I kinda hope DougJ was trolling last night, because I wouldn’t trust Ramesh Ponnuru as far as I could throw Chris Christie. Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly points out Ponnuru’s lastest invitation to the “centrists” to lie back and enjoy it:
In a Bloomberg column, Ramesh Ponnuru makes an argument for Mitt Romney’s election that you are going to hear a lot more of soon: it’s the only way that partisan gridlock in Washington can be broken. The basic theory is that Republicans will not change from their current savage ideological course (which will actually get more savage if they lose this election they think themselves destined to win) and are very unlikely to lose enough congressional support to reduce their veto power over legislation. So if you want something new to happen, a President Romney and a Republican-controlled House and Senate (presumably using reconciliation to do whatever they want without Democratic support) are the only ticket…
So as a cap to four years of political hostage-taking, a final general election pitch from Republicans this year is to hold the next four years hostage as well: give us total power to begin implementing our agenda and start dismantling this silly, expensive New Deal/Great Society system and this European-style progressive tax code, or nothing at all happens. We’ll get our way eventually, so why not get started now?
This will be a seductive argument for certain elements of the “centrist” MSM commentariat. There’s a big piece up at Politico this very morning about how disillusioned political reporters are about the viciousness and pointlessness of this election cycle. When will the gridlock end, they implicitly ask, and the wondrous Washington romance of movers and shakers moving and shaking return? Before long, we’ll hear ostensibly “neutral” voices making the case for one-party government—Republican one-party government, as it happens—as an oasis of clarity and productive activity after all the nasty divisiveness we’ve experienced. For the history-minded, it may even start sounding a bit like the famous fatigue of the European elites about the weakness and pettiness of parliamentary democracy during the 1920s….
What heartens me about this argument is that if Ponnuru and his fellow Grima Wormtongues are arguing that re-electing President Obama would be a fatal mistake, it means they’re afraid the Obama campaign has an unbeatable edge. This is the kind of threat you get from an extortionist just before the police confiscate his cache and end his power to destroy others’ lives.
Southern Beale
I’ve actually made that EXACT same argument about the Democrats. I made it here, and I said:
I mean, seriously. That argument goes both ways, Ponnuru. But it really makes more sense applied to Democrats because Republicans really do fall in line whereas Democrats will hold up their signature piece of legislation just so some Bart Stupak idiot can prove what a big dick he is, er, has.
So. You want divided government? GIve the Dems all three houses. Then sit back and watch the games begin.
jwb
The filibuster is gone next year if either side wins the Presidency and Congress, and I imagine the Dems took notes on the GOP obstructionist tactics and will deploy them in more or less the same way if the almost inconceivable scenario where Mitwitt beats Obama and yet the Dems either hold the Senate or retake the House. (At this point about the only scenarios that seem likely are Obama with a Dem Congress or one house; Obama with a GOP Congress; Romney with a GOP Congress.) So Ponnuru’s premise doesn’t hold.
? Martin
Romesh is giving away the plot:
The standard thinking within the GOP base is that Obama refused to compromise on anything – that he’s every bit the corrupt African dictator that they proclaim him to be.
Romesh is supposed to be telling us in this case that Obama would become less likely to compromise with the poor Republicans who are oppressed under the brutal fist of Harry Reid.
This is going all wrong.
Jeff Spender
I’m just going to call Republicans the Terror Party. I’m sick of this bullshit.
tofubo
from atrios
deadspin.com/5941348/they-wont-magically-turn-you-into-a-lustful-cockmonster-chris-kluwe-explains-ga…
…
…
Steeplejack
Hey, if it’s a choice between gridlock and the Republicans passing their whole agenda on greased wheels, I’ll take gridlock, please.
Steeplejack
@tofubo:
Covered downstairs.
catclub
@tofubo: Ever hear of the HUAC?
They did this all the time. How many were prosecuted? I would guess zero.
I suspect you would be VERY hard pressed to find a statute that would apply to this guy, in spite of the First amendment being right there.
catclub
@Steeplejack: I agree.
But the real problem is that the villagers are bored, and need to be amused by shiny things.
SatanicPanic
I heard this guy on NPR this morning. His weasely voice caused me to break out in a rash.
Leo
Everyone compares Republican attempts to leverage their obstruction to hostage taking, which it is. But as a parent of a toddler I also like to compare it to dealing with a 2 year old’s temper tantrum. It may seem like it is easier to give in and give them what they want rather than stop everything to deal with their screaming and flailing. But, in the long run, if you give in you will teach the wrong lesson and there will be more fits in the future. If Ponnuru’s argument holds up then the U.S. Congress is truly finished as a functional institution because 100% obstruction will be more politically valuable than actually participating in government.
tofubo
@Steeplejack:
thought i went back to the point on the site wherz i stopped before, missed it
Narcissus
One of our two parties no longer believes in democracy and our media treats it as a game.
