__
Speaking of the 80s…
I want some twins, like Dolly has for her walk-on. The stagehands, you perverts!
Late Night Open Thread: You Asked for ThisPost + Comments (36)
Anne Laurie has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2009.
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
__
Speaking of the 80s…
I want some twins, like Dolly has for her walk-on. The stagehands, you perverts!
Late Night Open Thread: You Asked for ThisPost + Comments (36)
This post is in: Election 2012, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
__
__
Again, with the whiteboards? Erick “Voice of the GOP Gated Community” Erickson got fragged by his commentaridiocracy for suggesting (with one eye on his CNN gig) that just maybe possibly perhaps the vile lamestream polling organizations were not all engaged in a conspiracy to suppress Romney’s obviously-must-be-winning stats. So, today, Erick-Fractal-Erick has an awesome suggestion for the next Mitt-mobile tour:
… If Mitt Romney wants to win the election, he needs a five week strategy instead of five weeks of tactics. He needs the visual equivalent of Benjamin Netanyahu’s red sharpie marker. He must force the media to move away from poll driven coverage they are comfortable with to Mitt Romney’s idea of coverage.
Instead of us arguing over polls and having the RedState community rioting over my remarks, let me offer up a solution. Just, for the sake of argument, assume I’m right that this is a close race, but that Romney is behind — just for the sake of argument people. If we can accept we do have a problem, i.e. we are behind, we can then offer up a solution to that problem…
The cheering, adoring crowds at the Romney rallies have been awesome and large. But In the rah-rah of the campaign, we’re missing the compelling visual. We’re missing the simple drawing of the bomb that a red line can be drawn on. We’re missing the candidate in front of the factory showing we can do better….
Because inside the GOP gated community, Netanyahu’s Wile E. Coyote visual rated ‘four slam dunks!!’, I guess. To be fair (well, honest), Mr. Erickson probably doesn’t have a whole lot of personal experience in differentiating between the visual markers for “awesome” and “dumbstruck”…
Meanwhile, Doghouse Riley takes his Pig Bladder of Righteousness to some Politico intern tasked with channelling “GOP Sooper Geenyus” Karl Rove’s helpful suggestions:
“I think he’s going to say a lot of things that aren’t accurate,” Romney said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” earlier this month, adding he would have to choose between correcting Obama and delivering his own message.
__
“I’d be tempted to go back to that wonderful line by Ronald Reagan, ‘There you go again,’” Romney said.Oh, please do.
Thought experiment: How many thousands of dollars in donations to OfA do you suppose it would be worth if President Obama were to use that line in the first debate?
Because the Trickster-God knows, he’ll have plenty of opportunities.
Open Thread: Wile E. Coyote RULZ! (the GOP)Post + Comments (67)
This post is in: Election 2012, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
__
__
Professor Krugman speculates on why this may not be the election we were expecting:
… The conventional wisdom — which I too bought into — was that Democrats were going to support Obama, but grudgingly and without much enthusiasm. There had been too many disappointments; the golden aura of 2008 was long gone. Meanwhile, Republicans would show their usual unity and discipline, and at best it would be Obama by a nose.
Instead, the Republicans appear to be in a shambles — while the Democrats seem incredibly united, and increasingly, dare I say it, enthusiastic. (Mark Blumenthal sees this in the polls, but it’s also just the impression you get.)
How did that happen? Partly it’s because this has become such an ideological election — much more so than 2008. The GOP has made it clear that it has a very different vision of what America should be than that of Democrats, and Democrats have rallied around their cause. Among other things, while we weren’t looking, social issues became a source of Democratic strength, not weakness — partly because the country has changed, partly because the Democrats have finally worked up the nerve to stand squarely for things like reproductive rights.
And let me add a speculation: I suspect that in the end Obamacare is turning out to be a big plus, even though it has always had ambivalent polling. The fact is that Obama can point to a big achievement that will survive if he is reelected, perish if he isn’t; health insurance for 50 million or so Americans (30 million from the ACA, another 20 who would lose coverage if Romney/Ryan Medicaid cuts happen) is enough to cure people of the notion that it doesn’t matter who wins.
