The Watering Hole, Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Posted on by

In the news today, a Republican does or says something outrageous.

Democrats react with outrage.

Republicans accusing Democrats of doing the same.

Romney insults yet another group of people.

Polls show Obama and Romney in a statistical tie.

Someone wins a gold medal.

Did I miss anything?

OPEN THREAD. HAVE AT IT.

About these ads

187 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Wednesday, August 1, 2012”

  1. I find it hard to believe that Romney is at a statistical tie with Obama. The only people that can relate to Romney are the 1%’rs and the racists. Guess there are more racists in this country than I imagined.

  3. After ‘Republicans accusing Democrats…’, it should be ‘Corporate media reports that both parties are equally to blame’.

  5. And, in other interesting news, the Republican Tea Party nominated a lunatic Ted Cruz for the Texas Senate race to replace Ann Richards Kay Bailey Hutchinson (thanks for correction)….

    • I think the Senate seat is occupied by Kay Baily Hutchinson.

      This Tea Party candidate is extremely dangerous. I hope the good citizens of Texas vote for the Democratic candidate. The Dems need to attack Cruz.

      Pennsylvania has a Tea Party member running against Bob Casey Jr. (D) for the Senate. The name Bob Casey in PA is equivalent to the name Kennedy in MA.

  7. Marriage defined:

    Paul Ford @ftrain “I firmly believe that marriage is between one person who wants to take a nap and another person who needs to move a bookcase.”

  8. The Wachowski Brother’s next movie, Cloud Atlas looks to be either a convoluted mess, or one of the most epic films ever made. The fact that Larry Wachowski transgendered to Lana Wachowski during the production may be a clue. Watch this almost 6 minute trailer, and you be the judge:

    • “Cryptonazi” Fabulous. Watching these two battle is what got me interested in politics in the first place.

    • Thanks for posting that. I remember the moment like it was yesterday, an exchange at the 1968 convention (can’t recall whether it was the Rep. or Dem., but one of them). The first thing, in fact, that I thought of this morning when I read that Vidal had died was that exchange. It wasn’t often that anyone could body-slam Wm. Buckley, but Vidal sure did manage it in spades with his ‘crypto-Nazi’ wording! Loved it then because I thought it was appropriate; today it’s far more appropriate, an extremely apt descriptor of virtually any right winger.

      R.I.P., Mr. Vidal. You’ll be missed.

  10. QOTD:

    “I’m exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.” — Gore Vidal

  11. Last night, Rachel Maddow spoke about Romney ignoring the press and not answering questions by the press. People that try to avoid the press are usually guilty of something, not always, just mostly.

    • Hey! They’re just ‘little people’ ya know…Can’t possibly be bothered with minutae, got dressage to concern oneself with, dahhling.

    • I think that I might despise their “libruls” more than the Reichwhiners. Bob knows he will never win a point and is only there to “prove libruls are always wrong” but it doesn’t matter because the checks are good.

      • Kinda like the Washington Generals, just there to make the Globetrotters look good…

    • Perhaps I can lure him to my RUC-Hysteria/Paranoia supplies website and sell him several rolls of guaranteed aliensignalproof aluminum foil.

    • I remember a similar “rumor” being spread in 2007 that Bush/Cheney were going to create a disaster that would require the US to declare marshall law and postpone the 2008 election thereby keeping Bush/Cheney in office. Conspiracy theories are crazy. It doesn’t matter which extremist creates the conspiracy.

  14. From the man who is professionally always-wrong:

    DICK MORRIS: “I guarantee you, Sean, based on what I’ve heard from third parties or I’ve spoken to, that William Jefferson Clinton is going to cast his ballot for Mitt Romney.

    HANNITY: Wow!

    MORRIS: However, he’s going to open his mouth for Barack Obama because his wife is hostage. They have her under lock and key as Secretary of State, and he is scared that Obama will lose and blame him if he undermines Obama. So he’ll do everything he asks him to do and then he’ll jab him whenever he can.”

    “Wow!” indeed.

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/07/30/dick-morris-i-guarantee-bill-clinton-going-cast-his-ballot-mitt-romne#ixzz22FMEV7DQ

    • Ummmm, DIck? Your eyes used to be blue, but now are deep dark brown…
      How full of shit are you?

    • Riiiiiiight. Because it just makes sense to tell millions of people to vote for a given candidate and then offset those millions of votes with your own. Or, does he just hate the Clintons so much that he will try and get Democrats to kill Bill should President Obama lose by one vote?