Petorado
So, what ever happened to not negotiating with terrorists holding this country hostage? This sounds like a right wing hostage-taking incident to me.
piratedan
not sure how ANYONE can believe that bullshit…. two years ago… trust us, we’re looking to help get America working again, laser like focus on jobs jobs jobs…. and what comes out of the House, abortion abortion abortion but planned parenthood for Horses…. Still awaiting that Jobs bill sponsored by Repubs sans abortion restrictions or Obamacare repeals….just put us in charge they say, we’ll be reasonable… what a load of unmitigated Horseshit
Old Dan and Little Ann
The nutters gotta nut.
Steeplejack
@tofubo:
No blame, just thought that if you wanted to read comments or add your own that’s the better spot.
JR
Really, my choice is between gridlock and letting insane fuckers control the entire U.S. government?
GRIDLOCK, PLEASE.
jl
This is joke right? Ponnuru is doing some kind of Andy Kaufman bit, right?
Hilarious. A knee slapper.
Ponnuru is making a mistake trying to explain. You either get the joke or you don’t.
Anne Laurie
@tofubo: Six threads back, dude. DougJ covered this before 5pm.
jl
So, you smell a lot of gas coming up from the cellar, one guy wants to go down and light a match and look around and the other wants to call gas company.
That is gridlock. So, way I see it, call gas co. > gridlock > match.
You cannot enumerate all the possible alternatives while gridlock is going one. For instance, maybe you can manuever the person who wants to call the gas company outside while gridlock is occurring. The guy who wants to look around downstairs with a match is on his own, unless you can cold cock the person and drag outside.
Wag
This is the kind of threat you get from an extortionist just before the police confiscate his cache and end his power to destroy others’ lives.
mai naem
@SatanicPanic: He’s got a real high pitched voice for a guy and sounds like a woman. I know I sound shallow when I say this but I have had the teevee on in the background or the radio on, and heard his voice and think it’s a woman till I figure out it’s him.
Ponnurru can say whatever but this brings me to two things – first I find it annoying that the Dem presidents(e.g Clinton) seem to pay attention to only getting reelected themselves. I get the importance of that but I think getting the House is almost as important as reelecting Obama and I don’t seem to see that much cooperation between Obama and Congressional Dems. BTW why is CW that getting the House back is impossible? Second, this is the reason I want Obama to blow out Romney in the popular vote. I want the vote to be run up in the blue states so that the popular vote looks even better to give him a mandate and at least intimidate the Repubs a little.
Mary G
It makes me want to go to the mattresses.
Frankensteinbeck
@Wag:
I like the cut of your jib, sir.
mclaren
Ramesh Ponnuru is a raving drooling fringe lunatic. You want a “thoughtful conservative”? Here’s how you get a “thoughtful conservative”:
[1] Pick up a two by four
[2] Beat the conservative on the head
[3] After a couple of hours, the conservative will become “thoughtful”
Dennis SGMM
Who the fuck is Ramesh Ponnuru and what the fuck is he being paid to do? It can’t be his take on politics or the best course for the nation. This guy Ponnuru seems to feel that if we just hand over the keys to the people who have stood squarely in the way of any legislation that would in any way help the nation, why hell, everything will be fine.
He should change his name to Thank You Sir, May I Have Another?
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
Fixed.
burnspbesq
Andrew and Derbyshire think Ponnuru’s an ass, and that’s good enough for me.
M. Bouffant
@mclaren: At least the conservative will be quiet, if not “thoughtful.”
mclaren
@mai naem:
We can certainly hope for a surge that’ll take back the House for the Demos. It’s just anecdotal evidence but I’m hearing from an awful lot of people who were lifelong Republican voters and even held their noses and voted for the drunk-driving C student from Texas the second time…but they can’t bring themselves to vote for the Magic Underwear Man.
I still suspect this election is going to be a lot bigger blowout for Obama than any of the pundits expect. Gecko/Galt are spewing such obviously insane policies, insofar as they even have policies and aren’t just vomiting out “magic pony” crap like unsupported and wildly unlikely claims that if we slash taxes for the billionaires we’ll magically get 5% GDP growth, and Gecko/Galt are such obviously inept mountebanks and liars, that even hardened movement conservatives can’t force themselves to pull the lever for this pair of smash-and-grab thieves.
The big question then is whether Obama’s win will have coattails as it did in 2008. Ezra Klein says no. That gives me a lot of hope, since Ezra Klein has a solid track record of being dead wrong in his predictions. (Remember Klein’s infamous 2010 prediction that the U.S. economy would be roaring away on all 8 cylinders by now?)
feebog
When, not if Obama wins on November 6, the TeaTards will tear into Willard Mitt Romney like a flock of vultures on rhino carcass. They will bemoan the fact that their nominee was not pure enough and look even further to the right. Just like four years ago, Republicans will be plotting on how to take over the country even as Obama is sworn into a second term.
But they have a problem. Even if they take over the Senate, or retain control of the House, or both, they are going to have to make some semblence of governig. They are going to have to make some sort of compromise on taxes; or get blamed by a wide swath of voters for standing up for the millionaires while the middle class endured a tax hike.
