Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

He really is that stupid.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

No Justins, No Peace

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

I was promised a recession.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Come on, man.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Cruz-ifiction / Open Thread: God-King Candidate Ted Cruz Is A Creepy Lying Liar

Open Thread: God-King Candidate Ted Cruz Is A Creepy Lying Liar

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Ted Cruz calls himself a Southern Baptist, so either he’s flat-out lying, or Southern Baptist tenets include that “it’s okay to lie to infidels” escape clause they’re always throwing at Muslims. Because Southern Baptists consider an increasing broad range of contraceptives “abortifacients” — and therefore want to ban them.

Yeah, like every other but-only-for-the-little-ladies-own-good misogynist, Ted says condoms are okay because they let the man choose whether or not a woman risks pregnancy. And just as he now lies about their availability, no doubt back in the day he lied about using them, said every woman within earshot…

Further reporting by Dana Milbank at the Washington Post:

… Just days before the shooting, Cruz trumpeted an endorsement from an antiabortion activist who once called killing an abortion doctor a “justifiable defensive action” and who leads a group, Operation Rescue, where a colleague did prison time for a conspiracy to bomb an abortion clinic.

The activist whose endorsement Cruz celebrated, Troy Newman, is also on the board of the Center for Medical Progress, which made the surreptitious Planned Parenthood videos that prompted Cruz and many other conservatives to accuse the organization of selling “baby parts” — the phrase Dear allegedly used. The videos, including footage from a Planned Parenthood in Denver, not far from Colorado Springs, were followed by a wave of threats and smaller attacks on the organization’s facilities…

Newman, the Operation Rescue official whose endorsement Cruz touted, has called women who have abortions “murderesses.” He said societal responsibility “rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land.”…

Huffington Post has four minutes of exceedingly creepy video, complete with lots more Cruz lies attacking HRClinton and other Democrats, here.

Amy Davidson, in the New Yorker:

… In the September G.O.P. debate, Cruz called Planned Parenthood a “criminal enterprise,” guilty of “multiple felonies.” He has signed a letter saying that one of the group’s founders, Margaret Sanger, sought the “extermination” of black Americans. (She did not.) “When millions of Americans rose up against Planned Parenthood, I was proud to lead that fight,” Cruz said, in a debate in October…

As he never stops reminding us, Ted Cruz is a very smart man, highly educated, fully aware of all media internet traditions. He knows that anyone with access to a modem and a memory going back further than yesterday’s lunch can identify his lies with a few clicks.

But he doesn’t care, because the voters he’s courting aren’t skeptics, they’re believers. And he figures either they’re too dumb to understand he’s lying to them… or he figures they’re as dishonest as he is, and don’t care that he’s lying.

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Reader Interactions

193Comments

  2. 2.

    Botsplainer

    But he doesn’t care, because the voters he’s courting aren’t skeptics, they’re believers. And he figures either they’re too dumb to understand he’s lying to them… or he figures they’re as dishonest as he is, and don’t care that he’s lying.

    The voters he courts are Christian conservatives. Lying about intentions and means is as second nature to them as breathing, a consequence of the bullshit cheap grace of the filth they call a theology.

    In their world, you can fuck up non-stop, and as long as you bleat some mewling, simpering words about Jesus forgiving you, it’s all good, since Jesus will also fix up everything for your victims in the afterlife.

    That way, drawling simpletons get excused for systematic racism and labor theft, and nicely suited, serious men of business can get nooky on the side.

  3. 3.

    TriassicSands

    If I believed in God, I’d say, “God gave Ted Cruz a fine brain and Cruz used it to become a complete idiot.”

    As it is, evolution and genetics gave Cruz a fine brain and he used that to become a complete idiot.”

    Who needs God?

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    That Cruz headline is a total dogwhistle to the right: “Most Violent Criminals Are Democrats” is instantly translated as “Blacks are criminals.”

    Racism. Fear. Violence. Misogyny.

    The four pillars of the Conservative Church.

  6. 6.

    moderateindy

    Ted decoded………Most violent criminals are NiClangs, and most NiClangs are Democrats therefore …..
    It’s OK, cause Jeebus will forgive him for his constant bearing of false witness. Of course Right wing religous zealots might want to remember that Jeebus only forgives the truly repentant

  7. 7.

    Botsplainer

    @BGinCHI:

    Racism. Fear. Violence. Misogyny.

    The four pillars of the Conservative Church.

    On the plus side, these shitstains are doing a yeoman’s job of making Christianity deeply unattractive to milennials who aren’t from redneckistan, thereby accelerating the pace of secularization (like Western Europe).

  8. 8.

    cokane

    nominating cruz would be about as disastrous as trump, go for it GOP, i know you have it in you, a true conservative!

  9. 9.

    Joey Maloney

    @Botsplainer: The problem is that the secularization of Western Europe started with a long period of people with weapons running around killing everyone who didn’t agree with them (and sometimes also everyone who agreed with them but not quite hard enough).

  10. 10.

    Marc

    How about a Trump/Cruz ticket? Sounds like a fine way to crater the GOP prospects of getting support from anyone other than angry old white men. GOP candidates have to run farther and farther to the right each election cycle to the the nomination. I keep wondering what supporters see in the GOP grifters that makes them think there is a chance in HE-double hockey sticks they’ll ever be elected.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    @Marc:
    The consensus among the Juicitariat seems to be that no one would want Cruz for a running mate — he doesn’t seem the sort to settle for the bottom of the ticket, and is too obviously a potential Iago. I wonder what sort of running mate Trump will seek out — a mini-Donald, or someone who won’t crowd his spotlight?

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    And he figures either they’re too dumb to understand he’s lying to them… or he figures they’re as dishonest as he is, and don’t care that he’s lying.

    Wrong, Anne…. and right. They know the Truth, the Truth that only a godly person can know, and it is a Truth that is hidden from all non-believers, infidels, and heretics who get their information from books and the internet and scientists, as opposed to The Book, Their Priest/Preacher/Parson, and The One True God who speaks to them in tongues.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    As president, I would make rubbers free under Obamacare like any other birth control. Because it’s important to recognize that reproductive decisions and sexual health are a joint responsibility.

