Big dude with a wrench:
What’s going on today?
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.
Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.
Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.
Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.
You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?
Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.
The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.
The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.
Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…
When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson
The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.
It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!
“Alexa, change the president.”
Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.
I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.
You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.
Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.
There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
In after Baud. Damn.
Comrade Mary
Alice Cooper does Born This Way at Bonnaroo.
The Red Pen
Here’s a random theory: is it possible that the trillion-dollar campaign season will act like an inefficient stimulus, heating the economy just enough to tip the election to Obama?
danielx
I have simply got to post a picture of the ten feet high pink elephant wearing glasses and drinking a martini outside the liquor store in Fortville, Indiana. Straight from the nightmares of Don Draper…
***edit***
It’s been done.
roadsideamerica.com/tip/461
danielx
@The Red Pen:
No, because the people upon whom the money is being spent – mediadroids, consultants, etc. – are mostly a bunch of assholes.
k488
That looks like what I remember as Paul Bunyan with an axe in Bangor, ME. Did an auto supply company buy it?
Edit: nope; different figure. Memory is strange!
Punchy
Going to the zoo. And this time, I dont mean my place of employment. Why does Ian Kennedy continue to fuck up my fantasy baseball team so badly?
kdaug
Kishi Bashi.
Endless loop.
That is all.
Schlemizel
@k488:
There are many Paul Bunyans scattered around small town Minnesota and they all look vaguely like this. It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t all come from one shop some place back in the 50s
Elizabelle
Blog hogging. I put this up on thread about Election 2012 and corporate media too.
The WaPost story is boilerplate. Nine unnamed “Democratic strategists”, one miffed that Obama won’t take any outside advice. (That you, Mark Penn?)
blah blah blah Cory Boo*ker blah blah blah Ed Rendell
Nugget that seems news to me:
I think Greenberg and Carville got it right.
Totebaggers might see the fragile recovery.
It’s very scary out there for too many of us, and what Obama could and will do to protect the middle class should be a game winner for him.
No more talking up an economy that could taken down by Europe or more GOP and Wall Street stupidity this year.
Further, Rove’s Crossroads ads are hitting Obama on the economy every few minutes in the DC market.
Play to Obama’s genuine concern for the middle class, which Romney does not share and cannot convincingly lie about.
The GOP have sabotaged any progress they can and care most about wealthy elites; beyond the 27%, a lot of Americans understand that.
The Red Pen
@danielx:
Why does that matter?
What matters is whether or not the money spent on the campaign ends up going into the economy after it passes through the hands of the assholes. Do they just take the money, put it in piles and set it on fire or something?
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle:
“Further, Rove’s Crossroads ads are hitting Obama on the economy every few minutes in the DC market.”
I see those ads all the time. I doubt they’ll sway anyone to vote for the Bot in the DC area though. DC and Maryland are solidly blue.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden:
True that.
Makes me wonder if the Crossroads ads are running in heavy rotation everywhere.
Nowhere do they have to say “Karl Rove”, either.
debbie
@ Patricia Kayden:
They’re all over Ohio.
Egg Berry
@The Red Pen:
Aside from a commission for an ad sale, TV money goes to the corporate bottom line, and then, if necessary, to shareholders.
Consultants will probably squirrel it away.
Some money that’s used for printing yard signs and the like, hiring ground workers, etc. will trickle through, but the bulk of it will end up in large bank accounts.
Riilism
Seein’ political ads on Hulu. Eeesshh….
The Red Pen
@Egg Berry:
That was my thoughts as well. As a stimulus, campaign spending might be really inefficient, but we’re talking about a huge amount of money. Unfortunately, it’s not a trillion dollars, it’s more like a billion (oops, pre-coffee mistake), so it would have to be a really efficient stimulus to bump the needle.
anibundel
@Elizabelle:
I am thankful to say that hear in VA we haven’t seen Rovian backed ads…but we do see a lot of “DEBT PANIC ZOMG” ones.
I am so grateful for DVRs and mute buttons.
double nickel
I’m receiving many good wishes after announcing yesterday my retirement from just over 37 years of public service. It’s been a good week.
jo6pac
putting a solar powered exhaust fan in the green house.
dn welcome to retirement have fun.
jeffreyw
One of these days someone will call me “Sir” and not follow it with “You’re making a scene!”
redshirt
I love giant novelty statues. Bangor’s Paul Bunyan prime among them.