        • That’s because I deleted my invisible ink comment just to make you look like the crazy one instead of me.

          • Shayne, whether or not your non-comment is there I will proudly defend my position as the crazy one. And don’t try arguing about it with me using rational bullshit and/or logic, I’m the crazy one and I’m sticking to my story!

            • And my reply again came up as a new comment. I think I’ll reboot my computer and see what happens.

            • Let’s see if my reply to your 1:28p reply to your 1:21p reply…
              or a “new” comment.

            • This is posted as a reply to Ebb’s 1:41 pm post. If it’s not showing up as a reply I suspect wordpress is at fault, or Zooey.

            • This is being posted as a reply to Zooey’s 2:46 post/reply to me, Pachy, a confused (and half shit-faced dragonfly)!

              Today, here in St. Augustine I saw swarms of dragonflies in the air, so my dear, sweet and beautiful butterfly I feel embolden to use words to excite you to get your spirits up. And, I must warn you, I’ve even been thinking about a change of venue, ever since my sister informed me she will probably have to “move in” with me for a while!

            • Awww pachy, you say the sweetest things. :oops:

              Come on out West! I’m sure your sister will be very happy with Peckerhead Pete as a neighbor. ;)

  18. Birth control is just like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, says Republican with serious case of slut envy

    Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly (R), an ardent opponent of abortion rights, said that today’s date would live in infamy alongside those two other historic occasions. Wednesday marked the day on which a controversial new requirement by the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires health insurance companies to cover contraceptive services for women, goes into effect.

    “I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that’s Pearl Harbor day. The other is September 11th, and that’s the day of the terrorist attack,” Kelly said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates.”

    Paraphrasing cartoonist Al Capp from a few decades ago, ‘What I want to know is where were our liberal abortion laws and free contraceptives when we really needed them?’

    • I would love an opportunity to explain to these freaks that their religious freedom doesn’t include telling other people what to do. Where did I put that pillow case full of brass doorknobs?

    • Right, those three events are so much alike. I wonder how well this comparison would go over with the survivors of Pearl Harbor or 9/11. I’m neither and it makes me want to kick Kelly’s butt. Isn’t this the guy who made a big deal about not needing his congressional health insurance, probably because he gets his through his car dealerships and deducts it?

      • Ed DeMarco Is in Line to Replace Himself

        Edward DeMarco’s refusal to allow principal forgiveness at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has led to renewed calls for his head. A little-known fact is that replacing DeMarco as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency might not make a bit of difference, even if legal hurdles to his ouster could be surmounted.

        The 2008 law that created FHFA restricts who can be appointed as the agency’s “acting director.” Under the law, President Barack Obama would have to choose among three deputy directors at FHFA, two of whom were hand-picked by DeMarco. And the third? It’s DeMarco himself, who remains FHFA’s deputy director for housing mission and goals.

        • Sounds like a good riddle. Fire the other two, replace them with sane people, then fire dumfuk and replace him with one of them!!! Or is the the fox and the cabbage that cross the river by themselves/?

  20. From TP, Steve King defends his comments on dogfighting with this:

    “In explaining himself, King argues that animals have more rights than fetuses, and suggests that liberals have so devalued life, that a man can rape a young girl, kidnap her, force her to undergo an abortion across state lines, and then “drop her off at the swingset….and that’s not against the law in the United States of America.”

    I’m pretty sure that is against the law in the United States of America.

    • King (birtheR- Iowa), fresh off of his defense of dogfighting, is now claiming that Obama’s Hawaiian birth announcement was telegrammed from Kenya. American exceptionalism!

      • I don’t think anything but lines of text could be telegrammed. The strips of glued paper on the certificate would be a dead giveaway. Oy…

      • Is it true that Steve King is actually a nightmarish character from the grisly imagination of Stephen King?

    • Mad that Batscat Bachmann regained the title of craziest member of Congress: King had no choice but to double down.

      Rape? Illegal.
      Kidnapping? Illegal.
      Forced abortion? Illegal. (Heck! Gay stepparents can’t even give consent for emergency surgery for their partner’s children or even stay with them in emergency rooms.)
      Transporting a minor across state lines without parental consent? Illegal.
      Abandoning a minor child at a public place ? Illegal.

