake as well as the series “Paradise”. The series ran two seasons and didn’t get review. It’s very similar to Mr Selfridge.
raven
@mai naem mobile: You can bet Michelle can play too.
http://dcist.com/2014/01/heres_a_gif_of_michelle_obama_dunki.php
Eric NNy
Loves me some Nancy. She’s helped teach me about what equal rights and feminism are all about. She was the one who made it click in my fat head.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Just FYI: Ruddy and Bill Clinton are now (what passes for) friends. Ruddy has, in retrospect, praised the Clinton presidency; and has joined the former president on trips organized by the Clinton Foundation.
ThresherK
Of course Newsmax’s feed is full of shit. However, if the Newsmax people want to waste their money sowing their proverbial mustard seeds on the most barren ground imaginable…
(Something clever about “drinking their bourbon, eating their beefsteaks, screwing their broads, and voting against them anyway” goes here.)
Cervantes
@Eric NNy:
A better, more succinct tribute to her is difficult to imagine.
Baud
@Cervantes:
Wacky. Still, the bottom line is uber alles.
Hildebrand
Having the Newsmax feed on this site is like having a little window into the Kingdom of the Mole People. Good to know what they are up to, nice to not have to actually visit.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Note also that in 2004 Ruddy began to oppose Bush’s invasion of Iraq — two years too late, no doubt, but it’s still more than can be said of many others.
msdc
@gogol’s wife:
Possibly because you were primed by Anne Laurie’s post, which takes a fairly glowing profile of Pelosi’s authority and turns it into “barely-concealed Media Villager pique.”
At some point, all the complaints about media bias become self-fulfilling prophecies.
MattF
Went around last night resetting clocks– there were six. Why my microwave has to know the date is one of those modern mysteries– I set it to 11/11/11. Remains to change the clock in my car and the clock in my office.
In the meantime, WaPo explains to the serfs why political dynasties are a good thing:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-defense-of-political-dynasties/2015/03/06/1bdd0a18-c232-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html
Cervantes
@MattF:
The author, political academic Matthew Dallek, happens to be the son of none other than political academic Robert Dallek.
ThresherK
@raven: I had been saying for years that either of the Obama girls should be recruited, and hard, by a mid-level college team with great academics.
Ya probably don’t even have to offer them scholarships. I mean, it would be really OKIYAR should the Drinking Daughters of W had grabbed free rides to some overburdened public or private college to pursue their names as “scholars”, but a couple of black Democrats? Horror!
(Not worth the five seconds to look it up: All I remember of them are their drinking arrests. Did the Bush girls actually go to college? Did they graduate? Did they take any of it more seriously than their wastrel dad did?)
Pogonip
@MattF: My rice cooker knows what time it is in Japan, where it was manufactured. There were a couple of pages of instruction on changing the clock; I never bothered.
RSA
I bought a car yesterday, a 2006 Audi A4 quattro 3.0 convertible. It’s sunny today, and the temps should be in the mid-60s by afternoon…
Baud
@Cervantes:
Do you know everything about everybody?
ThresherK
Is the WaPo article just another entry in the cesspool of BothSides? (Bushes are covered like a dynasty, meta worrying re dynasties means it’s at least half about the Clintons.)
(Yeah, another “do I want to increment the WaPo’s click count by even one?” dilemma.)
raven
@ThresherK:
Jenna Bush graduated from UT Austin with a degree in English in 2004.
Doesn’t say if she graduated but Barb is listed as an Alum ofYale University, (B.A. in Humanities, 2004)
OzarkHillbilly
@ThresherK: I leave the children of Presidents out of my political discussions.
MattF
@Cervantes: Hah. That could explain why the article is splashed across the front page of today’s Outlook section but is nowhere to be found online. I had to search for it to get the URL.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Presidential historian Dallek père happens to be a friend.
debbie
Could Dent possibly have said this with a straight face?
BGK
Why would lizard-man Rick Scott’s PAC be running television commercials – touting how great Florida’s economy is doing (heh), how much “we’re” investing in infrastructure and environmental protection – in pretty heavy rotation, now? It seems very much like his campaign commercials. We don’t even have any significant off-year elections this year.
He’s not seriously angling for a vice presidential slot, is he?
Cervantes
@raven:
Yes, she is a graduate.
Cervantes
@debbie:
He knows whereof he speaks.
ThresherK
@RSA: Woohoo! Think spring.
(At this point I’m glad let my motorcycle’s reg lapse, owing to other priorities. In addition to paying that while waiting for the weather to catch up, the nine-month insurance I favor would have started a week ago.)
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, first: I don’t have kids, and never will. So I’m not deeply speculating about anyone’s parenting from my anonymous perch on the internets. Especially a public figure.
But at some point when the following actions are no longer separated by party, I may follow your example.
“GOP Staffer Apologizes For Lecturing Obama Daughters To ‘Show A Little Class’ “(from Thanksgiving 2014).
“Freepers publicize private contact information, issue death threats to Austin bar manager, after Bush daughter tries to go underage drinking ” (from 2001).
debbie
@raven:
Love that, but I’m too afraid to read the comments.
OzarkHillbilly
@ThresherK: I don’t measure my behavior by other people’s yardsticks.
Botsplainer
For Freddie DeBoer haterz, he took a steaming, wet, greasy dump, first up, in the comments section of Gawker’s Selma Anniversary thread. He’s not having a good time of it – apparently, he doesn’t really mean to say Democrats suck and that Obama is the real oppressor of blacks when he says it, and everybody misunderstands him.
http://gawker.com/obama-we-know-the-march-is-not-over-yet-1690093539
Baud
@Cervantes: Cool. Must be nice having friends.
Davis X. Machina
@Jay C:
Beats constant complaining that she’s hogging the job that [_________ ] by rights should have.
a. Alan Grayson
b. Maxine Waters
c. Raúl Grijalva
d. Jan Schakowsky
e. Marcia Fudge
f. Marcy Kaptur….
Cervantes
@Baud:
It certainly was!
Nowadays, though, the “silent artillery of time” is what one hears.
(Quoted with thanks to Mr. Lincoln.)
Botsplainer
@Davis X. Machina:
I’m eagerly awaiting the shitshow that is destined to play on a continual loop, aka the Grayson for Senate campaign.
Lots of red meat for purity progressives and Raw Story writers to breathlessly proclaim “Grayson slams …, Russell Brand agrees…”, all while middle voters get alienated in droves.
Baud
@Cervantes:
Better to mourn a mighty oak than to celebrate a pestilent weed.
— Baud
The Golux
@RSA: I have a 2002 Audi TT convertible. With the rear glass up and the heated seats, my cutoff temperature for putting the top down is 40 degrees, and lower than that if I’m not going on the highway. I had a nice top-down ride yesterday.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
LOL Freddie.
bemused
@Cervantes:
The Obama girls are stunning. I am looking forward to seeing what paths they and their parents take after they leave the WH.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: Oddly enough, Mr WereBear — an old DC hand, once-“centrist”, took me a while to radicalize him –is highly admiring of Grayson. With moderate Democrats mowed down lately, I find his outspoken articulation most refreshing, and he’d have my vote.
