Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

T R E 4 5 O N

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Let there be snark.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

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Reader Interactions

172Comments

  2. 2.

    Holden Pattern

    Seriously, holy effballs, Marco Rubio is a moron. Also, it’s batshit insane to keep insisting that our dealing with Shia Iran should be effectively subject to a veto based on the comfort level of Sunni states (who are, incidentally, at least indirectly responsible for of most of the Muslim attacks on the United States, unlike Shia Iran).

    Why, it’s almost like the Republicans want us to make common cause with the Sunni despots against the Shia. What are they, paid off?

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    My God. I always figured Rubio for a suit that wasn’t full in every sense, but that kind of aggressive, determined stupidity…. It should be embarrassing to the country, but we live in a country where John Boehner turns immigration over to King and Bachmann, and Bill Kristol not only shows his face in public, but is invited to do so in order to discuss current affairs and foreign policy.

  7. 7.

    Mike J

    Which would be worse, the fact that a US senator really is this stupid, or he just wants people to think he is?

  8. 8.

    Holden Pattern

    @Holden Pattern:

    …the Muslim attacks on the United States…

    s/b “Muslim terrorist attacks”, where “Muslim” is merely descriptive, not essentialist.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    There’s a chance dim-bulb Rubio could get ejected from his seat in 2016. He pissed off the GOP base stalwarts by once saying the word “immigration” without hissing like a serpent and spitting three times. Oh, sure he walked it back. But they won’t forget. Ever.

    Also, he’s not as pretty as he was in 2010, which will hurt his prospects with Del Boca Vista matrons. And he’s up for reelection in a presidential election year, which means reality-show Democrats might actually find the motivation to get off their asses and show up at the polling place.

    But the Florida Democratic Party will find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Maybe they’ll run Charlie Crist against him. Or Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. Or Alan Grayson. You watch. They’ll find a way to step on a goddamn rake.

  10. 10.

    Pogonip

    Autocorrect atrocity: a reference last night to “the court of common fleas.”. I am morally certain that is not what the person typed.

    In Autocorrect’s defense, there probably is a court of common fleas, and another court for the 1% of fleas who get slapped on all 6 wrists before hopping back home to their $5,000 imported dog.

  11. 11.

    Kryptik

    @Mike J:

    I’m more worried about the fact that there are as many people willing to follow him off the cliff as there are, either way.

  13. 13.

    Andrew Abshier

    If our Democratic Party in Florida didn’t suck rocks, we’d actually have a bench to draw from for viable opponents. As it is, we’ll probably end up with Alex Sink to go down in inglorious defeat to Markup Rubio in 2016. I hope Bill Nelson is immortal–he’s the last statewide D standing.

  14. 14.

    ruemara

    If your Florida Democratic Party sucks rocks, then step in and take it over. The Tea Party darlings that are currently destroying this country from elected offices die not get there simply because Democratic Party members suck, they got there because the Tea Party took over the Republican infrastructure since it wasn’t a pure enough batch of crazy.

  15. 15.

    Pogonip

    Raven et al: this can’t go on. The two sides cannot agree on things as basic as what government to have(if any) and what constitutes simple contractual agreements like pension promises and marriages. The longer they go on the angrier they get. They must split, and soon, or civil war is likely.

  16. 16.

    Mandalay

    Rubio is is unbelievably thick. He is the dumbest person in the Senate, and that bar isn’t set very high at all.

    The problem is the system: you only need to have talent T to get job J, where “talent T” is getting elected (and is closely linked to the ability raise money), and “job J” is running the nation.

    Airlines don’t pick their plots on their ability to play the piano, but that is no more absurd than the approach we use to elect Senators. And that’s why we see Rubio getting publicly humiliated by Kerry – a completely unqualified idiot is participating in running the country.

    The good news is that this fraud vile won’t be running for president if his Senate seat is in jeopardy. That bad news is that this vile fraud will probably hang on to his Senate seat…though the Dems still have an outside chance if DWS and Grayson stay out of it.

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @Betty Cracker: No chance of dragging Old Man Graham out of retirement? mostly rhetorical (and I’m sure the list of his impurities is long, but he also stood on the Senate floor and begged his colleagues to read the classified intelligence report on Iraq and WMD. If memory serves, the number who actually did was in the single digits)

    Rubio is so aggressively and confidently stupid I can only assume he’s been sitting in on Professor Kristol’s seminars with Tommy Cotton

  22. 22.

    beltane

    The Florida Democratic party will run DWS and they will lose. The only hope is that some sort of grassroots movement emerges to nominate someone else. The party insiders, however, will only see DWS’s fundraising strengths and ignore everything else.

