Sunday Roast: That awkward moment when you know you just walked into a trap

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Blink..blink…blink…step back…blink…blink…go pale and want to vomit.

Yeah, I can’t get enough of that moment.  :)

This is our daily open thread — what’s making you happy this fine Sunday?

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71 thoughts on “Sunday Roast: That awkward moment when you know you just walked into a trap”

  1. What was also revealing, besides Romney’s attempt to lie, was the smug, condescending, contemptuous look he gave Obama when he wanted him to re-affirm that he called the attack an “act of terror.” The RW is pissing in their pants and claiming that Romney was right because Obama didn’t specifically call this specific act an “act of terror,” as if that would have solved everything.

    There’s something psychologically disturbing (and others here have more expertise than I on this matter) about the way the Right so desperately MUST have everything couched in machismo language: that we have to “get tough” with Iran, that we have to make it clear that “all options” (read, “nuclear weapons”; ours, not theirs) are on the table, and that we have to build up our military force to such a level that no one would dare attack us. I’ve got news for them: Our military is already much stronger than anyone else’s in the world, and yet people still try to attack us, though they aren’t military forces that are doing it and they aren’t conducting warfare. They’re criminals who have found a way to exploit our weaknesses, and what they’re doing is more properly termed “crimes.” And one of those weaknesses is the right wing’s fear that someone might “attack” us (in reality, a terrorist bomber) and we won’t respond with the full force of our military (against which nation is unclear), or that we won;t yell “Terrorist” fast enough and shoot off some more predator drones.

    Terrorism is not warfare, it’s criminal activity. But because Right-Wing America loves to glamorize warfare, they need to see it as warfare so they have an excuse to use our military forces, a use which serves only to satisfy the fragile egos of those who would never dare put on the uniform themselves.

  2. Iran made a deal with a potential incoming Republican administration once, and affected a Presidential election. I wouldn’t be surprised if they feel they made a mistake back then, and want to rectify that error, in light of the way today’s Republicans behave about Iran. A peaceful resolution to the Iran nuclear situation could keep an administration in charge that doesn’t want war with Iran, so it is in their best interest to make Obama look good with an agreement in the days leading up to the election.

    • R.I.P. Mr. McGovern. I speak as one who shared your progressive ideas way back in 1972 when I voted for you in the presidential election, and please may I add: it’s entirely possible that I was even more disappointed than you yourself were at the nonsensical and ridiculous collective voice of the (obviously intellectually diminishing) American electorate, way back then, as future historical tragedy was immediately in the process of being not only predicted, but penned.

      As an aside, and in view of the rapidly deteriorating national presence once known, respectfully, as America, home of ‘the dream’ — the land you fought so diligently to protect — etc.; when I read of your peaceful passing, Mr. McGovern, I was instantly reminded of Walter Matthau’s loving line from the movie Grumpy Old Men, spoken when first he learned the details of an old friend’s peaceful death:

      “Lucky Bastard.”

  6. From Little Green Footballs

    A NASA Film: Gradient Sun

    Watching a particularly beautiful movie of the sun helps show how the lines between science and art can sometimes blur. But there is more to the connection between the two disciplines: science and art techniques are often quite similar, indeed one may inform the other or be improved based on lessons from the other arena. One such case is a technique known as a “gradient filter” — recognizable to many people as an option available on a photo-editing program. Gradients are, in fact, a mathematical description that highlights the places of greatest physical change in space. A gradient filter, in turn, enhances places of contrast, making them all the more obviously different, a useful tool when adjusting photos. Scientists, too, use gradient filters to enhance contrast, using them to accentuate fine structures that might otherwise be lost in the background noise. On the sun, for example, scientists wish to study a phenomenon known as coronal loops, which are giant arcs of solar material constrained to travel along that particular path by the magnetic fields in the sun’s atmosphere. Observations of the loops, which can be more or less tangled and complex during different phases of the sun’s 11-year activity cycle, can help researchers understand what’s happening with the sun’s complex magnetic fields, fields that can also power great eruptions on the sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections.

    The images here show an unfiltered image from the sun next to one that has been processed using a gradient filter. Note how the coronal loops are sharp and defined, making them all the more easy to study. On the other hand, gradients also make great art. Watch the movie to see how the sharp loops on the sun next to the more fuzzy areas in the lower solar atmosphere provide a dazzling show.