Davis X. Machina
@Botsplainer:
‘Getting alienated’ is the incorrect response. Those people we don’t need.
The correct response is ‘getting energized’.
America’s scores of millions of silent, but natural, social democrats, need our example.
smintheus
@debbie: Doesn’t take a lot of skill to get elected in Dent’s district now that it’s been gerrymandered out of recognition.
Mike in NC
Just heard Bob Schieffer will host Benny Netanyahu and Mitch McConnell this morning on his program “Face the Fascists”. Must flee TV.
RSA
@ThresherK:
Aw, that’s something I thought I’d never hear!
@The Golux:
Nice! I need for it to be warmer, in the 50s, but it always gives me a smile to see people like you, driving top down, with the snow not even finished melting.
Iowa Old Lady
I read on a PC and I get Wonkette rather than Newsmax.
max
@Botsplainer: I’m eagerly awaiting the shitshow that is destined to play on a continual loop, aka the Grayson for Senate campaign.
Is he running against Rubio? Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is ‘considering’ running.
max
[‘Shitshow sounds likes an improvement over a ‘graceful’ loss by Wasserman-Schultz.’]
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
For a while after Wonkette replaced Newsmax on the website, I was still getting Newsmax on the mobile site. Now I don’t get Newsmax on either site. I’m on a PC and Chrome for Android.
Suzanne
I think Nancy Pelosi is just tremendous. She’s another one who is tough as nails, and I love it. As someone of Italian descent, I have to say that I also appreciate having an Italian woman in a position of such prominence and power in government, because the Mafia bride stereotype is still real, and she does such a great job dispelling it.
The younger Barbara Bush is indeed a Yale graduate, from what I understand, and her boyfriend is apparently a very liberal artist. I don’t think she shares her family’s politics, but also wants to stay out of the public eye and do her own thing. Both of those things show great judgment.
Malia and Sasha are beautiful.
Freddie fail. God, I enjoy watching a good Freddie fail. LMMFAO,
Suzanne
@Suzanne: Barbara P. Bush is the founder of Global Health Corps, an organization dedicated to the mission that “healthcare is a human right”. She has publicly supported gay marriage and does a great deal of work in Africa to improve healthcare access.
She’s the one who should be running for office.
Botsplainer
@Davis X. Machina:
Actually, we DO need them, just like the establishment GOP needs the teabigots to fill out vote totals.
Progressives fuck up when they think that the only thing missing from D campaigns in exurbs and ruralities is abrasive rhetoric, activists with hemp fiber covered hackey sacks, vegan campaign dinners and insults directed toward the mores of everyone they ever cared for.
Iowa Old Lady
OMG. Mr IOL watches the Fox Sunday show for point and laugh opportunities. I have the door shut because I can’t stand it, but I just went out to get a glass of water and heard Chris Wallace say, “But what if there’s an email about Benghazi?” Apparently the whole show is about HRC’s emails.
msdc
@Botsplainer: Amen to that.
My only hope is that Grayson will alienate Florida Democratic primary voters and piss away the nomination before he has an opportunity to alienate Florida general election voters and piss away what should be a prime pickup opportunity in a presidential election year.
Davis X. Machina
@Botsplainer: No revolution without a vanguard party!
¡VIva Dean!
Germy Shoemangler
Amusing: “Did Rush Limbaugh Just Admit Defeat?”
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/did_rush_limbaugh_just_admit_defeat
One of the commenters refers to him as Fatty Rushbuckle, which may be the best nickname I’ve heard yet.
RaflW
“’I don’t think it takes a lot of skill to vote against an agenda,’ said Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania.”
And the GOP, which predicated its entire 8 years of Obama’s two terms on voting against him, has shown that lack of skill, over and over again, spectacularly.
Botsplainer
@msdc:
Do bears shit in the woods? Is water wet? Is the pope Catholic?
When he’s having to appeal to a statewide demographic, he’s going to learn hard lessons.
WereBear
@Germy Shoemangler: That was a great start to International Women’s Day!
KS in MA
@Baud:
She’s still in the Senate, too.
WaterGirl
I usually try to read the comments before I wrote one, but not this morning. I’m too excited. When I got up to let the dogs out just now, it smelled like spring! I don’t care that it’s only 37 degrees, it smells like spring.
realbtl
It’s 24 and sunny here in NW Montana so I’m getting the Miata out for a top down ride 40 miles to Glacier NP. This is why god created down coats, seat heaters and Bugatti caps.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: The reason I like him is that he uses simple, emotional, language to describe the effects of Republican policies.
If wonkery worked President Dukakis would be considered for Mount Rushmore. But he ain’t. And he won’t be.
ThresherK
@RSA: Other priorities, which are now out of the way. Plus this loooong winter leaves me out of my regular “When are they sweeping the sand off the roads for spring?” and still in “When do they have to next sand the roads?”
Looking forward to two-wheeling on both the CB750F and the Trek.
“They” say it’s good to run the AC in a car about 10 mins every week, as it helps with the internal lubrication of the closed system. I did once hear the death squeal of a relative’s automobile AC compressor, when the AC was not started for 18 mos, so I like to follow this advice, even if unnecessary.
Today it was warm and bright enough to do this and actually turn the temp control to the cooler side of the continuum after my car was parked in the sun.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If you’re wondering about the substance of emailghazi, Lindsey Graham has answer for you, in the form of questions. Serious Questions. This is a matter that Raises Serious Questions
Some naive part of my brain is surprised that we’re going back to the “did they call it terrorism, or just an act of terror?”
Suzanne
It is 60 glorious degrees here in the land of no Daylight Savings Time.
I have to do my taxes today. Woohoo. Nonstop fun.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And why did Obama never show us a birth certificate, only a certificate of live birth?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I propose we call all future terrorist attacks “Lindsies.”
Botsplainer
@WereBear:
For every smart thing he says, he does 5 more like this:
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/07/1356260/-Now-the-Nazis-REALLY-Hate-Me
That is the sort of thing that bites you on the ass with the general electorate.
Like Bernie Sanders basing this potential primary run on “doing well on Facebook”, Grayson handing out squirming meat to the Kos crowd is a hill on which general election campaigns go to die.
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: Much better employed otherwise. “Don’t get your Lindsies in a twist.”
If it was good enough for Amelia Bloomer, it’s good enough for ol’ Lindsay.
shelley
Plus a laugh track straight from the ’60’s. And that creepy eyed kid is also the torturer from Game Of Thrones. I keep waiting for him to pull out a shiv.
But I love it too.
***************************
Re: The NewsMax feed. Half of their titiles are sponsored ads. Some new kind of crap is always ‘taking CVS by storm!’
shelley
I’ve got a digital clock that’s supposed to reset itself in these situations. But the manual says it can take 2-3 days. Oh, and to make sure it’s pointed toward Colorado.
shelley
Oh, and a reminder. The best of the Trek movies ‘The Wrath Of Khan’ is on tonight. VH1 classic at 8 PM
Mike J
90 seconds in and Liverpool has a player laid out.
