I’m back. Sorry about Tunch John. I’m glad you’ve got a new cat. That’s the best medicine for the loss, IMO.
2.
Applejinx
Might want to kill the autoplay- but that was awesome all the same :)
3.
cathyx
Can’t wait for all the right winger anti abortionists to realize their mistakes when no one can get an abortion except the wealthy. The welfare roll will just increase exponentially.
4.
beltane
Wow, I haven’t felt this proud to be from NY since…well, a long time.
Who paid for Rick Perry’s ads? Is this what the state of Texas does with taxpayer money?
5.
Gex
@cathyx: How so? They are working to deny those people the social safety net too. I think they have long considered us lessers as surplus population.
6.
cathyx
@Gex: Poor people don’t disappear, even if they don’t have a social safety net. And in this case, they will increase. So they crop up in a higher crime rate, more jail time and therefore early release of prisoners who shouldn’t be released, more homeless on the street who make messes and are in the way. It won’t be pretty and they’re too stupid to see what’s coming ahead.
7.
mai naem
@beltane: Ofcourse it’s the state of Texas that is paying for Rick Perry’s personal PR campaign.. IOKIYAR. Always.
Is this what the state of Texas does with taxpayer money?
If you close a couple dozen clinics and deny reproductive and pre-natal care to a couple thousand needy families families, you will be surprised at the extra scratch you can round up.
Note: There was a reason why every Texan I live around would snicker when we heard folks talk about the favorable possibilities of a Perry Presidential run.
9.
ShadeTail
As a native Californian, I’d like to say how happy I am to have Jerry Brown as my governor. “Less than a fart.” Heh, so true.
10.
Liquid
Texas and everyone in it can fornicate themselves with an iron stick.
Present company excepted.
11.
Ivan X
Speaking as a New Yorker with personal (as opposed to only political) antipathy towards Texas, this is the greatest thing ever.
12.
gbear
Somebody needs to tell Perry that it’s not pronounced ‘excape’. What a moran.
13.
Keith G
@Liquid: Yeah, that’s a clear thought process. I am sure millions of progressive Texans like the Castro brothers of San Antonio and Annise Parker (one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city) of Houston would compliment you on your fair minded and insightful opinion.
14.
Mike with a Mic
This is how I feel about all of fly over country and non major coastal cities. Fuck those people, we need to be more aggressive about it as well. Fuck rural and fuck hicks while we are at it.
15.
The Moar You Know
autoplay is harshing my life
16.
lamh36
Alright, here it is the first long trailer for the new Mandela movie starring Idirs Elba and Naomie Harris. Tell me what do ya’ll think. Maybe I”m biased, but it looks better than I thought it would right?
@cathyx: Can’t wait for all the right winger anti abortionists to realize their mistakes when no one can get an abortion except the wealthy. The welfare roll will just increase exponentially.
It seems part of the mindset of these people is “we must be punished”. Think abused spouse here.
18.
geg6
Love what? All I’m getting on the iPhone is the headline and comments with a big blank white space in between.
19.
JCT
Husband and I were laughing about this all morning. Love the end. That’s our old home town!
20.
PeakVT
Appreciate the sentiment, but I just don’t find Black to be all that funny.
What! You think that there are more morons in Texas than New York? Don’t make me laugh. Rick Perry is a national treasure! He’s got very good hair AND he”s an idiot. What do you want from a politician?
25.
The Red Pen
As a (former) 20-year resident of Texas, I can verify that is blows, but then again…
26.
Joseph Nobles
As a transplant Texan, allow me the obligatory, “You know, a hell of a lot of Texans are just as over Rick Perry as New York is.”
Texas may be Rick Perry, but it’s also Wendy Davis.
27.
AdamK
This video says “content is unavailable” when I hit play. W the F.
28.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You know for some politician running for president that’s one hell of message Perry’s got going to the voters – “vote for me and I will send your job to another state”
I’m a huge fan, but he’s has a very acerbic style that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I also recommend his book, Me of Little Faith which is basically about his spiritual path and why it never seemed to end at an actual religion.
All (one) of my exes live in Texas, where he fled 23 years ago because it was the state with the poorest child support collection rates in the country (or so he thought. Yes, he aspired to be a deadbeat dad).