    (And because it’ll squash any further attempts at repeal if dudes get a benefit.)

  33. 33.

    Mustang Bobby

    The words “Ted Cruz” and “condoms” should never appear in the same sentence without a trigger warning in the same vein as “zipper” and “dick.”

  34. 34.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    Ted Cruz calls himself a Southern Baptist, so either he’s flat-out lying, or Southern Baptist tenets include that “it’s okay to lie to infidels” escape clause they’re always throwing at Muslims.

    Well, yeah. The beginning of the end for me as a SB was when I was taken aside in a Training Union class and told that it didn’t matter that I had actually read the book that we were supposedly discussing. The teacher would tell the class what we were supposed to think was in the book.

    Said book was a biography of Lottie Moon.

  35. 35.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @Mustang Bobby: false! I counter with:

    ‘A greater accessibility of condoms might have saved us from having Ted Cruz be born to inflict himself upon decent people’

  36. 36.

    bystander

    Moanin’ Joe just told the world that repubs need to acknowledge the existence of climate change. Who knew facts were things you could turn on and off like a light switch?

  37. 37.

    NorthLeft12

    As a Canadian, I take no responsibility for Ted Cruz. Up here, Tail-gunner Ted would just be a marginalized wingnut spewing his crazed visions to [at most] a church congregation of like minded nutjobs. He is too far right wing for our Conservative Party IMO.
    In the US, Cruz is a Senator of the second most populous state and is considered a very serious Presidential candidate. WTF?

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I feel sick:

    Ernest Williams, 14, says he, his cousin and their friend were wrong to sneak out on their bikes at night, hop a backyard fence and rummage through someone’s car for pocket change.

    The car’s owner interrupted the boys and shot at them about 12:45 a.m. Sunday, killing Ernest’s 13-year-old cousin, Martinez Smith-Payne.

    Ernest wishes they had gone home instead of riding down that North Point neighborhood alley. “I was just thinking while in the jail cell, what was up in that car was not worth Martinez’s life,” Ernest said on his front porch Monday, standing next to his mother. “We all were responsible for going in that car. All three of us made that choice.”

    Their friend ran off, but Ernest called 911 and stayed with Martinez until police arrived. Ernest was taken into juvenile custody for several hours.

    The shooting could test Missouri’s laws regarding a homeowner’s right to protect himself.

    How in the hell could a deliberative body come to define the killing of a 13 yr old who posed absolutely no threat to anyone as a right? I want every single person running for anything from President to dog catcher to answer that question.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    And he figures either they’re too dumb to understand he’s lying to them… or he figures they’re as dishonest as he is, and don’t care that he’s lying.

    I read a book about the pre-Renaissance era recently. There was a big conclave in Switzerland to deal with the issue of too many popes. Anyway, they invited this hated Church reformer with a promise that no harm would come to him. He came and they tortured and executed him at the stake. The justification was, there is no moral obligation to keep promises to heretics.

    They don’t care that Cruz lies, because they think he’s only lying to us.

  42. 42.

    evodevo

    @Botsplainer: Yes. This. Lying for Jeebus is second nature to the leaders on the religious right. Their benighted followers are trained from birth not to question and get REALLY disturbed when you point out inconsistencies or use facts/logic. Been there, done that.

  43. 43.

    Another Holocene Human

    I have a problem with that “We Are The Democrats” shit proposed yesterday.

    I don’t vote for creepy cults that are vague about who they are and what they stand for. I vote for PEOPLE and on the basis of POLICIES. Think Obama giving a stump speech about what the D party is going to work on.

    “We Are Democrats” sounds like “We Are Mormons”. Note how the Prophit–now, everyone in the Morg knows who he is–never appears in these ads. Always vague and deflecty about Mormon beliefs, Mormon practices, and who their leader is. Now, compare a real banner waver like JP II (spit) or Pope Francis? (Or Benedict, but in the negative direction because he sucked.) Francis going around doing smart PR symbolic gestures or giving moralizing speeches does more for Catholic PR than a billion dollar ad campaign would (and some lame conservative Catholics have sunk money in a stupid ad campaign, trufax).

    People respond to … people. And people have to stand for something. They have records. They can be vetted. Only weird cults with agenda won’t tell you who their leaders are, how they’re structured, and the truth about what they stand for (vague lies, though, are in).

    I’m pretty sure the DNC is not going to run a creepy cult campaign (pretty sure … they do some stupid stuff) because it’s a horrible idea, not because they’re morally weak or whatever the slur du jour is.

  44. 44.

    Another Holocene Human

    @evodevo: They were beaten as children. Be sure of it.

    I was just thinking of a scary episode where my mother went after a younger sibling and as the oldest and biggest … I’m pretty sure I did nothing. I’m still terrified to this day. Learned helplessness. As mistake #1 I got beaten a lot.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I have a problem with that “We Are The Democrats” shit proposed yesterday.

    I don’t vote for creepy cults that are vague about who they are and what they stand for.

    Got a link? Not sure who is proposing this.

  47. 47.

    Another Holocene Human

    Btw, I fucking HATE when white people call Black people lazy (like my FIL the other day … I wanted him to just STFU so it earned him a stony silence instead of a row), because I got beaten and called lazy for the first 18 years of my life. Nothing I did was ever good enough, no grade was ever good enough, no slaving around the house ever enough to earn me a minute off. In retrospect my mother resented me even being born, like, a lot (I was specifically told, repeatedly, as a child that I was a conceived via naive accident, let that be a lesson to you). No. Fuck you. You have no idea how hard somebody else works. You don’t get to call people lazy.

    If somebody moves slow because they have two jobs and only got four hours of sleep last night, that doesn’t mean they’re lazy.

    If your neighbor is on the porch chilling while you go to work because he just finished the night shift, that doesn’t mean he is lazy.

    If your coworker is tired and grumpy after being up all night with a sick kid, that doesn’t mean she’s lazy.