Violet
I know it’s a tag, but the thread’s been up hours and no one has said NANCY SMASH! Disappointing….
Botsplainer
@shelley:
I still don’t understand why control panels explode in the 23rd century.
Howard Beale IV
@shelley: That’s where WWVB is located-specifically, Fort Collins, CO.
Violet
Turned the TV on this morning and Meet The Press was on. Decided to watch the segment on Selma. Of course that execrable toupeed beaver Chuck Todd had to spend a minute of his scant coverage of the historic event talking about the NBC reporter who ended up in the hospital after being injured at the Selma march. “Reporters risked their lives too!” Of course Chuckles the clown to has to make it all about his group of people. Disgusting.
Germy Shoemangler
Just saw the SNL cold open with Hillary addressing her email issue. Kate does the best Hillary.
The voice, the eyes, the little hand gestures. She “shares” her instagram photos (different shots of her texting with sunglasses)
Amir Khalid
@Botsplainer:
Fuses go out of style later in this century.
RobertDSC-iPhone 6
Cookie for new phone.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: I know! They should be covered in sparklies and send blue-veined lightning around the room, considering what they are manipulating behind those panels.
@Botsplainer: Per Grayson:
Granted, the Democrats I know love this kind of thing. Because it’s true.
And who are the people being turned off? Do they VOTE? Because, once again based on my own experience, the kinds of people who whine when I say something true about a Republican, are voting Republican.
Violet
@Germy Shoemangler: Kate McKinnon does a great Hillary. It’ll be fun to watch her.
shelley
@Botsplainer: Or why Captain Sulu is drinking coffee out of a breakable ceramic cup. (different movie)
Botsplainer
@Violet:
I turned on Chuckles briefly – he was babbling incoherently about the horse race narrative on the bipartisan nature of governors in states with the least changes in uninsured rates on their exchanges.
Since he’s blocked me from his Twitter feed and eliminated my ability to insult him directly, I switched to an infomercial.
SFAW
@Cervantes:
… sworn enemy of The Doctor?
rikyrah
Nancy Smash rocks!
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Running state-wide would be different, of course, but in his last House primary he won 75% of the vote; and in the general beat the Republican by more than 10 percentage points.
Anyhow, you seem to disapprove of him pretty thoroughly — but why?
Violet
@Botsplainer: I wouldn’t have watched it but when I turned on the TV he was interviewing John Lewis so I rewound to watch the whole Selma segment. I couldn’t believe that he spent sixty seconds showing the NBC coverage of the the successful march–not just where the marchers got beaten but the successful one–and then talked about their reporter who was injured. Give me a fucking break.
He also asked John Lewis twice–TWICE–why he wasn’t bitter. He sounded incredulous the first time that John Lewis said he wasn’t bitter so he had to ask again. Chuck Todd is a petty, vile person.
Cervantes
@Baud:
True by definition, if nothing else.
Baud
Thanks, Obama (WSJ)
D58826
Better stock up on emergency supplies per Mitch McConnell on the tube today
Mike J
@Cervantes:
And before a safe seat was drawn for him, lost by 18 points in the general election before that.
That’s the only thing I have against him.
Botsplainer
@shelley:
F’rinstance, why does the subspace radio require a person to listen for signals? Why does the helm require so much interaction? Why should Spock stoop to read the science instruments and scanners? Why so much analog interaction on the transporter controls?
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Wait — you disapprove of his response to the folks at stormfront.org?
Mandalay
The project is not receiving much publicity yet, but later today two men are attempting to fly around the world on a plane using only solar power.
Top speed is only 87 mph, but if they make it then burning zero gallons per mile will be pretty impressive.
WereBear
This is how he will be to me from now on!
Cervantes
@Mike J:
If he’s in a “safe seat” now, how would you characterize the district that (previously) failed to elect him?
Mike J
@Botsplainer:
Much like today’s autopilots, the computers don’t fly the ship. The pilot flies the plane and the autopilot is one of the tools she uses to do it. Pilots are constantly interacting with a wide variety of systems, even when the computer is doing the stick and rudder stuff.
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
Because I see him as the left’s version of Todd Akin.
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
Read it again, and tell me that he’s only talking to Don Black’s Merry Men.
Frankensteinbeck
My god, the double standards in that excerpt were appalling.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s a bizarre and childish semantic complaint to us, because we aren’t hardcore racists. They believe that Obama hates America, that he is Kenyan/Muslim/Other. Benghazigate is all about that. They are trying to catch him out, finally get proof that the whole world has to acknowledge, that he agrees with and supports Islamic terrorists. They were really hoping for proof that he deliberately let the Benghazi consulate staff be murdered, but it’s important supportive evidence that they prove he tried to cover up it being an act of Islamic Terrorism (a redundancy, to them).
Redshift
@RaflW: And the funniest thing is that the examples discussed in the article, Nancy is advancing measures and the GOP is *still* just opposing, even though they have a majority.
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Thanks. I read it a number of times before asking what your specific objection is, presuming you have one (or more).
Mike J
@Cervantes: His current district is the 9th, most of the votes are in Orlando. It’s a D+8 seat. The old 8th was a toss up seat (after redistricting it’s now a R+9).
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Thanks. Feel free to elaborate (your meaning is not exactly clear to me).
Violet
@WereBear: Happy to help!
Cervantes
@Mike J:
Thanks. If the point is that running state-wide is going to be more of a challenge for him than he’s used to, I agree.
Davis X. Machina
@WereBear:
They’re as likely, or more likely, to be soi-disant independents, or sporadic voters, loosely attached to the political process, whose propensity to vote goes down when the number of elbows thrown goes up.
Happy warriors are still warriors.
max
@Botsplainer: Because I see him as the left’s version of Todd Akin.
Or he could be ‘the left’s version of Ted Cruz’. You may have overlearned the Todd Akin experience. That said:
@Cervantes: Running state-wide would be different, of course, but in his last House primary he won 75% of the vote; and in the general beat the Republican by more than 10 percentage points.
Thing is, ignoring the chuft around Grayson, the situation is thus: Jeb Bush is the likely R nominee. Which means that he is quite likely to carry Florida. Since most voters turn out for top of the ballot races and then vote a party line ticket, that means that the D candidate against Rubio is likely going to lose. (Rubio isn’t going anywhere in the presidential race, and being veep is a non-starter if Bush is the nominee. Being the veep nominee for somebody else isn’t terribly likely either. His presidential campaign is probably primping for the Senate campaign and also positioning for 2020 or 2024.)
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is thinking about running, and if she did, she might very well have to quit being chairman of the DNC (cross your fingers!) and if she runs she’s going to lose to Rubio in the circumstances outlined above.