And I spent the longest decade of my life one month working in Dallas. Fuck Texas.
E.F. You’ve reminded me, I’ve got to get back to writing the rest of the lyrics to my Trucker’s Ode to the next rest stop; ‘You’re In All of My Dreams’
33.
MikeJ
Anybody have that logo near the end as a separate graphic?
34.
mai naem
Lewis Black should have had a “NY sent FDR to DC. Texas sent W, case closed” Ofcourse, somebody can bring up LBJ but is there an equivalent to Perry in NY? Even Weiner and Spitzer aren’t equivalent to Perry.
35.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: Found one, but broadcast TV has crappy res. It would be nice if he put it on the web, or if some creative person recreated it.
36.
sdhays
I’d just like to point out that the last time an entire Illinois (or California or New York, for that matter) town blew itself off the map due to local companies “regulating themselves” was….never.
I really don’t get why this isn’t brought up every time some blowhard Texas politician talks about the “great business climate” in Texas. The basic argument is “hey, we’re willing to sell the lives and welfare of our fellow citizens to you for a couple bucks, just like a third-world country right here at home!”. Texas – The Bangladesh of these United States.
It’s pretty funny, though, that they have Perry, famous for being America’s stupidest governor (at least the one to make the biggest fool of himself on the national stage, I know there are plenty to choose from), be the face of their PR campaign. They just remind everyone that Texas is the place that re-elected this moron over and over again, so maybe, just maybe, there’s something wrong down there.
37.
sdhays
@mai naem: Or Illinois sent Lincoln and Obama to DC. California sent Nixon and Reagan, so nothing to brag about there.
38.
EriktheRed
Has anyone yet publicly asked this question: If Texas is so great for entrepreneurs, why does its governor feel the need to try to undermine other states’ economies by trying to get their already-established businesses to move there?
No, not really. As I always say, I like to avoid dissing geographic locations because I don’t wish to alienate those who call them home and would get offended by my dissing, even if they agree wiht my political POV otherwise. There’s already evidence in this comment section of you having done just that.
40.
EriktheRed
@efgoldman: As true as that may be, I think the reason for this isn’t just about the jobs in and of themselves. It’s also, I believe, a desperate need for not just Gov. Goodhair, but wingnut America in general to do all they can to undermine those commie blue states, especially after the results of the last national election. The more they can point to how bad it’s getting in Illinois, NY, California, et. al. the easier it is to convince their own crappily-paid citizenry that it doesn’t p[ay to want things like publicly-funded healthcare and all those other icky things.
I talk about how I think a lot of people in Red states should, if they can, bug out and come to more welcoming places. Nowdays, I’m thinking that isn’t the coasts.
As someone who’s lived in NYC, London, Geneva but also Tulsa, Ft Worth, Austin and Minneapolis, you evil twits who think flyover country is crappy, or that all Texans should suffer because it has a horse’s ass governor and a worse legislature?
Piss off. Go back to your coastal enclaves of privilege and STFU.
@efgoldman:
It would be better on the moon. Even without a suit and oxygen.
@satby:
Longest I was there was 5 days but it sure felt like a month. Traveled for work to a few places like that but that’s the one place I couldn’t believe the clocks runs backwards. They must, it’s the only way time could feel like that. And I wasn’t even talking politically.
46.
BethanyAnne
Texas is doing to the rest of the US what China is doing to the whole of the US. Keeping standards and taxes as low as humanly possible, minimizing the labor costs for employers. Effectively minimizing the share of profits that go to labor, making for a downward spiral. Looks like growth, but it’s cannibalism, feeding off the investments that other states make in education and infrastructure. Maybe it works for a couple of decades, I guess. Longer term, everyone is in a McJob, and no one can afford to buy anything.
47.
Lavocat
“I love the smell of urine in the morning. It reminds me of … the subway.”
Plus, I’ve regularly seen plain bumper stickers that say only: “Fuck Texas”.
Also, too, “Texas” is how dyslexics spell “taxes”.
48.
BethanyAnne
@RaflW: Well, my contempt for Texas is long, well documented, and as a native of Houston, well earned. But I gotta say, NYC is just fucking *obnoxious*. If they are going to have a pissing match about who can look down their noses more at people who live anywhere else, can I root for injuries?