    If somebody refuses overtime because they have to finish their homework for class, that doesn’t mean they’re lazy.

    Lazy = “I resent this person for having a minute off. I refuse to take a hard look at myself and my life and continue to be mentally and morally _lazy_ and project my issues on them.”

    /rant

  48. 48.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud: It was on the front page, Baud. And supposedly Heliopause suggested it, not sure why I remember that.

  49. 49.

    Another Holocene Human

    @OzarkHillbilly: This is the end game of that castle doctrine shit. Because supposedly burglars are confronting homeowners or suing them for damages when they get injured breaking in (???).

    The only case I know of was that California serial killer/home invader who managed to rape and kill homeowners who HAD guns … seems like a burglar alarm would have been a better investment.

    (Breaking and entering can be a preparatory behavior to violent crimes although most burglars are in it for the money and avoid homeowners/neighbors/witnesses like the plague.)

  52. 52.

    bemused

    Rightwingers bitterly resent people getting any kind of government aid calling them undeserving losers, unlike hardworking citizens like them. They also hate the idea of women, particularly low income women, being able to get free or affordable birth control from any source which is really a bizarre disconnect. If they think there are far too many people, children on welfare, food stamps, you’d think they’d be totally in favor of free contraceptives so those moochers would reproduce less children that “take their taxpayer dollars out of their pockets”. Why they actively try to prevent people they hate from having fewer children doesn’t make sense. Don’t they have enough people to hate already.

  54. 54.

    Shantanu Saha

    As a Princeton alumnus myself, having attended just before Cruz got to campus (good thing, too– I would probably have strangled him if I had known him), and as one who lives near campus and often goes to campus to meet with friends there, I can attest that there are NO condom dispensers in the men’s rooms.

    And I would have to say that the vast majority of creepy assholes are Republicans (as I sadly know from my days at Princeton).

  55. 55.

    Botsplainer

    @Another Holocene Human:

    When somebody moves slowly or at a pace designed to help them go through a steady busy day (especially at shit wages) they’re not lazy – they’re surviving.

    Also, if a smart kid turns to hustling rock on the street to supplement, he’s not lazy – he’s simply denying some grinning white guy in a suit of efforts which make the white guy money in return for lousy pay.

    One other thing – the laziest people on this spinning rock happened to be the Southern planter class.

  56. 56.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @bemused: Nah, it’s slut shaming. If the sluts would be fucking so much they wouldn’t have all those babies. That’s how they rationalize it.

  57. 57.

    Botsplainer

    @bemused:

    Why they actively try to prevent people they hate from having fewer children doesn’t make sense.

    Sadism. They love inflicting pain on others in order to validate their belief in that shitstain they call a god.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Holocene Human: The breaking and entering in this case amounted to climbing over a fence and opening car doors. Apparently none of the kids ever approached him much less broke into his house. The moral depravity that accepts** the shooting of a child under such circumstances I find abhorrent.

    **he has not been charged… yet. could still be, time will tell but I can say right now that if he is, he will rake in millions just like Zimmerman did.

  59. 59.

    Amir Khalid

    @Marc:
    Everyone reckons Trump got into this race partly to humiliate Jeb, and it’s hard to think of a worse humiliation for him than having to be Trump’s no. 2.

  60. 60.

    bemused

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    iow, they resent “moocher” people having lives, period.

    If opportunity arises and I hear someone rant about free contraception, I plan to ask why they want low income people to have more kids to be “on the dole”.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    “Felons are all Democrats” has been around a long time on the Right. They used it all the time in voting rights arguments after Bush v Gore. It was like the trump card they’d pull out with a big flourish- “why are you worried that felons can’t vote?”

    This was supposed to make you slink away in shame- your voters were all felons or why would you be worried about voting restrictions? Hmmm? Caught, red handed. Of course it’s a huge dog whistle but a big part of conservatism is their need for a sense of moral superiority, so shaming other people helps them with that. Attempting to shame. I’m proud I want felons to vote.

    Felons actually can vote in Ohio (and many other states) so that’s a fun thing to tell them, after they declare their devotion to disenfranchising more people.

  64. 64.

    bemused

    @Botsplainer:

    I know a guy in his 50’s who is a very outspoken liberal, sometimes inflammatory. He was on a committee to plan a class reunion and most of the others were women classmates. I don’t know how the subject of people on welfare and our native american population came up but one woman did the usual rightwing rant. She grew up poor and pulled herself up by bootstraps, yadda, yadda. The guy doesn’t let crap like that go so the conversation heated up until he said something like, what’s the solution then, line them up and shoot them?

  67. 67.

    prufrock

    Newman, the Operation Rescue official whose endorsement Cruz touted, has called women who have abortions “murderesses.”

    Murderesses? They can’t even slander someone without the misogyny seeping out.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    If felons were all Democrats, that would only strengthen my resolve that they get their voting rights restored.

    Once you’ve done your time, you should have the same right to hate Democrats as every other Democrat enjoys.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    It goes along with the need for moral superiority. The repulsive Bush family operatives “caged” voters in Florida to drag the dope over the finish line in 2000, and those voters were African Americans. This makes conservatives uncomfortable, so they have to go to some garbled nonsense distraction about felons.

    I wish felons voted. Thanks partly to how moronic and low information our voting “debate” is, a huge number of them believe they can’t vote even in states where they can.

  73. 73.

    debbie

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Cruz has an oratorical style I associate with Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.

    Without the charm.

    I don’t think he’s smart enough to keep it up, though. The week before the last debate, his people came up with an explanation for Cruz’s always sounding so rehearsed: He has an audiographic memory! Not only does he remember everything he’s ever heard; he even remembers the pauses! This is why he sounds so lofty and oratorical! (Yeah, that’s the ticket!)

    Then the debate comes around and Cruz can’t remember the names of all five US Departments he wants to get rid of. I haven’t seen anything about his vaunted memory since.

    I think Cruz is a real threat to democracy, but I think, once he’s subjected to real scrutiny, he’ll fold like a wet noodle.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It goes back to right v privilege. They genuinely do not believe voting is a right. You can tell by the comparisons they use- drivers license, buy booze. The argument for why felons shouldn’t be able to vote goes like this- “they can’t work in nursing homes!”