Ergo, there’s no sense in wasting Grayson’s talent in the race when Wasserman-Schultz can run as the sacrificial lamb.
max
[‘Therefore Grayson should not run, and leave the way clear for DWS.’]
Mandalay
@max:
Grayson has already strongly suggested that if DWS decides to run against Rubio then he wouldn’t get in her way.
Germy Shoemangler
@max: Wouldn’t Rubio be their cynical choice for VP because The Hispanics! Same reason Thomas was selected for SCOTUS – Because Bush wanted someone “on their side” to replace Thurgood?
He’s young, and fits the demographic they want. He seems like he’ll say and do anything to please them.
Violet
@Germy Shoemangler: You can’t have the President and VP from the same state. So if Jeb was the Republican nominee he couldn’t pick Rubio unless one of them changed their residency, a la Cheney.
If someone else like Walker won the nomination then he could pick Rubio as VP candidate.
The Golux
@RSA: I just came in from shoveling through a waist-high drift (from a week ago) that was across the path to the compost bin.
msdc
@WereBear:
And if frothing mad progressive poutrage worked, Grayson would still be holding his old congressional district instead of getting kicked out and having to shop around for a new one.
Not a method that scales up too well at the state level. Just ask Scott Brown!
Germy Shoemangler
@Violet: Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that.
I can see Walker getting the nomination. I personally find him repulsive, but I felt the same way about Reagan.
Amir Khalid
It’s, like, 13:00 over there. Shouldn’t there be a new thread?
Violet
@Germy Shoemangler: I think Walker’s more like Nixon.
Violet
@Amir Khalid: Yes there should! Someone said you were invited to be a front pager here but turned it down. You could have started a new thread for us!
Tommy
@Germy Shoemangler: I honestly don’t know if even Walker can tact far enough to the right to get to the general.
Germy Shoemangler
@Violet: Agreed. I get the same vibe from him…. of certain personal scores to be settled. I think it’s deeply personal with him. I feel like his goal is to punish some people.
Cervantes
@msdc:
Question-begging rhetoric aside for just a moment, do we actually know why Grayson lost that election?
Amir Khalid
@Violet:
I turned it down because of stage fright. It’s been a while since I was a journo, and I’d never blogged before. Anyway, I have no power now to start a new thread, so that’s me off the hook.
Germy Shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: You make some of the smartest comments. There are certain people here who I perk up when I see their name, because I know I’ll get a good read. There’s actually quite a few great writers here. Lots of information, good analysis, wisdom and humor.
J R in WV
Pretty amazing photos and film, both of the events 50 years ago and the events of right now today. I was 14 when the first Selma marches took place. Actually they were trying to march to Montgomery, the state capitol, passing through Selma to start.
The cops beat them down in Selma, and IIRC the federal troops were called in to prevent police violence against non-violent protestors. I barely understood the issues, but it was easy to understand the violence shown on evening TV news.
Shame we don’t get that kind of coverage of modern non-violent protests being broken up by violent abusive Republican cops…
Mandalay
@Violet:
Nobody is going to pick Rubio as their VP. His ever changing positions on immigration are probably a liability for attracting undecided Hispanic voters, and as each day passes, and old people die and kids turn 18, fewer and fewer voters give a flying shit about Castro. Besides, he’s dumber than a box of rocks.
Rubio brings absolutely nothing to the table as a VP candidate.
Tommy
@Mandalay: I think his overall stance on immigration kills him in the Republican party. Of course his stance seems to have changed many times, but at one time in the not to distance past he was almost sane on the issue. Hardcore Republicans will NEVER forgive him for this. And I just don’t see him getting much traction with Hispanic voters either. I am not Hispanic but the Hispanic people I know will vote on this one issue. And if you hold an opinion that you will deport their family and friends, well you are not going to get their support.
Germy Shoemangler
@Mandalay: Well, so was Quayle. But the cynics decided he’d appeal to younger voters (pause for laughter and general applause)
Keith G
@Violet:
If Nixon were a small time pol with no historic vision and a reduced IQ.
max
@Mandalay: Grayson has already strongly suggested that if DWS decides to run against Rubio then he wouldn’t get in her way.
Hadn’t heard that. Nice to know, thanks.
@Germy Shoemangler: He’s young, and fits the demographic they want. He seems like he’ll say and do anything to please them.
Yeah, maybe. But being from the same state isn’t going to fly well – in particular since Florida would lose all it’s EV’s (that’s the actual rule) and the R ticket, any R ticket, needs Florida bad. So if Jeb is in, Rubio is out. And if Rubio is out, he needs to try for the Senate again (and he is the incumbent).
So if Jeb gets the nom, the Florida top lines will have Jeb (former Governor) and Rubio for Senate.
Not an easy race for a D Senate candidate. Probable loser, actually. Clinton might be able to barely carry Florida in the teeth of a Jeb ticket but it’s going to kind of a long shot. I expect she won’t waste much effort. Rubio is primping for another year or maybe another job, but it benefits his nascent Senate reelection campaign anyways.
As for having a Hispanic on the ticket – if they’re trying for appeal across racial line and trying to make the Tea Baggers happy, Ted Cruz is a way better bet.
max
[‘So. Prospects for a D Senate seat from Florida in 2016 look dim. But many other states also have Senate elections coming up…’]
Violet
@Amir Khalid: I get it. I hope you reconsider, though. You write beautifully and have wonderful insights. Maybe you could start with subject matter less scary. You could post silly pictures and create Open Threads for starters.
Cervantes
@max:
So … Grayson will likely not win state-wide (period, or particularly if Jeb Bush is at the top of the competing ticket), therefore Grayson should hold on to his House seat?
Sounds reasonable enough — a normal calculation candidates have to make all the time — but how does it explain the expressed antipathy towards Grayson?
Violet
@Mandalay: Take that comment to the person who suggested Rubio as a VP pick. My comment was strictly about legal logistics. You can’t have the President and VP from the same state. If a non-Florida person wins the nomination then they could (please note the conditional) choose Rubio.
Violet
@Keith G: Yep. Walker isn’t smart like Nixon, nor does he have the political skills. I do think he has the pettiness of Nixon though. I don’t think Walker is like Reagan at all, which was the initial comparison.
Mike J
@Cervantes:
He was viewed as getting his support from out of state and he compared his opponent to the taliban. Here’s one of his ads:
Looking like you’re attacking your opponent’s religion isn’t good when 80% of the electorate claim to share that religion.
msdc
@Cervantes: He won a swing district by four points in the Obama wave of 2008. He proceeded to play to the netroots, not his district. In his 2010 campaign he ran the type of ads we criticize Republicans for airing and they got the kind of response anyone could expect. He lost his district by 18 points. That’s a 22-point swing, about 5 points larger than the swing in the generic congressional ballot.
So yes, question-deflecting rhetoric aside, we do know why he lost and we can put a very precise handicap on his mouth. It’s about 5 points in a state that’s already R+4. In other words, no, Alan Grayson will not be the next senator from Florida and Dems should look to nominate somebody else.
