Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

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

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

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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

Come on, man.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Best President Ever / Obama Ices Issa

Obama Ices Issa

by | 251 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Some of y’all mentioned this in earlier threads, but additional details about the Obama-on-Issa smack-down make it all the more delicious. Via Jezebel:

California Rep. and wheezing obstructionist Rep. Darrell Issa (R), locked in the closest race of his congressional career thanks to the half-melted pile of candy corn from Halloween ‘83 that he endorsed for president, has proven himself rather immune to irony; most recently, Issa tried to praise President Obama, the man he’s spent 8 years demonizing, in a campaign mailer. Unfortunately for Issa, Obama is about to leave office and has nothing to lose.

Last week, Issa sent out a mailer that included, according to the Los Angeles Times, “a nice photo of Obama at his desk” and a quote from Issa saying he was “very pleased” that Obama signed the Survivors Bill of Rights into law. At a fundraiser on Sunday night for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Obama praised Issa’s opponent, retired Marine Col. Doug Applegate, and called Issa “shameless.”

“Let me just point out that as far as I can tell, Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped up investigations that have led nowhere,” Obama said, referring to Issa’s use of his image as “the definition of chutzpah.”

THWACK! I hadn’t realized the smarmy car thief was trying to hide behind PBO’s coattails. Yeah, “chutzpah” is the word, alright.

Issa was reduced to bleating about Benghazi in a follow-up statement, a sure sign that President Obama’s haymaker floored the slimy congressman. It would be great to see that sanctimonious, hypocritical prick Issa hit the bricks. C’mon California!

Reader Interactions

251Comments

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    Issa was reduced to bleating about Benghazi in a follow-up statement

    I fully expect that, post January 20th, Republicans will be bleating about how mean and non-bipartisan President Clinton is being, not like that nice Obama who was always bipartisan towards them.

  3. 3.

    Cracker and toast

    Would be soooo nice to see this slimeball lose. That would be the cherry on top of this election.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    @NotMax:

    “Let me just point out that as far as I can tell, Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped up investigations that have led nowhere,” Obama said, referring to Issa’s use of his image as “the definition of chutzpah.”

    Not much velvet there, holy cow…

  6. 6.

    aimai

    Beautiful, now Issa has to spend precious days disavowing his own mailer to his potential voters, thus pissing off the very people he tried to fool.

  7. 7.

    Brachiator

    “Let me just point out that as far as I can tell, Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped up investigations that have led nowhere,”

    Trumped up. Nice turn of phrase.

    ETA: I wish I could do early voting, as some others have done, but I’m still reading the gazillion page California Voter Guide to figure out all the state and local ballot propositions.

  9. 9.

    laura

    Thanks Obama.
    Seriously. Issa is right up there with Governor Bat Boy -arsonist, fraudster, hack.
    His photo is the wordless equivalent of “waste, fraud and abuse.”

  10. 10.

    Ahasuerus

    May Darrel Issa live a long and lonely life, tortured by the memories of every evil thing he has done and forever denied the ability to atone for them.

    And in lighter news, apparently Jack Chick is no longer with us: Link.

  12. 12.

    Keith G

    @Brachiator:

    I wish I could do early voting, as some others have done,

    I was going to sneak in today and vote in Houston, but the lines have been around the building all day. My friend said he hadn’t seen a line that long since Nov. 2008 when a bunch of us went together to early vote for Obama. Then it was just a bit over an hour and quite a party. It might be easier if I just wait till 11/8. Lines at my polling place are seldom long at 7 AM, but I will be 5 days post-op and may be a bit shaky still. I am so happy for what seems to be energy for turning out.

  13. 13.

    Hill Dweller

    In that same fundraiser, PBO also talked about Issa and Bachmann being nice for one evening, and saying they prayed for him. He said he didn’t doubt their sincerity when they prayed to God to change him “from the Socialist Muslim that he is.” NFLTG Obama is the best.

  14. 14.

    The Moar You Know

    Got the flier a couple of days ago. Was pretty floored. Still think he wins it, and frankly in this district trying to ride Obama’s coattails will probably cost him more than he gets from it.

    His main problem is that he has not done jack shit for anyone in his/my district for so long people are starting to ask “why are we keeping you around?” and getting tossed from the Benghazi hearing really hurt him. I’ve always been amazed that he was never primaried from the right – THAT would be winnable. But hey, Trump has done his thing and he may lose to a Democrat. I will get cross-eyed drunk in celebration if that happens.

    And in lighter news, apparently Jack Chick is no longer with us

    @Ahasuerus: Well damn, gonna have to go home and blast some metal. Truth be told, I liked his stuff. I think exactly nobody took him seriously and most of those tracts are (unintentionally) comedic genius. But fuck him anyhow, I’m sure he did a lot of damage along the way and is probably very surprised at where he’s woken up.

  15. 15.

    kindness

    As a N. Cal resident, I for one have been completely embarrassed but the wing nuts the crazies in the south of my good state have been sending to Sacramento & Washington DC.

  16. 16.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    I early voted this morning in downtown Chicago. There was no wait because they must’ve had 50 voting machines available to voters.

    Can’t wait for election night.

    I’m With Her!

  17. 17.

    The Moar You Know

    As a N. Cal resident, I for one have been completely embarrassed but the wing nuts the crazies in the south of my good state have been sending to Sacramento & Washington DC.

    @kindness: To be precise, as a lifelong SoCal resident, here’s the state’s problem:

    San Diego County
    Orange County
    Riverside County
    San Bernardino County
    most of Central CA
    The mostly uninhabited and completely terrifying northeast part of the state (I’d rather drive anywhere through the South at night than anywhere in CA’s Central Valley or the northeast, it’s really that bad)

    OTOH, with the gentrification of Orange County, that area’s become somewhat more moderate than it used to be. I have no excuse for my home of San Diego except that almost everyone who lives here these days is a rich asshole.

  18. 18.

    MazeDancer

    @Hill Dweller:

    NFLTG Obama is the best

    Yes, it is. Mr. Obama campaigning in Nevada, yesterday, giving support to Catherine Cortez Masto by continually saying “Heck, no!” many times, about her opponent, Joe Heck, was also well done.

  20. 20.

    RK

    Obama said, referring to Issa’s use of his image as “the definition of chutzpah.”

    I knew Obama wasn’t a Muslim.

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    @Hilfy: FL Gov Rick Scott, who somehow manages to always look as if he’s just about to unhinge his jaw and swallow a small child whole.

  24. 24.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    I love NFLTG Obama. Around my house we call him DILLIGAF Obama. I found out about this unique brand this summer when I wandered into a store wih the same name to buy a bathing suit. I did not wind up getting the Do I look like I give a fuck suit.

  27. 27.

    Major Major Major Major

    @dmsilev:

    I fully expect that, post January 20th, Republicans will be bleating about how mean and non-bipartisan President Clinton is being, not like that nice Obama who was always bipartisan towards them.

    This is… a very good prediction.

  29. 29.

    hueyplong

    My third favorite “modern” president is FDR.

    My second favorite is Barack Obama.

    My favorite is NFLTG Obama. By far. This bar is set almost impossibly high.

  31. 31.