Anyone ever been to Roswell, NM? The citizens have embraced the UFO tales and spun it into all manner of business enterprises. When I drove through in early 90’s there were quite a few large alien statues.
John of Indiana
Looks like the brother of “Mr. Bendo”, mascot of Ralph’s Muffler Shops in Indianapolis.
Hmm. Sioux Falls and Chicago have Mr. Bendo, too….
John of Indiana
@danielx: Ah, yes, the elephant on SR 67. It was there when I made my first under-age buy of beer, 35 years ago…
gbear
@Schlemizel: The most famous Paul Bunyan statue in MN is the one in Bemidji of Paul and Babe the blue ox. They even have their own web cam. Looks like it’s kind of breezy in Bemidji this morning.
HRA
@double nickel:
Here is another good wish for your retirement.
Getting all my “ducks” in a row and targeting the same exit from this public sector job for the end of January 1213.
Villago Delenda Est
@jeffreyw:
Having been the mandatory receiver of salutes for years, I long ago became immune to the use of “Sir” to get my attention.
quannlace
Rain, rain and more friggin’ rain.
************
But the post above this one about Gifford’s successor? Yay. I’ll take any good political news these days.
BGK
Apropos of nothing:
I saw on one of the teevee machines at the gym this morning a split-screen argument between Dan Abrams and the always-appalling Nancy Grace. The captioning was too small to read from where I was, and I really couldn’t muster the effort to find the same channel on my own teevee. Horrible Nancy kept doing this pseudo-thoughtful thing with putting her index finger on her chin. Abrams face looked as if he was trying to process being insulted by a diarrheic parrot. Robin Roberts (so I assume it was “Good Morning America”) in a reaction shot looked as if she was wondering if this was the best use of the possibly limited time she might have left as a corporeal entity…
Linda Featheringill
@jeffreyw:
:-) Lovely. It’s now on the twitter machine.
redshirt
@danielx: Roadside America is a great, fun site. I learned all about multi-story outhouses!
Linda Featheringill
Congrats to the Dems in Arizona! Good job!
bemused
@gbear:
There is a big, very colorful Blue Gill statue and welcome sign in Orr, MN.
Tourists can roam inside a gigantic Muskie at the Hayward, WI freshwater fishing hall of fame museum…just enter a door in the tail and then take the stairs in the gullet to the observation deck.
Trakker
Ya’ know, I’m still p!ssed off about Wisconsin. I gave maybe $90-100 to various Wisconsin groups working to recall Walker. That’s a lot for someone on a fixed income, about a month’s utility bill.
I don’t mind so much that our side lost, what really stings was that so many on the other side wrote checks for $100,000 – $250,000 and it didn’t ding their total net worth at all. With one check people like that can nullify the sacrifices of 4,000+ people like me and feel no financial pain.
After the election I began to seriously debate whether I can afford to give money to campaigns knowing that the tiny amounts that I and thousands of others give will be easily matched and surpassed by just one or two wealthy individuals. I’m willing to bet I’m not alone in thinking this. [I’m certain I will continue to give, but with less anticipation that it will make a difference]
I have this fantasy. If the rich can invoke the first amendment to vastly outspend us, why can’t we build a 500,000 watt amplifier/speaker system and locate it outside the Koch Brother’s headquarters, or Wall Street, and blast our message to them 24/7? We’ll match their wealth with watts and at least we will know they hear us. We have the right to free speech ya’ know.
Maybe I need to put something stronger in my coffee in the mornings?
Amir Khalid
@HRA:
So you’ve been drawing a public pension for 799 years? No wonder people over there complain about pampered civil servants …
Mino
Carhenge
kevin-mc.hubpages.com/hub/Roadside_Oddities_Car_Art
A variation on Cadillac Ranch
Brian
Zippy flashbacks?
Linda Featheringill
We have been blessed with white butterflies in the back yard. I don’t remember seeing them before, and I think I would remember that. Lovely little critters.
They may be attracted to my back yard because I am . . how do you say . . less than vigorous in my campaign to mow down flowering weeds.