49.
Lavocat
@PeakVT: Are you kidding? He’s like a stand-up w/ Parkinsons! What’s not to belly-laugh at? He reminds me of my crazy uncle after a few drinks. Just wind him up and watch the gesticulation go totally batshit nuts.
50.
Lavocat
@mai naem: You are, of course, forgetting Mr. 9-11. He’s the NY version of Perry.
51.
Keith G
@BethanyAnne: To each their own. I moved to Houston from one of the bluest counties in the midwest. Never thought of moving again. It’s a dynamic place whose mixture of good and bad easily has more weight on the good.
Folks on this blog sure like to reinforce their conventional wisdom by painting with the broadest strokes imaginable – not unlike Louis Black, but at least his construction is mostly funny.
52.
BethanyAnne
@Keith G: The thing that absolutely bothers me the most about Houston is spending half my life in a car, and the other half hiding from the weather near an AC unit. I am stuck here for now, but I want back to Berkeley as soon as I can get there.
53.
BethanyAnne
Also, most of my opinion of Texas is from where I grew up around West Columbia, Freeport, Lake Jackson. Hell on earth. I don’t give a fuck who that offends. Hell on fucking Earth. Houston itself? Big, boring, and stuck in traffic. Mostly boring. Much happier in SF East Bay.
I have always loved Lewis Black. Consistently the best part of the Daily Show.
56.
Kropadope
Come to Texas, enjoy all the freedom!!!!11!!!1 You’re even free to burn down the whole town and receive disaster money from the Federal Gubmint.
57.
Kropadope
@RaflW: I don’t think people semi-anonymously posting on a leftish message board are exactly representative of the coasts. I welcome everyone and don’t speak politics unless it’s with my nearest and dearest or in a forum specifically for that. Besides, why do you assume we’re all from the coast, they have the internet all across this great land. One person ragging on Houston claims to be from there.
…why does its governor feel the need to try to undermine other states’ economies by trying to get their already-established businesses to move there?
The zero-sum mentality is strong in that part of the country. It’s about a cheap-labor, beaten down and disposable workforce, and the football game idiocy of “I’m not winning unless you’re losing.”
Whenever I hear a state like this bragging that it’s “good for business”, dollars to donuts it’s a crappy place to be an employee.
59.
Kropadope
@Kyle: They want a race to the bottom with China. I’d rather compete with Germany, myself.
Whenever I hear a state like this bragging that it’s “good for business”, dollars to donuts it’s a crappy place to be an employee.
Arizona and all the other “Right to Work” states are similar to TX in this regard. AZ doesn’t do the big ads like Perry but they are constantly giving away money, land, etc to lure businesses from other places and workers are treated worse than cow turds here. And some of the companies do come but they don’t stay for long. Google didn’t last long here and they said they couldn’t find enough talented programmers in the state. Leaving aside Google’s hiring process that weeds out plenty of qualified programmers (because they don’t know how many golf balls will fit into a school bus), the fact of the matter is smart programmers don’t come to AZ because it sucks balls in terms of high Cost of Living, lack of services, batshit crazy conservatives and Annie Get Your Gun mentality. So Texas (and AZ, GA, etc, etc) can “incentivize” all they want. They still suck balls to live in. Love the Lewis Black video because it points all that out in the funniest way possible.
65.
Ripley
I’m guessing the flyover country haters parading NYC as the forward-thinking paradise of the U.S. rarely cross the rarefied boundaries of certain neighborhoods of Manhattan, yet still shout absolute expertise on all things New York. It’s pretty ripe in The City (which, in the lingo, excludes all other boroughs and Harlem). I’ve observed that many with this attitude and willingness to spout it are transplants from elsewhere in the U.S.
cathyx
I’m back. Sorry about Tunch John. I’m glad you’ve got a new cat. That’s the best medicine for the loss, IMO.
Applejinx
Might want to kill the autoplay- but that was awesome all the same :)
cathyx
Can’t wait for all the right winger anti abortionists to realize their mistakes when no one can get an abortion except the wealthy. The welfare roll will just increase exponentially.
beltane
Wow, I haven’t felt this proud to be from NY since…well, a long time.