    NW Phil

    Voting is so hard now in Washington state. I have to sit at home and fill out the ballot while drinking my favorite beverage, and then go several blocks down the road to drop it off. Life is rough here – well it IS overcast today.

    And for those who think it is easy to cheat mail-in ballots – they still do check the signatures.

  36. 36.

    Walker

    Anyone following the alleged voter suppression (by telling voters that they need ID in defiance of the federal court ruling) in Texas?

    Rita Lucido
    ‏@ritalucido
    TX poll wrkers giving incorrect info all over-Harris County wker: no ID = provisional ballot. Galveston wker: “no ID must talk to a judge”

  38. 38.

    bemused senior

    @Brachiator: My approach to a first pass on propositions is to look at who is writing the pro and con argument statements. Just say no to any prop recommended by rwnj authors. Proceed to the rest and use the Kevin Drum rules (presume no unless you have a really good reason for yes.) Read the whole proposition only for the ones you still want to vote yes on.

  41. 41.

    divF

    @bemused senior: There is a collection of anti-tax zealots in CA (Californians for Tax Reform, Californians Against Higher Taxes, The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association) that guide my first screening of initiatives. Anything they are in favor of, I am against. Full stop. Anything they are against, I take a second look to see whether I will be in favor of it (usually, the answer is yes).

    ETA: Spider-Dan: Jinx !

  42. 42.

    Spider-Dan

    @bemused senior: I generally start with the CA Dem/GOP party recommendations to get a good sense, then look at the arguments for/against and rebuttals to arguments for/against, including the signed supporters of those arguments.

    When the only signers are Howard Jarvis or one of the other “Taxpayer Association” loons, that’s two strikes with a neck-high curveball on the way to the plate.

  44. 44.

    Turgidson

    @The Moar You Know:

    I have no excuse for my home of San Diego except that almost everyone who lives here these days is a rich asshole.

    Huge military presence in San Diego County drives up the GOP share of the vote, and I’m guessing, a Hispanic population that probably does not turn out at anywhere near the rates the white folk do.

    But I’m pretty sure Obama won SD County twice, so it’s purple-to-blue leaning in presidential elections.

    I think the OC will very gradually drift towards the Democrats, but will stay a GOP-leaning area for a while yet. What a dismal hellscape that county is, in many areas.

  45. 45.

    kindness

    @divF: You too, eh? Yea if I can’t figure out what to think from the ballot guide they send out I read who writes the Pro & Con arguments. Any argument written by any of the groups you list (especially those assholes at the Howard Jarvis buttheads) and I vote the other way from what they are pushing.

  46. 46.

    hovercraft

    @ruemara:
    Watching Trump surrogate Bob Erlich trying to unskew the Gettysburg speech, Trump tweets and the polls is funny. Trump was substantive, and that’s what you should focus on, it was full of facts, yes we are behind but if you look at the good polls we are only behind 2-3 points, no the average is more like 6-7, well if you look at the swing states PA, CO, IA, FL, NM, OH, NC we are within the margin of error, you are not in CO or NM, or PA. Yeah well it’s not over.

    MTP daily also showed the math challenged memo and map put out to their supporters today.

  49. 49.

    Chris

    Happy news for me: one of my oldest friends, a practicing Catholic who mostly doesn’t vote for either party on account of both being theologically unacceptable for different reasons… voted for Hillary. (Because Trump). I have no illusions that it’ll be a broader trend, but for the momen, my day is made.

  50. 50.

    Wapiti

    Here in Seattle, my first stop for voting recommendations is The Stranger‘s election board. They give the immediate scoop if any of our no-tax gadflies, like Tim Eyman, are connected to initiatives.

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    @Spider-Dan:
    Yup, between the Jarvis-corpse worshipers and the Cal Chamber I have a lot of my ballot filtering done for me. Thanks, fellas!

  56. 56.

    hovercraft

    @trollhattan:
    Nah, remember he is a puppet of the Jews in Chicago,the Pritzkers the Axelrods, Bill Ayers, they have trained him on how to say it properly I’m sure.
    Well maybe not since he also hates Jews and Israel, so maybe they are those self hating Jews.

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @divF:
    You might want to rethink that slightly. They apparently met a tax they don’t hate! I got a mailer from one of the anti-tax groups actually endorsing Prop 52. It actually even makes sense. It’s a tax on hospitals that will be used to get federal Medicaid matching funds. The tax money goes right back to the hospitals that paid it in the first place, together with the federal matching money. So it’s really more of a scheme to finagle some money from the feds than it is a real tax, which I guess is why the anti-tax folks are OK with it.

  62. 62.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Shana: Thank You! My cats are driving me crazy, sitting in the boxes I am trying to fill, crying acting all scared, running hither tither. They are not going to take kindly to being put in their boxes either.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    @bemused senior:

    My approach to a first pass on propositions is to look at who is writing the pro and con argument statements. Just say no to any prop recommended by rwnj authors. Proceed to the rest and use the Kevin Drum rules (presume no unless you have a really good reason for yes.) Read the whole proposition only for the ones you still want to vote yes on.

    Ah, but there was one year (or two) in California where a No vote really meant Yes.

    And sometimes the special interests behind a proposition is deeply disguised.

    And this year, I think there are a couple of competing propositions which deal with the same issue, but with different results depending on your vote.

    But I usually start out voting No for everything, and take a look at the recommendations of a couple of newspapers (LA Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle). I try to listen to the local public radio station.

    When there are only a few propositions, you can weave through the crap fairly quickly. But this year, we have, what 17, a thousand? Ugh.

  67. 67.

    dogwood

    I watched the President yesterday in Vegas. He was having a great time and the crowd was loving it. I’m so happy that he is able to end his second term like this. It’s a love-fest that is well-deserved. He put up with a lot of crap.

  70. 70.

    goblue72

    @Turgidson: I know. Newport Beach is just horrifying. How doesn’t anyone there stand living amongst all those gorgeous beaches, photograph worthy sunsets and perfect weather?

    I find the comment about the “increasing gentrification” of OC making it more moderate kind of amusing giving that Orange County is already well past gentrified to “fully rich”. Its long been ground zero for rich Republican voters in the state. The area that will be increasingly blue over time is San Diego – its already got a strong biotech & healthcare industry, and the other tech related economic development will just continue to grow over time, in part as a result of UCSD, combined with it possibly being the most affordable of the Big 4 in which to buy a home (at least for now)

  71. 71.

    SectionH

    @Turgidson: San Diego City is blue. The 53rd district (Susan Davis) and the 51st (Juan Vargas) are Solid D or Safe D. Currently the rest of the city + La Jolla, RB & such is Scott Peters’ district (52nd) and is rated Safe D or Likely D.

    It’s North County Inland that’s deep red (50th, Duncan Hunter). North County Coastal, the 49th – Issa’s district – is considerably less red than his old district. It’s going to be tough, but it’s not inconceivable that Applegate could win.

  73. 73.

    goblue72

    @divF: There was a great video on the NY Times website last week about how California has gotten so messed up due to its ballot proposition process. Most of it was focused on Prop 13 and how its wrecked local and county budgeting in the state and turned the state’s K-12 system into a shadow of its former great self. Included some horrifying footage of Howard Jarvis himself speechifying on how the most important responsibility of government wasn’t education or firefighters or police, but protecting private property rights. Goes to show what a complete selfish Neanderthal he was and his followers were (and are.)