All of this in turn has an implication that Republicans won’t like — assuming that Rasmussen doesn’t have a special insight into the truth denied to all other pollsters, and that Obama does in fact win with a solid margin. The right is already set up to blame poor Mitt, claiming that he lost because he wasn’t conservative enough. But that’s not what we’re seeing; it looks as if voters are rejecting the right’s whole package, not just the messenger….
Early Morning Open Thread: “New Economic Patriotism”Post + Comments (99)
This post is in: Election 2012, Proud to Be A Democrat, Romney of the Uncanny Valley
This week it’s actually fun to be a Democrat. Steve M. at No More Mr. Nice Blog nails it:
MITT ROMNEY MAKES A HOSTAGE VIDEO
Seriously, I’ve seen people held for ransom by guerrilla armies who read scripts more convincingly than Romney reads this — which will apparently be the only ad he’ll have on TV in the coming days (apart from some Spanish-language ads). A few phrases come off as sincere — those are the ones that denounce Obama, which tap into his deep reservoir of free-floating resentment. But when he says it’s regrettable that people are in straitened economic circumstances, and he tries to arrange his face to suggest he feels your pain, it looks as if his entire being is recoiling at the effort to connect with the unwashed masses…
Dave Weigel at Slate asks, rather gleefully, Hey, Remember How Sean Hannity Thought the 47 Percent Tape Was Great for Romney?
And Rich “Starbursts” Lowry takes to the pixels of Politco with his vast sadness:
… Indeed, the two conventions — so far, the pivot of the election — were encapsulated in their two signature performances. On one hand, there was Clint Eastwood’s rambling, improvised 10-minute routine saying that it’s OK to cashier Obama. On the other, there was Clinton’s (at times rambling and improvised) 50-minute speech detailing why Romney’s program is wrong for the country. Eastwood could have given his speech at amateur night at a comedy club; Clinton could have given his at a policy luncheon at The Brookings Institution.
There’s been nothing to match it for the Republicans, which is one reason that Romney is now tied with Obama on the economy in many recent polls. Election Day is nearly six weeks away and there’s still a sense that the Romney campaign has not yet — although it is moving this way — fully begun to make its case on substance.
This doesn’t mean it is doomed. Lincoln said that Gen. George McClellan had a case of the slows. The media has a case of the overs. Any alleged Romney gaffe, any bad poll number is taken as yet more evidence that the election is “over.”
In prior elections, the media has been criticized for calling a race without waiting until the polls close in California; this time, it wants to call the race without waiting until October. The press won’t be truly satisfied until a white flag of surrender is hoisted over Romney’s Boston headquarters and Stuart Stevens and gang throw their BlackBerrys on the ground and come out with their hands up….
Spoiler alert, for those of you who won’t give Politico the hit: Lowry has just the solution!
… I thought Romney’s best moment on the campaign trail — although predictably mocked — came when he broke out a whiteboard at a press conference to illustrate the difference between his Medicare program and the president’s. It was true to him and it explained the matter crisply. If Paul Ryan can do PowerPoint slides, Romney can bring back the whiteboard….
I sympathized with Ann Romney when she told all the amateur political consultants to back off the other day. She’s right that running for president is hard. But what Mitt Romney has to do is relatively easy. He has to make an unrelenting case for his program, and pitched particularly to the practical concerns of middle-class voters. He has to give the public compelling reasons to pick him in an election that will be a choice, not a referendum.
A whiteboard? Was Ryan’s Powerpoint Ranger display too modernistically threatening?
Maybe Mitt’s athletic maneuvers at the whiteboard would give Lowry — excuse me, the hesitant swing voter — a better view of Romney’s mom-jeans-clad rear? Hey, a nice stiletto pair of Naughty Monkey pumps would help show off those “ass-ets”, I betcha. And maybe Mitt can throw the adoring audience a wink, too also!
P.S. Anybody else here old & cynical enough for Lowry’s close to remind them of “a choice, not an echo”? How’d that old rallying cry work out, again?
Late Night Open Thread: Cue the Sad TrombonesPost + Comments (64)
__
From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
First some housekeeping – there will not be a recipe exchange next Thursday as I will be headed to the beach for some needed R&R.
On to today’s recipes. About this time of year I receive a number of requests for squash and sweet potato soup recipes. I have several: Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup, Sweet Potato Soup, Butternut Squash & Leek Soup and Winter Squash Soup (click on each for the recipes).