(If they have anybody else. I have absolutely no confidence in the Florida Dems’ bench.)
Mandalay
@Germy Shoemangler:
That is undoubtedly true, and the snag for Rubio is that if by pleasing the GOP he is alienating the voters:
His GOP opponents will pound Rubio as being for immigration before he was against it. And Democrats will pound him as being hostile to immigrants, and willing to say anything to get elected. Everyone is going to toss this bullshitter into the wood chipper. He is screwed. He is playing way out of his league right now, and needs to focus on not losing his Senate seat.
Cervantes
@Violet:
Seconded.
Again.
scav
@Violet: Some semi-open threads half devoted to news (and pets, the movement of athletic spheroids by various means, unexplicable memes) outside the US-anglophone sphere popping up at odd hours would also be appeciated. And like you, I trust Amir for all sorts of stuff no matter what hemisphere — he’s already stalker tested as well.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Dammit, Amir. Balloon Juice needs you!
And so does America!
Mike in NC
@Tommy: Walker is wholly-owned and operated by the Koch brothers, and they’ll spent hundreds of millions to put their boy in the Oval Office. They seem to think it would be a great ROI.
wolvesvalley
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Your Olive Garden review link led me to this story for our pet lovers (sorry for HuffPost link). I cried watching the video, but it has a happy ending.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Second that you should be a front pager, Amir.
A highly sporadic one, if you prefer.
Tell us what the man or woman on the ground thinks about MH370, or the United States or what’s going on in Greece, or what’s pop culture, or why we would really like _____ if we just knew about it.
You gots the thinking and writing chops, Amir.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: It’s never too late to change your mind!
Elizabelle
@Germy Shoemangler: Wasn’t it us wimmenz that were going to go for Dan Quayle, hooke, line and sinkere?
Especially once we got a gander at Mrs. Quayle with her water buffalo culture warrior hairdo and uncompromising views on abortion?
Did DQ even appeal to Phyllis Schlafly?
Mike J
Liverpool has consistently outclassed Blackburn, but if they can’t put the biscuit in the basket, it will be a fac up.
Violet
@Mike J: That’s another thing Amir could post–Liverpool threads!
Mandalay
@msdc:
We have this guy: http://patrickmurphy.house.gov/
He’s pretty bland, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in a tight election, and he’s certainly a better choice than DWS or Grayson. Plus he got Allen West slung out of Congress, so we owe him bigtime.
AdamK
Dead blog.
Baud
@Violet:
Amir could do it all: U.S. politics, international politics, music, non-American football, culture, open threads, etc.
Violet
@Tommy:
This malapropism cracked me right up. I doubt Walker can tact himself anywhere.
Violet
@Baud: Amir could do anything. But he’s got stage fright, as he said above. So we were suggesting he start with easy things like Open Threads and funny pictures. And then maybe branch out into other things. Don’t want to spook him by asking him to do too much right away!
Corner Stone
@Baud:
Geez, talk about no pressure.
I think you all are tapping into what he was alluding to.
Baud
@Violet:
I left out pets! Amir has a cat.
Baud
@Violet: @Corner Stone:
Fair enough.
I think Cole should give him the keys so he can do open threads at least. Let him ease into anything else.
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
That’s “linee.”
WaterGirl
@Violet: I think you may be using the wrong verb tense here. I read Amir’s original comment above as explaining why he turned it down at the time, but I am sensing a more open mind to the idea at the present.
Amir, please tell me I’m right!
Mandalay
@Germy Shoemangler:
Actually, despite some absolutely horrendous sound bytes that might suggest otherwise, he wasn’t dumb. There were many reasons to disapprove of Quayle, but he really wasn’t a dimwit.
Rubio, on the other hand…
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
Well, actually, no. Sorry.
Corner Stone
I’m going to totes steal that new hashtag that Garnier makeup co is using.
#SleepWithThis
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Sorry to hear that!
Elizabelle
Terrific NYTimes op ed by Matthew Crawford, on how marketers and their employers hit us up right and left while out in the public commons — video screens on in airports, doctors’ offices, nonstop; someone even tried to place advertising messages delivered by point-of-sale card terminals, during a purchase. [Hey, you’re in a store, and you’ve got money or at least plastic.]
On what’s being lost, with the constant deluge of messages and noise, and how silence is becoming a luxury item.
The Cost of Paying Attention
Elizabelle
@Baud: Amir tells us he has a cat.
We don’t know that, for sure.
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
Where better to get a start?
Tommy
OK smart people I could use some input. Long story short I have to take a business trip to Cleveland this week. I am normally that guy that books a flight weeks or months in advance. Didn’t have that option here and it is going to cost me an arm and a leg. So I figure I ought to stay for a few days and “tool” around town and “play” a little.
Now I realize Cleveland might not be high on the list of vacation spots for most people, but there has to be something to do in the darn town. Got to work with what you have you know. I’d love to catch a baseball game, but alas the Indians are still wherever they do Spring Training. Of course there is the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, but honestly that doesn’t interest me much. Could care less about the NBA.
So anybody got a hidden gem or two in Cleveland to tell me about.
Oh and I am something of a foodie. I’ll take a wonderful $2.50 hotdog at a “hole in the wall” or a $200 meal. So if all I do is eat while I am there, I could live with that as well.
max
@Cervantes: Sounds reasonable enough — a normal calculation candidates have to make all the time — but how does it explain the expressed antipathy towards Grayson?
They don’t like Grayson? Hey man, different strokes, etc.
I don’t have any particular issues with Grayson, but I can see why people would be unhappy with his mouth. I don’t think his mouth is quite the liability Botsplainer seems to think it is, but whatever. I have quite a few issues with DWS, mainly around not winning. (It’s quite one thing to be a megacorp friendly Dem who wins elections, and quite another thing to be one that seems to be trying to invent ways to lose.)
Again, if Jeb gets the nom, Florida is kind of a write off thing time around anyways, so no reason to be too concerned with it.
max
[‘Ohio. Ohio is important.’]
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
You’ve never seen a picture of me, either, yet you accept my existence.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Do we, Doug J? Do we?
Violet
@Baud: Read back up the thread. Amir was offered front pager status and turned it down.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Oh, well. We’ve suffered this long with our current front pagers. I guess we can handle a little more.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Ahhh, a non-trolling DougJ spoof account. He uses it more of as a control group for his ongoing experiment here.
#7DougsofGenius
Cervantes
@Tommy:
Lots to do there. For starters, if you can get tickets, try the Orchestra. They’re doing Rachmaninov at the moment.
(It’s one of our best orchestras — not exactly a “hidden” gem, sorry.)
Baud
@Violet: Right. I should have said Amir should accept the keys for that limited purpose.
divF
@Amir Khalid: There appears to be a “draft Amir” movement here. I’ll cosign as well.
WaterGirl
Dammit, Jim, we need an open thread. Now!
Baud
@divF:
Yes, but apparently Amir feels he can do more good remaining in the Senate.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: So far.