This year the percentage of white people who make up the electorate will be about 72%. By 2016 it will be well below 70%. If they don’t change something they will become a permanent minority party by 2020. They can’t obstruct immigration reform forever, it is going to kill them with Hispanics. They have already lost the African American vote, doubtful they get more than 10% no matter who the Dem nominee is. They can only drift so far right without falling off the cliff.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Now Ryan is going all Libertarian hippster and calling for legalized pot. I smell the desperation of newbs
mclaren
@burnspbesq:
Because I’m such an extreme far-right fringe conservative.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
And this is what burnspbesq calls “thinking.”
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
No, but you’ve been beaten repeatedly with the Stupid Stick.
burnspbesq
Fast work, eh, Canada?
Canada has closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled all Iranian diplomats from Canada. This is supposedly a response to the attack on the British Embassy in Tehran.
An attack that occurred on November 29, 2011.
burnspbesq
I will say one thing for Ponnuru.
He’s not as bad as Mark Steyn.
jenn
Holy toledo. Wells Fargo mistakenly foreclosed on an elderly couples’ house (had no mortgage) in Twentynine Palms, CA, sent a crew in who took everything inside the house, and evidently destroyed it all, since the couple can’t get any of it back. Absolute fuckwits. I honestly can’t even imagine.
AlfieJr
this “break the gridlock in time of crisis” argument is precisely the same rationale that was given when the German establishment switched to support Hitler becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933.
he sure did. and thereupon destroyed his nation.
Dennis SGMM
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Normally, I would write “You’ve got to be shitting me.” I won’t this time because the smell of Republican flop sweat is stronger than the smell of smoke here in the San Gabriel Valley.
karen marie
As if getting to the point where Pomodoro’s (sic) suggestion would be the only thing to “make sense” isn’t why Congressional Republicans have been such total obstructionists in the first place.
Make it impossible for a Democratic president, even with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, to govern.
Republicans have taken the country hostage and they sent Pomodoro (sic) out with the ransom note.
FUCK THEM WITH A SHARP-ENDED RAGGEDY-ASS STICK.
Anya
@burnspbesq: Maybe Netanyhu told Stephan Harper to do this. The current Canadian government is more pro-Israel than any in Canadian history. They’re Rapture enthusiasts.
danimal
The Republicans are bluffing. They have gone “all in” on the obstructionism, but they (or their corporate sponsors, at least) will want to name post offices after their fathers and milk the sweet federal cow for some local graft (did I mention that my congresscritter is Ken Calvert…you probably haven’t heard of him, but he’s annually voted one of the 10 most corrupt representatives when he’s not getting hummers from prostitutes, but I digress). They will need to make deals, or their own jobs will be threatened.
The GOP unity will fray as reps from purple districts feel the pressure. It only takes a few turncoats to pass Democrat-sponsored bills, we won’t need Jim DeMint’s vote.
The ‘fiscal cliff’ is a huge threat to reelection (which won’t apply to Obama). The Clinton tax rates scare the crap out of the billionaires funding the GOP; they won’t be fond of the obstruction strategy that just lost them an election and several million bucks. And the cliff is a monstrous threat to federal deficits which are an absolute necessity for Republicans. Just think about the GOP messaging if there isn’t a deficit to blame for passing their repulsive agenda.
They are bluffing. Unfortunately, the fluffers in the Beltway media will do their bidding on this one. Overall, Obama will have the stronger hand.
danimal
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yeah, the stench of fear is strong with that one. Imagine Romney signing any kind of drug legalization. Then pass me whatever it is you’re smoking.
Geoduck
@Dennis SGMM:
It appears its more accurate to say he wants to leave the issue of medical marijuana to the states, which is still pretty surprising.
? Martin
@Leo:
Yeah, that’s how it feels to me too. I always had the job of being the family sociopath – not giving in to my daughter no matter how much she cried and pounded her little fists on the floor. I’d always remind her that she’d run out of tears before I ran out of will power.
I’ll tell the GOP the same thing. Go ahead, shut down the government. Have your little tantrum. We’ll just vote your out of our way when the day comes.
And took another 10 seconds off my mile time tonight. At this rate my Ryan mile time will be under a minute.
Dennis SGMM
@karen marie:
That sounds about right to me.
jwb
@AlfieJr: Didn’t want to Godwin the thread, but that was my exact thought the moment I read this.
Honest Observations
So confident.
So loud.
So…wrong.
Obama loses in November.
Honest Observations
The dismal jobs report overshadowed Obambi’s flat, mediocre speech.
Even The Politico declared that Obama “fell flat” last night. He sounded deflated. Defeated. Like he already knew about the goadawful jobs report. He knows it’s over. Do you?
Keep in mind that tomorrow the $100 MILLION Super PAC September Assault starts. Watching the NFL in a swing state this Sunday? Get ready to see a political ad blitz the likes of which this nation has never seen.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Honestly, I am not sure who should be insulted by that.