    They consistently confuse privileges, licensure, with rights. We’re not really arguing about “voting”- those are process or administrative arguments, and they assume some shared principles. We’re arguing about what voting is. That’s why the arguments are so hot. These aren’t minor disagreements.

  75. 75.

    srv

    He quotes the Princess Bride all the time, so he can’t be all bad.

    If only he had a Mid-Atlantic accent, he might be a threat to Trump.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    They’ve invested lot of money in disenfranchisement, and you just want to throw it all away.

    They believe voting is a right. They just believe only they and theirs are entitled to rights.

  77. 77.

    RSA

    In college, “we had a machine that you put 50 cents in and wa-lah,” @tedcruz adds.

    We need to start teaching French in schools, I guess.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: They also believe that getting registered and voting should be sort of difficult, so that only people who are really serious about it can vote. It’s fine if it’s not that difficult for them, of course.

  79. 79.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I’m old enough to remember when the pill first became widely available. I saw and felt the change it made in women’s ability to shape their own lives. Cruz’s identification of condoms as what should be default birth control is horrifying.

  80. 80.

    NickM

    What I don’t understand is who does Cruz think he’s lying to? No one believes that the Planned Parenthood killer was a leftist transgender terrorist or whatever. Whyake that claim? So the media has to “report the controversy” that no one believes is actually a controversy?

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I was a poll worker when Ohio’s ID laws went in and the smug turning away of people just enraged me. It’s just the sort of thing that sets me off- what I see as humiliating people or petty displays of power. A lot of people are cowed or intimidated by “officials” and it was if the bullies found that vulnerability to exploit. Those people are coming in there feeling like outsiders anyway so they’re so ready to be told “no- you don’t belong here- you’re doing this wrong”.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @NickM:

    It’s about exercising power over society. “I get to say whatever I want and you can’t do anything to stop me.” It’s a psyops thing.

  89. 89.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I remember when the ID requirements were enacted in Ohio. The requirements were so poorly written, the bullies hardly needed to make an effort.

    I remember a mailing piece listing the acceptable form of identification. It was set up as a list of bullet points, but they weren’t correctly formatted. The rule is you either use commas throughout or you don’t, and if it’s one of several, you use “or” at the end. The list was like this:

    Here are the acceptable forms of identification:

    • Military ID
    • Car Title
    • Utility Bill, and
    • Driver’s license

    As soon as I saw this, I knew there were would be trouble so I brought my license and my electric bill. The guy in front of me argued with the poll worker, but had to go get additional ID. I don’t think this was bullying so much as lack of common sense.

  90. 90.

    Germy

    “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
    – Charles Mackay

  91. 91.

    Betty Cracker

    @Another Holocene Human: Creating and communicating a consistent message that the Democrats stand for something (which we get to define, BTW) isn’t building a “creepy cult.” It’s called branding 101. Our opponents are great at it, which is why they own most statehouses and are able to stymie a twice-popularly elected executive via sabotage at the congressional level.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    That same thing went on in 2004: “Reelect Bush so people will know just how bad four more years will be.” Idiots.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I remember when the ID requirements were enacted in Ohio. The requirements were so poorly written, the bullies hardly needed to make an effort.

    I followed the legislative debate and really understood the law so I was probably over-qualified as a poll worker and that added to my crankiness. It was just incredibly hostile. We had the same bickery arguments over and over, for 12 hours. In Ohio there are two Democrats and two Republicans at each table and the other Democrat at my table decided to be the “reasonable” Democrat as opposed to my crazily vigilant Democrat, which also pissed me off. They were using provisional ballots as a default- “I don’t know what to do so I’ll pull this person out of line and send them over to the provisional line”. People were taking the provisional ballot packet, thumbing thru it and then leaving it on the table and walking out. The packet had all these black-box warnings about election law felonies and I think voters were afraid to make a wrong move.

  94. 94.

    bemused

    @debbie:

    It’s lack of caring, not even the slightest concern. Why would they care? The more difficult their stupid voting rules are to meet is just validation they are tough on voter “fraud”. And if they can do some bullying at the same time, it’s icing on the cake for them.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    Can someone tell me when ghostly apparition Hugh Hewitt crossed over into the mainstream? It seems like one day he was a mid-level online wingnut media hack and then suddenly he was blinking obtusely on my teevee screen over the CNN logo.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    The “car registration” is hotly debated to this day. Is it a government document? Of course it is!

    The car registration was too convenient and it’s something people actually have in their car so of course conservatives focused there. It’s important we send people away, so they know they’re marginal and probably bent on criminal activity. I object to the attitude just on market principles- customer service. Why are they doing this job? To get people “voted”, right? They need to go back to first principles.

  97. 97.

    srv

    @Betty Cracker: Hughie used to comment on BJ back in the day – it’s too bad the liberals here couldn’t leverage the intertubes. I’d give John Cole equal time (on public access).

  99. 99.

    tazj

    I suppose Ted Cruz is correct when he says that he never met a conservative who wanted to ban birth control because most conservatives would want access to it. They just want total control of who gets it and why so they won’t somehow be complicit in its use or they just want to control women. They always have a valid reason to use it but other people don’t.

    They also try to pretend that they’re so pro-life but that only pertains to the right kind of people . The local paper would run stories every year about the families who were helped by their holiday charity drive. Meanwhile the local conservative talk show host would mock the families featured in the stories asking “Why did they decide to have so many kids?”. He would completely ignore the problems the families had encountered like the loss of a job or family illness.

  105. 105.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie: I don’t think there’s ever been a high-profile election in which I didn’t see somebody write the counterintuitive think-piece about how it might be better for our side to lose this one.