Violet
@Tommy:
Putting those words in quotes seems to make your sentence read a lot skeevier. I don’t think that’s your intent, but it cracked me up.
There seem to be a lot of hits when you google “Cleveland hidden gems” so you can probably find some stuff there.
Otherwise, keep and eye out for the “Hot in Cleveland” ladies. Betty White! (I know, I know, they don’t film it there. But you never know!)
Tommy
@Cervantes: Very cool. That was about the only other thing I know about Cleveland. Had a friend get married there. Looking at tickets right now. Also neat on Saturday they have stuff in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Ticket even seem reasonable priced. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is playing in the evening. That is totally something I can get into.
Thanks for the input!
divF
@Corner Stone:
Beware of Doug?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Something like that.
Tommy
@Violet: I love my client but last time as a tour guide he wasn’t very impressive. I did like Melts, which is a super high-end grilled cheese place.
As a fellow raging liberal, he did give me a couple hour driving tour of the city, which frankly was just depressing. It seemed like at times there were just mile after mile of empty factories.
Oh and one day he said he had a surprise for me. I was all excited. He took me to a barber school. I was too polite to say, “hey Steve you can see I shave my head can’t you?”
BTW: And no I don’t want to “play” that way ….
Iowa Old Lady
Oh yay, OT, but my library just turned up with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in an audiobook that I can download to my ipod. The time in my car will be better for the next few days.
Germy Shoemangler
@Elizabelle: I saw what you did there with those extra “E”s!
Mike J
@Tommy: There are some decent restaurants in Cleveland. Celebrity chef Michael Symon has a few places, and actually has good food.
Another Holocene Human
@NotMax: wow, that was a great tip. plenty of clips posted too youtube. too lazy to pirate anything these days. Thanks!
PurpleGirl
Ack! Pfft! Just woke up from a nap. No FP awake yet? More discombobulated than I expected. Thought for sure there’d be a new thread by now. Have to remember where I was (comment wise) and read the new stuff.
Another Holocene Human
@PurpleGirl: I got an email from a failed Dem candidate declaring that. The ones I can’t successfully unsubscribe from I’m reporting as spam. Tired of the bs!!
Germy Shoemangler
@Elizabelle: Thanks for that. I’ve noticed the trend, the constant noise.
And I mentioned in an earlier thread a co-worker’s father who tried to research a blood pressure med he’d been prescribed. All the message boards were filled with sockpuppet marketers who said “I tried this med and it works like a miracle! Try it!” Luckily, lots of the sockpuppets (at least the less skilled ones) were heckled. But it interfered with him trying to find honest pro and con opinions.
jafd
@Pogonip:
My rice cooker hath no clock – picked it up at a porch sale in ’83or so for two bucks – only an ‘On’ button. Have been trying out making rice + lentils combinations, figuring out how long to precook lentils before adding rice.
A change-of-seasons joke from the distant past:
Back in the good/bad old days when the Soviets ruled The Evil Empire, an American couple – let’s call them Mr. and Mrs. Jones (that may well have been their real names) – decided to go and see for themselves what the Russkies were up to. So one October (off-season rates) they jetted off to the East…
Intourist assigned them a guide named Rudolf – he was a real Soviet patriot – the Russians had written all the literature worth reading, composed all the music worth listening to, invented everything worth inventing, and kicked Fascist butt from Stalingrad to Moscow in their spare time. But he was a good guy and he knew his stuff, and they were having a really good trip.
They saw Leningrad and they saw Kiev and they went to Moscow. As they were walking across Red Square, Mr. Jones noticed some white stuff falling from the sky …
“I see the famed Russian winter is beginning”
“Eh”
“Looks like it’s starting to snow”
“Nyet. Not snow. Is the gentle autumn rain to fructify the soil of Mother Russia.”
“Sure looks like snow to me”
“Nyet. NYET Snow. Is Rain. RAIN! NYET SNOW! RAIN!”
As you know, this did not mark the outbreak of World War III. That is because Mrs. Jones gave her husband an elbow to the ribs, and said
“Don’t argue.
Rudolf the Red knows rain, dear.”
Tommy
@Mike J: Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. I knew there was a guy on Top Chef Masters that was from Cleveland, but I could recall his name. Going to Google right now to find Michael Symon places.
Amir Khalid
Oh dear.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Disgusting.
Glidwrith
@Mike J: And yet we know full well that this is exactly what a huge number of Republicans think of women. On top of that, his nut ball opponent was losing, with no money raised for advertising, until Americans for Prosperity (aka the Kochs) swooped in with a bunch of cash.
It was also quite clear that the establishment didn’t like him and left him hanging out to dry. As I recall he got no funding help at all.
Another Holocene Human
@BGK:
Maybe it’s just his frigging ego, like Perry with those stupid move your company to Texas ads. Scott gave a very short state of the state speech (should be able to find it on WFSU, I haven’t looked but they broadcast it live) basically on the same points. He takes credit for everything Barack Obama has done.
Rick Scott wants to give away EVEN MORE tax dollars to big businesses. He has done that every single year in office. It’s complete bullshit and the more of a 3rd world hellhole they make this state, the worse the brain drain and the failure of companies, and/or the more they just turn Florida into a sink for scam companies. We’re infamous for being the scamhome already.
Like, take high tech, you need good comms architecture for that, right? Well Florida decided to deregulate every kind of comms and also slash the taxes paid by these companies AND put in protectionism for them as well so municipalities can’t run their own comms lines.
Way to fuck yourself, Florida.
Tommy
@jafd: My rice cooker hath no clock – picked it up at a porch sale in ’83or so for two bucks – only an ‘On’ button. Have been trying out making rice + lentils combinations, figuring out how long to precook lentils before adding rice.
Do any of them have timers? I bought one a few years ago, and not a “cheap” model, and all it has is an on and off switch. If you figure out the times for different rices and lentils please post them. We had a World Market open up by me (my grocery store options are limited) and I spent a small fortune on rices and lentils. I’ve almost no luck figuring out the times with my rice cooker.
As you might guess I find this frustrating, because outside of my Aeropress to make coffee my rice cooker is about my favorite thing in my kitchen. Frankly not sure I could live without it.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Okay, maybe there should be one exception to no death penalty, anyone who would deliberately kill a dog like that.
Tommy
@Mike J: I will think of you when I have this for dinner:
Again, thanks for the input. Saved me the time of pulling up Top Chef Masters on Hulu to find the darn guy :).
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer: Niiiice. This was a great response:
http://gawker.com/because-none-of-them-ever-feels-responsible-for-making-1690107499
DeBoer fucking defends voting for Nader in this thread (because he is a fucking idiot). And then he vomits a bunch of graphs on the thread that undermine his dubious “point”.
Cervantes
@msdc:
Thanks.
Not as precise as one might think, perhaps.