Nice to have them as guests.
handsmile
To our correspondents from Ohio:
Was “Touchdown Jesus” ever resurrected after it was destroyed by hellfire in 2010? I had heard that bereaved citizens were taking up a collection to restore this shrine to football and Our Lord.
roadsideamerica.com/story/9786
And another hosanna to danielx’s recommendation above (#3) for the website “roadsideamerica.com.” It truly is a cornucopia of what makes the U.S.A. the Greatest Country in the history of all the world.
roadsideamerica.com/
HRA
@Amir Khalid:
It was the ducks who did the counting. :))
You gave me my 1st smile of the day. Result is everyone in contact wants to know what I am smiling about.
See tis past time to get out of this place.
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Mary:
Okay, that was pretty awesome. I love when classic artists are able to find modern songs to cover that fit them really well.
Though whenever I hear Lady Gaga, I always think of the costume contest at work where a group dressed up as Lady Gaga and Her Monsters and we all learned why it is that men should put on a dance belt if they’re going to wear a skintight white bodysuit. Yikes.
maya
@Trakker:
Silly person. The SCOTUS ruled that MONEY is free speech, NOT speech is free speech.
To build anything without providing the bucks or put up signage, like Occupy Wall St did/does, involves “permits” and “ordinances” and cops enforcing the rights of the rich.
Your mega-watt system would be deemed illegal in no time and torn down. No 1st Amendment protections for those who don’t have the money. That’s what Citizen’s United did. Money talks, everybody else – keep moving along, buddy, or the vagrancy pen for you.
muddy
This one is cute, naughty gorilla has felt up many a butt, including mine.
roadsideamerica.com/story/11913
muddy
@Villago Delenda Est: The only time I ever get “ma-am’ is in a really snotty tone. If I am not already angry with the person, I get angry then.
Mojotron
Anyone else notice whose name is missing from the Atlantic’s mast today?
Amir Khalid
@Mojotron:
The missing one has been hired away by Tina Brown of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, as you may have heard. So now we all know where not to go, that we may safely avoid gastritic calculations and the worship of absurdly fancy kitchen gadgets.
S. cerevisiae
I always got a laugh from this one in Arizona: Big Johnson Realty
j
A little history about that wrench dude. They were ALL referred to as “Muffler Man” regardless of what he was holding. They were custom made in California and held everything from mufflers to hot dogs roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/il/ILCICmufdog.jpg to wrenches (as in the picture accompanying this post). My personal favorite was a Frankenstein monster holding a “Frank” in one hand, and a “Stein” of root beer in the other. It was at some wide spot in the 2 lane road when my family went on vacation, and I was one of 4 sweaty whining kids in the back seat of a Mercury Comet. BEFORE the Interstates were built! Great root beer there, too.
AHA! I love this site! Here it is: roadsideamerica.com/tip/2861
Here, build your own “Muffler Man”:
roadsideamerica.com/muffler/origin.html
j
@The Red Pen: In a wird, NO.
The federal law mandates that TV and radio (and in most cases print) political advertising can omly charge the lowest rate (think 3am Sunday morning infomercial rates) for political ads.
Sure all these small town stations are selling every second of their ad space (and not be forced into running PSA and point of purchase type ads (where you have to tell the operator the code “TV47”)…But at what profit?
22 minutes of political ads on “Dancing With The Stars” actually makes the stations LOSE money.
j
@danielx: YAY! Good pic.
Honeatly, I use that site all the time. Every time I go on a trip somewhere. I have more pictures of the world’s largest ketchup bottle, frying pan, 2 story outhouse etc, (fill in the blank) than I can archive. It’s a good way to end a boring party.
Hey, anyone want to see my slides of (whatever)?
j
@The Red Pen: No, they keep it in a bank. Maybe offshore. Do you think ClearChannel is hiring more people every 4 years because of political ads? NO, they are handing out bonuses to already rich shareholders. Do you think these millionaires are going out to the local bakery to bring donuts to the office every morning? NO, And they ain’t spending it at the local mom & pop hardware store either. They MIGHT buy another bass boat, though.
j
@Brian: Listen to “The Zippy Theme Song”
Music: Fred Thaler & Janis Siegel (of The Manhatttan Transfer)
Lyrics : Fred Schneider (of the B-52’s)
Additional vocals: Phoebe Snow, Marc Cohen, Fred Thaler and Jon Hendricks (scat)
Acoustic piano and synth bass: Fred Thaler
Drums: Ray Markowitz
(With lyrics)
zippythepinhead.com/pages/themsong.htm
This was supposed to be an off (way off) Broadway show. I don’t know if it ever happened.