The offending publisher is Politico this time, but the phenomenon isn’t confined to that hive of click-baiting hacks. It’s a small thing, but it irritates me. The same principle applies to headlines that allege that one pol has “hit” another. I don’t want to read that unless there are teeth on the fucking floor.
Speaking of hives of click-baiting hacks, The Rough Beast has a piece up entitled “Can Florida Dems Squash Alan Grayson?” — which probably would have made a much better subject for illustration than the above, now that I think of it. Be that as it may, the article explores an interesting topic, particularly relevant to Sunshine Staters but touching upon primary vs. general election themes that potentially affect everyone who longs to give the Overton Window a shove.
Alan Grayson, beloved of firebaggers, is competing against blue-doggy fellow US Congressman Patrick Murphy for the US Senate seat Marco Rubio has already vacated in his quixotic pursuit of the GOP presidential nomination (or more realistically, a veep slot with the eventual winner, who will not be Rubio). Conventional wisdom holds that a liberal firebrand can’t win in purple Florida and that Murphy represents the Dems’ best shot to gain the seat.
I say conventional wisdom means nothing in Florida, as demonstrated by the election and then re-election of Governor Rick Scott, who is not only plainly an alien from Planet Reptar but a transparent crook and the worst public speaker / retail politician that ever slithered across the hustings. But Grayson isn’t just a firebrand; he’s occasionally an embarrassment. His recent annulment (after 25 years of marriage and five children) made sleazy headlines, and he apparently socks away millions of dollars in the Caribbean and is putting forth his girlfriend to take over his Congressional seat. Ew.
Murphy was until quite recently a Republican and has a voting record that liberals such as myself find…troubling. But I think he’d have a better chance of defeating whichever hairball the FL GOP horks up in the general. I could see myself holding my nose and voting for Murphy every six years, just as I’ve done for fake astronaut Bill Nelson. But I wish for the ten thousandth time we had better choices.
Anyhoo, no real point to all of this except a plea for less hyperbolic headlines and an invitation to discuss whatever — open thread!
PS: The US Fish & Wildlife Service is asking the lion-killing prick who formerly ran a dental practice in Minnesota to contact the agency “immediately.” Hmmm. My father, who hunts deer, wild boar and gators, always calls Fish & Wildlife officials “bunny sheriffs” behind their backs. I’m not sure why, but it always made me laugh. I bet Palmer isn’t laughing.
redshirt
Can we give Florida back to Spain?
Belafon
We have an extradition treaty with Zimbabwe.
I thought this quote from the Wonkette piece about the cop who killed Dubose was worth mentioning:
Benw
Betty’s so mad she’s literally steaming!!
Doug R
extradition to Zimbabwe with a few years in a Zimbabwe prison would be a good step.
mtiffany
I take exception madame. That is a grave insult to me and my fellow Reptarians. Rick Scott is clearly from Planet Griftar.
@Benw:
I see what you did there. Nice.
Doug R
@Belafon: as my wife is fond of saying little brother is watching
redshirt
Worst republican governor contest?
1. LePage
2. Walker
3. Scott
4. Brewer
5. Christie
Elizabelle
The writing I loves. Electrolytes, and all.
lowercase steve
“Betty Cracker slams Politico”
“Cracker destroys hyperbolic pundits”
Scratch
@redshirt: You forgot Brownback. He’s really believes that conservative principles cannot fail, they can only be failed.
Brachiator
@redshirt:
Jindal
mtiffany
@Doug R:
Restrict surveillance technology to the state, and it becomes a tool to oppress the people; open surveillance tech to everyone, and it becomes a tool for the people to hold their government accountable.
JPL
Here in GA there are officers dressed in road construction gear, so they can look in your window to see if you are texting while at a red light.
Here is a link..
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/police-dress-construction-workers-catch-distracted/nm8jk/
Incitatus for Senate
@Belafon: A rich white guy sent off to an African prison? Time for a truly epic explosion of impotent winger rage.
redshirt
@Scratch: So many to choose from!
raven
@JPL: Good!
beltane
Speaking of politicians who are beloved by firebaggers, Firedoglake is shutting down http://firedoglake.com/2015/07/30/after-firedoglake/. No word on weather Jane Hamsher is planning to work for the Donald Trump campaign.
JPL
@raven: lol… It doesn’t bother me, but supposedly we don’t like nanny states.
ira-NY
I thought “firebaggers” were extinct? Or, at least were on the endangered species list.
raven
@JPL: Athens is out of control with all these fucking sorority girls that cannot possibly be off the goddamn phone for 30 seconds.