If it’s OK to credit Grayson’s 2008 victory to an Obama wave, as you seem to, then why not simply blame his defeat in 2010 on the Tea Party wave? A swing of 22 points sounds large, but less large when you compare it to 17. Many other Democrats lost unexpectedly that year, virtually all of them far more careful with their rhetoric than Grayson.
And going back to the 2008 election that Grayson won, was his rhetoric at that time more measured, or did his penchant for … telling the truth (?) not prevent him from winning then?
As for the “Taliban” ad you identify as typifying Grayson’s problem, can you elaborate? How is it the type of ad “we” criticize Republicans for running?
What do you make of the argument that no Democrat will be the next Senator from Florida, and that therefore Grayson should keep his House seat?
Thanks again.
Amir Khalid
Some football news: An Italian sculptor has done a monument listing every defeat suffered by the England football team between 1874 and 1998. In the second column, eighteenth from the top, is ENGLAND v UNITED STATES 0-1 (this was a historic upset at the 1950 World Cup). On sale at Sotheby’s for just US$900,000.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: Ugh. Moar bad journalamalism. You don’t give an autopsy to an animal ya idjits!
Cervantes
@Mike J:
Thanks.
I remember that ad. I’m not sure I really object to his having run it. I remember vaguely seeing data re how it was received; something to review when time allows, I suppose.
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer: To me, Grayson really is the hollow man that Cory [name redacted] is sometimes accused of being. I don’t agree with all the positions the junior senator from NJ has taken and it makes me sad that he feels he has to shill for Wall Street. (Prior to the horrible Christie the NJ gov was a similarly corrupt WS denizen Dem, so that’s the pool he and other NJ pols swim in.) Biden was the senator from MBNA, let’s not forget, even though he’s been forgiven by most Dem voters for this.
So Grayson can go to WDW, it’s either in his district or close … so what. Even though they are union busters they are in fact (mostly) unionized. (Trust me, they have plenty of non union labor that they exploit thoroughly, just a sick sauce to dish over the “magic” pudding every time I am there. Some of their LT and presumably unionized employees ARE pretty happy … the worst of it are all the short-term employed high school students and foreign college students they exploit.)
It’s everything else about Grayson. He’s a phoney. Somehow your uber-lefties fall for these phoney baloney pols every fucking time. They want to be lied to, I guess. Grayson is such a bullshitter and a fake. To be fair, Florida politics is a miserable affair and Florida Dem Party even more miserable. Grayson is a great* answer to Rubio who was a Florida Republican party insider’s insider, a great example of the Peter Principle, a two bit grifter who found out the hard way that DC wasn’t like the crony’ed up Florida lege where the path would be beaten before him and the skids greased. Rubio is a consummate brown noser who should have stayed in Tallahassee.
*-great as in hilar-lar, not as in great for Florida
Mike J
@Cervantes: Even though I actually agree with his point, he seems unable to make it without pissing off voters.
Another Holocene Human
@max: I can’t but help for root for injuries in a DSW vs Grayson contest.
I know, that’s terrible.
I don’t really know Kendrick Meeks or his mom but it does stick in my craw the way he was stuck out there as the ‘sacrifice’ candidate and allowed to twist in the wind. Some Republican from Florida actually ran a vanity campaign in the primary (he lost) and sent out attack flyers to just about every Dem household about Meeks. Maybe the point was to peel off voters for Crist. Or Rubio? I voted for Crist because I wanted Rubio to lose.
It’s amazing how white pols in the Florida Dem Party are always ready with the knives to stab everyone else in the back. Black people are the backbone of the Florida Dem Party, they show up year after year and withstand countless indignities, but when a “plum” is in sight, it’s step aside and let the white guy run. Even in Tallahassee some of the white people in the Dem caucus are assholes, like Jeremy Ring. DSW started in Tallahassee (UF-Florida Blue Key) but moved on up where she is a still an asshole.
Not all of the Black pols are pure hearts either, some of them are self-interested narcissists and/or fools. Though my experience has been when doing citizen lobbying that all of the state/national African-American pols (yes, I am exempting the foreign born … Miami you own that) know what time it is and actually work really hard on issues that matter to the 45% of Florida households who are struggling and the 30% or so who are barely above struggling (45% based on a study, the next # is a guess). And that includes some of these folks who switched parties during the 2000s (most of them have switched back). Some of our local pols are of considerably lower quality but I guess that makes sense.
Florida Dem Party is divided against itself, hypocritical, and run for the benefit of insiders. Barack Obama proved the D’s can win in Florida with a minority candidate but Florida Dems prove every year that D’s can lose too, all it takes is jealousy, insults, infighting, distrust, animosity, slander, etc. Way to go.
Another Holocene Human
@msdc: before he has an opportunity to alienate Florida general election voters and piss away what should be a prime pickup opportunity in a presidential election year
don’t make me cry already
Rubio should be TOAST. But the Florida Dems … they got nothin’.
Cervantes
@Mike J:
In that case, a question: did he lose in 2010 because he told the truth so “provocatively”? Or despite doing so?
I know how the favored narrative answers the question — but are you sure it’s correct?
Another Holocene Human
@Davis X. Machina: a true vanguard party should be able to win some local elections
I like what SEIU has been up to in St Petersburg. I hope it works.
Mandalay
@Another Holocene Human:
Sadly, that won’t happen:
I also find this argument very plausible:
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer:
Grayson will learn nothing. It’s who he is. Don’t be surprised if he’s living la vida loca on the campaign trail, though. Divorcé, likes the good life, and constant positive reinforcement from ragey bitter white Dems who crave that sweet sweet insult-comic stump speech routine.
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer: Could be they have hard-wired HV circuits with cut-off switches in the bridge, however if that was the case you couldn’t cut the bridge off and run from engineering or aux control, therefore whatever is surging through the bridge is 5V max, milli-amperes and shouldn’t be arcing. I’m thinking the highest power drain up there besides doors and HVAC is the big viewscreen at probably a couple hundred watts (dunno how sw33t flatscreen tech gets in the 23rd century) and it seems that they have some sort of communications stuff hard rigged through there that could be higher wattage. I would think for security purposes you’d have shielded cable from the dish right up to the bridge, and another line to aux control which is switched either/or. Correct me if that’s naive.
What I don’t get is how seatbelts got uninvented.
Denali
I liked Grayson for his straight talk early on. But the Taliban/fundamental equation in a political speech is a step too far, and his personal life is a mess.
Another Holocene Human
@Violet: wow, gross, and lacking context
the revanchists started targeting the press when they started to realize how much the national press coverage was hurting them
they started off murdering local and outside activists and eagerly mugged for the cameras rattling off their pro jim crow talking points
the national press showed up very late in the game, following the reluctant federal government
many civil rights actions got no national press at all
Another Holocene Human
@shelley:
I feel like that was a visual quote from another movie. Does anyone know?
Another Holocene Human
@Violet:
Why would John Lewis be bitter? He put his future on hold and risked his life–repeatedly–to stand up for what was right. And he has a platform as a US Congressman and as an elder of the Civil Rights Movement to continue that fight. Why on earth would he be bitter? These are not the fruits from which bitterness is wrung.