  75. 75.

    jacy

    Early voting starts here tomorrow at 8:30 AM. Already have my route plotted. Then on election day, I can just start drinking early without having to worry about it!

  76. 76.

    Humdog

    @Roger Moore: You caught that too? That is when you go with the second law of California propositions, if you have seen more than one tv ad about it, vote the opposite of what the tv recommends. If you can afford to buy tv time, you can afford to legislate the old fashioned way, by buying representatives. I won’t help you.
    Prop 64 is causing heartburn in Humboldt county. Growers’ current biz model is more important to them than coming out of the shadows or giving the sellers who still get picked up by police a break. Dammem.

  77. 77.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The competing ones this year are just the death penalty ones, right?

    There are also two about single-use plastic shopping bags. Prop 67 is a referendum about the law banning single use plastic bags, so a yes vote keeps the law (bans them) and a no vote tosses it (allows them). Prop 65 is about the $0.10 fee stores are supposed to charge for paper or heavy-duty plastic bags; it would take the money grocers currently charge (and keep) for those bags into an environmental fund. Both are funded by the plastic bag industry.

  79. 79.

    Shell

    No longer can stand seeing any Trump surrogate on the newsie channels. Not for what they say, but the desperate, rigid smile they all have plastered on their faces.

  80. 80.

    gorram

    @Turgidson: It’s bit like a piece of Texas or Arizona that found some California shoreline. Ubiquitous military presence, large [email protected] population but one that has been taught to think of electoral politics as the domain of White people, an economy structured on not just often pretty ethnically segregated economic classes but a clear difference between undocumented people of color and White citizens. It’s the part of California where we saw Tea Party protests and it’s pretty telling why.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    Can we have an open thread, please? I need some non-political advice from the collective BJ.

  83. 83.

    burnspbesq

    The issue that will eventually turn Orange County blue is the cost of housing. Rent control is a potentially huge wedge issue for Dems here.

  84. 84.

    Mary G

    This is horribly long and probably badly written, and except for a few things at the end, repetitive of my obsessive prior posting about the CA 49 race. Feel free to skip it.

    Issa is so terrible even the San Diego Republican activist who was a delegate for him in 2012 says that he has been a terrible representative for our district and she’s voting for Applegate.

    I started volunteering and contributing to Applegate in June, right after he came within five points of Darrell in the jungle primary without even trying. He was just supposed to be this year’s sacrificial lamb. To his everlasting credit, he immediately started campaigning, something no one expected and for which he was heartily mocked as a Don Quixote tilting at windmills. The Democratic Party gave him no help. He still persisted, even doing his own doorknocking, which included in a wealthy neighborhood a woman slamming the door in his face and setting her dogs on him.

    Darrell did do a phone town hall in which I was included, because I have been pestering his office faithfully since he became my rep. I wasn’t successful, except the one time he changed his vote into “yes” on renewal of the Violence Against Women Act. The call was a complete clusterfuck, as I described here.

    He kept on keeping on, impressing even my friend’s ex-Marine Bill O’Reilly loving husband, who may even vote for him, making it the first time in their 40+ year marriage that her vote won’t be nullified.

    Finally after a long lonely couple of months, polls showed that the race had narrowed and Applegate was up two within the margin of error. I started asking for, and bless you all, getting contributions from readers of this blog. The demonic folks at Kos pushed him hard. The local Dems in San Diego awoke from their slumber like the guy in the fairy tale and got on board. Applegate kept campaigning and giving speeches even when only a handful of listeners showed up.

    He got enough dough together and started running a commercial of Darrell shaking the Donald’s hand and raving about what a great president he was going to be. Still the Democratic Congressional Committee refused to get on board, saying Darrell had too much money and the district was too red to give Applegate any chance.

    At this point, Darrell, who had previously said that we always re-elected him without his doing anything, got a bit worried and started running ads about Applegate being a dangerous loon whose ex-wife had obtained a restraining order against Applegate saying that he was a stalker who snuck into her yard to peek into her windows and that the court took the allegations so seriously that Applegate was ordered to surrender his guns.

    This didn’t have as much effect as you would think, because Applegate’s ex-wife and kids said, yes, he got a little crazy back then, but he calmed down right after the order was issued, complied with it, and now they are fine and the ex and kids are all excited to be voting for Applegate.

    The internal polls must have gotten really bad for Issa in October and he began bombarding us with TV and radio ads, expensive glossy mailers, and yard signs. He had done none of this in prior elections. He appeared with Loretta Sanchez, that traitor, and showed up at other functions to speak to the little people. He did lot of GHWB-style checking his phone and sighing, generally giving the impression that he was annoyed at having to do it, which reduced its effectiveness.

    None of it worked. The DCCC finally came around and sent big money, so Issa’s Trump-fluffing is plastered all over the airwaves, also a new ad pointing out that right after the famous Billy Bush tape came out, Issa officially joined the Trump campaign as a foreign policy advisor, and that proves that Issa is an even bigger idiot than we thought. It has the audio of Trump saying “grab her…” two or three times in it.

    Now Hillary and Obama are piling on. Thanks to amk excerpting it last night, I saw the Politico article that has my favorite Obama burn (I won’t link again):

    Obama called out to Democratic candidate Doug Applegate, the former Marine colonel who’s challenging Issa, sitting at one of the tables in front of him.
    “I think somebody called Darrell Issa — was this you, Doug? — that Darrell Issa was Trump before Trump,” Obama said.

    Sorry for the long rant, but damn I am giddy with joy and praying that on November 9 I’m going to be calling out a few people to say Look Asshole, I Told You So.

    I firmly believe that the 50-state strategy works. Never give up. The Republican Party has rotted from within and begun to fall apart. Keep up the pressure and GOTV.

  85. 85.

    Chris

    @dogwood:

    And unlike Bill Clinton (who was also pretty popular at the end), he doesn’t have his successor running away from him. The MSM and various other elites are doing what they can to taint his legacy, but it’s not working.

  86. 86.

    Turgidson

    @goblue72:

    I know. Newport Beach is just horrifying. How doesn’t anyone there stand living amongst all those gorgeous beaches, photograph worthy sunsets and perfect weather?

    Coastal OC is “nice”, in that it’s wealthy, clean, safe, and has the nice coastline. As a matter of personal taste, it’s not at all the kind of place I want to spend my time, but I’ll grant that it’s “nice”. But I was thinking more the inland swathes of the OC. Orange, Santa Ana, Irvine, Anaheim, etc….outside a few reasonably cute pockets like downtown Santa Ana, so much of it is an endless field of soulless office parks, strip malls, and tract housing. Gross.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The competing ones this year are just the death penalty ones, right?

    I think there is something also about plastic bags. Or maybe I was tired and read the same proposition twice.

    But maybe also the death penalty proposition. I don’t understand why there are two propositions. Yeah, I will vote to abolish it.

