Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Let there be snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

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

Second rate reporter says what?

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

He really is that stupid.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

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133Comments

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is actually hard to believe, but here’s one more example of the type of volunteer Mitt Romney’s birther-lite, talk-radio demagogue campaign is attracting
    “Pero señora el señor RRONGNEY tiene una familia muy linda. Obama no. Obama tuvo un padre boracho y una madre que no lo quería!”
    (but mam Mr RRONGNEY has a beautiful family. Obama doesn’t. Obama had a father who was a drunk and a mother who did not love him!)

  8. 8.

    Linda Featheringill

    Open thread!

    Apparently the House Republicans are gearing up to attack Obama and the Administration for their failures in Libya, with congressional hearings, etc. I think they’ll try to make this their October surprise.

    What can we do to help make these clowns look ridiculous?

  9. 9.

    JGabriel

    Pity the po’ dog sailors, lured to their blissful drowning deaths by the siren song o’ dog mermaids.

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    c u n d gulag:

    Ok – then what are walruses? Old fat German beer-drinking manmaids?

    Conservative mermen, leading conservatives to their blissful drowning deaths with the siren lure o’ money.

    .

  17. 17.

    Face

    Romney, in hour 11, has decided to go soft on the Browns? This cant possibly be sitting well with wingtards.

    Edit: if the comments on Yahoo’s article are any indication, they’re not taking it well. They sound very, very depressed.

  18. 18.

    quannlace

    Danny: ‘Sailors used to thing they were men.”
    Marina: “Aye, they did. They were wrong.”

  19. 19.

    beltane

    @Todd: Yes, it’s time the House leadership made themselves more visible. Why should Rmoney go down to defeat alone?

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @Yutsano: They do bark, and they do have very dog-like mannerisms, from what I’ve observed in my short visits with them in zoos, at Sea World or on West Coast road trips. Totally dog mer-people.

  21. 21.

    Ash Can

    @Face: That’s OK. Someone will get on the phone to him and bite his head off, and he’ll be walking this back before the evening news shows are on.

  22. 22.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Linda Featheringill:

    Apparently the House Republicans are gearing up to attack Obama and the Administration for their failures in Libya, with congressional hearings, etc. … What can we do to help make these clowns look ridiculous?

    You mean outside of what genetics & upbringing has already done?

    .

    .

  23. 23.

    Ash Can

    @Linda Featheringill:

    What can we do to help make these clowns look ridiculous?

    See Martin @ #13. There’s nothing any of us could possibly think of to do that would make them look any more ridiculous than they will on their own.

  32. 32.

    quannlace

    What can we do to help make these clowns look ridiculous?

    I assume Obama will address it in some form in tomorrow’s debate. That should take some of the wind out of it.

  33. 33.

    Ash Can

    And speaking of Republicans looking ridiculous, TPM is reporting that Mitt Romney is going to “show empathy” in tomorrow night’s debate. The money quote: “In debate prep, Romney has practiced coming across as personable…”

    Um, Mitt? If you need to practice coming across as personable, UR DOIN IT RONG

  35. 35.

    General Stuck

    “The American military’s top-secret Joint Special Operations Command is preparing detailed information that could be used to kill or capture some of the militants suspected in the attack last month in Libya that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans,” the New York Times reports.

    President Obama “has a range of options available — including drone strikes, Special Operations raids like the one that killed Osama bin Laden; and joint missions with the Libyan authorities — but all carry substantial political, diplomatic and physical risks. Administration officials say no decisions have been made on any potential targets.”

    My guess is, some terrorist in Libya is going to have an early Halloween. Once the dime is dropped. Of course, pending approval of the Netroot Nation Anti War Purity Counsel

  36. 36.

    Butch

    Well, what the poster made me think about was how I like to count the number of drinks I’ve had in dog beers.

  37. 37.

    Ash Can

    @? Martin: Ssh. Not so loud. You’ll scare away what’s-his-name, and I want him to come here after the debate and tell us just how wonderful Romney was, in as much detail as possible. (I just hope he doesn’t do it too late at night; I don’t want to wake up the boys with my guffaws.)

  38. 38.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @? Martin:

    Gallup back to Obama +6.

    The proles are screwed, urrp, I mean the polls are skewed. Still within the margin of terror! Vote the Truth Fairy! Debates! Down to the wiring! A very late night [of drinking]! Too close to crawl!

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ash Can: Message: I empathize!