Dennis SGMM
@Geoduck:
Considering how much of the gov is still devoted to playing Feds and Heads, it’s beyond surprising. I spent some time on the wrong side of the law (Everyone should, it’s exhilarating) and I had a chat with one of the DEA guys who was working hard to bust me. I asked him what would happen if pot was legalized. He said that he’d be out of a job.
The Moar You Know
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I thought you were joking. You were not.
Well, under normal circumstances I would be praying that this would take a bite out of Obama’s ass, not enough to cost him the election, but enough for him to call the fucking DEA off of cancer patients and grandmothers. There’s only one thing about Barack that’s genuinely pissed me off and this is it.
However, that ain’t happening. Even the biggest Paultard moron knows Ryan would happily give any given pot smoker the chair, doubly so if they’re on Medicare.
GregB
@Honest Observations:
Yeah, polluting the airwaves with billions of plutocrat funded, shitty political ads while football fans take a dump, get a bite to eat, grab another beer or smoke a cigar or a dube is bound to be a winning gambit.
These billionaires are going to learn the Carly Fiorna lesson in the law of diminishing returns.
Omnes Omnibus
@Honest Observations: Come on, say UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH. You know you want to do it. Little shits like you are willing to say that dollars are the equivalent of people. Sad, really. You’ll never have the dollars to matter to those whose approval you crave. you will be a bitter young person when your parents’ home is sold to pay for their nursing home and you have to live in the streets. Of course, that will only come to pass if your side wins. Pyrrhic victory, I guess.
Honest Observations
@GregB:
“Shitty”? I’ve seen some of the new, yet to be released ads. They’re extremely powerful. A lot focus on the threat of Russia and especially China. The rest make fun of Obambi’s lofty promises from 2008. They’re absolutely devastating.
Games the ads will be airing on: Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Bucs, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Carolina Panthers.
Tune in!
MoeLarryAndJesus
Yeah.
Perfect. That’s exactly what he is.
Honest Observations
@Omnes Omnibus:
“Young person”? LOL I’m 41, dipshit.
Brachiator
Here’s a fun little statistic:
Michelle Obama’s Speech Gets More Online Views Than The Entire RNC Convention
forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2012/09/07/michelle-obamas-speech-gets-more-online-views-than-the-entire-rn…
Perhaps this is a foretaste of a shift in the political landscape in favor of the Democrats.
Omnes Omnibus
@Honest Observations: Even sadder that you still live in your parents’ basement.
Chyron HR
@Honest Observations:
Wait, I though the Messiah Eastwood said that America should defer to Russia. Can’t you guys make up your mind?
piratedan
@Honest Observations: no,you’re a troll and everyone knows that trolls are ageless
Omnes Omnibus
@Chyron HR:
Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence.
Anoniminous
I’m starting to smell panic in the GOP.
Most my evidence is anecdotal and thus worth diddly-squat. But a couple of items:
1. They have pulled money out of an open Senate seat here in New Mexico to bolster their guy in North Dakota.
2. They have yanked money from the Missouri Senate race.
3. GOP won 63 House seats in 2010 Obama won in 2008. Dems need to regain 25 to flip the House. That’s very doable.
4. Tens of millions have been spent by GOP PACs over the summer to define Obama. It didn’t work.
5. Romney has almost certainly lost Ohio and Virginia. (Nate Silver gives both to Obama with a +73%.) Romney is on the ropes in Florida.
6. Romney is a fer-shit candidate, a lousy politician, and Lyin’ Ryan is even worse.
7. The GOP is old, tired, and shrill; they got nothing.
8. Despite a “branding change” to TeaBaggers the base of the GOP are the same FundieCons we’ve come to know. But not love.
Not saying this thing is a Done Deal but it is shaping up to be. The thing to look at are the polling numbers in the Congressional Districts. Yes they have been gerrymandered to the n-th degree. However, the thing about gerrymandering is it works until the vote is spread so thin, the incumbents get so lazy, the whole house (and Senate!) of cards collapse.
? Martin
@GregB: Actually, I think it rightfully should be the Meg Whitman law of diminishing returns. She dumped $140M of her own money on TV in one state and still lost by 12 points in the GOP wave year, no less.
@Honest Observations:
$100 million in SuperPac money? That’s laughable. We saw more than that wasted in a stupid governors race. And the more she spent, the worse she polled. Only wingnuts think you can buy the world.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: If people work; if people talk to people they know; if people who can, donate; if people get out the vote; if people don’t let assholes take away there vote…. then it is in the bag.
Marshall
I want something new to happen, I want the Republican Party to fail and splinter and for something sane to emerge from the rubble. I see the election of Barack Obama as the best immediate course to achieving this.
That is the best way to break the partisan gridlock. Putting the crazies in charge is not.
Jennifer
This is essentially the same argument the Republicans made in 2000: “Sick of all this partisan rancor? Give us what we want and we’ll stop conducting all these witchhunts to tie the duly-elected president’s hands.”
James E. Powell
@GregB:
Those ads will get the enthusiastic endorsement of every person who decided to vote against Obama, no matter who the Republicans nominated, back in 2008.