  23. 23.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    For those who can’t watch clips online, here’s the heart of the exchange.
    KERRY: What’s important, senator, with respect to your question is to understand this. And I think this has been a misread by a lot of people up here on the Hill, to be honest with you. There is no grand bargain being discussed here with regards to this negotiation, this is about a nuclear weapon potential. That’s it. And the president has made it absolutely clear they will not get a nuclear weapon. Now the presumption by a lot of people up on the Hill here has been that we somehow aren’t aware of that goal even as we negotiate that goal. Our negotiation is calculated to make sure they can’t get a nuclear weapon. It’s really almost insulting that the presumption here is that we’re going to negotiate something that allows them to get a nuclear weapon.
    RUBIO: Well I haven’t discussed about the nuclear weapon but I – and I’m not saying there is a grand bargain – what I’m saying is that I believe that our military strategy towards ISIS is influenced by our desire not to cross red lines That the Iranians have –
    KERRY: Absolutely not in the least.

  24. 24.

    Turgidson

    The funny (if it wasn’t so deadly serious) thing about this footage is that Rubio clearly thinks he’s informing John Kerry of new facts and events that Kerry couldn’t possibly have known because of his devotion to the Kenyan Usurper.

    Kerry projected just the right amount of exasperation without being overtly condescending. Might’ve been a solid president. But the financial crisis might have erupted during his reelection campaign and the GOP would have run up the score blaming him for it. Which probably would have us in even worse shape, if that’s even possible.

    Please, Florida Democrats…find a presentable candidate for Rubio’s seat. Sincerely, the rest of the USA (and world).

  25. 25.

    jc

    I like how, at this late date, Rachel still has to explain carefully who is Sunni and who is Shia. Most Americans still don’t know, or care, who is who and what is what in that part of the world.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodinger’s cat: Rough paraphrase: DERP! DERP! DERP!

    But seriously, he demonstrates in a few moments that he is utterly clueless about the relationships between the various factions in the region (didn’t seem to realize Iran would WANT the US to bomb the fuck out of ISIS, for example) and totally derped out on what leaders in the region have said in widely reported public events. He sounds like the moron he is, and Kerry answers his idiotic questions with the perfect fusion of contempt and exasperation.

    Rubio has something else in common with Sarah Palin — in addition to being a blithering moron and an ambulatory haircut, I mean. Both of them marinated in state government long enough that they could sound credible on local issues for brief snippets of time. That’s all it took to catapult them to the national stage, where one failed spectacularly and the other looks to be on that trajectory as well.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @Turgidson: Yeah, I like Kerry, but I have to say that was a surprisingly good performance. Just keep it simple and direct.

  30. 30.

    schrodinger's cat

    What I never see discussed in the MSM is that Dubya’s Iraq War fiasco is what has made Iran a more powerful player than it was in the region. Also, ISIS can be directly traced to the DeBaathification policy, again adopted by Dubya admin.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @Holden Pattern:
    Those states are the US allies most directly affected by American strategy with regard to Iran, so it does make sense to consult with them. Not to the extent of swallowing any self-interested bullshit they may offer up, or of allowing them a veto over American actions; but they do deserve to be kept in the loop and have their opinions taken seriously.

    Now then about Marco Rubio. He doesn’t have an alternative policy position from which he’s coming at Kerry, does he? I presume he’s on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has no idea of what the State Department is doing, which of the US’ regional allies it’s been talking to or about what. He’s like some schmoe who walked in off the street and is faking his way through the questions.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @schrodinger’s cat: I haven’t watched Tweety in months, but I have seen him make both those points. Of course I wouldn’t even want to know what nitwits he has since brought in to discuss the ME in the meantime.

    The last time I saw him for any length, when I turned on Hayes, he was all but weeping over the Egyptians killed in Libya, “I can’t help thinking of those poor men, wondering ‘where are the Americans? why are they letting this happen?’ That’s not who we are. We don’t leave anyone behind”. The dangers of a worldview based on B war movies from the 50s and early 60s. He and his like are ISIS’s target audience.

    A propos of Hayes, he brought fucking Jennifer Rubin on to discuss Iran last night, proving you can take the goal of inclusiveness in to the realm of the absurd.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jc: One would think, after the US being involved in the Middle East beyond Israel for something like 25 years now, that most Americans would have at least a cursory knowledge of the divides within Islam, in order to understand that region just a bit better and have some clue as to what the human terrain is like.

    But no, they don’t, and many politicians in high office don’t, and they’re all perfectly fine with that because we’re all special snowflakes that don’t have to worry about mundane things like “knowing the enemy”.

    This causes my military-trained brain to writhe in agony.

  42. 42.

    Pogonip

    @raven: Hey, maybe during the divorce a nice fishing spot will go unclaimed and you can set up the Republic of Raven! No passport needed, just a fishin’ rod.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    I hate to sound like a broken record, but:

    Down the ticket, the party’s problems are worse. The two midterm elections since President Obama’s 2008 victory have wiped out an entire generation of Democratic state officeholders, costing the Democrats more than 900 state legislative seats and 11 governorships, according to an internal Democratic National Committee assessment released last month.
    Republicans have been more aggressive in steering donors to less glamorous state races, electing governors and legislative majorities whose sweeping rollback of union rights has further damaged Democrats in states in which they are already reeling.
    “The other side has killed us at that stuff,” said Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic strategist.