    The one proposition, that would speed up the death penalty review, offends me. Even if I were in favor of the death penalty, a sped up process that might result in an innocent being executed is immoral.

  89. 89.

    goblue72

    @Major Major Major Major: Pretty stark too – one is about abolishing the DP and the other is about making it even easier for the state to kill people. The later supported by the state GOP, cops, anti-tax nuts and the Tea Party. The former supported by the state Democratic, Green and Libertarian parties and everyone with a soul.

    So far the proposition that has resulted in the largest number of mailers shoved into my mailbox (as well as the largest # of targeted ads popping up during my Hulu watching and web-browsing) is the Oakland soda tax proposition. The soda industry REALLY doesn’t like it.

  90. 90.

    Shana

    @schrodinger’s cat: Oh man, been there. I recently helped my younger daughter move an 8 hour car ride away for grad school and I had her cat in my car. He doesn’t travel well so we got a sedative from the vet. Tried it out a couple of days earlier since sometimes it has the opposite effect but it worked for him.

  91. 91.

    piratedan

    as mentioned in another thread…. you guys remember when Johnny Maverick was up 18 over Ann Kirkpatrick?

    Based on the e-mail sent by the Kirkpatrick campaign this afternoon…. its now 3.

  92. 92.

    burnspbesq

    @Turgidson:

    You must be an outsider, because you don’t know where to look. And how is, say, Placentia worse than, say, Walnut? Or Agoura? Or Simi Valley? Or Scripps Ranch?

  94. 94.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    This is actually tagged “Open Thread,” so feel free to ask (not that it’s at all up to me to make the call on what is or is not an OT, but it seems to be fine with Betty).

    This post is in Assholes, Best President Ever, Open Thread, Politics, Republican Stupidity.

  95. 95.

    Patricia Kayden

    @ruemara: So every time Republicans are about to lose, we have to read about “unskewing” the polls? Yet on election day, the polls turn out to be right and the Republican Candidate gets his behind handed to him. Crazy, right?

  97. 97.

    goblue72

    @Turgidson: I might call it soul-less which I think is probably a fairly objective take on it. But gross? Lot of people like living in the burbs like that. I think I’d reserve gross for some parts of the highly polluted, next stop Tumbleweedville parts of the Inland Empire and Central Valley. Fresno or Riverside or the like. Or that crappy tiny city just outside L.A. that is like almost entirely zoned industrial and almost everyone actually living there works for the city.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    CNN shows Johnson vote dropping… All polls show he is dropping

    It’ll be 5% by election day, which is the same as 2012.

  102. 102.

    goblue72

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah, that tax. You forgot to add in the part where minority & immigrant owned grocers will be super taxed, and did we remember to say minority and immigrant owned grocers will be taxed into bankruptcy and did we tell you about anyone who is brown will be rendered homeless by the tax?

  103. 103.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Gary “What is Aleppo?” Johnson is lucky to even be getting 5% of the vote. Thank goodness that it appears that he will be a non-factor unlike Nader from 2000. Ditto Stein.

  104. 104.

    TriassicSands

    I’m generally a strong believer in civility in public and political discourse. Donald Trump is a good example of someone who doesn’t believe in civility. It’s generally a good idea to show members of the other party at least a modicum of respect. However, someone like Issa is such a corrupt, dishonest POS that showing him respect will always be hypocritical. He deserves to called out for the way he has served as a representative and saying that he has “chutzpah” is not only warranted, but a significant understatement of his behavior.

    I have a friend who lives in Southern California and Issa has been his representative in the past. After the death of his wife in a hit and run automobile accident, he called on Issa for help with various matters concerning the non-payment of insurance benefits. Issa never even responded to his requests.

  105. 105.

    goblue72

    @Kay: Everybody loved the Legalize Weed candidate until they realized he actually meant he’d be stoned during his entire Presidency.

  106. 106.

    Mary G

    @Turgidson: I live about half a mile from the beach, because my mom lied and cheated to buy this house in 1968, and everything you say is true and I wish I was free to go back to a bluer area.

    There’s one good thing OC did, though. Almost all the beaches are government-owned and open to the public, with plenty of parking and great handicapped access. Unlike LA where even though the sand up to the high tide line is technically open to all, rich homeowners block access and send out armed men and police dogs to keep the riff raff out.

  107. 107.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jeffro: Wowzers! Talk about desperation. How exactly would that work? Trump is their presidential candidate so yeah, whether they like it or not, he can be linked to them if they’re Republican. This is beyond funny.

  108. 108.

    debbie

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch:

    Do you know anything about the Investors Business Daily poll? Trump was saying that it’s been the most accurate over the previous two elections and that it’s had him leading by a couple points.

    I’ve never heard them mentioned before in any election.

  110. 110.

    goblue72

    @TriassicSands: Issa is a POS. He’s the wealthiest member of Congress (by some measures worth over $350MM). He’s THREE times as wealthy as Senator Jay Rockefeller, who is, you know, actually a Rockefeller. And his entire goal in life is to screw over as many working people as he can.

  113. 113.

    Nom de Plume

    @Kay:

    Every single person who has told me they hate both candidates is a bitter Republican. Every one.

    Yup. Ties in nicely with my “undecided voter” theory, which is that they don’t actually exist.

  116. 116.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Elizabeth Warren also has no time for comity in the world’s greatest gentlefolk’s club

    “Donald Trump called Latinos rapists and murderers. Kelly stuck with him. Trump called African-Americans thugs and Kelly stuck with him. Trump attacked a Gold Star family and Kelly stuck with him. Trump compared himself to dictators and praised Vladimir Putin and Kelly stuck with him. Trump even attacked Kelly Ayotte and called her weak and Kelly stuck with him.
    “He sure can make her dance. But Donald Trump was right. Kelly Ayotte is weak.”

    He can sure make her dance. That’s gotta sting.

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    @Chris:

    And unlike Bill Clinton (who was also pretty popular at the end), he doesn’t have his successor running away from him.

    Trump is also stepping into it deeper by attacking both Obama and Mrs Obama.

    I love the stupidity of the “all foreign leaders hate Obama thing.” This is a meme that I followed sometimes, because I could see where conservative media (NOT all MSM) would deliberately lie or distort President Obama’s reception by foreign leaders. I got to the point where I could pretty much prove that the program director of the most popular English language talk radio station in the Los Angeles market had clearly issued a directive that Obama’s foreign visits would be mentioned only if some negative impression could be fabricated.

    This was fed to conservative listeners. And the conservative leaders and elite believed their own bullshit.

  118. 118.

    Turgidson

    @burnspbesq:

    True, I’ve never lived there. I feel like I’ve seen enough of the place to have formed this opinion, but take it for what you will. Not a fan of the San Fernando Valley or surrounding areas, either, for what it’s worth.

    I like some parts of LA itself and some of the beach cities have their charms. The rest I guess I can mostly do without. But I guess that’s one reason why I don’t live there. Hard to beat the weather, of course, so long as you’re fine with it never raining.

  119. 119.

    Patricia Kayden

    From the link: @Jeffro:

    Trump is so terrible, these Republicans are essentially arguing, that tying them to him amounts to defamation.

    LOL!!

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: here’s who’s not smiling: GOP congressmen willing to sue to make Dems take down ads connecting them to Trump.