      I can’t see any way that he could have told more lies in so few words. But? I’ll bet dollars to stale doughnuts that no “journalist” from Iowa will point that fact out. In fact, if it’s even mentioned, it will be phrased as “libruls are attacking Rep. King” with the implication that said “attacks” are because he’s a Christian.

  21. Good news:

    Support for President Obama’s proposal to increase taxes on households making more than $250,000 per year is 58 – 37 percent in Florida, 60 – 37 percent in Ohio and 62 – 34 percent in Pennsylvania, the survey by Quinnipiac/CBS/The Times finds.

    • Riiiiiight. It’s especially amusing coming from a woman who BELIEVES that the Founding Fathers really wanted to establish a theocracy, but just couldn’t find the right words, and that John Quincy Adams, at the age of nine, abolished slavery in the Constitution.

    • BTW. Batscat Bachmann calling someone else “snotty” without bursting into flames is another potent argument against the existence of God.

  26. (Not just birds)

    Thousands arrested in INTERPOL operation targeting illegal trade in birds

    An excellent comment by”

    Rafa Saiz Elizondo

    Zarautz, Basque Country
    July 27, 5:32 am
    Why does not Intepol hit the first world buyers? That’s the main problem and the fastest way to end this trade. Hitting hunters in poor countries you get a more expensive product, you fuel the market and get an even more attractive job for traders.

  27. Once again, Maureen Dowd’s column mercilessly skewers Mitt:

    “Mitt’s foray showed some new colors, as he intended, but they were not flattering ones. We now know how little he knows about the world, how really slow on his feet he is, what meager social and political agility he has.

    Wherever he went, whatever situation he was in, he remained frozen in himself. It was reminiscent of the stinging review of an Oscar Wilde lecture by Ambrose Bierce, who wrote that Wilde was a “gawky gowk” who “wanders about posing as a statue of himself.”

  28. Shayne, oh, Shayne!

    Just an observation: it all seems to stem from the action of your deletion of the “invisible” comment…

    Shayne on August 1, 2012 at 11:47 am said:
    That’s because I deleted my invisible ink comment just to make you look like the crazy one instead of me.

  29. July 2012 was the 2nd hottest on record in DC. 2011 was #1, 2010 was #3.

  31. There appears to be a problem with WordPress for the time being. I can respond to my own comment from “behind the scenes,” but not to other comments.

    Y’all quit trying to reply to comments for now, cuz it’s messing up the flow of comments. Hopefully, it will be fixed in a bit.

  33. My replies to TtT; House, and RUC are in the correct spots.
    It’s the replies to Pachy and Shayne that appear to be going awry!

    • When Shayne deleted her original ‘parent’ comment, it caused the reply by Pachy to be ‘orphaned’, and it dropped to the bottom of the thread. Then, all replies to the ‘orphaned’ comment, as well as replies to those replies, also became ‘orphans’, and dropped to the bottom in sequence. Newer ‘parent’ comments aren’t affected, thus replies to those work as they should.

  37. On The Young Turks, on Current TV, Michael Shure (Epic Politics Man), just suggested John Cornyn as a possible VP choice for Romney. That’s a name I hadn’t heard mentioned before. Aside from some RWNJ statements, he would be more of a match to Biden, as both served in the Senate, and he’s on some important commitees. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be Cornyn.

  39. UCal-Davis’ Pepper Spray Cop is Finally Gone

    A spokesperson for the University of California-Davis, where John Pike was captured pepper-spraying a group of seated protesters last November, said Pike was no longer employed with the school as of Tuesday, but did not specify whether Pike was fired or if he resigned, citing campus privacy rules.

    • My best friend’s son starts there next month.

      That asshat Pike was salaried at over $110,000 a year. One security guy.

      No wonder this state has huge budget problems.

    • Believe the children!

      Instead of taking the word of a preist, coach, assistant coach or others in “authority”… and dismissing the children’s “stories” as just imagination…

      believe the children.

      • Happy Chicken Pride Day to you, Ebb!

        I had some lovely rotisserie chicken for lunch. :) I can proudly say I have never had a Chick-Fill-A sandwich in my life.

    • Chick-fil-A Manager in NH to Help Gay Pride Fest

      The manager of a Chick-fil-A in Nashua, N.H., is donating sandwiches to an upcoming festival celebrating gay rights.

      The support from franchise operator Anthony Piccola for the New Hampshire Pride Fest comes as the restaurant chain continues to be criticized for an executive’s comments about gay marriage.