Gravenstone
@Brachiator: Yeah, hard to limit that list to just 5.
srv
Hillary could kill a live bunny every day and no one here would think that is an outrage.
msdc
The candidate who can beat Ted Yoho or whatever else the GOP primary vomits up is the best choice. Period.
And I’m pretty sure that ain’t Grayson.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker:
Yep, speaking of which: is it just me, or does Marco Rubio strike anyone else as a desaturated Cubano version of Dan Quayle?
JGabriel
Betty Cracker:
Really? I thought for sure he was walking bald dildo with an exceptionally spastic AI – but he’s your state governor, so I’m guessing you know better than me.
raven
I hate Reptar, they lived behind us and there music sucks!
NCSteve
@redshirt: As if they’d be mad enough to take it. I’m pretty sure they’ve had all the housing boom meltdowns and corrupt one party dictatorship they care for.
Betty Cracker:
At least your dad only hunts things that are a menace. Or, at least deer are a beautiful thrilling unbearably cute menace here in states where we don’t have ginormous predatory reptiles running rampant across the state. (Got a few gators down east, it’s true, but they don’t casually saunter into people’s back yards and eat their poodles.)
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@mtiffany:
And oppress each other. Do not for an instant think that surveillance tech in private hands in an unadulterated good thing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Keith G
Six people injured in a terrorist attack on the now blood spattered streets of Jerusalem.
gvg
My parents worked hard to get Grayson elected the first time, then hated him. Apparently he was rude to constituents and gave lousy service. There are good reasons that Ted Kennedy got reelected so many times and it wasn’t mostly his name fame. Grayson at first just seemed clear spoken, then he kept confusing frankness with being an *hole. And not a particularly useful one.
The democratic party here seems to have fallen apart since Chiles died. I am not quite sure why because the voters still seem to be here, just not the candidates.
boatboy_srq
@JGabriel: He’s Voldemort incarnate. I had friends who mocked up “Riddle/Malfoy ’08” bumper stickers: I had no idea that there would be an actual reason to fear such a turn of events until He Who Shall Not Be Named took up residence in Tallahassee.
srv
Fat politicians have consequences:
The South will rise again.
boatboy_srq
@Benw: so THAT’s what BC means when she uses Dems, squash and Grayson in the same thought.
Belafon
@srv: So our capital is sinking just like Mexico City.
boatboy_srq
@Doug R: @Belafon: The critical error Orwell made was the assumption that the surveillance state would have enough staff to monitor all the cameras; whereas what’s developed is a database of recorded video so vast and so poorly overseen that the citizenry and their defenders can search for the misdeeds of the state and its representatives faster than the state can parse it for criminals and subversives. It wasn’t the cameras Orwell feared so much as the eyes watching the camera feeds – and those we don’t have (yet, and given the number of cams are likely never to produce).
Eric S.
@redshirt: Worst Republican governor contest?
It’s too early to tell but hold a spot for Rauner.
Betty Cracker
@gvg: It has definitely fallen apart since Chiles, and it is a puzzlement. I think some of the principles commenter VidaLoca mentioned in a guest post here awhile back explain it, i.e., people in authority within the party who are more interested in protecting their positions than winning elections, crappy outreach, etc. Whatever it is, we sure have blown a lot of opportunities. It’s thoroughly depressing.
Germy Shoemangler
The GOP is a party of endless possibilities.
Therefore the worst republican governor is yet to come.
redshirt
@boatboy_srq: Software will replace eyes and then we are truly screwed.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
You left out Brownback.
Mike in NC
Lots of protestors showed up outside Palmer’s office, and one of them taped a huge ROT IN HELL sign on the front door.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
And I thought he was Voldemort’s incompetent stunt double. Just goes to show…
Betty Cracker
@Mike in NC: I saw that. They left lots of stuffed animals too, which seems a bit pointless to me, but if it makes them feel better, more power to them. (Spontaneous shrines in general seem odd to me, but people sure seem compelled to create them.)
I feel a wee bit sorry for Palmer’s staff — it’s not their fault their boss is an asshole. I also pity his kids, especially if they are minors. Having a parent vault from garden-variety local prick to loathed international villain status overnight cannot be easy!
JPL
@Keith G: Shush! It will just give the evangelicals a reason to like them more.