    Several of you have to run for a state seat, so draw straws or something :)

    I know it’s horrible. I watch our poor statehouse candidate(s) try every two years and lose by 15 points, after working 9 months for no pay. However. 900 seats.

  51. 51.

    Turgidson

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    The dipshit media’s coverage of ISIS has been appalling even by their extremely low standards. They allowed themselves to be used as dupes for the GOP midterm election campaign (knowingly or not), presenting the images of some psychotic zealots beheading a few people and suggesting that those people were going to be off the east coast in landing craft any minute now and that we should crap our pants. Which of course coincided nicely with the GOP’s campaign pitch of ignorant fear and Obama hate.

    As you noted, they also left out all context of how ISIS came into being, letting know-nothing blowhards like McCain and Lindsey peepants Graham get away with blaming it on Obama for withdrawing troops under a timeline established while Bush was still president.

    And now they are still letting the GOP squawk about how ISIS is still a super duper scary budding superpower (so wrong it’s hard to know where to begin), that Obama has no plan (uhh, he addressed the nation to present his plan months ago and has submitted an authorization proposal to Congress), and then lets idiots like Rubio spew nonsense without correction. AND ignores good news, of which there’s been a fair amount in the past few months, that ISIS has been stopped all over Iraq and pushed back in some places, and is showing signs of internal disunity. All of which is happening faster (knock on wood) than was predicted when Obama announced what our involvement would be.

    So here we are, with solid majorities of Americans sufficiently scared that they’re in favor of deploying ground troops. Despite the fact that ISIS is already showing signs of cracking and present no threat to us outside the region. Insanity.

  52. 52.

    japa21

    To those that can’t see the video, one of Rubio’s points appears to be that we are not sending tons of combat troops in after ISIS because we don’t want Iran to be angry at us and possibly call off the talks. He totally ignores that virtually all the Arab countries, Shiite or Sunni have said that this is a local issue and the last thing they want to see on the ground are Western troops. They all know that having western troops actively engaged in GROUND operations would actually strengthen ISIS.

    His ignorance of what leaders of the area nations have said and are doing is amazing. I really admire Kerry’s restraint. I woudl have said soemthing like “Listen you dumb shit, don’t you even read the newspapers.You are truly an idiot and I can’t believe I have to explain things to you that even a 3 year old would understand and most 6 graders already know the answers to.”

  55. 55.

    Mike J

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What I never see discussed in the MSM is that Dubya’s Iraq War fiasco is what has made Iran a more powerful player than it was in the region.

    The old joke is that if W had been an Iranian agent he would have had exactly the same policies. Of course that presumes he would have been a competent agent.

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What I never see discussed in the MSM is that Dubya’s Iraq War fiasco is what has made Iran a more powerful player than it was in the region.

    What I never see discussed in the media is that the approach the Administration is taking with Iran is by far the best of all possible options, where the alternatives are doing nothing, or some form of war.

    Our slavish devotion to Saudi Arabia and Israel have been nooses around our neck for a long time. Getting a bit cozy with Iran might get them to change their ways, and if not, too bad so sad.

  57. 57.

    Tractarian

    @Mandalay:

    The problem is the system: you only need to have talent T to get job J, where “talent T” is getting elected (and is closely linked to the ability raise money), and “job J” is running the nation.

    True, but what’s the alternative? Even if every political race was 100% publicly funded, you’d still have an incongruity there. T has never been relevant to J, and never will.

    @Turgidson:

    Might’ve been a solid president. But the financial crisis might have erupted during his reelection campaign and the GOP would have run up the score blaming him for it. Which probably would have us in even worse shape, if that’s even possible.

    Also true, but if we’re playing the alternative history game, consider this:

    Chief Justice of the United States Elena Kagan

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @Betty Cracker: Also, he’s not as pretty as he was in 2010, which will hurt his prospects with Del Boca Vista matrons.

    So we need a thirty something Democrat who reminds old people of the sort of young man they wish their granddaughters would bring home for thanksgiving? A proper knot in his tie (a tie!) and none of those awful tattoos!

  60. 60.

    chopper

    @Turgidson:

    Kerry projected just the right amount of exasperation without being overtly condescending.

    kerry did well. he really owned that whole back-and-forth. not that it takes a great deal of skill to show rubio to be an ass, but kerry did a good job making marco look like an amateur.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    It’s horrible, though, running. When people say things like “do we really only have two families who can produce a presidential candidate?” I just picture the poor Democrat running for the statehouse in this county. They all start really hard-headed and rational “I know it’s tough but I think this will be the year” but they slowly become more and more convinced they’ll win thru some fluke.

    I don’t know- maybe you have to convince yourself of that or you wouldn’t walk in all those parades, go to fairs and earnestly engage with angry wingnuts, ignore your family for close to a year…

  66. 66.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Kay: Have you seen the latest push by Punditubbies? They want to destroy higher education now. They are touting online degrees now. There were two op-eds last week in the NYT, one by a think tank guy and one by Joe Nocera.