What is striking about the Romney/Ryan and SuperPAC ads I’ve seen is that every single one of them is aimed straight at the right-wing base. The RNC included no real effort to appeal to anyone outside the right-wing echo chamber. That was one reason why it was so brazenly fact-free. Their audience does not care about the facts.
The question is, has the Republican base grown since 2008?
max
@Honest Observations:
I concede that that could be the correct name, but really, Honest Stupidity seems better.
The dismal jobs report overshadowed Obambi’s flat, mediocre speech.
I was thought he was Our Satanic Deathlord, African Anti-Christ?
Keep in mind that tomorrow the $100 MILLION Super PAC September Assault starts. Watching the NFL in a swing state this Sunday? Get ready to see a political ad blitz the likes of which this nation has never seen.
Weren’t you RNC intern types trolling over at Drum’s last night? You guys usually shift to the astro-turfing strategy when you’re way down in the fucking hole. (“Comrades! Send in the comment spammers!”)
You keep on, keepin’ on pretendin’, Spunky.
max
[‘North Korea will have openings after the election, so you can try applying over there.’]
Honest Observations
@Omnes Omnibus:
Nope. I bought my own home at age 26. Are you by any chance staring up at your fading Obama posters in your childhood bedroom?
Chyron HR
Addendum: I wholeheartedly support the Romney campaign focusing entirely on the “threat of Russia”, considering that Mitt so dumb he thinks it’s still called “the Soviet Union”.
? Martin
@Honest Observations:
Godawful? But we created 900,000 more jobs last month than in Bush’s last month in office! That’s massive! And a relative .7% drop in unemployment rate. That’s unprecedented!
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yep. The more the voter turn-out and demographic approaches 2008 the greater the chances of flipping the House.
One humorous thing: Given the destruction of the Blue Dogs the Progressive Caucus members will control the House Committees and Sub-Committees — seniority, ya know — and most of the most senior are African-American.
Suffern Ace
Well I guess one advantage about picking a fight with Russia is that it pretty much guarantees that we’ll be out of Afghanistan rather quickly.
Jay in Oregon
@jenn:
This isn’t the first time banks have fucked up like this. There are families who have refinanced their mortgages but end up being foreclosed on because the bank didn’t pay off the original mortgage; people who have been foreclosed on after paying off their mortgage; and straight out of Brazil, several cases of mistaken identities/addresses such as this one.
The most appalling one I can think of is the man who paid cash for his home and had no mortgage, yet Bank of America foreclosed on him anyway.
Until someone sees fit to start arresting these assholes for (at least) the most egregious offenses, this shit will keep happening.
And frankly, who the fuck in their right mind would buy a house these days—regardless of the interest rates—when the banks’ record-keeping is such a mess?
Omnes Omnibus
@Honest Observations: Nope. I do have a lovely Ed Flood Imagist oil though.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
WHAT? No Kinkade?!?
What’s the hell is wrong with you? Got artistic sensibility or esthetic taste or something horrid like that?
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Parents who were friends with the artist’s circle. So yes to the “artistic sensibility or esthetic taste or something horrid like that?” Although, I would have said aesthetic – ‘cuz I be like that.
gene108
@mai naem:
In districts, where Obama and Clinton in the 1990’s are popular and would help down ticket races are usually safe districts for Democrats.
At some point after the Civil Rights Act passed and Democrats made a conscious decision to embrace civil rights and women’s rights, you started having a situation where state and local Democrats could not openly rally behind national Democratic leaders, since the national leaders – like Ted Kennedy, for example – were not popular in their districts or states.
Also right-wing media has done a marvelous job of saturating the air waves, so that even if people aren’t listening to Rush Limbaugh the meme that Sandra Fluke’s a slut, who wants to you to pay money to subsidize her casual sexual encounters gets permeated into people’s discussion on an issue.
I think the bigger problem is how to break out of the right-wing media death grip on information and start getting back voters on an economic message, which can trump the Right’s use of identity politics.
This has to be done by state and local Democratic organizations. There’s only so much the President can do.
freelancer
@Anoniminous:
Really? Wow. I’ve been dicking around on 270towin.com the last few days and give Silver’s outlook for PA as a 92% Obama win, this isn’t going to be close.
Here’s what it looks like with some of the tipping states still not put in.
This election is going to be decided by the time the East Coast polls close.
? Martin
@Jay in Oregon:
I suspect part of the reason why they’re pushing so many refis out there is to clean that mess up. The bank servicing our loan called us up and offered a no-cost refi. We cut 10 years off of our mortgage and lowered the rate to 3% fixed, kept the payments almost exactly the same. The did a shitload of documentation on the refi though – waaaaaaay more than on our previous refi, and it seemed more than when we bought the house. Even though the mortgage is worth less than the property if the house was torn down (we’re only borrowing about 40% of the value of the home) they did a full assessment and all sorts of other stuff.