I saw that earlier and it’s sickening.
Tokyokie
@Betty Cracker: Except in all likelihood, he’s raised them to be the same sort of entitled prick he is.
Germy Shoemangler
For teachers everywhere:
Key & Peele imagine if teachers were worshipped like sports stars, paid the big money and given lucrative commercial deals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkHqPFbxmOU
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Dude is NOT POPULAR Wonder what his patients made of this?
Suspect they’ll be hearing of those developments at the same time he does.
Iowa Old Lady
@Germy Shoemangler: I forwarded that video to my first-grade teacher DIL yesterday. It’s right on.
Germy Shoemangler
@Iowa Old Lady: I was almost fooled by the “commercial” at the end. Teacher car commercial; she takes a bite out of her apple while driving.
I liked the guy who was able to buy his mom a house after becoming a teacher; his poor dad was only a professional ball player.
Eric S.
@Germy Shoemangler: Just sent this to The Girl, aka the Calc Teacher. She’ll love it.
Eric S.
In non-governor, personal news, I’m getting closer to pulling the trigger on buying a classic Porsche. I’ve picked a contender but I have a couple big steps left to go; arranging a pre-purchase inspection and negotiating an actual sale price, but my year-plus long research, savings, and car hunting might come to a conclusion soon.
Germy Shoemangler
@Eric S.:
This is Key & Peele’s last season. They’re moving on to other things.
But from what I understand they’re turning the “inner-city teacher in the suburbs” sketch into a full-length film.
Iowa Old Lady
Debate time a week from today! I plan to read live blogs and laugh.
mai naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: the kids aren’t minors. They’re on the book of faces as is the wife. The son’s a junior which has got to suck real bad right now. I am sorry, I cannot feel sorry for this asshole or his family. He’s been doing this for decades and not one of his family could talk him out of this? Also, I don’t buy his story about not knowing anything. One last thing, his website or one of the top dentist article had him being around animals photographing them?? That’s clearly misleading if not lying.
Germy Shoemangler
@mai naem mobile:
Not a complete lie. He did enjoy having the animals photographed (dead, with him posing next to them).
lawguy
Yeah, it is always important to vote for a republican lite for the democratic nomination. That way we can be sure that the party and the country will continue to go in the positive direction its been going in.
J R in WV
Betty,
Hard to take exception to any of the walking vermin your Dad hunts. Deer are out of control, destructive of gardens and farm crops, a terrible hazard to drivers, especially in the dark.
Boar, even worse, plowing up lawns and gardens, dangerous to people walking in the woods.
Gators, always dangerous at tailgate parties, and… well, I don’t know about hunting football fans, but if you say so…
/snark ;-)
Brachiator
@Germy Shoemangler: I saw this earlier today. Funny stuff and well done.
Cool that BMW (I think) went along with the sketch for the car commercial.
Amir Khalid
@mai naem mobile:
Walter Palmer was aware that people don’t approve any more of hunting big game. He must yearn for the days a century ago, when this kind of hunting was a cool sport for people like him: macho men of means.
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
I do feel bad for his kids. That has to feel overwhelming, how it’s everywhere. It’s just so much bigger than the kind of local parental scandals kids have to deal with and they had no time to acclimate or learn to deal- it’s not like he was famous and then became infamous, like with a celebrity or politician. I wish at least they were much younger or much older.
Keith G
@Tokyokie:
Good job, sparky.
Edit addition:
@Kay: Thank you for your humanity. Really.
This, Cosigned, Truth, Witnessed…or whatever the kids are saying these days.
Betty Cracker
@lawguy: If a non-buffoon progressive runs, she’ll have my primary vote.
gogol's wife
@Germy Shoemangler:
Oops, I’m a fan of theirs, but I don’t think that’s a great idea. Hope I’ll be proven wrong. I just don’t see it stretching into a feature film.
mai naem mobile
@Kay: the daughter is married and.uses her husbands name. They have one of those Arthur Murray kind of dance teaching places – it was on Palmers Yelp page photos. I know I shouldn’t be like this,but I just cannot feel sympathy for them. Their house has to be full of these trophies and you would have to have been living under a rock not to know that rhinos are endangered, and leopards and lions aren’t doing all that great either.
Germy Shoemangler
@Kay: On this subject, as all others, I turn to Clarissa’s blog… and as usual, she doesn’t disappoint:
http://clarissasblog.com/2015/07/30/the-lion-drama/
“It sounds like in Zimbabwe nobody cares about the stupid lion or tiger or whatever it was.”