  67. 67.

    Bobby Thomson

    I don’t know why everyone assumes Rubio is just ignorant and not a lying sack of shit.

  68. 68.

    Violet

    @Kay: I really hope that after his presidency, Barack Obama goes back to his community organizer roots and works on helping to build state parties. The Democrats are terrible at it. It needs both grassroots action and attention and work from the top.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    My understanding is that there are more than sufficient skeletons regarding shady deals and associations in Florida in Rubio’s closet poised to explode out like the rummage in Fibber McGee’s should he mount a national campaign.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I love the TONE of those pieces. I don’t know-I’m obviously biased against them but I can’t help but hear it as “let’s find some cheap way to train the peons for the 21st century workplace!”

    Jeb Bush used to come right out and admit “this will save money because we’ll hire fewer teachers” but he no longer does. They probably figured out people would get that he’s only pushing it on poor kids.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Violet:

    I think we could ask why Democrats haven’t been successful at persuading their donors to support state races. Are they just bad at it, or is it because they would rather keep all that cash in and around DC and the national consultants, races, etc?

  76. 76.

    Belafon

    @Violet: I do think that more of the Democrats who comment on blogs need to consider running. I still believe that some would be running for office if it weren’t so easy to just complain online.

  77. 77.

    geg6

    @Jim, Foolish LIteralist:

    Does this dipshit actually think that the Iranians would be upset if we fight ISIS? Is he in the least bit aware that Iran is currently fighting ISIS on the ground? That Tikrit would still be in ISIS’ hands if not for the Iranians?

    Grrrrrrrrrr. I hate these stupid, stupid people.

  78. 78.

    Peale

    @geg6: Well the Iranians are fighting the Good ISIS – the one that is trying to overthrow Assad. Not the bad ISIS that wants to behead journalists. See Iran is fighting the wrong ISIS. They can’t be trusted.

  79. 79.

    EthylEster

    Mr. Cole, that’s pretty rich for you to attack FL when WV is no better
    ….and maybe even worse considering their fucking coal obsession.

  80. 80.

    beltane

    It seems like a lifetime ago since Obama normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba, the event that was supposed to lead to the Bolshevik takeoever of the planet. What ever happened to all that outrage?

  82. 82.

    Mandalay

    @Violet:

    I really hope that after his presidency, Barack Obama goes back to his community organizer roots and works on helping to build state parties.

    We already have the ideal person to do the job, and he has already delivered, but sadly it won’t happen.

  83. 83.

    sharl

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What I never see discussed in the MSM is that Dubya’s Iraq War fiasco is what has made Iran a more powerful player than it was in the region.

    THIS THIS THIS! At every opportunity where it’s relevant – and sometime, probably not so relevant – I love to link to this 2004 post by Kevin Drum, back when he was at Washington Monthly. It would have been fascinating (and probably severely depressing) to be privy to those meetings between February and June of that year when someone finally got through to Dubya and his brain trust that Chalabi was an asset* for Iranian intelligence. It would not surprise me that this was the start of the frosting over of the relationship between Dubya and Darth.

    Since he and his ilk are members in good standing of the beltway Media Village, no one will ever publicly ask Bill Kristol about his advocacy for his gooood buddy Chalabi, but a boy can dream.

    *I’m using asset instead of agent quite willfully. Chalabi could have been an actual Iranian agent for all I know, but at the very least he found that his interests matched those of the Iranian government at the time (and definitely did NOT match the interests of the U.S.), and he behaved accordingly.

  85. 85.

    geg6

    @Belafon:

    I’d run in a minute if I could. I did, after all, major in political science, so it’s been an interest of mine since childhood. But I’d lose for two very good reasons. First, my part of PA has been ever more Tea Party-ish every year and it’s most likely due to the fact that for many years, all the best and brightest youngs (with a few exceptions like me) have left this place in droves. The death of hard industry around here is not something we’ve recovered from, unlike Pittsburgh (I’m about 35 miles northwest). And second, I have a past. And not the kind of past that is, necessarily, unknown to many. And that would totally be dug up and sifted through, with glee, by any and all opponents. And, yes, there is plenty there. More than enough to disqualify me.

    I really don’t want to be the cause of any more problems for my party. I’ll stick to canvassing, GOTV and donating.

  86. 86.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @beltane: A party in Georgetown happened in the meantime, and it was swept away for the next shiny object for the vermin of the Village to be fascinated by.

    I swear, there are six week old kittens with longer attention spans than the vermin of the Village.

  87. 87.

    grandpa john

    @Kay: Dang wonder why some democrats didn’t figure out the importance of having control of state and local governments, Shit they could have called it something like “ 50 states strategy” to contest elections everywhere thus developing a strong bench of statewide and national candidates. Oh wait!! did someone say Howard Dean?