    What’s the opposite of “please don’t throw me in that briar patch”? “I have a glass jaw, so let’s fight, but stay away from my jaw”?

  122. 122.

    goblue72

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh right. I forgot about that one. I actually got push-polled on that one and wound of screwing with the pollster. It was clearly a corporate funded pollster as they also were also push polling on the plastic bag thing, the Citizens United one, & tobacco taxes. Every time the push poll asked a question like “so now that you’ve learned your taxes will go up, are you more likely or less to support the measure?”, I answered way more likely.

  123. 123.

    Jeffro

    @Nom de Plume: That’s a pretty good theory!

    I wonder what it’s like, thinking they were electing Wonder Candidate W back in 2000, then getting the Iraq War, Katrina, attempts to privatize Social Security, and the Great Recession in return…and then getting not only 8 years of Obama, but after all that, having a) Trump as your nominee and b) watching Hillary Clinton lead a historic D rout.

    Ah well…great to be on the side of the angels and not have to work through such negative emotions…

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @Patricia Kayden: Ain’t it grand?

    and we get to do this for two more weeks!! The GOP will be lucky if their turnout is half of what was expected even a month ago. Let’s make sure ours is twice as big: GOTV folks!

  125. 125.

    NotMax

    @NW Phil

    If such a system were in place here, the weakest link would be the Post Office.

    Lost items, and even more so delayed mail are commonplace. First class mail from the mainland has taken up to 2 weeks to arrive, priority mail anywhere from 3 to 10 days. express mail 3 to 5 days. Experience has shown to expect mail from here to the mainland to take 4 days, minimum. Have even had occasions when an envelope finally showed up, only to be found empty when opened (instigated a USPS investigation of that each time). Inter-island, expect 2 to 3 days.

    The fewer hands that come into contact with my ballot between its being filled out and its being counted, the better. YMMV.

    Polling place is easy walking distance, and there’s much to be said for sharing the act of voting and exercising a vital role in democracy in a collective setting with others.

  126. 126.

    Turgidson

    @goblue72: I didn’t mean “gross” as in polluted or crime-ridden. I just find the monotony of it unpleasant, but that’s like, my opinion…man.

  129. 129.

    TS

    @Mary G:

    Sorry for the long rant, but damn I am giddy with joy and praying that on November 9 I’m going to be calling out a few people to say Look Asshole, I Told You So.

    Just read your great rant – don’t be sorry – worth saying over and over – Issa is going down

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    At this point in the campaign season, I no longer try to convince to change friends’ votes, but I am curious when they are not voting for Hillary, ask them why, and listen to their response with a minimum of “what the fuck is wrong with you.”

    I was surprised to discover during the course of a Sunday conversation that a friend cannot stand either Trump or Hillary. She brings up the usual suspects with respect to Hillary: she is untrustworthy, an evil woman in a sham political marriage, the deleted emails are clearly hiding something that implicates Clinton AND Obama, and Hillary has a private face and a public face.

    And so, my friend is voting for Stein because that is the closest that she can come to voting for Bernie. She doesn’t think that Trump will win, but discounts his danger.

    And on YouTube I ran across some progressive program claiming that good progressives had a duty to vote for a third party to deliberately prevent Clinton from winning by a landslide. The “logic” is that she must be denied a mandate in order to make sure that she does not move to the center and abandon her already shaky allegiance to leftist progressive principles.

    Here’s an example of the progressive lunatic fringe argument on Youtube: Why A Third Party Vote Is NOT A Wasted Vote In 2016

  131. 131.

    allium

    @Roger Moore:
    As I understand it, the plastic bag ban in CA was originally put into effect by the state legislature as SB 270. The “American Progressive Bag Association” was able to put the ban on hold by getting enough signatures to put Props 65 and 67 on the ballot. However, they’re now supporting a “No” vote on 67 because doing so would kill SB 270 altogether.

    65 is seen by some as a stalking horse for 67 and as a way for the plastic bag industry to turn retailers against the ban, since it explicitly diverts the revenue from selling perma-bags away from them and toward environmental projects.

    More info here.

  132. 132.

    Jeffro

    A little moderator help? FYWP keeps eating my posts about the HRC official “DJT tinfoil hat”

  133. 133.

    Major Major Major Major

    @goblue72: Clearly this is a pressing moral issue for the voters to decide, just like abolishing the death penalty.

    I actually voted no on 61 though. Many many liberals I respect had very compelling arguments for no, and just because in the context of a binary yes/no decision, this choice aligned with what big pharma wants, doesn’t make it ipso facto the wrong choice.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator:

    And so, my friend is voting for Stein because that is the closest that she can come to voting for Bernie. She doesn’t think that Trump will win, but discounts his danger.

    Too funny, as Clinton’s actually closer to more of Bernie’s positions than Stein is…but definitely don’t waste the time trying to convince a Stein voter to do anything based on facts.

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    @allium

    Those plastic bags have been illegal to use here for so long now that was actually shocked to see them when in NY last month.

  139. 139.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: It sounds like the perfect poll for desperate Republicans. And it definitely is an outlier if it shows Trump winning the election.

  141. 141.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Brachiator: Looks like Jill Stein will get no more than 2% of the vote and that Johnson will get no more than 5% so not sure what message that sends to Secretary Clinton if she wins in a landslide. But good luck to all those purists who just cannot bring themselves to vote for Killary.

  142. 142.

    burnspbesq

    @Turgidson:

    so long as you’re fine with it never raining.

    We had a nifty thunderstorm at 6:00 a.m. this morning. And there is more rain in the forecast later in the week.

  144. 144.

    WarMunchkin

    @Brachiator: I’m basically resigned to obstructionism until 2030 at the earliest. I don’t see 2020 as as much of a slam dunk as some redistricting focused articles have claimed for us due to having to defend a three-term incumbency.

  145. 145.

    Gloomy Jim

    @NotMax: lurkee here, but iirc you are in Hawaii and are refering to mail from and to the mainland. In an election, your ballot would be going to the State election board, not the fed, as all elections are state run affairs. So the choke point you are worried about would be inter-island mail service, as opposed to continential.

    Hope this helps.

  147. 147.

    goblue72

    @Major Major Major Major: I voted yes on it, but not out of any strong conviction besides “Big Pharm fer it, I’m agin’t!”, which admittedly is not the bestest of reasons. Which is why a lot of this stuff should even be on the ballot and should be handled the way God intended: by messy sausage making behind closed doors by officials that I elect to have to deal with this stuff.

    What I did not notice until after I mailed my ballot was that 61 was primarily sponsored by and funded by one group: AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Which lately has turned from good nonprofit, to political slush fund for its founded CEO Michael Weinstein – who is also sponsoring the rubbers-in-porn proposition as well as an odious Los Angeles pro-NIMBY proposition. If I had know that, I probably would have voted against it, because “Michael Weinstein fer it, I’m agin’t!”

  149. 149.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator:

    I love the stupidity of the “all foreign leaders hate Obama thing.

    I remember Steve King’s list of foreign leaders who hate Obama (and support Trump). It was like a who’s who of the rottenest bastards in Europe.