    Any Wisconsinites who can tell me if Tommy Thompson’s apparent collapse is a) real and 2) as surprising as I think it is? I always thought Thomspon was damn near beloved

    Paul Ryan will return to his home state of Wisconsin on Oct. 14, to hold a late fundraising event with Republican Senate nominee Tommy Thompson. […] Currently, both the Romney-Ryan presidential ticket, and Thompson’s Senate campaign, are trailing in the polls in Wisconsin. In the PollTracker Average, President Obama leads 51.5 percent to 43.7 percent, and in the Senate race Rep. Tammy Baldwin leads 51.4 percent to 41.5 percent.

  41. 41.

    Redshift

    @Ash Can: How do you “practice” being personable?

    Quick poll: Which do you think Mitt Romney will have a harder time pulling off, a much-practiced “zinger” or much practiced “being personable”?

  42. 42.

    Ash Can

    @General Stuck: Obama is going to speaking in public tomorrow night, now that I think of it. Somebody in Libya better be watching over his shoulder for special ops guys, especially if (and when) Mitt Romney loudly accuses the prez of sitting idly by and doing nothing to bring the Libyan attackers to justice.

  43. 43.

    Culture of Truth

    PROBLEM SOLVED

    “American International Group has revealed a refreshed new AIG logo, featuring a modernized design and new color palate.”

  44. 44.

    Ash Can

    @Redshift:

    How do you “practice” being personable?

    In Romney’s case, I imagine it involves his technicians programming his head to tilt at a certain angle and jiggering his commands to get frowny eyebrows to coordinate just so with a half-smile. I’m sure it’s a lot trickier than we think.

  45. 45.

    Mino

    I remember a few months back a lot of snarking about women voting their uteri.
    Got anything to say now, guys.

  47. 47.

    Culture of Truth

    Mitt, to self:
    [ stay charming relaxed smiling likeable ha pretend you are enjoying this… now ease into your first joke ]

    “POOR PEOPLE ARE LAZY!”

    [ okay stay calm maybe that wasn’t out loud… ok apparently it was ]

  48. 48.

    quannlace

    Geez, why can’t the Romney camp just shut up about what he’s planning to do in the debate. They just make themselves sound ridiculous

  49. 49.

    Violet

    Listened to Limbaugh while in the car today. Been awhile since I’ve done that. Topics for the day:

    1. Some NFL player wrote a letter against gay marriage. Something about how he wanted everyone to know that “most NFL players were against gay marriage.” Although the Ravens owner said players were free to speak their minds so long as they did it with respect for others, Limbaugh said the player was going to be “shut down” by the Ravens management pretty soon.

    2. Obama put out some ad that said, “Vote like your lady parts depend on it.” Limbaugh had plenty of faux outrage for that–“Women are MORE than just their reproductive parts. Where are the feminazis on this!” Later he said the ad was taken down from Obama’s website.

    3. The family of the slain Libyan ambassador is “posting on social media asking why there isn’t an investigation.” Uh…okay.

    4. My favorite bit was the ads. The main one I heard was trying to convince people to buy an email address with the domain name “reagan.com” so they could “demonstrate their values with their email address” or some crap. Who in the world would do that?

    Notably, not much discussion of Romney. Some caller tried to say what Romney should do, Limbaugh said, “I’m not going to tell him what to do. Doesn’t work anyway.” Is Limbaugh feeling left out?

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Bubblegum Tate: I see he’s a “Hollywood conservative” I don’t know if when most people think of “Hollywood” they think of C-list game shows and their hosts. I think he’s the lost Romney. Did ol’ George have a fling in Hollywood? Maybe with Gene Tierney or Hedy Lamarr?

    @Culture of Truth: “I remember a charming story from when our kids were young. Ann and I were on the portico, watching Tagg and Sagg race their nannies across the South Lawn, when Hirohito, our topiarist– Hirohito was a funny nickname, of course, that Edsel Ford II gave him at a cookout– in any case….”

  58. 58.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @Violet:

    My favorite bit was the ads. The main one I heard was trying to convince people to buy an email address with the domain name “reagan.com” so they could “demonstrate their values with their email address” or some crap.

    Spam filters all over the world rejoice!

  59. 59.

    mss

    My girlfriend and I have long wanted to take our English Springer Spaniel to the aquarium to play with the seals. Their faces are amazingly similar; we wonder how they would react to each other. Our bet is “playtime!”