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    @beltane:
    Is the hope for higher office the reason DWS is such a moron on Cuba? Because I can’t think of another reason for a Democrat to sound so….Republican on that topic.

  91. 91.

    Betty Cracker

    @Belafon:

    I do think that more of the Democrats who comment on blogs need to consider running. I still believe that some would be running for office if it weren’t so easy to just complain online.

    Really? I see variations on that theme crop up from time to time — mostly of the “why aren’t you out registering voters instead of bitching on a blog — huh? henghh?” — variety, but I don’t buy it. Aside from the fact that people with political ambitions would do well to refrain from commenting on blogs since it might come back to bite them on the ass, my guess is that folks who care enough about politics to carp about it online are much more likely to actually volunteer, canvas, donate, etc., if not run for office themselves.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I was asking my youngest and three of his friends if they liked the tests on computers that they’re now taking in Ohio and we got to talking about devices and they told me “only babies and old people like tablets”

    It was so funny because it was one of those things they tell me that they consider stating the obvious.

    I did not know they had all designated tablets as for “babies and old people” in their bizarre, insular 12 year old tribal culture! :)

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    And speaking of well-compensated idiots and also, too, because DougJ has sworn off Brooks-punching, here.
    If Brooks weren’t sculpted from the finest Teflon(tm) that would leave a mark.

  94. 94.

    Tractarian

    @Kay:

    I think we could ask why Democrats haven’t been successful at persuading their donors to support state races. Are they just bad at it, or is it because they would rather keep all that cash in and around DC and the national consultants, races, etc?

    Maybe it’s because “all that cash” means something totally different to the typical Dem donor than it does to the typical GOP donor?

    That is to say, if you’re merely wealthy, and not obscenely wealthy, you might have to pick and choose where you invest your funds. Whereas, if you’re a Koch brother, you can simply write a max check to every candidate in the country with an “R” next to their name, and still have enough to gas up your private jet and tip the pilot.

    @grandpa john:

    Shit they could have called it something like “ 50 states strategy”

    Is it too late to start a new strategy and call it “50 Shades of Blue”?

  95. 95.

    boatboy_srq

    @jc: Most in the US don’t adequately understand how to distinguish Catholic from Protestant from Orthodox from FundiEvangelist. This is how the Xtians get away with so much: by whinging “persecution of Christians” or “religious liberty,” they fool every other denomination into thinking they’re threatened as well, when only the Xtians are truly being inconvenienced – and inconvenienced only in the task of converting all the other unBelievers (including all the other denominations of Christianity) to their particular belief. If the US can’t accurately distinguish between distinctions among the majority faith in the country, small wonder that they can’t distinguish between sects of Islam.

  96. 96.

    Tommy

    @Betty Cracker: I agree 110%. I won’t run for office for several reasons. First I might have inhaled. Had sex with a few people. Not married. But that is really secondary to the fact I don’t have the stomach for it. I couldn’t spend half my day asking people for money. I have no desire, no matter how much I might disagree with somebody, to dig up dirt on them and attack them. I am just not wired correctly to win an election in this environment.

  97. 97.

    Gene108

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What never gets discussed is North Korea. President Clinton directly engaged with North Korea and cut deals so they did not continue their nuclear enrichment program.

    Bush Jr labeled the as part of the Axis of Evil, refused to continue the Clinton policy, and decided to try to bully North Korea to doing what we wanted. In 2006, North Korea detonated a nuclear devise. And prior to that they left the NPT.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:
    Tell that to my 13YO, who has two (admittedly handmedown) tablets and keeps stealing mom’s ipad. Pretty sure she only plays games and music on them, as she does Hausarbeit on a laptop and texts on her phone.

    Disclaimer: I didn’t give her any of those several devices; the person who loudly complains she spends too much time on electronics did.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @trollhattan:

    Oh, I’m sure there’s variation. They announce this stuff all the time like they know everything.

    I love how they say “babies”. Dripping with disdain. They say “babies” like other people say “fools”.

  100. 100.

    Tommy

    @trollhattan: It may be closer to true than you might think. My brother married into this huge family. Lots of kids from 15-25. I don’t think a single one of them have a tablet. It is all about their iPhones. I am a huge tech geek and it makes no sense to me. Yes my phone can do just about everything, but unless I want to be totally mobile my tablet is far superior for reading and gaming, the two things I do most on it.

  104. 104.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Kay: I hardly ever use my tablet. I am usually on my laptop or desktop, when I am on the go I have my phone. I only use my iPad to read books and magazines when I am traveling out of town, otherwise I prefer hard copies.

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    @Tommy: My 16-year-old mostly leaves my iPad alone. I might need to invent a solar hat she can wear to keep her damned iPhone charged (if there isn’t already such a thing). When the phone drops below a certain charge, she runs around with that plug in a panic like her oxygen supply is dwindling.

  108. 108.