    What’s notable about this one to me is that the guy spends most of the article marshaling various arguments (which are mostly not bad arguments) about how his favored candidate is the superior one in the primary, but then makes a ridiculous, poorly supported leap to letting the world burn and heightening the contradictions for 2020 if Sanders doesn’t get nominated. If he’d just stopped at step 1 the whole thing would be all right, but, then again, I guess I wouldn’t have posted the link or gotten clicks on it if he’d stopped at step 1.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    This is a big thing with me. We have a clerk at the court who is a winger and she does a really good job but only for lawyers and people she feels merit her work. So, because it’s a court maybe 90% of the people who land there don’t meet her high standards- she’s rude to them. I watched her haughtily dismiss one of them one too many times and I snapped at her- she works for them. All of them. I had to apologize to her because she complained to the judge and he thinks lawyers have to take the high road with clerks, so fine, I apologized, but she’s better now. She treats them better. That petty power thing drives me crazy. I’m glad I said it.

  107. 107.

    danielx

    Followers of Trump and Cruz, and Carson for that matter, somehow do not make the logical connection that if their heroes are willing – nay, eager – to tell hugely entertaining whoppers for tactical advantage now, they will continue to do so if elected. Not only to voters but to themselves as well, and we’ve already witnessed what happens when an administration cannot or will not distinguish truth from fantasy. (The next Friedman Unit will be critical to the development of Iraq as a Jeffersonian democracy!)

    @Botsplainer:

    In their world, you can fuck up non-stop, and as long as you bleat some mewling, simpering words about Jesus forgiving you, it’s all good, since Jesus will also fix up everything for your victims in the afterlife.

    Yup. I’ve heard about this in some detail from my nephew, who had the misfortune of being involved with a girl from an evangelical/obscure church – speaking in tongues, the whole bit. According to his experience, for those folks “being a Christian” excuses just about anything up to and including child molestation, most definitely including verbal and physical abuse of spouses and children. He thought the girl had walked away from the church, but unfortunately such was not the case….

  108. 108.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Back from voting in our mayoral runoff. Iowa has no voter ID law but the workers still ask for your driver’s license to run through a machine that adds your name to some list they’re keeping. You can theoretically refuse and they type your info in, but it still annoys me.

  109. 109.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Another Holocene Human: The post from BC with the quote from Heliopause merely proposed that Democrats put the word out about what hey have done and what they stand for. Somehow, you managed to equate that with cult-like behavior.

  110. 110.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Betty Cracker: Hey, I don’t have a problem with that. But look around you. Democratic pols seem to be articulating that agenda every day. The problem is that the other side controls the airwaves and our propaganda fu is weak.

    Case in point: thinking a vague, feel good “We Are The Mormons” style ad campaign would be good for the Dem brand. No. What is good for the Dem brand is 1) living up to promises 2) shouting that to the rooftops 3) winning 4) also shouting that to the rooftops.

    Obama does this. Grayson the con man pretends to do this. Warren does this. Dems love all three.

    Let’s be honest, our biggest problem are powerful Dem Senators who do and say what they want, like Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein and that douchebag from Vermont who was into “comity”, as well as the pants pissers who held Harry and Barack back in 2014 (how’s that workin’ out for ya?). Until voters in those states can replace them, not an easy lift, the Dems are going to have a fucking messaging problem and no amount of blanketing the country with “$5 footlongs” is going to take that sour taste out of voters’ mouths.

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    Must post again..

    I’ve watched it 3 times and got all in my feelings each and everytime.

    This young man can’t be the only one who feels this way.

    This President has touched so many…We won’t even know how many for years to come.

    And, this is why those with ODS hate him so.

    https://youtu.be/z-e3ph1H7r4

  119. 119.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Matt McIrvin: wow, that was tl;dr

    1st comment was delicious

    The human mind will invent any rationale for its emotional thirst/deficit. For example, in the case of this article the needed crutch is that the “system is rigged.” Of course if it wasn’t, than the decision of who to support after the primaries would be based on the candidate that best reflects one’s views and is deemed sufficiently trustworthy. But since it is rigged- even before the primary season has begun- collapse is preferable to participation. That this is an astonishing failure of imagination- goes by the wayside. That it reflects one dimensional thinking at its worst- is an after thought easily dismissed.

    Personally, if I were running for the Presidency, I would want the support of people that are less radicalized, less petulant, less ideological, more trusting and more willing to compromise for the greater good.I would want to be perceived more for who I was and my accomplishments- and less through the lens of puppy love or false derision. But that’s just me…

  121. 121.

    Another Holocene Human

    more lovable comments

    @Jt818 That’s right, just subtract out the extreme xenophobia and religious extremism, because you know, they just aren’t that important. I mean, you’re a straight white male, so none of that’s going to affect you, amiright?

    You know, Hitler was a pretty cool dude once you subtract out the violent racist meglomania. He was vegetarian, loved dogs, and could really work a room.

    (Note to the Republican party: please hire better trolls. Oh. That’s right, you can’t; because if your trolls could put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4, they wouldn’t be Republicans, now would they?)

    1LikeReply
    mjredder 1 hour ago
    @Yahzi @Jt818 This white male Millennial author makes no mention of civil rights, reproductive rights, gay rights, aka anything that would matter to a non-white non-male. All that matters is his money.

    3LikeReply
    Yahzi 1 hour ago
    @mjredder Bingo! We have a winner!

  122. 122.

    rikyrah

    You know how much I love this :)

    A young Black SWIMMER SportsKid of the Year!!!!!!!

    He’s 6 ft. 8 in….at 16!!!

    yikes!!

    The First LadyVerified account
    ‏@FLOTUS
    Congrats @_reecewhitley on becoming @SIKids #SportsKid of the Year. We are so proud of you! http://SIKIDS.com/skoty

  124. 124.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Waysel: Am I missing something here? If I agree with the strategy but point out your tactic sucks, I get accused of disputing with the strategy too?

    Lol, okay.

    THIS TACTIC OR NO TACTIC, FOOL!

    But … the GOP never built up their brand running creepy church ads during daytime reruns.

    SILENCE!

  126. 126.

    Amir Khalid

    @Calouste:
    Reply to your comment #107. (Clicking the Reply button sent me to Trump Junior’s Wikipedia entry.)
    Can he do that? Isn’t there a rule that if the P and VP candidates have the same home state, they lose that state’s electoral college votes?

