165 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: January 31 – Late Edition”

  5. Rather apropo as the serpents go to the polls today in Florida…

    “On January 23, the US Fish and Wildlife Service started the paperwork to ban the importation and interstate transportation of Burmese pythons, northern and southern African pythons and yellow anaconda because they threaten the Everglades and other sensitive ecosystems.”

    After having battled the exotic reptile / pet lobbyists for 5 years.
    5 YEARS.

      • Snakes are great! When I moved in with my gf in Berkeley she had a python of some kind and handled it a lot — it wasn’t big enough for a real Natassia Kinski moment but we tried.

        When I married wife #1, this gf gave us a corn snake for a present–beautiful animal but eventually we gave him to a pet store specializing in reptiles. So, yeah, I didn’t really want one for a pet in the long term but they are fascinating.

      • “I don’t understand why anyone would want a pet snake.”

        It’s a great disciplinary tool for your kids….’You had an older brother, but when he got out of line, we fed him to the snake! Now, go clean up your room, or you’re next!’

      • I’m a big fan of snakes and have kept several, both purchased and caught, as pets. They are more interactive than most people realize and their feeding behaviors are fascinating. That being said, I am against the transporting of any animal that has the potential to survive as an invasive species.

    • “US Fish and Wildlife Service started the paperwork to ban the importation and interstate transportation … ”

      in other words, they’re trying to pevent ‘Snakes on the Plains’

  7. QOTD”

    “Now, I think we need to have a government that respects our religions. I’m a little bit tired about respecting every religion on the planet. I’d like them to respect our religion,” – Newt Gingrich, sucking up to the Christianists.

    • You have to earn respect, asshole. But lord knows everyone puts up with your religion, especially in this country.

      And, seriously, if you truly respected other religions we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all.

    • Will Newt ever take the time away from writing his own books to sit down and actually read the Constitution? The First Amendment makes it very clear that as far as our governmetn goes, there never will be an “our Religions,” there will simply be Religions, all of which must be treated equally. (Though for me personally, I would like that amended to ban any practice involving ritual sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice. If they wish to utter a prayer before an animal who would have been killed anyway for food gets killed, that’s different. But no one should be sacrificing animals just for the sake of trying to please their gods.)

      • I would really like to see the Amendment amended to state that any lawmaker who uses their religion as the basis for policy should be immediately removed from office and forever banned from public service.

    • So when “our religion” bombed “their religion” in Iraq for no reason, is that respect? When “our religion” threatens to bomb “their religion” in Iran just because some other religion (Israel) demands it, is that respect?

      The framers were right to try to separate church and state. It’s a shame the righties are so selective about which of the framers intentions they hold dear.

  14. “Romney cut off kosher food to elderly Jews on Medicare” is the latest and goofiest Gingrich attack. Actually, Romney gave them bagels, but without a schmear…

    • Such beautiful eggs. Did you know that when chickens first start laying eggs that these eggs are little round eggs? I didn’t know that. And, the color of a chicken’s eggs is dependent on the color of the chicken’s ear lobes. Who knew chickens had earlobes?

  16. According to Pew, Republicans are increasingly unsatisfied with their choices(!):

    “About half of independent voters (53%) rate Obama positively in understanding the problems of average Americans; only 38% and 37% of independents, respectively, give Romney and Gingrich positive ratings. Democratic voters overwhelmingly say that Obama understands the problems of average people (84%). Smaller majorities of GOP voters give Romney (61%) and Gingrich (60%) positive ratings.”

    http://www.people-press.org/2012/01/30/gop-voters-continue-to-give-field-subpar-ratings/

    • That’s right, my problems are:
      1. Tiffany’s cut me off at $500k of free credit – the bastards
      2. I have a f**k of a time verifying the immigration status of who is cutting my grass – especially in the 4 or is it 5 houses I am not living in at the time.
      3. I’ve not been able to play golf with my bank manager in years – who has time to be in the Cayman islands while you are running for president?
      4. My mormon underwear itches like a motherf**ker
      5. Now that I’ve stopped rogering my staffers to demonstrate how patriotic I was, people think I’m no longer patriotic
      6. Dogs don’t seem to like me much

    • Never saw the Cars, which I regret. Saw a lot of other really good acts in the era, but not Ric Ocacek (or whatever). I gave up on outdoor concerts in the early 70s, frankly. I do remember standing in the rain outside the Kingdome to see Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles, but that’s the last time I put myself through even that bit of discomfort.