Who paid for Rick Perry’s ads? Is this what the state of Texas does with taxpayer money?
Gex
@cathyx: How so? They are working to deny those people the social safety net too. I think they have long considered us lessers as surplus population.
cathyx
@Gex: Poor people don’t disappear, even if they don’t have a social safety net. And in this case, they will increase. So they crop up in a higher crime rate, more jail time and therefore early release of prisoners who shouldn’t be released, more homeless on the street who make messes and are in the way. It won’t be pretty and they’re too stupid to see what’s coming ahead.
mai naem
@beltane: Ofcourse it’s the state of Texas that is paying for Rick Perry’s personal PR campaign.. IOKIYAR. Always.
Keith G
@beltane:
If you close a couple dozen clinics and deny reproductive and pre-natal care to a couple thousand needy families families, you will be surprised at the extra scratch you can round up.
Note: There was a reason why every Texan I live around would snicker when we heard folks talk about the favorable possibilities of a Perry Presidential run.
ShadeTail
As a native Californian, I’d like to say how happy I am to have Jerry Brown as my governor. “Less than a fart.” Heh, so true.
Liquid
Texas and everyone in it can fornicate themselves with an iron stick.
Present company excepted.
Ivan X
Speaking as a New Yorker with personal (as opposed to only political) antipathy towards Texas, this is the greatest thing ever.
gbear
Somebody needs to tell Perry that it’s not pronounced ‘excape’. What a moran.
Keith G
@Liquid: Yeah, that’s a clear thought process. I am sure millions of progressive Texans like the Castro brothers of San Antonio and Annise Parker (one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city) of Houston would compliment you on your fair minded and insightful opinion.
Mike with a Mic
This is how I feel about all of fly over country and non major coastal cities. Fuck those people, we need to be more aggressive about it as well. Fuck rural and fuck hicks while we are at it.
The Moar You Know
autoplay is harshing my life
lamh36
Alright, here it is the first long trailer for the new Mandela movie starring Idirs Elba and Naomie Harris. Tell me what do ya’ll think. Maybe I”m biased, but it looks better than I thought it would right?
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/amandla-watch-idris-elba-in-first-full-trailer-for-mandela-long-walk-to-freedom
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@cathyx: Can’t wait for all the right winger anti abortionists to realize their mistakes when no one can get an abortion except the wealthy. The welfare roll will just increase exponentially.
It seems part of the mindset of these people is “we must be punished”. Think abused spouse here.
geg6
Love what? All I’m getting on the iPhone is the headline and comments with a big blank white space in between.
JCT
Husband and I were laughing about this all morning. Love the end. That’s our old home town!
PeakVT
Appreciate the sentiment, but I just don’t find Black to be all that funny.
SuperHrefna
@geg6: me too, on my iPad.
geg6
@PeakVT:
Really? I have found him to be hilarious. Now I’m even more pissed that it’s not showing on the phone. I know I’d enjoy it.
geg6
@SuperHrefna:
Seriously, WTF is that all about. Fucking Apple.
John Weiss
What! You think that there are more morons in Texas than New York? Don’t make me laugh. Rick Perry is a national treasure! He’s got very good hair AND he”s an idiot. What do you want from a politician?
The Red Pen
As a (former) 20-year resident of Texas, I can verify that is blows, but then again…
Joseph Nobles
As a transplant Texan, allow me the obligatory, “You know, a hell of a lot of Texans are just as over Rick Perry as New York is.”
Texas may be Rick Perry, but it’s also Wendy Davis.
AdamK
This video says “content is unavailable” when I hit play. W the F.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You know for some politician running for president that’s one hell of message Perry’s got going to the voters – “vote for me and I will send your job to another state”
The Red Pen
@geg6:
I’m a huge fan, but he’s has a very acerbic style that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I also recommend his book, Me of Little Faith which is basically about his spiritual path and why it never seemed to end at an actual religion.
Keith G
@The Red Pen: That is hilarious! Thanks.
satby
All (one) of my exes live in Texas, where he fled 23 years ago because it was the state with the poorest child support collection rates in the country (or so he thought. Yes, he aspired to be a deadbeat dad).
And I spent the longest decade of my life one month working in Dallas. Fuck Texas.