  150. 150.

    les

    @Walker: Same kinda shit in KS–mailers for early voting all say “gov’t ID required.” I doubt poll workers will mention that the Fed Ct. said “fuck you Kobach.”

  152. 152.

    Mnemosyne

    I’ll try to ask this again on a less crowded thread, but if the Movie Club were going to look at a classic film from a specific horror subgenre for Halloween, would all y’all prefer Frankenstein Monsters or Ghosts? I’m torn.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Patricia Kayden: This time, they’re saying the polls are skewed in preparation for saying the voting is also skewed. Roger Stone was explicitly saying that: that since the polls are all rigged, if they’re correct it means the election is rigged.

  156. 156.

    Mnemosyne

    @goblue72:

    Okay, that explains why my emails from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation suddenly got weird. They sent me a bunch of screeds about how Mike Gatto is Evil and Siding With Porn Moguls because he didn’t support their preferred condoms in porn bill.

  158. 158.

    Hungry Joe

    Starting Wednesday I’m going to walk precincts to take down Issa. The heart of his district is about half an hour north of here (central San Diego), and I can combine it with visits to my mom — 94 years old and a yellow-dog Democrat. (She and my likewise yellow-dog dad even had a yellow dog at one time. They swore it was a coincidence.) She can’t wait to vote for Hillary.

  159. 159.

    Chris T.

    @divF: Now if only we could do something about Prop 13…

    It’s impressive to look at Zillow and see two houses for sale right next to each other, both listed for only $1 million (i.e., small and/or in terrible shape), and compare their “tax history”: House A has been paying $1,200/year and House B has been paying $12,000/year … all because House A last changed ownership in 1960 while House B last changed ownership in 2014.

    It’s good not to force seniors out of their homes, sure—but Prop 13 isn’t the answer either.

  160. 160.

    Bobby D

    @Turgidson:
    My house is in the high desert north of Palm Springs, it’s actually raining pretty good today. So much for the “never rains” bit.
    I lived in the IE and worked in Riverside for years, house is out in the desert, currently living and working near Santa Barbara.

    I don’t care for most of LA or the IE. Just too hard to get around, lots of traffic and insane amounts of 4-way stops and un-coordinated traffic lights. Weather is nice, though I weirdly prefer Riverside weather to central Coast weather (it’s almost always 70deg for a high, sunny, and windy after the marine layer burns off here and they call it the best weather in the US). SFV, Santa Monica, Pasdaena/Altadena/Sierra Madre etc just too crowded and too hard to get around.

  161. 161.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    Exclusive investigation: Donald Trump faces foreign donor fundraising scandal

    Pro-Trump fundraisers agree to accept illicit foreign donation

    24 October 2016 • 8:10pm

    Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is facing a fundraising scandal after a Telegraph investigation exposed how key supporters were prepared to accept illicit donations from foreign backers.

    Senior figures involved with the Great America PAC, one of the leading “independent” groups organising television advertisements and grassroots support for the Republican nominee, sought to channel $2 million from a Chinese donor into the campaign to elect the billionaire despite laws prohibiting donations from foreigners.

    In return, undercover reporters purporting to represent the fictitious donor were assured that he would obtain “influence” if Mr Trump made it to the White House.

    ooops.

  162. 162.

    trollhattan

    @Jeffro:
    Wow, way to get people to google those ads they’re trying to stop. “Gee Mr. Johnson, that ad of the little girl with the daisy sure is mean!”

  163. 163.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    Part of my dilemma is that I can think of three terrifically awesome classic ghost movies, but only two Frankenstein movies, because really only Universal and Hammer did good versions of Frankenstein. Feh.

  164. 164.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Would suggest the subgenre of comedic horror. Ground not as well trod, and we all could use some comedy this close to election day.

    1932’s The Old Dark House (or even a side-by side comparison with the 1963 remake) comes immediately to mind.

    If the choices are limited to the two you mention, would opt for ghosts. Frankenstein monster has been done to death.

  165. 165.

    goblue72

    @Mnemosyne: Yup. Don’t know what going on with Weinstein, but he seems to have gotten the same disease that you often see in company or nonprofit founders who remain as CEO way past their expiration date.

  166. 166.

    Ruviana

    @goblue72: I remember seeing Howard Jarvis on the local news some time in 1971 shortly after the earthquake we had and him saying there didn’t need to be any retrofitting or improvements of schools because his daughter had finished school so he didn’t care. Cold.

  168. 168.

    Turgidson

    @burnspbesq:

    Thunderstorm in SoCal? Surely you jest. Did the locals frantically overrun every grocery and convenience store stocking up on supplies?

    But that’s good news. We got rain a week or so ago in Northern California and are supposed to get more later this week. Hopefully this winter will at least provide *some* precipitation. Last year’s El Nino was decent for us, but a bust down there iirc.

  170. 170.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    Oh, I have comedic horror in my back pocket for another round. “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” is on that shortlist with “Old Dark House.”

    “Have a po-tay-to.”

  171. 171.

    goblue72

    @Chris T.: The worst part of Prop 13 was that it included commercial property as well, which has absolutely nothing to do with keeping seniors in their homes. Corporations and other commercial property owners have figured out how to transfer ownership of the entries owning their commercial property without triggering re-assessment. So not only do you have the obscenity that commercial property owners get their taxes capped, but they’ve figured out how to lock away re-assesment of their property practically in perpetuity.

    The core of Disneyland pays property tax based on its 1978 rate – if the Disney Corp. paid current taxes on Disneyland, it would pay close to $5 MILLION as year more to Orange County. I’ve seen reports by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a non-partisan group focused on California public policy issues, that Prop 13 reduces commercial property tax revenues by roughly $9 billion a year vs. what those same commercial interests would pay at current rates.

    The before-and-after charts of the effect Prop 13 has had on local public schools funding is completely depressing.

  172. 172.

    Chris T.

    @goblue72: Oh yeah, the soda tax! We got three sets of flyers in the mail one day! (Two anti-tax, one pro.) I think we must have gotten about 50 flyers so far.

    (Both of us—the spouse and I, that is—are voting for it. It’s working in Berkeley. It’s not perfect and I’d rather have the legislature do it, but if this is what it takes…)

  173. 173.

    Spider-Dan

    @goblue72: The interesting part is that Prop 60 is the only initiative on which the CA Dem Party, CA GOP, and CA Libertarian Party all concur: vote No. Looks like everyone can agree where they don’t want Intrusive Government Regulation; the needs of the people must be met.

  174. 174.

    Lurking Canadian

    @goblue72: Actually that seems like a sensible workplace health and safety regulation. I’m not sure it needs to be a ballot initiative–seems more like the kind of thing OSHA is for–but …

  175. 175.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    For sheer schlock, “Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie,” if only for the rank absurdity of committing to celluloid Donald Pleasance in drag, wearing a French maid uniform.

  178. 178.

    goblue72

    @Ruviana: If the Platonic Ideal of an IGMFY Republican had offspring with the Perfectly Distilled Essence of the Tea Party, that offspring would be Howard Jarvis.

    Watching old TV news footage of him, I was quite literally shocked at the stuff that came out of his mouth.

  180. 180.