Once again, she lacks that pesky gene for empathy.
redshirt
@Amir Khalid: I know folks in England are fighting fox hunts for some of the same reasons. Now, foxes aren’t endangered, but the wanton cruelty of the “sport” separates it from other hunting activities.
Germy Shoemangler
@gogol’s wife: The script is being written by Key & Peele and their writing crew, so it won’t be a hollywood hack job.
But I agree, some things don’t always translate to a larger treatment. We’ll see… for all I know it might end up in development hell, and never see the light of day.
mai naem mobile
@Amir Khalid: well, I wish we could go way back where hes a caveman without all these tools to help him and he can go man to man with a lion and see if he can win on that basis.
Germy Shoemangler
@Amir Khalid:
And it really wasn’t all that long ago that young ladies posed for cheesecake photos on top of bear rugs and other furs. That continued well into the 1970s and beyond.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@mai naem mobile:
There’s not much kids can do to control their parents’ actions. My nephew and nieces’ mother is a complete fucking whack job, but they seem to have turned out reasonably normal so far (they’re 17, 15 and 9 right now).
You may be able to blame his wife to some degree, but I see no reason to blame kids for their father’s actions.
mai naem mobile
@Germy Shoemangler: I went to that blog when you linked it with Sandra Bland. She’s a freaking blonde. Youngish blonde. She thinks she’s getting the same treatment as a black woman. Jeebus. Also, she attended an Ivy for grad school. How did they let her in?
Germy Shoemangler
@mai naem mobile: In one of her essays she was complaining that her boss didn’t give her a raise (she’s a professor) because he had just laid off a bunch of office support personnel. He explained it wouldn’t look right. She found that supremely unfair, and said the office support people were useless anyway. Her blog is full of bizarre, unfeeling stuff like that.
scav
@Germy Shoemangler: Didn’t he more or less admit to feeling bad that he killed a “popular” lion? Rather along the thinking that it’s more ok to kill certain people, or at least nothing really to bother one’s beautiful mind over. Whereas, that missing blond girl . .
Let alone the actual legality or fundamental ethics of the event, the biological anything, it’s all about the popularity contest.
Germy Shoemangler
@scav:
I think he was just scrambling for something to say; any excuse at that point.
I don’t follow the wingnut media. I wonder if any of them have mentioned Hemingway yet?
mclaren
No, no, no, no, no, Betty! Instead of “A Visual Protest of Hyperbolic Headlines (Open Thread)” you need something like…
SHOCKING NEW REPORT — CRAZY HEADLNIES THREATEN WESTERN CIVILIZATION! PUNDITS PREDICT NEWS DEATH SPIRAL!!!
shell
Ah,,, Betty, once again you prove your’e not just a wine foil sculpture artist.
different-church-lady
@boatboy_srq: I think you’ve misread Orwell, or at least 1984. The cameras were only one part of the picture. The other, much more important component was that your neighbors and family would turn you in. The cameras were there to instill fear. It didn’t matter if someone was watching them every second of the day. Just the idea that someone might be watching, combined with the voluntary ratting out of non-conformists was the key.
Davebo
@Germy Shoemangler:
Much like what I saw in Hong Kong.
boatboy_srq
@different-church-lady: You’re quite correct that the fear in 1984 was that you never knew who was watching, or who was innocent and who was informer. But the cameras themselves worked because there were real people on the other end of the wire (remember the morning calisthenics scene where Winston gets called out by name and ID number for not doing the exercises properly): that was the horror. The cameras we have in place don’t feed to staffed terminals: they feed to recording devices. And the fact that the video winds up not in front of real-time viewers but in a searchable database changes how the cameras operate, how we view them and how they are actually used by society.
BobS
It’s a depressing sign-of-the-times when Rick Snyder (who’s brought right-to-work, anti-same sex adoption, & and greatly empowered emergency managers to Michigan) is just an also-ran in a race for worst Republican governor.
tybee
@srv:
if she killed you no one here would think that’s an outrage.
tybee
@Eric S.:
356?
FortGeek
@NCSteve:
Have you read “Maximum Bob” by Elmore Leonard? There’s a judge that tries to get his wife to leave by setting up a fake gator attack that turns into a gator attack. Eats her dog, instead. He hired a couple of idiots to do the job. I think it’s related to his Raylan Givens stuff.