My wife couldn’t figure out why they were giving us such a good deal – no cost, super low rate, they came to our home for everything, etc. weren’t they losing a ton of money by not keeping us in our old mortgage? I told her they probably couldn’t prove they actually had a right to the mortgage and title and this is the price they’re going to pay to clean it all up.
It’s fine by me. I’m happy to pay what I owe on the house. I get a good deal out of it. They get kind of fucked for their own screwup.
But the reason to still buy a house? We’re in our 3rd house. First house cost $95,000. Traded up, and added cash to a $215K home. Traded up again, added no cash, to a $465K home now valued at $700K. Our total outlay on down payments was $40K. That was over a span of 15 years. We’ve paid no more in mortgage and taxes than rent would have cost us (our mortgage is about $1250 a month, rent for a 3br apt here (2 kids, boy and girl) would be almost $2K, and we’ve gotten a huge amount in mortgage deductions. Much of the equity increase was the market, but about half was us working on the properties. We’ve put probably another $40K in, waaaay more than that worth of labor (thousands of hours), and realized probably $150K in appreciation due to it. Basically, I made the equivalent of 2 years additional salary by working on my house, and saved about another year by not renting. Around here it’s a common way to pay for your kids college – take out loans and when the kids move out, downsize to a smaller place and use the equity you return to pay off the loans. Unless you were trying that move precisely from 2007 to 2009, it’s worked pretty reliably – and even during that time it still worked for a number of people.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
One of the neat things about living in New Mexico are the chances to grab really good art in barter, trade, and low prices. Last weekend we grabbed a couple of small paintings, preliminary sketches in oil really, from a friend who was looking for a turntable. We had an extra one clogging up the place, she wanted one for her new gallery.
Win! all the way around.
Villago Delenda Est
Shorter shitstain Ponnuru: “This is a real nice country you’ve got here, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it, like it catch on fire or something.”
The way you deal with these assholes is the Chicago Way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: An extra one? I a have a B and O turntable that was one of my college graduation presents in 1986 that I will not give up until it no longer can be repaired.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Not even that. Ponnuru gets a simple “Fuck off.”
Honest Observations
Nate Silver is utterly delusional. He was once a brilliant mathematician, but it looks like lately he’s assimilated to the elite Manhattan Leftist culture since moving to the NYT.
His career ends the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
? Martin
@freelancer:
Yeah, Nate has a good model. It’s roughly Black-Scholes applied to elections. What other polling sites don’t address is that with each passing day, there’s less time for the electorate to shift, and you can measure the rate at which the electorate shifts over given periods of time in each race. In races where Obama has never trailed in the polls in a state, they become very solid in the model in part because it appears something significant will need to happen to reverse that trend, and in part because time is running out for that significant thing to happen. States that go back and forth get very loose in the model because time is running out for them to firm up for one candidate or another.
That’s not to say that there can’t be an October surprise or a really horrendous debate performance or whatever, but assuming the next 60 days look like the last 60 days, at least in terms of variation in the polling, then the model works really well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Honest Observations:
Dickweed here projects like the octoplex down at the mall over Memorial Day weekend.
? Martin
@Honest Observations: Math has a liberal bias now.
freelancer
@Honest Observations:
Of course. A once former brilliant mathematician or not, Romney can sponsor the fucking NFL so that it’s wall to wall Romney at halftime and every TV commercial break, and he’s still not going to win the states he needs to win to assure VICTORY!
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Stupid Observations:
When did idiocy come to equal honesty among conservatives?
Villago Delenda Est
@? Martin:
Well, when you’ve got Paul Ryan Math, a 4:01 or so marathon time is transformed in the wink of an eye to 2:50 or thereabouts.
Amazing, that. A great test of character is one that Ryan flunks walking away.
Omnes Omnibus
@MoeLarryAndJesus: 732 B.C.
KG
@Jay in Oregon: our biggest mistake a couple years ago was responding to “Too Big to Fail” by consolidating the big banks rather than giving them the Standard Oil Treatment. I’ve litigated TILA cases, the banks have absolutely no fucking clue what they are doing (let alone what their legal duties are). Mistake number two (actually, technically mistake number one since it happened before Too Big To Fail) was changing the bankruptcy laws limiting cram downs to investment properties and second homes rather than primary residences.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh sure blame the Greeks.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Our turntable was a mediocre Pioneer, can’t remember the model. A friend was moving to a smaller house and had his JVC QL-A75 and a 17 cartons (!) of LPs for sale for $100 … and get it out of his life. Snapped that sucker up. Out of the LPs I think I kept 2 cartons. (A complete run of Barbra Streisand? Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass??? (ick & ick.) And other people you’d have to give me free sex and drugs to listen to.) There were some gems such as the Columbia recording of the original Broadway cast of “Waiting for Godot,” a recording of T.S. Eliot reading “Prufrock” and other of his poems, and some Blue Note Miles Davis and Charlie Parker — which appear to have never been played.
(He gloats.)