  60. 60.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Violet:

    Listened to Limbaugh while in the car today.

    The only reason I can think of to listen to Limbaugh is if you have low blood pressure and ran out of medication for it.

    .

  63. 63.

    Violet

    @JGabriel: I do it every so often to monitor what the crazies are thinking. After the 2008 election, when Limbaugh ran the Republican party, it was kind of interesting to keep tabs on it. Some Republican would slip up and sound vaguely moderate. Sure enough, a day or two later he’d be on Limbaugh’s show saying he’d been “taken out of context” or “misspoke” or some crap. Just like clockwork. Kind of funny to observe.

  67. 67.

    ? Martin

    @JGabriel:

    The only reason I can think of to listen to Limbaugh is if you have low blood pressure and ran out of medication for it.

    Or it’s been 4 hours and you can’t find any medical attention.

  70. 70.

    Cacti

    @The Other Chuck:

    Insulting his family. Yeah, that’ll really go over well with the Cubans. I guess they wanted to get rid of the last remaining Latino group that still supported them

    Speaking of, have any of the FPers mentioned the latest Latino Decisions tracking poll that shows Obama up 73-21 with Hispanic voters.

    Overlooking the possibility that the poll is skewed and biased, and Mitt leads by eleventybillion, it’s an improvement of 8 points for O and a drop of 4 points for Willard from 6 weeks ago.

    So, either the POTUS is starting to lock up the undecideds, peel support away from Rmoney, or a bit of both.

  71. 71.

    Chyron HR

    @rlrr:

    But once you unskew the Rasmussen poll so that it matches the Rasmussen model, it shows Romney +12, so shut up.

  74. 74.

    Cacti

    @ABL:

    And dolphins are just gay sharks…

    As Lenny Leonard once said:

    Oh no! Sharks! The assassins of the sea.

    Wait, you’re just dolphins. The clowns of the sea.

  75. 75.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Violet:

    Vote like your lady parts depend on it? Obama?

    That sounds like something ABL might say, but not Obama.

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    @Violet:

    Notably, not much discussion of Romney. Some caller tried to say what Romney should do, Limbaugh said, “I’m not going to tell him what to do. Doesn’t work anyway.” Is Limbaugh feeling left out?

    Remember his “water carrier” tantrum after the ’06 midterms? It’s that guy.

  81. 81.

    ? Martin

    @AliceBlue: I think there’s a bit to be worried about on this. Consulates aren’t embassies. They aren’t expected to have the security that an embassy does. We had one in Benghazi because that was the origin of the Libya uprising, and we wanted to show support for the provisional capital.

    It’s a delicate thing to do. If you arm the shit out of these buildings, then it’s difficult to conduct diplomatic meanings when you’ve built an armory in their country. You’re projecting your attitudes quite plainly that you think the place is dangerous and untrustworthy. One of the more valid criticisms against the US is that we build armories everywhere – we come off looking like Israel, and we get treated like Israel as a result.

    It’s a subtle thing, and subtle things don’t hold up well against witchhunts.

  83. 83.

    Joel

    @rlrr: Something tells me that Rasmussen will never fall into the plus column for Romney.

    The reason being, that they need to seem “respectable” enough to account for in the next polling run.

  86. 86.

    General Stuck

    I’m sorry, I don’t care what the national polls say, nor all the barking about fixed polls. They all can’t be fixed, and every time I look up Obama is further and further ahead in Battleground states that will decide the election. And it is approaching landslide territory, at least for the Electoral College.

  88. 88.

    ShadeTail

    Open thread? OK, one last gasp on this.

    Freddie deBoer’s recent brouhaha has completely changed my mind about him. I used to think he was a naive but well-meaning leftist. Now I think he’s an arrogant know-nothing dipshit with a serious case of the Dunning-Kruger effect. To claim that you aren’t a real leftist unless you share his simple-minded one issue obsession about drone warfare is much like telling lady feminists that they’re doing feminism wrong because, thanks to their attitude, he doesn’t want to date them (I kid you not).

    He is such a political know-nothing that he actually has himself fooled into thinking he’s a political expert. I would actually pity him if he weren’t such a smug asshole about his imaginary expertise.

  91. 91.

    Beauzeaux

    @Roger Moore: I was a docent at Ano Nuevo State Park(California) and led tours of the area during the elephant seal birthing/mating season. I saw plenty of fights and most involved no blood and the rest were minor. Fighting to the death as a mating ritual is pretty uncommon in all species. Yeah, it happens but it’s not common.