That brings us to tonight’s featured recipe. The base recipe came to me via an email. I looked over the recipe and thought it needed some punch. The first thing I did was roast the squash to help bring some depth to the dish. I added a little heat and finished with a splash of lemon juice to brighten everything when it was done. I don’t think of it as a stand-alone soup (like my very favorite Tomato-Spinach soup), but I think it would work well as a first course in any meal. I think it would be especially nice at a Thanksgiving table.
Roasted Butternut Squash and Spiced Apple Soup
4 medium butternut squash, halved and seeded
1/4 cup butter
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 large apples – tart works well, but I used my neighbor’s backyard apples which worked great
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
12 cups (3 quarts) water or vegetable broth
splash of lemon juice
baking dish, dutch oven or large saucepanPut about 1/4 inch of water in the baking dish, put squash face down and roast at 375 degrees until it is easy to put a fork through the skin. Turn over and continue roasting until tender and squash are golden brown. About 30-40 minutes. You can turn the heat up after you flip them to brown them, if desired. Remove to cool.
Meanwhile, core and slice apples into about 1 inch pieces. No need to peel or get fancy with the dicing since this is a puréed soup. Melt butter in the saucepan, add apple, onions and sauté until apples are soft and onions are golden. Add spices and coat the apple mixture. Scrape squash from skins and add to the apples, add water or broth. You can use chicken broth, but to keep it vegetarian I used vegetable broth. Let simmer for 30 minutes, purée until smooth, heat an additional 5-10 minutes, adding water if necessary and add a splash of lemon juice just before serving.
You can use a blender or hand blender to purée the mixture. If you use a blender, add a couple of ladles of soup to the blender, cover and blend slowly to start, to keep the mixture from expanding too much. I’ve seen hot liquid blow the lid off…you don’t want that. Blend in small batches. With a hand blender, keep it immersed and again blend slowly, to avoid splattering the hot liquid.
Who’s got a good soup recipe for the oncoming cooler weather?
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Butternut Squash Apple SoupPost + Comments (36)
This post is in: Election 2012, Gun nuts, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
__
__
Via The Brad Blog. There’s a (not very effectively) “censored version” at the website, in case your mom reads your Facebook page…
This post is in: Election 2012, Excellent Links, Republican Venality
Via Paul Constant, here’s the Brad Blog report:
Firm owned by notorious GOP operative Nathan Sproul, accused of destroying Democratic registration forms in years past, hired ‘at request of RNC’, still operating in several key swing states…
The Republican Party of Florida’s top recipient of 2012 expenditures, a firm by the name of Strategic Allied Consulting, was just fired on Tuesday night, after more than 100 apparently fraudulent voter registration forms were discovered to have been turned in by the group to the Palm Beach County, FL Supervisor of Elections.The firm appears to be another shell company of Nathan Sproul, a longtime, notorious Republican operative, hired year after year by GOP Presidential campaigns, despite being accused of shredding Democratic voter registration forms in a number of states over several past elections.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Strategic Allied Consulting has been paid some $667,000 this year by the FL GOP, presumably to run its voter registration campaigns in the state. That number, however, does not account for another identical payment made in August. The Palm Beach Post is reporting tonight that the firm received “more than $1.3 million” from the Republican Party of Florida “to register new voters.”
The firm is not only tied to the FL GOP, but also to the Mitt Romney Campaign, which hired Sproul as a political consultant late last year, despite years of fraud allegations against his organizations in multiple states.
Moreover, the firm is also reportedly operating similar voter registration operations on behalf of the Republican Party, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a number of key battleground states this year, including North Carolina, Virginia and Colorado. Strategic Allied has recently taken steps to hide their ownership by Sproul’s notorious firm, Sproul & Associates…
Do read the whole thing.
I’ll admit my first thought was that animal shelters and rescues groups keep carefully updated “Do Not Adopt” lists of individuals known to be hoarders, abusers, and/or generally unfit to have pets. You’d think political organizations would have an equivalent “Do Not Hire” list for people previously convicted of voter fraud and other chicanery… unless, of course, that’s exactly the kind of behavior the GOP/RNC/Romney campaign is hiring Sproul to commit?
Florida Voter Registration Fraud — by the GOPPost + Comments (33)