Have to pry the JVC out of my cold dead hands.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Look, I have already taken shit on this blog for being in a frat.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: you and me both…. nice to know that the first thing the greek system is associated with in some minds is as a great place to harbor potential/wannabe rapists
xian
@mai naem: i thought reihan salam was the one with the Little Jimmy Scott voice
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Please feel free to preen.
Dick.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: JC got his fair share of ribbing, which I have somehow escaped even though I publicly declared that mine was the first one on the Moon. Besides which, Athens was just a bunch of scrabbly hills in 732 BCE anyway.
Anoniminous
@freelancer:
IF, as @? Martin honestly observes* the next 60 days is statistically equivalent to the last 60 days then Obama should cruise.
But that doesn’t mean we’d should sit on our asses. Keeping the Senate and flipping the House is just as important and that’s a rougher road.
* Yes. I AM a Bad Person.
Mayken
@Steeplejack: This! A thousand times this! (Mind you I hope those aren’t the only two options.)
Hill Dweller
@KG: Obama tried getting cramdown legislation for primary residences through congress very early in his term. If I recall correctly, he even went on a townhall tour to promote it. They couldn’t get the bill through Nancy Smash’s House.
amk
@Dishonest Observations: Reality burns huh, you shithead?
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan: I am sure that in some places it is true. It was not in my house on my campus.
@Yutsano: Dude, you were a Phi Delt? Unexpected based on my campus.
Yutsano
@Honest Observations: Once again I ask: give one positive reason to vote for Willard Mitt Romney. Go ahead. I’m patient.
@Omnes Omnibus: KKPsi. Neil took his pin with him. It’s enshrined at the national headquarters. He was a Boilermaker.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cruise estate and yard sales. Get some amazing deals. A friend in LA glommed onto ~45 Deutsche Grammophon LPs, some still in their plastic wrapper, for $2. (Now there’s a dick.)
Do you know why new pressing are so ^@$%^! expensive? Was at a Hastings and they were offering new for $50!!!1!!eleventyone!!!!!! WTH?
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: nor in my experience yet that seemingly doesn’t count it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Cool. Band thing?
Omnes Omnibus
Does anyone realize just how good the first Dire Straits album is? I mean, damn.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: well there were a lot of great debuts around then… one of my favorites was The Cars debut
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Yessir. One of my PTs is also a proud Greek. He and I have had a few discussions about it too. He totally looks the part and is VERY quiet. Watch. The. Quiet. Ones.
Narcissus
@Honest Observations: Good god man, you’re like a really boring case of herpes.
better trolls please
Anoniminous
How cool is this:
David Koch
@burnspbesq: Burnsie, u still awake, are u gonna watch the world cup in 4 hrs?
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan: I like the Cars and the connection to the Modern Lovers, but Knopfler is never more amazing than on that first album. Just stunning. I was maybe 14 when it came out and new wave and punk were really my thing, but Mark is good.
Narcissus
@Anoniminous: fuckin’ scary that’s how cool
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Baggy-trousered look?
Kids these days, huh?
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: agreed and I loved sultans because there was nothing else like it and to follow that up with skataway thats all, just an awesome time for music imho, even the straight ahead rock and roll of Toto helped ease the endless amounts of Barry M and the BeeGees I had to listen too as the AM radio pounded out the hits every other hour whether they needed to or not
Anoniminous
And THIS:
Holy mahzongaberries.
OK, I’ll restrain my inner nerd.
(Omnes Omnibus has got me riffin’ through YouTube, listening to Teh Oldies.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Linking seems to be gone for now, but here is a shitload of Dire Straits: youtube.com/watch?v=zxTR0-hXuxQ&feature=related
Redshift
Just saw a bit of Bill Maher interviewing Christine O’Donnell, and god, she’s as stupid and delusional as she always seemed to be. She knows what the talking points are supposed to be, but she doesn’t actually understand them, though she obviously thinks she does.
She actually tried to argue, about the jobs numbers, that we actually aren’t gaining jobs — that the gains are just the jobs created, but there are four jobs being lost for every one gained, and “you can’t count just the positive.” Seriously, that was her argument. Even Maher didn’t go at her too hard, apparently sensing that berating the mentally ill isn’t good television.
Redshift
@Narcissus: FYWP ate my comment, but I think our new troll is actually our old pal Reality whatzis. Same mindless Romney cheerleading, same protest-too-much nym, etc. Whaddaya think?
Sly
But you will not abide the election of a Democratic president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer.”
freelancer
@Redshift:
Got some suspicions there, do ya?
Hill Dweller
@Redshift: Did you watch the overtime segment online? O’Donnell came back out for that, and both Schmidt and Simon basically called her a moron.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks. Now I know what I’m going to listen to next.
Right now I’m listening to Basil Poledouris’ “Hymn to Red October. Kinda of a movie music buff and I love his work. His score for Conan is a classic of the genre. Wish Jackson had used him instead of Howard Shore for LoTR.
Omnes Omnibus
@Redshift:
@freelancer: Oh, it is the same dude/tte. Same little weasel*
*Apologies to all decent, honorable weasels.