    Adult male elephant seals are fucking HUGE and just watching them clash is unnerving in the extreme.

  93. 93.

    quannlace

    “Wednesday’s debate is day 1 of the election. Over 700 million voters will be watching.”

    Somebody should tell Mr. Hamster Hair that early voting has already started in a lot of states.

  95. 95.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @? Martin:

    They aren’t expected to have the security that an embassy does.

    This “myth” came up on SA after the attacks and was debunked by actual FSO workers.

  97. 97.

    Roger Moore

    @Beauzeaux:
    The ones I’ve seen were further down the coast near San Simeon. I did see some of the younger males fighting, and there was some blood involved. I definitely would not want to be around one of the big males if he decided to get belligerent. Angry animals that weigh several tons are not safe playmates.

  98. 98.

    muddy

    I accidentally started watching a show about mermaids the other day, and then was not able to turn it off because my level of hilarity and abusive commentary towards the tv would not allow it.

    latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/05/tv-skeptic-mermaids-clouds-the-waters.html

    I tuned in in the middle of the show, it’s on Discovery channel. It just goes along like it’s a normal science show, there were beached whales, which was what caught my interest in the first place. But within minutes I am yelling at the tv, wtf is this shit? They ran it like a straight documentary, even though it was entirely fictional. I bet a lot of stupid people watched it and thought it was science.

  99. 99.

    eemom

    @ShadeTail:

    Dunno if you will know who I mean, but credit is due to the departed erstwhile multi-named child-commenter to whom I fondly refer as toko-loko, who pegged Freddie de Boob as you describe right out of the box.

  100. 100.

    PaminBB

    @trollhattan:
    So, Donald calculates the number of voters in the same way that he estimates his net worth – inflate everything by an order of magnitude.

  103. 103.

    muddy

    @Roger Moore: When I was on the Isle of Man there was a tiny rock island just off shore just covered in seals. You couldn’t see the rock at all. An old fisherman agreed to take us out to see them. When we approached in the small boat, this huge seal, about 3-4 times the size of the others, came out in the water and swam along between us and the island until we left. His defensive measures were quite clear.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    Elephant meets sea lion at the Oregon Zoo

    Yes, apparently the Oregon Zoo takes one of their smaller elephants out for a daily stroll before the zoo opens and she gets to look at all of the other animals. This photo is from 2007 (it was on HuffPo and Daily Mail, but I didn’t want to give either one a link).

    AFAICT, that is a big giant grin on the elephant’s face, not just me anthropomorphizing.

    ETA: Also, too, I’m pretty sure that’s a sea lion in the illustration, not a seal. Seals have much smaller front paws and can’t really sit up like that.

  110. 110.

    Roger Moore

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    I kind of miss her. I felt she actually believed the crazy stuff she was saying and wasn’t just another troll. And she did sometimes have a point about the more libertarian minded FPers like Freddie, even if she got into total blog stalker mode about it.

  111. 111.

    Cris (without an H)

    Drudge report: “CAMPAIGN DRAMA: VIDEO MADE 6 YEARS AGO SURFACES ON EVE OF FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE… DEVELOPING TONIGHT…”

    oh snap guys he finally got the whitey tape

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cris (without an H): Funny, Josh Marshall just posted on his loss of interest in Drudge over the last few years, basically how ten, fifteen years ago, Drudge was the aggregator-site most people turn to, now

    The utility disappeared. There were plenty of other channels I could use to stay up to date. And probably just as importantly there was a much fuller ecosystem of news sites and Drudge simply wasn’t the same kind of force anymore, though many in Washington, on all fours and leather-strapped desperately wanted him to rule their world.

    fun to see the mild-mannered Mr Marshall haul off and punch Halperin right in the junk

  114. 114.

    muddy

    @rlrr: Yeah, science, history, all that shit. Still I guess it’s better than reality shows. I’m feeling unwell and couching it today, and being highly amused today about the H2 History channel. First there was a bunch of debunked crap about the Colisseum, such as a 40′ statue raised vertically from below. There is no hole 40′ deep for that to be in there in the meanwhile, perhaps it was inflatable bronze.

    Now I’m watching Ancient Super Navies. More bullshit and supposition, or “as the noted historian Herodotus tells us,” kind of nonsense. Herodotus also said there were men with the heads of dogs in Ethiopia, so?