  21. The Reichwhiners’ plans are failing. Their obstructionism has not been enough.

    While it’s only one indicator, the stock market has seen gains of more than 50% over the first three years of President Obama’s administration and just saw the biggest January since 1997. We have seen 23 consecutive months of job growth. Unemployment is creeping down, sales of durable goods, including cars made in the U.S.A., are going up. The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8% over the last quarter of last year. And domestic oil production and exports of refined petroleum products are at an all time high. Those are the things that we need to keep hammering as we move towards the election.

    • Dammit! I just submitted my column on Alinsky last night – I could have used some of this!

      OTOH, I’m supposed to try to keep to around 750 words, so I actually cut some of the info I had researched. At least I DID include the info on Alinsky’s meeting with George Romney.

    • “People have the choice to be gay, but I don’t want to be affected by their choice. People say they were just born that way, but I’ve met really nice adults who did change.”

      If you don’t want to be affected by their “choice” don’t marry another woman — and make sure your parents really are straight. Otherwise, just mind your own fucking business.

      • I’ve never struck another person in my adult years but I have no tolerance for presumptuous children. Back when I was managing teenagers in a restaurant and identified an attitude problem I would just tell them the truth until they burst into tears. Then I would get a visit from their parents and would either end up sharing a good laugh or I would be forced to tell said parent the truth until they burst into tears. A very few of them didn’t think that I could fire a kid for having idiotic parents but no case against me ever gained any ground.

        I’m a little less confrontational than I was back then but I still think it would be a very spirited discussion if I could get together with this girl and her parents.

    • That is disgusting. Thanks to her parents’ narrow worldview, their child(ren) are completely unprepared to live in the real world. So it’s left to society to just pat them on the head and hope for the best, or simply refuse to deal with them.

      I doing the latter at this point in my life. I’m tired of banging my head on a brick wall.

      • The whole family would be perfect victims in Bobcat’s new movie. On the other hand…

        Their tune might change in a hurry when their precious baby girl gets knocked up or contracts VD because she didn’t receive adequate sex ed.

      • Their children don’t need to live in the real world because they’ll live in the Republican bubble universe.

        Fourteen year olds are totally self-centered under normal circumstances, but this one really is absurd. Apparently just knowing that a gay couple got married would shatter her entire life. Wah. Guess what, sweetie: all the kids in school think you’re a pain in the ass.

  27. As some of you know, I get e-mails from Newsmax. I do it because I want to get an idea of what their right wing is “thinking” and where their next attacks are going. Lately, the right wing has been blasting people who claim that Newt Gingrich paid a $300K fine for ethics violations. They’re saying that Newt wasn’t “fined” and that he was “cleared of all charges.” So far, in reading this:

    http://ethics.house.gov/sites/ethics.house.gov/files/House%20Report%20105-1_1.pdf

    Technically, he wasn’t fined but he did agree to reimburse the government $300K toward the cost of the investigations into whether or not he committed ethics violations. But as for being “cleared,” I’d say No on that one. He was officially reprimanded by the Congress, so I wouldn’t call that being “cleared.” Also, as I skim through the report, I noticed that after the preliminary inquiry, the scope of the original investigation was expanded. (Not a good sign if you’ve done nothing wrong, as Newt claimed.) Furthermore, I’ve already run into a couple of areas in which the report says that had Newt discussed what he intended to do with his college course and how it was funded with a lawyer, he would have been advised not to do it the way he did.