Narcissus
@Redshift: Yeah that was my impression
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: The Weasel Defence League withdraws its protest petition. But we’re watching you meester.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: I’ll be good. Ha!
freelancer
@Hill Dweller:
Holy Jesus, you weren’t kidding. She confused (more than once) the Civil Rights movement and the Civil War.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus: Cole installed FYWP’s latest “upgrade” earlier in the evening, and my “quicktags” (link & other buttons) disappeared — until I shut down & rebooted. You might try the same.
New thread, anybody’s still awake.
piratedan
@Anne Laurie: ty AL
AA+ Bonds
So, what, is the idea that Shit Must Happen Because It’s Exciting For Shit To Happen
This is like a mom getting her 6 year old kid to stop holding his breath by giving him the keys to the car and all her credit cards
AA+ Bonds
I guess I am still doing the right thing with my medium-term plan to get the fuck out of the U.S. for good
I could stick around like a saint on a gibbet here but it just seems cruel to bring up children in someplace like this
Omnes Omnibus
@AA+ Bonds: Okay, here is your attention. Now fuck right off.
AA+ Bonds
If they lose this election, pretty much the only thing that liberals can do to prove that they are responsible is join the Left
majii
These partisans parading as reporters can take a leap off the nearest cliff! Their questions about the divisiveness that current exists in the country can be answered by having them all take a good long look in the next mirror they find themselves in front of. They are one of the major reasons for the divisiveness. They have totally failed to inform the nation of how thorough the republican obstructionism has been. They are the ones who made excuses for them. They are the ones who acted, not as journalists, but as RW stenographers who wrote down republicans’ every utterance and passed them all off as being truthful. They are the ones who created the false equivalency and used it continuously instead of telling the American people the truth. Just the fact that they’re “wondering” about this at all informs me that they’re a totally useless group of individuals.
Suffern Ace
@AA+ Bonds: I hear there’s going to be big things happening in Honduras. You might want to get in on the ground floor.
Hill Dweller
@freelancer: Maher calling VandeHei on his false equivalence was great. He pouted for the rest of the show.
AA+ Bonds
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’d like to, but it would be morally irresponsible for me to leave liberals to their own devices in such trying times
burnspbesq
@Honest Observations:
Project much?
Bill Murray
@Redshift: Really she is pretty stupid, all she really needed to say was 96,000 jobs doesn’t keep up with population growth, therefore to respond to @? Martin: any drop in U3 occurred because of people stopping looking for work. Not exactly good. The best you can say is most of the numbers on unemployment didn’t change much.
Jebediah
@? Martin:
Soon you will be finishing before you start.
Omnes Omnibus
@AA+ Bonds: We will be fine. Thank you for your concern.
Bob h
@Southern Beale: @? Martin:
The hostage takers are back, and this time it is the whole nation.
wrb
I’ve been waiting for this approach. It strikes me as one that might work well at winning the election and might backfire- I’m not sure which.
I doubt it will be good for the Republicans if Obama wins though.
If he wins I think it will mean that enough people have realized that the Republicans deserve the blame for the lack of recovery, because they’ve tried to prevent one on purpose. If they keep it up and people are finally hep to what they are doing, the Rs will really get slammed the next time.
grandpa john
@piratedan: Lucy and the football at her finest.
grandpa john
So, Is Ponnuru’s middle name Neville?
grandpa john
@Honest Observations: he was referring to mental age. you know somewhere between nine and twelve
Hob
Oh jeez, of course Honest Observations is a GOP intern. I never really thought paid commenters (as in, getting paid just to troll) accounted for much of the troll population, but there must be hundreds of bright-eyed young airheads(*) taking phone calls and fetching coffee and getting all excited about watching the extremely powerful new ads, and when they have a few slack hours in a day, trying to annoy liberals by posting grandiose crap is certainly a more noble pursuit than just spending it all on online Scrabble and eBay.
I knew a guy in high school in the ’80s, in a small city in pretty solid Republican territory, who was extremely proud of having been hired part-time by the local GOP to combat the nonexistent threat of local Democratic candidates. His job, as he proudly announced (and I don’t know if this was officially his job, or a mission he had assigned himself): finding Democratic campaign posters and tearing them down. His glee about it, and his conviction that this was what public service was all about, was as pathetic as it was offensive. He couldn’t for the life of him say what his party stood for, other than not being a hippie. It was all about winning, even in the most petty arena, and he’d been given a chance to rub shoulders with the Winners – and all they asked of him was simply to be an asshole.
(* And yes, you can still be a bright-eyed young airhead at 41, assuming anything HO says about himself is true, which is a big if.)
grandpa john
@burnspbesq:
Damn I would have sworn that Nate was the one who had his own site at NYT and that BJ’s apprentice troller was resigned to posting illiterate trolls on blogs
Patricia Kayden
I’d rather have Obama as the President and absolutely nothing happen for the next 4 years, than a Romneybot/Ryan administration with a Republican Congress.
Nightmare!