  127. 127.

    Jeffro

    @debbie:

    I think Cruz is a real threat to democracy,

    Yes

    but I think, once he’s subjected to real scrutiny, he’ll fold like a wet noodle.

    Probably not. He, like Trump, doubles down on his doubling-down. Cruz is just better at moving from dogwhistle to dogwhistle. Any scrutiny will be “liberal media bias” if not outright “persecution of a god-fearing Christian”, etc etc. No reason to fold – he is convinced he’s 110% right and is willing to do or say anything to have his shot at the prize.

    In the end, I do think he’d lose in the general – his positions are just too nuts, and he is personally quite unappealing. But if he should get the nomination, I don’t think any of us should expect him to keep to any semblance of truth, or have even a smattering of shame for the things he says/does.

  128. 128.

    Betty Cracker

    @Another Holocene Human: You say on the one hand that Democratic pols articulate a consistent agenda every day and just don’t get heard because the media skews Republican and on the other that sucky Dems like Schumer and Feinstein are the problem.

    Your solution seems to be to get everyone to sing from the same song book. What I’m saying isn’t so different, except that rather than trying to control election outcomes in every state, I think we’d be better off defining a basic messaging framework that is recognizably “Democratic.”

    Yes, the media does skew Republican since it is controlled by the wealthy. But one of your other points, “our propaganda fu is weak,” is exactly what a consistent message based on principles rather than candidates should be designed to address. You’re the one who insists that it has to be a vague, feel-good message; I don’t think it has to be.

    Republican voters don’t have to wonder if someone who makes it through their primary process is anti-tax, anti-choice and pro-gun. There are fundamental principles voters should be able to attribute to Democrats too, from Jim Cooper to Nancy Pelosi. But most voters can’t name them because Democratic branding sucks.

    No one said candidates shouldn’t be heard as individuals too, but it shouldn’t be ALL about that. It can’t be all about that, not if we want to address the fact that the Republican Party seems to stand for something in voters’ minds whereas the Democratic Party does not.

    There are people in both parties who wander off the reservation, but in the Republicans’ case, everyone knows when they do because their party values are well defined. Not so much in the Democrats’ case.

    Frankly, I think the danger of creepy cultism lies in too much dependence on individuals rather than in building a solid messaging framework that defines party values. YMMV.

  129. 129.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    Voting was not an enumerated right in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, therefore it has always been meant to be a privelege granted by the states, without the interference of the Imperial Federal Government, per right-wing world view.

    Never mind the four Amendments after the Bill of Rights that specifically define voting as a right that cannot be denied to be people over the age of 18 based on sex, race, and ability to pay a poll tax.

    Since voting was not spelled out as a right in 1787, the changes to the Constitution do not count.

  130. 130.

    Mike in NC

    On the subject of people who have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected president, the local rag this morning has a photo of Rick Santorum fondling an assault rifle at a gun factory in South Carolina. Because he thinks all life is sacred, or something. Does he even have 1% of the vote anywhere this time around?

  131. 131.

    shell

    Religious conservatives have done and always will freak out over anything to do with sex, in the most ridiculous ways. I remember reading in a book about historical dress, the reaction when mens clothing changed. Up to around 1840, mens pants buttoned up along the side; think of traditional sailors trousers. But then, they changed to fastening up the front. Preachers blasted what they called “fornication pants”, the idea being that the front fastening made things too “convenient”.

  133. 133.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Matt McIrvin: You know, I don’t usually play identity politics, but I am not at all surprised that the person who wrote that ridiculous article was young, white and male. In other words, someone who has the least to lose if we as a country decide to let things burn for four years…

  135. 135.

    bemused

    @shell:

    I’m actually surprised none of religious sex freakout nuts haven’t told women they should wear chastity belts as rape prevention….yet.

  136. 136.

    Waysel

    @Betty Cracker: I find myself framing it thusly: the Democrats are the party of compassion – caring about people. The Republican party is the party of no compassion for fellow humans. It hit me listening to Limbaugh years ago – what he was saying made rational logical sense – if you remove any humanitarian element. I know it’s a mighty broad statement, and I can’t imagine how to package and sell it, or if it would sell.

  137. 137.

    Amir Khalid

    @Matt McIrvin:
    That Salon article was surely written by the pro edition of Thoughtful Today. For God’s sake, Bernie will be 79 on Election Day in 2020 — way too old to be running for a first term, surely.

  138. 138.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Really? For someone who is remarkably sensitive to loose language, misnaming and stereotypes around transgenders and other minority groups, you immediately go to an ad hominem cliché about lawyers? For shame.

  141. 141.

    Paul in KY

    @OzarkHillbilly: Certainly he should be charged with something. You can’t just shoot willy-nilly into your car, without knowing what the Hell is going on. Could be a drunk person thinking it was their car, etc.

    Also, penny-ante burglary should not get you shot to death.

  143. 143.

    Botsplainer

    @Amir Khalid:

    Bernie also suffers from his own campaign and supporters constantly putting up images of him with his mouth open in a rant or a scowl.

    That shit won’t play out in the real world.

  144. 144.

    Peale

    @Matt McIrvin: Salon’s been running those pretty much bi-weekly for a few months. Different child than the one who wrote this one, though. Basically the same argument about how Democrats need to stop talking about the supreme court because he has more important issues. It’s purity ponism at it’s purist. Vulgar, repetitive mantras to some secret god who will just laugh at the lines he draws in the sand. He might as well say out loud “stop using that argument that will make everything else I say look foolish.”

  145. 145.

    MattF

    @Waysel: It’s also true that compassion is the basis of any sort of non-superstious religious faith– and the lack of compassion in right-wing fundamentalist political views points to a deep fallacy. It’s cognitive dissonance, with chocolate sprinkles and a cherry on top.

  146. 146.

    bemused

    @MattF:

    Ha, that’s probably the only reason they haven’t recommended it and have to settle for women dressing not to “entice” instead even though that doesn’t prevent senior citizen women or women covered from head to toe from being assaulted.