    Chris T.

    @debbie: I know nothing about their poll, but IBD (the newsletter) is basically a scam to sell their stock picking “trick”, which doesn’t work.

  181. 181.

    hovercraft

    Tweety asks NY Times reporter if she knows anyone at the Times who is pro-life. she says she has never asked any of her co-workers that. His response “well that’s cute”, in a sarcastic tone. Ladies and gentlemen your liberal network .

  182. 182.

    divF

    @Roger Moore: Re: 52. You’re point is well-taken. However, it’s not clear that my algorithm breaks down. The SEIU is opposed, and that to me is a pretty reliable bellwether.
    @Major Major Major Major: Re: 61. Opposition by the anti-tax head cases doesn’t mean an automatic yes for me, just that close scrutiny is required.

  183. 183.

    goblue72

    @Lurking Canadian: Its actually already a workplace safety requirement if I recall, per California DOL or something. Proposition change enforcement I think. Regardless, its just that it seem the kind of thing that our legislature should be dealing with, the professional politicians we all hire (with their professional policy and budget staff) to deal with. Polling the audience on a bunch of random policy issues, when most of that audience probably can’t even find Sacramento on a map, just seems like lunacy.

  184. 184.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WereBear: But he might make the Crapture, when the faithful are lifted bodily into the air & deposited in the nearest septic tank.

  185. 185.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Matt McIrvin: But who beyond their rabid bigoted base is going to believe that the polls or the votes were rigged? The problem with these crazy conspiracy theories is that they have a very limited audience and the Alex Jones wingnuts can’t win national elections.

    I foresee worse candidates for the GOP in 2020.

  186. 186.

    Spider-Dan

    @Brachiator: I have actively cut back on my Young Turks viewership due to the platform they are giving Jimmy Dore and that ridiculous Purity Police Aggressive Progressives segment – the sole purpose of which is to attack Hillary. Jordan Chariton on their TYT Politics channel is similar: there are only two topics on that channel… 1) how terrible Hillary is 2) how great Stein is. I’m not giving either of those buffoons page hits.

    The one benefit of 2016 vs. 2000 is that all this nonsense – e.g. when Jimmy Dore specifically says he wants Trump to win because it fractures the GOP – is captured on video. In contrast, the Naderites all insist (today) that GWB’s election was an unfortunate accident and not their specific intent at the time.

  188. 188.

    Patricia Kayden

    @hovercraft: After Tweety’s meltdown post the first debate between Obama and Romney, I stopped paying attention to him. He occasionally gets things right like when he tricked Trump into saying that women who have abortions should be punished, but he gets on my nerves too often to be worth watching. I wonder if MSNBC will continue to drift towards the Right during the Clinton administration.

  193. 193.

    Mnemosyne

    @WereBear:

    Technically, yes, but since the whole point of a Frankenstein movie is that Everything Goes Horribly Wrong, it fits into horror, too.

    I like the Hammer version because the flashback structure makes it nicely ambiguous. If you want to, you can interpret the “monster” as the doctor’s own homicidal impulses that he blames on an outside force.

  194. 194.

    Turgidson

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I wonder if MSNBC will continue to drift towards the Right during the Clinton administration.

    At the very least, Andrea Greenspan Mitchell will spend the next four to eight years breathlessly intoning about how Hillary’s emails and “questions raised” about the Clinton Foundation will doom her campaign, err, presidency, any.minute.now.

  196. 196.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hovercraft:

    Tweety asks NY Times reporter if she knows anyone at the Times who is pro-life. she says she has never asked any of her co-workers that. His response “well that’s cute”, in a sarcastic tone. Ladies and gentlemen your liberal network .

    Holy shit, seriously Tweety?? In 25 years with my last employer, and around 55 years as a working adult, I don’t think the subject ever came up with any of my colleagues (apart from the two or three who were good friends completely independent of our working relationship). I don’t know what the culture is like at MSNBC, but if Chris Matthews is wandering around the halls of 40 Rock asking reporters, anchors, camera operators, makeup folks, researchers, producers and sound engineers about their views on pro-life vs. pro-choice, he has way too much spare time on his hands.

  198. 198.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Turgidson: I’m sure between Joe, Mika and Andrea, there will be much tutt-tutting about President Hillary Clinton during her 8 years in the White House. They’re such precious people.

  199. 199.

    Mnemosyne

    @SgrAstar:

    I have a strange love for Coppola’s version, even though objectively it has a lot of problems. If I did vampires, I’d put Mario Bava’s Black Sunday into the mix as well (though since it has a female vampire, technically it might be considered a Carmilla movie).

  200. 200.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    But he might make the Crapture, when the faithful are lifted bodily into the air & deposited in the nearest septic tank.

    Ooh, I like the cut of your theology. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

  202. 202.

    TS

    @hovercraft: Tweety is attacking Hillary Clinton non stop – coming up with any negative about all and any democrats that pass by his radar. Just found out Hillary is supporting down ballot dems because campaigning is hard & it allows her to have a rest at this time in the campaign ???? The librul media strikes again.

    Oh my heavens – now it’s wikileaks – going to crash the campaign. Didn’t realise he was worse than Morning Joke

  208. 208.

    gene108

    @hovercraft: u

    I don’t get Mathews. He worked for President Carter and Tip O’Neil, but still seems to gush over Republicans more than Democrats.

    For the life of me, I cannot picture a reverse situation, where a former Republican staffer gushes over Democrats or strays from that day’s conservative script.

  209. 209.

    JPL

    @debbie: The Haunting , Deliverance and Psycho are the movies that freaked me out. The local high school played dueling banjos, which I could hear from my backyard. I didn’t like it.

  210. 210.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TS:

    Tweety is, and has always been, an ass.

    Now and then he’ll goad an interviewee into blurting out something truthful, or he himself will pause in the spluttering just long enough to make sense about something for a few seconds, but it’s all in the stopped-clock-blind-squirrel category.

    Fuck him and the Tip’n’Ronnie he rode in on. I’d be happy if I never had to think of him again.

  212. 212.

    Turgidson

    @TS:

    He seems to be bipolar when it comes to Hillary. He was a Hillary-hater on the level of Innumerate Tory Douche Andrew Sullivan for many years, but seemed to become a fan when she was Secretary of State and then when she stared down the GOP chuckleheads over BENGHAAAAZI. He seems to have rediscovered his hater roots lately, however. I don’t know if it’s just his inability to suppress his sexism, his need for a horse race, or if he’s just a massive tool, or some combination of those things.

  214. 214.

    hovercraft

    @Jeffro:

    here’s who’s not smiling: GOP congressmen willing to sue to make Dems take down ads connecting them to Trump.

    I cracked up when I read that earlier at TPM. How the hell do you sue for being shown with your presidential nominee.

  215. 215.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @SiubhanDuinne: Hell’s bells. I taught in a university English dept, which was as liberal as you expect. I never asked any of my colleagues what their position was on abortion. Why would I? I was at work, for god’s sake.

  216. 216.

    hovercraft

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch:

    I just took a poll at my rally and was 4% UP (47-43) over Crooked Hillary!