    Gene108

    @Kay:

    They used the CU decision to devastating effect in state and local races. A bunch of state legislatures, who maybe ran one ad in October to remind people they are on the ballot and sent out glossy fliers, were getting ad bombed by third party groups in 2010.

    And when the GOP gets control at the state level, like they did in the South (which is one reason Democratic Parties in Southern states became so weak so fast), they tell the big in-state money that if they want to get anything done they better give 100% of their donations to the GOP.

  109. 109.

    Gravenstone

    @japa21: It’s not that he’s ignorant to what the local powers have stated re. western combat troops. It’s that he isn’t prepared to grant them agency to make their own decisions on the matter. The US simply has to ride in to save the ignorant savages from themselves, that is the entirety of his “reasoning” on the matter.

  110. 110.

    Ruckus

    @Belafon:
    I considered running. Once.
    Yes it would be public service. Yes it can be noble.
    It is also a huge risk. As Kay has said you can spend a year with no paycheck only to find out that all of it was a complete waste. Then there is the fickle voters and what they think is important, looks, a good suit for men/just the “right” look for women, willingness to put a soda machine on the quad(oh wait that was what our HS senior class president ran on, but not all that much out of line in our current political climate), illogical ideas about what government can and cannot do, have to drink beer so that they might want to have one with you……..

    ETA You also have to fund raise at the expense of almost everything else. If I was good at that, retirement would be a whole lot more fun.

  111. 111.

    leeleeFL

    @Betty Cracker: Sadly true, Betty. But it still made LOL. Home sick today, so I needed the chuckle. Have anyone in mind, Girl? We could maybe start a wave?

  112. 112.

    Tommy

    @schrodinger’s cat: I use my tablet a fair amount of time but I almost have to remind myself to use it instead of my phone. I use my phone as my landline so it is never more than a foot or so away from me. Just so easy to default to it. But the tasks of reading, gaming, to do list, notes, shopping lists on my tablet is such a better experience than my phone.

  113. 113.

    boatboy_srq

    @Betty Cracker: A lot of us carp online precisely because actually campaigning is not practical. Where we live, who and what we are, and where we’ve been often represent “baggage” that the local constituencies might overlook but the national GOTea would make major hay of. Volunteer? Sure. Sign up for the GOTea/MSM microscope inspection of our lives? Not so much.

  114. 114.

    Mandalay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    what’s stopping him, exactly?

    He has clashed in the past with powerful Democrats, notably including Hillary Clinton. And I suspect he is too far to the left, and tells the truth too often, for the comfort for those at the top.

  115. 115.

    Elizabelle

    I think Fifty Shades of Blue, to combat Fifty Shades of Black and Blue, has promise.

  116. 116.

    someguy

    What would that ignant cracker hick Tom Cotton know about Iran? That chickenhawk probably doesn’t even have a passport.

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    @someguy: Are you snarking? Cuz Cotton was in the Army and served a few tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Does not mean he learned that much from using his passport.

    He’s still an asshole, and ignorant in a way that only people like he and Ted Cruz, with Ivy educations and no empathy, can be.

  119. 119.

    bemused

    @Tommy:

    Using the internet on iphone is a pain in the ass which is why I take the ipad along when traveling by car.

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodinger’s cat: he got through Harvard believing in a young earth, and served in Iraq without noticing the limits of military engagement. You can fix ignorant…

  121. 121.

    Betty Cracker

    @leeleeFL: It’s early yet, but Rep. Patrick Murphy looks promising. I also like Rep. Kathy Castor a lot, but I don’t know if she’s even interested. I wish former Tampa mayor Pam Iorio would run for something — she was a great mayor and one of the few supervisors of elections who didn’t disgrace us all during the 2000 fiasco, but it seems she may be done with politics.

    @Mandalay: I was surprised Howard Dean came out so strongly for HRC awhile back [warning — Politico link]. I guess Dean and the Clintons have buried the hatchet.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    @Ruckus: We need public financing of campaigns and way shorter election seasons, as in other countries.

    Probably not going to see it our lifetimes — thanks again, St. Reagan, but the constant fundraising (and intensely cruel microscope — it’s hard to outrun all those lies) is what keeps a lot of good people from running for office.

    So many national Republican politicians — and their major donors and groups — are pretty much sociopaths. So they jump right in.

  124. 124.

    Violet

    @Elizabelle: I think members of the military don’t use a passport when they’re deployed out of the country. They have some other identification.

    Learned this when a family member hired a combat vet and they needed the vet to go on his first business trip. They all just assumed the guy had a passport because he’d been all over in the military. He had to tell them he didn’t and then they had to put a rush on it to get it in time.

  125. 125.

    Tommy

    @bemused: One of the main reasons I don’t upgrade my Samsung phone, other than it does everything I need well, is it is much larger than any versions I can get now. I can still put it in my pocket, but I don’t want some super small device, because I do use it for many things.

  126. 126.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    So does that mean they like real computers or that they do everything on their smart phones?

    (Apparently I’m so out of it that when the obvious is stated I can’t draw the obvious conclusion.)