    There are a couple of Classicists in my family, their heads explode over these things and they won’t even watch for the fun of it. I find it fine for snoozing in and out, I keep waking up to a new show full of lies, laugh and tell the tv off, and zone back out.

    I just got a flu shot on Thursday, and got a minor “flu” from it, I always like that because you know it’s working. But a lymph gland under my jaw on one side swelled mightily this time, and I could scarcely swallow it’s been so painful. It’s just starting to get better today. The doc said it would probably be early this year, and by the evidence of my lymph gland this seems a new and nasty one that I have not had before.

  116. 116.

    HRA

    @Ash Can:

    “Obama is going to speaking in public tomorrow night, now that I think of it. Somebody in Libya better be watching over his shoulder for special ops guys, especially if (and when) Mitt Romney loudly accuses the prez of sitting idly by and doing nothing to bring the Libyan attackers to justice.”

    A take 2 of this awesome president? I cam hardly wait to see him speak.

  117. 117.

    gogol's wife

    @yopd1:

    Oh, I can answer that without clicking the link. Crossword-puzzle writers love Obama because his name begins and ends with vowels so can cross with the much more often encountered words that begin and end with consonants. See IRA Levin, YMA Sumac, etc., who are perennially used as clues. Obama is ubiquitous in puzzles. ROMNEY is not so useful.

  119. 119.

    eemom

    @Roger Moore:

    And she did sometimes have a point about the more libertarian minded FPers like Freddie, even if she got into total blog stalker mode about it.

    She won me over with her disdain for de Boob, because I totally shared it from the get go. What an utterly insufferable mixture of arrogance, cluelessness and verbosity that little clown is.

  120. 120.

    schrodinger's cat

    @eemom: So true and his endless posts about Girls. Freddie de Bore is boring and not particularly insightful.

  121. 121.

    schrodinger's cat

    @eemom: So true and his endless posts about Girls. Freddie de Bore is boring and not particularly insightful.

  126. 126.

    ShadeTail

    @eemom:

    I don’t know who you mean, unfortunately. In my case, it was more a matter of not paying attention to Freddie out of apathy than honestly being fooled by him. But even through such apathy, this latest shit-fit can leave no doubt.

  127. 127.

    ShadeTail

    @eemom:

    I don’t know who you mean, unfortunately. In my case, it was more a matter of not paying attention to Freddie out of apathy than honestly being fooled by him. But even through such apathy, this latest shit-fit can leave no doubt.

  128. 128.

    ShadeTail

    @eemom:

    I don’t know who you mean, unfortunately. In my case, it was more a matter of not paying attention to Freddie out of apathy than honestly being fooled by him. But even through such apathy, this latest shit-fit can leave no doubt.

  129. 129.

    ShadeTail

    @eemom:

    I don’t know who you mean, unfortunately. In my case, it was more a matter of not paying attention to Freddie out of apathy than honestly being fooled by him. But even through such apathy, this latest shit-fit can leave no doubt.

  130. 130.

    The Sailor

    @Ash Can: “How do you “practice” being personable?”

    “Sincerity – if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
    ++++++++
    somewhat connected: My Dad once had an FBI agent on the stand. And he was questioning the credentials that the prosecutor had ‘established’.

    Dad: What courses did you take at the FBI academy?
    Agent: blah, blah, blah, and jury school.
    Dad: And what did they teach you in jury school?
    Agent: They taught us to tell the truth.
    Dad: … … … and how long did THAT take?

  131. 131.

    Sebastian Dangerfield

    Re the image in the OP, in Irish and Scottish folklore, some seals are ‘selkies’ — enchanted creatures who live as seals in the water but human — usually women — when on land. Mermaids, IOW.

  132. 132.

    Lee Morgan

    I am old enough to remember Murrow and Cronkite, men we trusted, and had integrity. Others have followed in their footsteps. Once CNN was respected, but they have up all integrity when they chose to ignore Chris Stevens grieving family in using Chris’s personal journal as a scoop. Each night they discuss Libya. They say that the ambassador was not adequately protected, but fail to say that there was no one there to protect Him and his family from CNN. Cooper, Burnett and Blitzer should be working for Murdoch. When the family was notified that CNN had the journal they requested it but was given a transcript instead. Terrorists took the Amb assador’s life, but CNN dishonored him and his grieving family. They no longer deserve any respect. They traded integrity for nothing more than yellow journalism.

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