    How does that work? I mean is he saying that he’s only winning 47 % of the people at your rally? Or is he saying that his internal polls are showing that margin?

    ETA: You got me, not the real Donald.

  217. 217.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    I stopped watching Tweety in August when he said Hillary denouncing the Alt-right racists is as bad as racism itself (both sides!).

    I tried watching again last week and it was just ridiculous trump cheerleading. he’s become a pasty face Baghdad Bob.

  218. 218.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    I am curious who will get the blame now for Katirina and the Great Recession now that Obama is popular? Will Wingnut history be Bill Clinton 1992 -2000, Barrak Obama 2001-2006, Hillary Clinto 2007 – present?

  220. 220.

    WaterGirl

    @hovercraft: I wondered the same thing. If you take him at his word, yes, he just took a poll at his rally. 47% of the people at his rally were for him; 43% were for Hillary.

    The guy’s an idiot. Either he doesn’t know how to construct a sentence, and you know, communicate. Or he’s so stupid that he doesn’t know that only 47% of the people at your rally said they want you to be president, and that’s a bad thing.

  222. 222.

    Mary G

    RIP Sherri S. Pepper, one of my favorite writers in all genres, not just sci-fi.

    John Scalzi has a lovely column about her. He says, and I agree with him, that her novel “Grass” is a classic and you should read it if you haven’t. He doesn’t mention it, but several of her books are radically feminist (showing, not preaching).

    Also, something I didn’t know that makes me think it’s never too late to start writing:

    Aside from her considerable talents as an author, Tepper stands as a reminder that it’s never too late to write. Tepper didn’t publish her first novel until 1983, when she was in her 54th year of life; she wrote something like 40 total, the most recent published in 2014. It’s never too late to write; it’s never too late to write a classic novel; it’s never too late to be a great writer, whether or not the genre has entirely caught up with you yet.

  223. 223.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @WaterGirl:

    ‏@realDenaldTrump is a spoof account.

    These retweets should come with the comedy equivalent of a trigger warning.

  228. 228.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack (tablet): Okay, that’s funny! I hadn’t really paid attention until someone else put that in block quotes, so I hadn’t seen that it was the spoof account.

    Nicely done, spoof account!

  229. 229.

    Schlemazel

    @gene108:
    Tweety thought he should be Bill Clinton’s press sec. When he didn’t get the job it appears as if he has decided to ‘get even’. If HRC were smart she would make him press sec, it would neuter him.

  231. 231.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @TS: Paging Sylvester the Cat: We’re through protecting the yellow-feathered shithead. Stick around & we might just hand you his ass on a platter.

  232. 232.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    Oh I think it would be fun! He would have to do and say exactly as told & when his head exploded he could be fired. I think he would be a well trained puppy though, he is a sycophant and would do as told for ear scratches

  234. 234.

    CarolPW

    @Mary G:

    Shit. She was one of my favorites, and I read everything she wrote. It’s almost as bad as when Roger Zelazny died. “The Companions” is even about dogs!

  235. 235.

    hovercraft

    @gene108:
    Tweety is basically a conservadem, he is “pro-choice”, but only as lip service, because he is always willing to say that democrats should not be so eager about their support for abortion rights. He never says he’s in favor of overturning Roe, but he doesn’t seem to have a problem with any restrictions on it. He is also a real dove, so he just doesn’t trust Hillary and her “hawkish” views. He just doesn’t seem to like her, tonight on his show, he barely caught himself as he said “I wish, I mean why doesn’t Trump stick to the issues”. So he really is a Trumpster, and is very frustrated that he won’t let him support him openly, because of the stupid shit he keeps saying. Though at one point he did say that like Toomey he didn’t know or hadn’t decided who he would vote for. Then he also beat up on Guy Cecil for running an Ad against Toomey linking Trump saying that women should be punished with Toomey saying he wants Roe overturned and that Doctors should be punished, in the Philly area. He wanted to know why the Ad wasn’t running the Ad statewide, he said it wasn’t fair to run it where it would be effective, but not where it would be less popular. WTF, since when is smart to run a Ads where they will not work to be fair to your opponent.
    Tweety is a moron. And yet still I watch.

  236. 236.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I can’t wait until he gets to heaven and discovers that it’s actually full of all the people he hated most, all of whom are going to be nice to him. I can’t imagine a worse hell for him.

  239. 239.

    CarolPW

    @Mary G:
    Have you read “The Fresco”? It’s one of my favorites. And I agree with you about 2016, although some of that is offset by my optimism about the election.

  240. 240.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft:

    How the hell do you sue for being shown with your presidential nominee.

    When your nominee is THIS BAD, I guess (lol)

    To their credit, these five GOP congressmen seem to have tried to distance themselves from Trump. But they must not have done it too loudly or thought to run that disavowal in their own ads. Oh well…”Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!” They’ve got the despair part down in spades…

  241. 241.

    Jeffro

    @Enhanced Voting Techinques: The Great Recession started when Obama was elected, don’t you remember? Just the thought of Obamacare sent the economy into a tailspin.

    Or maybe it was his 2004 DNC speech that started the mortgage crisis that led to the Great Recession…it’s hard to keep it all straight…

  243. 243.

    Joel

    @debbie: They’re flogging an analysis that Nate Silver ran back when he was at the Times; the key take home was that they had the Obama share of the vote pegged pretty accurately. But they were pretty off in the margin. How can this be? Because they artificially forced a binary decision in their polling results.

    Moreover, there’s no indication that the most accurate pollster of the previous cycle will be the most accurate pollster of the next cycle. Rasmussen was one of the best pollsters in 2008, for example.

  245. 245.

    Achrachno

    @The Moar You Know: Please look up the current Riverside Co. congressional delegation, specifically Mark Takano and Raul Ruiz. Yes, there is the appalling Ken Calvert too, but he’s shared with Orange Co. Riverside county has substantially flipped and should not be associated with some of those others.

    Note that in San Bernardino Co. the former district of the Republican congressional leader of some years back (Jerry Lewis) is now represented by the Pete Aguilar. You may have lost track of how things have changed in inland So. CA. It’s bluish at least.

  248. 248.

    prob50

    @Humdog:

    Prop 64 is causing heartburn in Humboldt county. Growers’ current biz model is more important to them than coming out of the shadows or giving the sellers who still get picked up by police a break.

    I wonder how many of them have been reporting their pot growing income to the IRS? The legalization prop brings CA FTB tax collection, reporting and remittance of same into the picture and the IRS will almost surely be interested in those numbers.

  249. 249.

    prob50

    @Shana:

    I had her cat in my car. He doesn’t travel well so we got a sedative from the vet. Tried it out a couple of days earlier since sometimes it has the opposite effect but it worked for him.

    When I first read this I thought you were saying YOU took some. lol

  251. 251.

    artem1s

    “Let me just point out that as far as I can tell, Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped up investigations that have led nowhere,” Obama said, referring to Issa’s use of his image as “the definition of chutzpah.”

    the GOP threw you under the bus again, Issa, after you spent another 8 years licking their toes and carrying their water for them. sry, not sry. If there is any justice in the world, you will spend the rest of your worthless life in jail for trying to besmirch and belittle a truly great, honest President.

Comments are closed.