      I hope Mr. Piccola will find more support for equality from his next employer, ’cause he’s a short-timer already in this one!

  44. Can any of the regular Thom Hartmann listeners tell me why he’s not doing his show? He hasn’t been there for two nights on The Big Picture, and I haven’t had time to play the radio show, but the site confirmed substitutes yesterday and today.

    • Hopefully it’s just a couple days off. I noticed that Louise posted on the blog today so I don’t think she’s had a crisis.

      • That was my worry. Thanks Pete! I’ve never been able to navigate that blog, and I could never access the chat room, because of some weird Javascript issue. I never had a problem with any other chat room access, so I don’t know how to fix it.

      • He has them on The Big Picture too. They ignore his rebuttals and just keep chattering on, as though he never spoke. I would have a simple rule, disrespecting the host is disrespecting the listeners, so they wouldn’t get invited back.

        • He’s not actually helping anyone understand the insanity of these people, nor is he successful in countering any of their insane comments, so essentially he’s just giving them one more platform to spew their crap.

          I just can’t stand it anymore.

      • I’ve been plowing through the YouTube archives of MST3K for background noise. I don’t want to OD on outrage before the home stretch to the election. Although…

        The last time I listened Thom actually hung up on a couple Reichwhiners. I admire his patience but I would enjoy his show more if he lit in to the freaks more often.

    • His FaceBook page gives no indication as to why – just that Karl Frisch is subbing.
      No indication on Karl’s page as to why he’s subbing.

      • Sessions didn’t get the memo on the Koch’s boy, Richard ‘Humans Are Almost Entirely The Cause’ Of Global Warming” Muller doing a 180 on climate change.

            • I’m not an unqualified fan of Robert A. Heinlein but he wrote some very wise things. To paraphrase:

              “It’s impossible for a wise man to be offended. The truth can only educate and lies are unworthy of notice.”

              My own addendum is that anyone offended by the truth is a fool and a liar.

          • I don’t know who said this Pete, but it also applies. “An honest man can be wrong, but at the moment he is shown the truth he must either cease to be wrong, or cease to be honest.”

        • I don’t even recall which blog it was but a pod of trolls were claiming that Al Gore and George Soros “bought Muller off”.

    • Sometimes I’m offended by the sun, but it will rise tomorrow anyway.

    • Question:
      Why does the Senator disbelieve?
      Answer:
      Sessions + Mobile Bay + Gulf oil rigs = $.$$

  47. There’s an absolutely, stunningly gorgeous full Moon this evening! (there will be another on 31st)

  50. Hi gang of libruls. Just sliding by to say Hi, and say fuck Mitt, Jeff, Palin, Bachmann, McTurtle, Orange glow, Steele, Inoway, Grasslymouth, Mcgrumps, and his sweetie Grahamcracker, along with Cruz, Hatch, DeMinth, Cronyn, King, etc.,and like Pete, “have I told you lately how much I hate these people.” Okay Malloy owns that line, but their insanity has me spinning away from those things I’ve always trusted, respect and honesty. I/You live in a time where sociopathic behaviour has become normal, and I’m having a hard time dealing with that reality. So I’ll slog on, trying to find my balance again, reaching out for any truth, read your guy’s comments/opinions
    have a glass of wine, read or write a little poetry, listen to music I enjoy, do the laundry, do my chores, care for my dog, keep my son out of prison ;) enjoy my daughter’s adventure into parenthood, and Go Jolly.

    • …have a glass of wine, read or write a little poetry, listen to music I enjoy, do the laundry, do my chores, care for my dog, keep my son out of prison enjoy my daughter’s adventure into parenthood, and Go Jolly.

      Sounds like positive motion!

      • It’s all I got, and it’s enough. Well, another trip to Paris would add to the depth of flavor I aspire to, but then a Chef is never satisfied. ;)

          • She’s not pregnant, but trying, which I don’t want to envision, and yes this will be the first. She also wants me to move to Boise, against Queen Z’s avid opinion, and I’m reluctant anyway.

  55. I have no access to watching the Olympics (one must have a cable account in order to watch on-line streaming)

    Competition is something else with some sports:

    Eight badminton players sent home amid tanking fury

    EIGHT badminton players have been sent home from the Olympics after being disqualified for throwing matches in a case condemned by London Games boss Sebastian Coe as ”depressing” and ”unacceptable”.

Comments are closed.