Dead Ernest
@efgoldman:
E.F. You’ve reminded me, I’ve got to get back to writing the rest of the lyrics to my Trucker’s Ode to the next rest stop; ‘You’re In All of My Dreams’
MikeJ
Anybody have that logo near the end as a separate graphic?
mai naem
Lewis Black should have had a “NY sent FDR to DC. Texas sent W, case closed” Ofcourse, somebody can bring up LBJ but is there an equivalent to Perry in NY? Even Weiner and Spitzer aren’t equivalent to Perry.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: Found one, but broadcast TV has crappy res. It would be nice if he put it on the web, or if some creative person recreated it.
sdhays
I’d just like to point out that the last time an entire Illinois (or California or New York, for that matter) town blew itself off the map due to local companies “regulating themselves” was….never.
I really don’t get why this isn’t brought up every time some blowhard Texas politician talks about the “great business climate” in Texas. The basic argument is “hey, we’re willing to sell the lives and welfare of our fellow citizens to you for a couple bucks, just like a third-world country right here at home!”. Texas – The Bangladesh of these United States.
It’s pretty funny, though, that they have Perry, famous for being America’s stupidest governor (at least the one to make the biggest fool of himself on the national stage, I know there are plenty to choose from), be the face of their PR campaign. They just remind everyone that Texas is the place that re-elected this moron over and over again, so maybe, just maybe, there’s something wrong down there.
sdhays
@mai naem: Or Illinois sent Lincoln and Obama to DC. California sent Nixon and Reagan, so nothing to brag about there.
EriktheRed
Has anyone yet publicly asked this question: If Texas is so great for entrepreneurs, why does its governor feel the need to try to undermine other states’ economies by trying to get their already-established businesses to move there?
EriktheRed
@Mike with a Mic:
No, not really. As I always say, I like to avoid dissing geographic locations because I don’t wish to alienate those who call them home and would get offended by my dissing, even if they agree wiht my political POV otherwise. There’s already evidence in this comment section of you having done just that.
EriktheRed
@efgoldman: As true as that may be, I think the reason for this isn’t just about the jobs in and of themselves. It’s also, I believe, a desperate need for not just Gov. Goodhair, but wingnut America in general to do all they can to undermine those commie blue states, especially after the results of the last national election. The more they can point to how bad it’s getting in Illinois, NY, California, et. al. the easier it is to convince their own crappily-paid citizenry that it doesn’t p[ay to want things like publicly-funded healthcare and all those other icky things.
BethanyAnne
@MikeJ: A whole URL ful. http://www.nymiddlefingertx.com/
RaflW
@Mike with a Mic:
Wow, some of you folk are real shitheels.
I talk about how I think a lot of people in Red states should, if they can, bug out and come to more welcoming places. Nowdays, I’m thinking that isn’t the coasts.
As someone who’s lived in NYC, London, Geneva but also Tulsa, Ft Worth, Austin and Minneapolis, you evil twits who think flyover country is crappy, or that all Texans should suffer because it has a horse’s ass governor and a worse legislature?
Piss off. Go back to your coastal enclaves of privilege and STFU.
EriktheRed
@RaflW:
That’s exactly what i was talking about.
Woodrowfan
I’m DC person now, but God I love New York. And Lewis Black is a native of the DC-burbs.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
It would be better on the moon. Even without a suit and oxygen.
@satby:
Longest I was there was 5 days but it sure felt like a month. Traveled for work to a few places like that but that’s the one place I couldn’t believe the clocks runs backwards. They must, it’s the only way time could feel like that. And I wasn’t even talking politically.
BethanyAnne
Texas is doing to the rest of the US what China is doing to the whole of the US. Keeping standards and taxes as low as humanly possible, minimizing the labor costs for employers. Effectively minimizing the share of profits that go to labor, making for a downward spiral. Looks like growth, but it’s cannibalism, feeding off the investments that other states make in education and infrastructure. Maybe it works for a couple of decades, I guess. Longer term, everyone is in a McJob, and no one can afford to buy anything.
Lavocat
“I love the smell of urine in the morning. It reminds me of … the subway.”
Plus, I’ve regularly seen plain bumper stickers that say only: “Fuck Texas”.
Also, too, “Texas” is how dyslexics spell “taxes”.