  7. On UP: I wouldn’t keep Elise Jordan on past the first commercial break. She hasn’t opened her mouth once without spouting a reich-wing talking point, and in a harsh screechy tone of voice. Chris usually picks more rational conservatives for his panels.

  14. George McGovern, speaking on the Senate floor, September 1, 1970, verbalized one of the major reasons I voted for him in the presidential election of November, 1972 when he said:

    Every senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land—young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes.

    There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about bugging out, or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us.

    Amen, amen. And again, R.I.P., sir.

    Thanks to Daily Kos and Meteor Blades for their inspiring obituary.

  17. Romney spokesman: “Romnesia” line is “frankly quite silly.”

    And these guys know silly.

  18. This is interesting, at least to me, half my voting precinct is in Holtzman-Vogel’s district. She is the state senator who introduced the ultrasound shaming wand bill. Her office shares a mailing address with the firm involved in the Florida (and recent Virginia) voter registration fraud, as well as with good ol’ Crossroads GPS.
    http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9632

  19. The McGovern campaign was my first to actively participate in the early part of 1971. I loved this man and what he stood for. Few politicians have earned my total respect as this man did. Today, in honor of this memory, I’m voting once again; a right afforded me by my fellow citizens, who sacrificed their lives that I could, today, check boxes for those that will lead us in the future. My only wish is that they were George McGovern. R.I.P. my honorable brother.

  20. To this day I cannot fathom how George McGovern lost to Nixon. Go gently into the night, sir and know there are many out here who appreciated your efforts and services.

  22. There’s a petition on signon.org top remove David Gregory as host of MTP. They are 59 signatures short of their goal of 10,000, which may not be enough (IMHO.)

    http://signon.org/sign/remove-partisan-david?source=s.icn.tw&r_by=1201911

    Here are teh comments I added:

    Rachel Maddow is the only reason I ever watch MTP these days, but even that gets ruined by that smug, condescending Alex Castellanos. You need to get something through your heads: When you have Conservatives on your show, they don;t argue from a standpoint of facts, they lie constantly. And David Gregory, being the clearly, indisputably partisan Republican that he is lets them tell lie after lie unchallenged. He must be replaced. Get a new host, and you’ll get lots more viewers.

  31. A Mormon explains why she is voting for Obama:

    What I really wanted from the debate was more of the hard truths that Obama seemed to be on the verge of saying:

    “This recession is fundamentally different than other recessions, and there are no short-term fixes.”

    “Our old strategies for managing Middle Eastern conflict through military intervention or propped-up dictators don’t work. And there is no easy way forward.”

    “The only thing the $3 trillion Iraq war produced for the United States was a mountain of debt and a legion of disabled Americans.”

    “We need to have a serious discussion about Social Security.”

    “Debts don’t get paid down without adjustments in revenues.”

    These are the kind of hard truths that speak to the same part of me that took notice when Obama at his inauguration quoted the Scripture: “It is time to put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13: 11).

    http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/18/my-take-hard-truths-matter-im-mormon-and-im-voting-for-obama/?hpt=hp_t2

  33. Over at The Blaze, they’re showing just how impossible it is for RWNJs to respect anyone who doesn’t agree with them 100%. Freakout Nation collected some of their insane, hate-filled comments. Don;t worry, this doesn’t link to The Blaze. (I wouldn’t do that unless absolutely necessary.)

    http://freakoutnation.com/2012/10/21/when-right-wing-sites-attack-mcgovern-was-a-piece-of-crap-may-he-rot-in-hell-he-needs-to-welcome-fidel-to-hell/

    • “night of too many stars”
      Sounds like the second hardest thing about rollerblading is the pavement.

  36. Cars.com has the creepiest ads on TV. People with little faces on extra appendages are not cute.They should fire their ad agency. It’s probably the same one doing the stupid Little Caesar’s Pizza ads.

    • I try to tune out most commercials, so I wasn’t aware that those creepy ads were from Cars.com. Most commercials are just so much BS, and even though some of them can be amusing, I can say with certainty that no commercial has ever persuaded me to purchase the product being hawked.

  41. BTW, it’s that moment at 17 seconds in the video where I REALLY, REALLY wanted to slap that supercilious, waiting-for-an-underling-to answer look off of Romney’s face. I’d be surprised if the President didn’t feel the same way.

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