    Therefore, I conclude, the right wing, and Newt, are lying about the whole thing. If Newt were, indeed, completely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever, there would have been no need for him to reimburse the government for an amount more than 50% larger than his annual salary as Speaker. Of course, as always, that’s just IMHO, and I could very well be wrong as some have pointed out to me before. So it wouldn’t be the first time.

  31. TelePrompter “joke.” THUD

    I love it, Newt laying out his agenda and schedule for his presidency. BIG ideas. Newt’s gonna have a busy FIRST day in office.

  36. I’ll never understand why Ron Paul’s supporters are so God damn enthusiastic. He’s never won anything and got his ass severely handed to him tonight. END THE FED!!!

  39. From TPM:

    While Gingrich’s campaign didn’t pay off [wages owing to an employee] and still owes a company over $350,000 for private jet rides that made up much a large portion of his debt, the campaign did manage to give Newt Gingrich over $47,000 for the purchase of a mailing list he could have given to his own campaign as an in-kind donation.

    For Newt, this has always been about the money, plain and simple. I think he would have pulled out long ago, except at one point it was his turn to be at the top of the polling, and even more money started pouring in. Why would he get out now? Or ever, if he wasn’t forced to because donations dried up?

    And then Romney pissed him off, so the cherry on top for Newt is to destroy Mittens — while continuing to rake in the $$$.

  42. “And so the travelling freak show will roll on for months, zigzagging America from sea to shining sea, for the edification of grateful rubes. Admittedly, it has lost many attractions. Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain are sorely missed, while Sarah Palin’s no-show was a tragedy for us all.”

    The Independent on the GOP Freak Show

  44. Way to go Oregon!

    01-31-2012 11:55 PM ∞ t witter

    Democrat Bonamici Wins Oregon Special Election
    Democrats came out of Tuesday night with one more seat in the House of Representatives. In Oregon’s 1st district, state rep. Suzanne Bonamici beat Republican businessman Rob Cornilles in a special election to replace Rep. David Wu (D) who resigned last year. Though Bonamici won by a wide margin (58% to 41% with 69% of precincts reporting), the DCCC spent over $1 million on ads to keep the seat. The DCCC notes that Bonamici is the “third Democratic woman elected to Congress this cycle” in special elections, following Kathy Hochul, NY-26 and Janice Hahn, CA-36.

  46. yeah you gatta go when time says “you gotta go”. Senator Hatfield was a good man, even if I didn’t agree with all his policies. He loved the state he represented, and in no way represents what we call repugs today.

      • I love how Tyler, toward the end, said he was offended at the race baiting on MSNBC.

        He truly thinks his shit carries weight with anyone who has more than two functioning synapses.

            • Here’s the actual quote: “They abort their babies.”

              “They” being the Democratic Party. I totally get him saying that, because, as we all know, black women are totally incapable of making decisions or managing their own lives, so the Dems have to take care of “their blacks” (HT Ann Coulter) by luring the women into dark alleys where we can abort their babies by force.

    • We don’t trust any of them. We’ll hold them accountable once in office.

      You pegged her correctly “silly child”.

      The teabaggers remind me of 5th grade voting for class president: promise everything and deliver on nothing!

  49. Damn – did my insightful comment go into the spam bin or the ether?

    I was particularly pleased at how Rachel roped Tyler back into this century.
    He was bringing up Lincoln and how the Repugnant ones were/are the equality/civil rights party..

    And with that I’ll bid a goodnight.
    Need to go compose a letter or two to the Susan Komen fund — I DETEST repubs – to the bitter end.

    • It went into the ether. Sorry about that. :(

      I was just reading about SGK fund and Planned Parenthood. Such assholes.

      My mom was a breast cancer survivor, so I’ve supported their efforts over the years. No more. I’ll donate directly to Planned Parenthood.

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