BethanyAnne
@RaflW: Well, my contempt for Texas is long, well documented, and as a native of Houston, well earned. But I gotta say, NYC is just fucking *obnoxious*. If they are going to have a pissing match about who can look down their noses more at people who live anywhere else, can I root for injuries?
Lavocat
@PeakVT: Are you kidding? He’s like a stand-up w/ Parkinsons! What’s not to belly-laugh at? He reminds me of my crazy uncle after a few drinks. Just wind him up and watch the gesticulation go totally batshit nuts.
Lavocat
@mai naem: You are, of course, forgetting Mr. 9-11. He’s the NY version of Perry.
Keith G
@BethanyAnne: To each their own. I moved to Houston from one of the bluest counties in the midwest. Never thought of moving again. It’s a dynamic place whose mixture of good and bad easily has more weight on the good.
Folks on this blog sure like to reinforce their conventional wisdom by painting with the broadest strokes imaginable – not unlike Louis Black, but at least his construction is mostly funny.
BethanyAnne
@Keith G: The thing that absolutely bothers me the most about Houston is spending half my life in a car, and the other half hiding from the weather near an AC unit. I am stuck here for now, but I want back to Berkeley as soon as I can get there.
BethanyAnne
Also, most of my opinion of Texas is from where I grew up around West Columbia, Freeport, Lake Jackson. Hell on earth. I don’t give a fuck who that offends. Hell on fucking Earth. Houston itself? Big, boring, and stuck in traffic. Mostly boring. Much happier in SF East Bay.
Bobby Thomson
@efgoldman: Better hair, too. The cat, that is.
Bobby Thomson
I have always loved Lewis Black. Consistently the best part of the Daily Show.
Kropadope
Come to Texas, enjoy all the freedom!!!!11!!!1 You’re even free to burn down the whole town and receive disaster money from the Federal Gubmint.
Kropadope
@RaflW: I don’t think people semi-anonymously posting on a leftish message board are exactly representative of the coasts. I welcome everyone and don’t speak politics unless it’s with my nearest and dearest or in a forum specifically for that. Besides, why do you assume we’re all from the coast, they have the internet all across this great land. One person ragging on Houston claims to be from there.
Kyle
@EriktheRed:
The zero-sum mentality is strong in that part of the country. It’s about a cheap-labor, beaten down and disposable workforce, and the football game idiocy of “I’m not winning unless you’re losing.”
Whenever I hear a state like this bragging that it’s “good for business”, dollars to donuts it’s a crappy place to be an employee.
Kropadope
@Kyle: They want a race to the bottom with China. I’d rather compete with Germany, myself.
Person of Choler
@Kropadope:
I didn’t know that Watts was in Texas.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m a native of Texas, and I approved this message.
eddie blake
“rick perry is a shmuck!”
goddman, that was funny.
sorry about the lil white fatboy, glad you found a new friend…
Persia
Oh my FSM that was beautiful.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@Kyle:
Arizona and all the other “Right to Work” states are similar to TX in this regard. AZ doesn’t do the big ads like Perry but they are constantly giving away money, land, etc to lure businesses from other places and workers are treated worse than cow turds here. And some of the companies do come but they don’t stay for long. Google didn’t last long here and they said they couldn’t find enough talented programmers in the state. Leaving aside Google’s hiring process that weeds out plenty of qualified programmers (because they don’t know how many golf balls will fit into a school bus), the fact of the matter is smart programmers don’t come to AZ because it sucks balls in terms of high Cost of Living, lack of services, batshit crazy conservatives and Annie Get Your Gun mentality. So Texas (and AZ, GA, etc, etc) can “incentivize” all they want. They still suck balls to live in. Love the Lewis Black video because it points all that out in the funniest way possible.
Ripley
I’m guessing the flyover country haters parading NYC as the forward-thinking paradise of the U.S. rarely cross the rarefied boundaries of certain neighborhoods of Manhattan, yet still shout absolute expertise on all things New York. It’s pretty ripe in The City (which, in the lingo, excludes all other boroughs and Harlem). I’ve observed that many with this attitude and willingness to spout it are transplants from elsewhere in the U.S.
It’s hard out there for the pure.
Dice
@Kyle: See also: Wisconsin.