  127. 127.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:
    Also need to add that running for office seems to bring out the seriously stupid (insert additional descriptions as necessary – racist, misogynistic, homophobic, etc) constituents. At some point (usually way too soon) it becomes impossible for me to not ask the question, “How can you possibly be that fucking stupid?” With the implied ending of “and still have the ability to breathe?”

  128. 128.

    Iowa Old Lady

    The weirdest thing about that Rubio-Kerry exchange went kind of like this:

    Rubio: Obummer is not bombing ISIS because Iran doesn’t want him to.

    Kerry: Uh, Iran is fighting ISIS too so I can’t see why they’d object.

    Rubio: Yeah, like you said, Iran wouldn’t want us to.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @Violet:
    We didn’t use one when I was in. Walked in many foreign cities without one. My military ID card was all I needed. This was over 40 yrs ago so that may have changed but somehow I doubt it.

    As far as Iraq, if you show up in a country with a lot of tanks/guns etc, what border patrol agent is going to demand a passport?

  132. 132.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Pogonip: Actually, that (court of common fleas) was what I typed. It’s kind of a silly lawyer joke. Always gets a laugh from my friends who sit on that court. Well, almost always. And I would never say it when court’s in session and there are actual parties to proceedings there. Just other lawyers, perhaps – depending on whose room.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    Maybe it’s just his hearing. I’d think that having his head stuffed that far up his rectal orifice might just reduce his ability to properly identify words.

  137. 137.

    Pogonip

    @boatboy_srq: A good point. I have had several of these conversations:

    American : So, where do you go to church?

    Me: Our Lady of Perpetual Motion.

    American: you’re CATHOLIC? I’m sorry! I thought you were a Christian!

  138. 138.

    cckids

    @Betty Cracker:

    I might need to invent a solar hat she can wear to keep her damned iPhone charged

    Well, it’s not a hat, but there is this solar charging backpack. Might not be cool enough looking, though.

  139. 139.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @schrodinger’s cat: He’s still a cracker. Cracker with a Harvard JD, to be sure, but a cracker nonetheless.

    @Pogonip: Oh by all means be watchful for autocorrect; it’s insidious and sneaky. And it’s such an inside joke, it may have been only with myself, since courts have different names in different states/commonwealths.

  140. 140.

    Mandalay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I guess Dean and the Clintons have buried the hatchet.

    Maybe, but the way Hillary Clinton buries a hatchet is different to the way most people bury a hatchet.

    Dean has been giving Clinton a tongue bath for a while. Either he’s looking for a job, or he’s just a rock solid Democrat who is doing the right thing, and boosting the candidate of his party at every opportunity. I hope it’s the latter because otherwise he’s wasting his time.

  141. 141.

    Pogonip

    Also extrapolating from conversations I’ve had, many if not most Americans think Martin Luther was that guy with a dream who was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama.

  142. 142.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Tommy: Primus, which model do you have? Secundus, when was the last time you looked at phones? I’m putting off upgrading my S3 because I don’t want to go any bigger. I’ll have to sew a new purse; the new ones don’t fit into my phone pocket.

  143. 143.

    Calouste

    @Iowa Old Lady: Folks like Rubio are so much thinking* in black-and-white, if-you’re-not-for-us-you’re-against-us way, that they just can’t process scenarios where the enemy of your enemy isn’t necessarily your friend, or that you could have some goals in common with your enemy.

    * Technically not the right term.

  144. 144.

    Chris

    @Pogonip:

    I will never get tired of these missionary churches sending people to Latin America and Russia and Korea to bring the good word of Jesus to all these poor faithless Catholics, Orthodox, other Protestants… etc.

  146. 146.

    Mike E

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I got the droid Maxx…not phablet size, but a little bigger than the iPhone 5. I like it for not going for broke like the current batch of superphones (galaxy S5, LG G3, iphone6+ etc) and it still fits in my shirt/jacket pocket pretty well. I tend to compose email and pithy comments here on my phone, so it works for me.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    They like real computers.

    Only one of them has a smartphone. My son had one but he broke it almost immediately and we didn’t replace it.

  149. 149.

    Origuy

    @Violet: There is a military passport, but I don’t know who gets it. I see that you’re supposed to use it only on official business.
    I met the US military attache to Austria in the JFK lounge once. He carried a civilian, military, and diplomatic passport, and used whichever he needed. He showed the diplomatic one at the gate and got an upgrade to first class.

  152. 152.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mandalay: Wouldn’t Dean and the Clintons basically agree on the 50-state strategy at any rate? I thought it was the Obama people (maybe not Obama himself but at least some of his operatives and certainly many of his supporters) who think the 50-state strategy is a waste of resources.

  153. 153.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Origuy: The kid hasn’t has a passport since she was an infant to visit Korea with her mom. While she was active duty, she was stationed in the UK and traveled in Europe(EU) without a passport.

  154. 154.