  147. 147.

    Germy

    Enough disinterested/disgruntled/disengaged democrats stay home on election day and wa-lah…
    President Cruz.

  149. 149.

    Patricia Kayden

    “… In the September G.O.P. debate, Cruz called Planned Parenthood a “criminal enterprise,” guilty of “multiple felonies.” He has signed a letter saying that one of the group’s founders, Margaret Sanger, sought the “extermination” of black Americans. (She did not.) “When millions of Americans rose up against Planned Parenthood, I was proud to lead that fight,” Cruz said, in a debate in October…”

    Does anyone truly believe that Cruz and his ilk give a damn about the extermination of Black Americans? I’m pretty sure if abortions were only undertaken by Black women, Rightwingers like Cruz would be fine with them.

    I really hope that sensible people are rallying around Planned Parenthood and the donations are pouring in.

  151. 151.

    Betty Cracker

    @Paul in KY: But he appears to have been carved out of a block of cream cheese! You’d think that would preclude a career in broadcasting in the HDTV era, alliterative name be damned!

  152. 152.

    Germy

    @Betty Cracker: I think that rule only applies to the wimmenz.
    Broadcast TV finds homely men interesting and authentic.
    I imagine the ladies of fox news must spend hours in makeup/hair/wardrobe each morning, because they all look like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. (that would be a good title for a fox talk show).

  153. 153.

    Germy

    “Today on Fox: Basic Instinct! Where we discuss democrat cross-gender liberals and Hillary’s criminal e-mails. We’ll be taking calls!”

  155. 155.

    Amir Khalid

    @Botsplainer:
    It’s in these little things — the things less likely to attract a journalist’s attention, at any rate — that Bernie comes up short compared to Hillary. I think his agenda is more or less as good as hers. But as a candidate, he doesn’t present himself as well as she. He seems less able to win friends and influence people. His organisation is that little bit less attentive to detail, less professional overall than hers. All that says something about who is better qualified for the chief executive’s job.

  158. 158.

    Amir Khalid

    @WereBear:
    I have no opinion on whether his agenda is more radical than hers. I know he talks leftier than she, but I don’t really care about that. I think they have more or less similar goals, which is what I meant by that sentence you quoted, but differ on how to achieve them. For the reasons I noted in comment #146, I also think she would be a more effective chief executive than he, and I prefer her for that reason.

  160. 160.

    NorthLeft12

    @NickM: But the fact is that there are a large group of people that will believe it. Just like all those hundreds of people believe that all the Muslims of New Jersey rejoiced as the Twin Towers came crashing down. Just like millions believe that President Obama is a Muslim tyrannical and cowardly leader who doesn’t lead.

    I could spend all day filling this thread with nonsensical garbage that people believe, but life is too short.

  161. 161.

    Calouste

    @Amir Khalid: He can do that. The Twelfth amendment states that “The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves;” So New York can’t vote for both Trump as President and Trump Jr. as VP, but a) how hard is it for a billionaire’s son to establish residency in a different state, and b) if Trump is winning New York, it’s such a landslide that it doesn’t matter that his son doesn’t get the votes for VP.

  162. 162.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: I actually do not know what he looks like. I assumed repulsive in some manner. Only have so much time for intertubes, so I stay away from any Hewitt viewing. CNN has lost me, so I don’t go there.

  166. 166.

    Calouste

    @Ridnik Chrome: Young, white, male, and, considering that a quick look at his bio reveals he went to a private college, probably from a well-off family. In other words, your garden-variety shithead libertarian.

  167. 167.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Can someone tell me when ghostly apparition Hugh Hewitt crossed over into the mainstream?

    Hewitt, like Ariana Huffington, is a California based huckster who has worked hard to re-invent himself. I remember him on one of the local Los Angeles based public television stations.

    He would pitch himself as a second-rate George Will, a moderate conservative who co-hosted a public affairs show with LA Times reporter Patt Morrison. Like Will, he would pitch himself as a voice of reason, providing historical context and explaining how conservative principles should always be respected as the bedrock of American society.

    And now he pops up on Sunday news shows as a kind of aw-shucks elder statesman. But after a few seconds, you can’t help but notice that he is full of shite.

  168. 168.

    Calouste

    @Paul in KY: That something is cray cray isn’t an argument with the current Republican field. I mean, we are in border walls with Mexico, deporting 11 million people, pyramids as granaries territory at the moment. Why Trump is having his own son as VP outside those bounds?

  170. 170.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    The moment after Drudge dropped out of fashion.

    Hewitt, Erickson, Douthat – all cut from the same cloth, rushed in to fill the vacuum as mode du jour.

  171. 171.

    Paul in KY

    @Calouste: Never been done before by a legit candidate (from either major party). Opens him up to charges of unseriousness (his kid is the BEST candidate to occupy White House, if something happens to him, etc.). Feeds all charges of megalomania

    Just doesn’t pass the smell test, even for whackjobs.

  172. 172.

    Ajabu

    @Another Holocene Human:

    You have no idea how hard somebody else works. You don’t get to call people lazy.

    Hear, Hear!! When I was a young struggling musician my mother was constantly on my case with my “laziness” because of how I earned my living. I said, “I work 5 nights & a Sunday matinee.” Her response was, “Yes, but you like that.”
    Apparently, unless the job was reprehensible & you hated every minute of it, it wasn’t actually work.

  173. 173.

    Calouste

    @Paul in KY:

    Never been done before by a legit candidate (from either major party).

    Quite a few things in the GOP primary have never done before by a legit candidate of a major party.

    Opens him up to charges of unseriousness

    You mean even more charges of unseriousness? And that Trump is a megalomaniac is obvious to anyone who is paying even a little bit of attention. And his fans love it.

    So what are the alternatives? Trump is not going to share the limelight with anyone else, so I doubt he will pick Cruz. His fans don’t like the Republican establishment, so they are probably out as well. And keep in mind that this guy is not a politician, he is a megalomaniac media personality.

  175. 175.

    WereBear

    @Calouste: He seemed to team well with Omarosa.