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer: Why do photon torpedoes need to be manually loaded and fired? That’s a real what the actual fuck moment for me.
Another Holocene Human
@max: Why do you think JEB! automagically wins Florida?
Florida was won with an amazing GOTV operation that came from out of state but hired local people. As long as the next Dem nominee does what Barack Obama did they will win Florida. It is very polarized here and honestly the only wildcards are in/out migration (which has picked up again somewhat) and a slow party affiliation shift, that is moderate Republicans ragequitting their party and Dixiecrats going GOP. The latter process is almost over, and almost certainly concluded on the national ticket, but the former is still slowly rolling. It’s not clear to me if Clinton is a positive or a negative to ragequitters, since she is very establishment but former GOPers might have a tribalistic hatred for her.
I can’t see a single Barack Obama voter suddenly deciding JEB! is the bee’s knees. His policy positions SUCK. His legacy in Florida SUCKS. He tore up public education and we’re still paying the price for that. He was caught badmouthing DACA just yesterday, which is out of step with Florida where we passed a bill to give Dreamers in-state tuition last year with bipartisan support.
Florida’s GOP continues to block Medicaid expansion, hurting literally millions of Florida families. What is JEB! running on? He’s not going to support that because tea partiers hate Medicaid. Fuck the poor? Eat the poor. JEB! has issues on his right flank for being insufficiently rhetorically hateful.
IMO the only way Dems lose Florida in the general is to fail to run a good GOTV campaign. You have to contact voters over and over until they are sick of you. That is not easy to do and will be the big challenge. One demo I am concerned about are the young as Hilary Clinton really excites old people and not young people. BO had a lot of very young operatives in Florida. Youngs do not turnout without a big push. Somehow the Democrats will have to fire up young people and get volunteers and staff in place early. Young people did not come out to vote in the fall and look how that election turned out. :(
Another Holocene Human
@Mandalay: hahahaha
I hate Morgan’s stupid billboards but I love it when he gets involved with politics here. I have my fingers crossed for his pot ballot question in 2016.
seefleur
@Tommy: Check out what’s playing at the Cleveland Playhouse – they have very fine theater offerings.
John M. Burt
In 2007, Speaker Pelosi decided not to roll the dice and impeach both Bush and Cheney. If she had succeeded, she would have become President.
I will trust to her intelligence and knowledge, and accept that she concluded the risks were too great, the consequences of failure too devastating (with President McCain as the least of the possible dangers).
But I still think wistfully about the good she could have done as President over two years . . . or six . . . or ten.
msdc
@Cervantes:
It’s the difference that concerns me. Grayson managed to underperform in an already miserable election for Democrats. Florida is a razor-sharp swing state in the best of cycles; no Democratic candidate can afford to spot the Republicans 5 points.
By way of comparison, let’s look at another Democratic congressman who ran on liberal policies and “conviction politics” but had a very different manner, Tom Perriello. Perriello barely won in 2008 (though he outperformed Obama in his district), didn’t run away from the stimulus or the ACA, but also didn’t run around trying to piss off voters or rack up clicks at dKos. He lost in 2010 by less than 4 points. A frustrating loss, but also an overperformance for a Dem that year, esp. when you consider he ran in an out and out conservative district. If I heard tomorrow that Perriello were running for a statewide office in Virginia, I’d write him a check on the spot. If I hear that Grayson is running for one in Florida, I’m preparing to write off that race.
jafd
@Tommy:
Not sure how much help this is, but here goes:
My rice cooker runs on temperature sensor – I put water and rice in, push ‘on’ button down. When all water is taken up by rice or evaporeted, temperature starts going up from 212 F and cooker shuts itself off with ‘thunk’.
Now, last week local supermarket had lentils on special, got two pound bags. Googling ‘lentils rice’ next morning, found several Megedarra recipes – the Lebanese dish combining the two. Firefox crashed a half-dozen times in process. Wondering if Hameland Security is monitoring net searches for Mideast cookery. Perhaps grateful for funding crisis I should have been ;-)
So, last week took pot out, fried some onions on stove, then put lentils and water and cut-up carrots in, brought to slow boil for 10-15 minutes, before putting in rice cooker and adding rice to liquid and lentils. Too long – rice finished cooking with more texture then lentils.
Last night, just put lentils and water in pot, put in rice cooker, hit ‘on’ button, let boil for 5-10 minutes, added rice*. Came out OK, maybe lentils don’t need that much more cooking time than rice. Will keep closer track of time when try again.
* A very basic preparation. Had it hot with soy sauce and olive oil. Reheating leftovers in chicken broth or spaghetti sauce produces yummy eats.
**Adding a bit of olive oil to rice cooker at start cuts way down on boilover, adds bit of bottom crust if you like that
msdc
@Cervantes:
Consider how Saxby Chambliss questioned Max Cleland’s patriotism (while airing pictures of Osama bin Laden), or Elizabeth Dole implied Kay Hagan was “godless,” both of which were roundly criticized by liberals. The Dole ad even got pushback from the media and may have backfired on her (atypically for Republican attack ads).
That should have been a warning for Grayson. The political media already have enough of a problem with Democratic attack ads; “Taliban Dan” might play well with the netroots, most of whom didn’t live in his district or even his state, but it shows astoundingly poor judgment on Grayson’s part. He strikes me as a guy who plays to the national media and his national fanbase, not to people who are actually in a position to vote for or, more likely, against him.
Cervantes
@msdc:
Just one question for now: Other than the fact that one is ostensibly Us and the other is ostensibly Them, what, to you, are the salient differences between Christian fundamentalists and Muslim fundamentalists?
msdc
That strikes me as a very odd question, and one not at all related to the criticisms of Grayson made on this thread.
The question isn’t whether Dan Webster is a fundamentalist (he is) but whether Grayson showed good political judgment in attacking him for his Christian fundamentalism in Florida (that would be a no) and comparing him to the group that harbored al-Qaeda (that would be a hell no). And it’s not like this is the only example of his incendiary style. These are the qualities that make him such a bad bet outside of a gerrymandered district.
Cervantes
@msdc:
Right, and it’s not the question I asked, either.
Mandalay
@msdc:
It is an odd question because you are responding to a trolling fuckwit who will carefully avoid stating his own opinions, politely feign interest in yours, and then constantly move the goalposts and ask you new questions regardless of your responses.
The discussion of Grayson in this thread is a classic example of his drivel.
Cervantes
@msdc:
The question may strike you as “very odd,” but it’s occasioned by nothing other than your own complaint about that ad run by the Grayson campaign in which a fundamentalist Christian candidate was compared to the Taliban.
Cervantes
@Mandalay:
You seem increasingly lost and forlorn, with neither map nor guide in the wilderness.
Take care.
JustRuss
Funny that in an article complaining that Pelosi is too old to keep legislating, our media, for possibly the first time ever, forgot to mention John McCain, who happens to be 4 years older than Pelosi.