    Tenar Darell

    @Betty Cracker: Heh, I don’t usually have this much in common with the teens. I go through some days re-charging my iphone 5 from scratch twice! (I don’t know why I didn’t ever buy a battery case). I’m due for a new phone and the sole reason I’m tempted by the iPhone 6 Plus is because of the battery life.

  155. 155.

    Turgidson

    @Betty Cracker:

    Old Clintonistas were contemptuous of the 50 state strategy when Dean chaired the DNC, at least at first. Begala said something along the lines of “I don’t see the point of paying somebody to sit in an office in Alabama picking his nose”

    But then we won in 2006 and while Rahm tried to take all the credit for it, Dean came out looking good too. I think the Obama team thought 2008 success was all due to their brilliance and wanted a more reliable loyalist in the DNC. Bad move. Should have stuck with what was working.

  157. 157.

    Mandalay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Wouldn’t Dean and the Clintons basically agree on the 50-state strategy at any rate?

    Sure, to the extent that all the major players pay lip service to that strategy. But while Dean was in charge we were kicking ass, and since he stepped down we’ve been losing. Of course we wouldn’t have necessarily kept on winning had Dean remained in charge, but we are definitely doing really badly without him. (And maybe that is more due to DWS’s presence than Dean’s absence?)

    Dean is still plugging away with his “Democracy for America” and “Purple to Blue” projects, but he is out in the wilderness. Such a waste of a great talent, but he made too many enemies.

  158. 158.

    boatboy_srq

    @Pogonip: I know a bunch of Xtians that “saved” their Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian friends. Translation: they persuaded them to leave their old churches and join the newfangled Xtian community. Because the rest aren’t “Christian” – at least by any definition the Xtians respect. I love the “Our Lady of Perpetual Motion” line: too, too good. Then again, I still love visiting SFO and seeing the cathedral of St. Mary Maytag (Our Lady of the Laundromat).

  159. 159.

    Keith G

    @Violet:

    I really hope that after his presidency, Barack Obama goes back to his community organizer roots and works on helping to build state parties.

    It seems to me, unfortunately, that if this really were one of BHO’s heartfelt priorities, there was no better time to get such a thing started than in Dec 2008.

  161. 161.

    karen marie

    Rubio has continuing issues with dry mouth. He should either lay off the weed or consult his taxpayer-funded physician about any medical condition he may have that causes him continual dry mouth. Personally, I think he’s firing up blunts in his office.

  163. 163.

    Kay

    @Mandalay:

    I don’t believe the 50 state strategy theory. It was completely unimpressive here. I think 2006 was a wave year for Democrats and so don’t believe either Dean OR Emanuel should be credited with strategic success.

    I also think Howard Dean should disclose that he works on behalf of certain lobbying orgs and PR firms now. He not *technically* a lobbyist, but I think everyone we see on tv speaking for Democrats should disclose who pays them, including Howard Dean, Hillary Rosen, James Carville and on and on.

    They could just use a print crawl at the bottom of the screen, for all of them. I’d appreciate that information.

  164. 164.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Kay: Why a print crawl? Why not have all pundits and politicians do a nascar thing, and wear logos on their windbreakers and hats?

  166. 166.

    Mandalay

    @Kay:

    I don’t believe the 50 state strategy theory. It was completely unimpressive here.

    Well, by definition, it’s not going to work everywhere. It’s easy to be cynical and ask “How’s that 50 state thingy workin’ out for ya in Utah and Alabama?” (as some backstabbing prominent Democrats did). But not so easy to ask how it’s worked out in states like Nebraska where Dems had no right to have any hope of success.

    It’s surprisingly difficult to evaluate how effective it actually was, but one thing is for sure: despite pulling in plenty of money, nothing is being delivered with DWS’s “strategy”. She’s just way out of her depth.

  167. 167.

    jharp

    I’ve seen Student Council Presidents do a better job than Rubio.

    And he’s considered a serious candidate for President?

    Holy Fuck.

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: some people need heroes, especially heroes whose limitless potential was thwarted by Evil Forces beyond the control of noble, decent folk. Some people are just looking for an excuse to trot out their precious, pseudo-wistful, more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger contrari-troll schtick

  169. 169.

    Zinsky

    Mark Twain once said that the best cure for bigotry is travel. Most of these right-wing loons haven’t ventured outside of the United States other than spring break drinking junkets to Cancun or some wingnut cruise to kiss the ring of Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity. They don’t know jackshit about Islam or what the difference is between Sunni and Shiite Islam. Senator Kerry must have wanted to kick Marco Rubio’s candyass down the Capitol steps, which I’m sure he could do easily. Rubio is an idiot and a pathetic wimpy girly man.

  171. 171.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Howard Dean Endorses Rahm Emanuel’s Opponent as Chicago Mayoral Runoff Looms

  172. 172.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ruckus: One did not need one in Europe in the 80’s, but I got one anyway. For security reasons. I didn’t want to be flashing military ID in lieu of a passport to get around on my Eurail pass.

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