    She has a political background, a minister’s license, is ethnic and has a YOOOGE rack. I mean, does that say Republican VP material or what?

  176. 176.

    boatboy_srq

    I realize I’m coming really late to this, but isn’t Cruz from the same set of wingnuts who push “abstinence only” sex ed? You know, the classes where they tell the kids that condoms have a horrific failure rate and don’t protect either of you…

  177. 177.

    J R in WV

    Fortunately, Ted Cruz can’t run his dad as his VP – not an American!

    Regarding a consistent ad campaign to define Democrats, I suggest the following points:

    Democrats built the Interstate system and want to maintain it – Republicans do not care to maintain bridges, roads, water systems, or waste systems like sewers. Think about it.

    Democrats built the Social Security system, including Medicare for all retirees. Republicans keep trying to replace it with a commercial insurance system, like any other insurance. Remember how nice the insurance people were to you when they had to pay out thousands of dollars after a terrible accident? If you want Social Security to be maintained properly, Democrats are your only real choice.

    Democrats believe in keeping the Environment clean. Republicans do not. If you want your kids to drink water with lead in it, vote Republican. [Alternatively, If you want your kids to breath air full of toxic chemistry, vote Republican!]

    Democrats believe in equal rights, even if you lost your job or have other serious problems. Republicans believe only Republicans deserve any rights, in spite of the Constitution spelling out what rights belong to all the people. If you want to be able to vote in the future, vote Democratic today.

    Democrats believe that with some help most people can improve their lot in life. Like Pell Grants for education, or social work to give people good advice, or therapy to help one cope with life’s hurdles. Democrats believe that government can provide a good education, and help for people who have problems. Republicans believe that government should fund big corporations instead of individuals.

    I’m gonna stop here, although there are a hundred more individual items that Democrats believe in that most people are in favor of, while Republicans hate them and work to kill them off in the dark and behind the scenes, because the Republicans KNOW that most people are in favor of them, and so work secretly to kill them off.

    Like Social Security and Medicare, which people pay for – yet Republicans continue to try to kill those programs off. If they actually DO kill them off, you just know right now that they will claim that Democrats killed those programs off, in spite of all the Republicans could do. And what will Democrats do then? We already know the Republican Big Lie is pretty effective on TV. We need to hold those big lies up for ridicule 24/7.

  179. 179.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Germy:

    That’s what JJ Abrams said. He’s already on the Giant Evil Corporation’s payroll (he’s doing some of the songs for next year’s “Moana”), so it was probably pretty easy to get him.

  180. 180.

    Paul in KY

    @J R in WV: Sounds good, just need to shorten it up a bit.

    How about ‘Democrats built the America you enjoy. Republicans want to tear it all down’.

  181. 181.

    J R in WV

    @Paul in KY:

    That might be too short and sweet – but at least we’re on the same page.

    We do need to make many different 30 second commercials out of it. Listing things we Democrats have accomplished that nearly everyone is in favor of seems like a no-brainer.

    How many folks really realize that Social Security was invented, created, and defended by Dems? And that Republicans hate it?

    Same for good roads, clean air and water, education grants, good social work.

    I was on jury duty once, and waiting to get a $40 check for mileage in the clerk’s office. I wasn’t in a hurry, and many more important things were going on. I saw a young family trying to get help for their uncle, who was living in the woods naked. They were getting their best and only shot at good advice from a very young Deputy Sheriff.

    It sounded like he was giving them the best advice he could, and he knew how mental health commitments worked at a practical level, but wouldn’t an experienced social worker be helpful in that situation? Not to a Republican, they would send troopers up after Uncle Joe with guns and a net. And if Uncle Joe gets shot and killed, that’s the best cheapest outcome, right?

  183. 183.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Germy:

    Well, filming’s been over for a few months, so they’re probably not pressuring her right this minute.
    ;-)

    Yes, it sucks, but that’s Hollywood. The camera adding 10 pounds isn’t a myth. In the stills I’ve seen from the production, she looks like she’s a pretty normal weight for an almost 60-year-old woman, so either she didn’t lose the weight or it was an amount she was able to lose. At least they give you a nutritionist and personal trainer when they make that demand.

  184. 184.

    Amir Khalid

    @Germy:
    Carrie Fisher was, like, 19 or 20 back in the day. I think we all accept that the 1970s were four decades ago. No one is expecting to see Fisher back in the metal bikini.

  185. 185.

    Bill Arnold

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Millennial Sanders fan advocates throwing the election if Clinton is nominated, in Salon magazine.

    The comment thread there is mostly delusional. Politics is not like e.g. chess where a “sacrifice” can be justified because of solid tactical calculation that assumes a strong opponent.

  186. 186.

    Bill Arnold

    @debbie:

    “Reelect Bush so people will know just how bad four more years will be.” Idiots.

    Objectively, they were Republicans, and GWBush supporters.

  187. 187.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Amir Khalid:

    One of the articles had an interesting further comment from Fisher from the same interview: “They said it to me as an actress, but I heard it as a writer.” As in, she’s been a writer for so long that she kind of forgot the demands that are put onto actresses and maybe took it a little more personally than it was really meant.

    It also sounds like she has body image issues both from growing up in Hollywood and from acting starting at a young age that are a little beyond what the average woman has to deal with.

  188. 188.

    Bill Arnold

    @debbie:

    The guy in front of me argued with the poll worker, but had to go get additional ID.

    “Isn’t it is a felony to unlawfully prevent somebody from voting?”
    (I’d be extremely temped to say.)

  189. 189.

    Paul in KY

    @J R in WV: Agree, 100%. Didn’t see you were doing a TV commercial. Your points would be great. Would want to keep it to 30 secs, if possible.

  190. 190.

    Sandia Blanca

    @RSA: Yes, that is also a pet peeve of mine. It is VOILA, people, not “viola” and definitely not “wallah”!

  192. 192.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I liked that joke someone cracked at an awards show about Tom Hanks losing 60 pounds for “Cast Away” — in other words, he approached the role like an actress, or something along those lines.

Comments are closed.