Another Edition of…
The Republicans have really stepped in it here, and the Democrats would be fools to pass up this opportunity. Which means they probably will pass and instead continue the circular firing squad- ZOMG DID YOU HEAR WHAT GIBBS SAID?
August 10, 2010 6:04 pm
Posted in: Democratic Stupidity, Politics, Republican Stupidity
108 Comments
108 Responses
Jesse - August 10, 2010 | 6:13 pm · Link
Who knew that American firefighters were Americans?
patrick II - August 10, 2010 | 6:15 pm · Link
I have been amazed by this too. It’s as if a teacher’s job, or a fireman’s job or a policeman’s job somehow doesn’t qualify as a “real” job. It seems that the only jobs that qualify as “real” are the ones that have grotesquely overpaid owners/managers raking off profits and making large contributions to republican politicians. The actual work involved in teaching/keeping us safe/fighting fires is irrelevant to the the real definition of value in republican’s eyes—profit.
The actual work and workers should have signs made saying “Repbulican Proles” so they understand their real status.
Malron - August 10, 2010 | 6:16 pm · Link
I predict Obama and the DNC will attempt to do exactly what Digby suggests….and the professional left will stand on the sidelines with arms folded while they continue to pout because Gibbs hurt their fee-fees.
Zandar - August 10, 2010 | 6:18 pm · Link
Sure.
If the Dems had the balls to stand up for the teachers, firefighters, cops, and people who make our government work.
Which they will not.
LT - August 10, 2010 | 6:20 pm · Link
Wtf? What digby said indeed:
Anoniminous - August 10, 2010 | 6:21 pm · Link
Cops, teachers, and firemen are all featherbedding unionized make-work slackers:
Cops go around setting teachers on fire so the firemen have something to do.
This Un-American crapola has Got. To. STOP!
Zifnab - August 10, 2010 | 6:23 pm · Link
@Malron: I predict the Obama admin will roll out a stellar political campaign, rally the base, whip up some grade A legislation, build support for a real jobs bill and state aid program right into 2010, and a month after the election throw up it’s hands in defeat because it doesn’t have the 143 Senator majority it needs to get the bill through the upper house.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 6:23 pm · Link
Did the Democrats just pass another stimulus bill? Why yes, they did.
BigSwami - August 10, 2010 | 6:24 pm · Link
Here’s the problem with this John:
Digby wants to say that the GOP’s taking a position against this funding is the same as taking a position against bourgeois white people. It’s not, because those people already regard public schools as something between zoos and insane asylums. And that’s why we need vouchers. The end.
August J. Pollak - August 10, 2010 | 6:25 pm · Link
Yeah, the way those hippies kidnapped Robert Gibbs, tied him down and shoved his own foot in his mouth was ridiculous, especially when in the same speech he made all those comments about Republicans not voting for firefighter’s benefits IN MY MIND.
This has been another edition of “Democrats would totally say this if everyone wasn’t so angry at what they actually said.”
Zifnab - August 10, 2010 | 6:25 pm · Link
@Anoniminous: WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!
Ivan Ivanovich Renko - August 10, 2010 | 6:25 pm · Link
Remember that teachers, police and firefighters are unionized.
Problem is… they’re our teachers, police, and firefighters!
Jeez, this is so obvious.
Being a Democrat is like being a Cleveland sports fan, sometimes.
Davis X. Machina - August 10, 2010 | 6:26 pm · Link
Digby’s dreaming.
The mean in this country is burnt in so deep that the default American response to “My job sucks” is always “Find someone else and make his job suck, too”; the response to “I lost my job” is always “Find someone else and take her job away.”
There is no class solidarity in this country. We’re the Saudi Arabia of false consciousness—world’s largest producer and largest proven reserves.
Pence just says out loud what people already believe: “They’re all highly paid civil service drones.” One foot-in-mouth outbreak isn’t going to undo 30 years of GOP propaganda.
Scapegoat, not chicken, is America’s favorite white meat.
Any progressive politics not predicated on the theory that people in the aggregate are shit is doomed to fail. They have to be bribed, or bullied, because they’re not going to do the right thing because it’s right. That’s the lesson of Abolition, of the union movement, of the civil rights movement. Shame works, but once a century.
Zifnab - August 10, 2010 | 6:28 pm · Link
@mr. whipple: They passed a state aid bill that harvested money from food stamps. That’s kinda like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
This, right after Congress passed a $37 billion defense bill, all on the US credit card. Shuffling stimulus money around makes about as much sense as rearranging the deck chairs on a notorious sinking ship. It still doesn’t address the fundamental problem of a dysfunctional Senate willing to cut blank checks for bombs but complete tight wads on domestic spending issues.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko - August 10, 2010 | 6:30 pm · Link
Take teachers out of the equation.
You’ve got Republicans voting against funding cops? Those bastards never saw a jack-booted thug in uniform they didn’t love (probably physically—ewwww, i just threw up in my mouth there).
No, this is really obvious. Which is why our beloved Dems will miss it. [sigh]
JWL - August 10, 2010 | 6:31 pm · Link
Gibbs contemptuous remarks should come as no surprise to anyone, much less to the people he insulted.
So if the party once again folds like a wet tissue and fails to politick intelligently (which is a likelihood), don’t blame those who shoehorned the time a to respond to him with a big “FU, too”.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 6:31 pm · Link
@Zifnab:
If I understand correctly, it was predicated on congress cutting food stamps in the future. I predict the chances of that are essentially 0.
Even the Bush administration pushed the hell out of food stamps.
Davis X. Machina - August 10, 2010 | 6:33 pm · Link
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: They don’t much like cops, either, unless they are employed in their only legitimate role, as an army of occupation in the darker parts of town. Otherwise all they do is write tickets and keep you from beating your wife.
Who’s the bad guys in The Dukes of Hazzard? It’s not the ACLU. And country music lyrics aren’t exactly paeans to the police, either.
Zandar - August 10, 2010 | 6:36 pm · Link
@What DXM said.
I love Digby to death, but if she still thinks that nationally teachers aren’t a big target in a depression like this, she’s mad.
Anoniminous - August 10, 2010 | 6:39 pm · Link
@Zifnab:
I’d be REALLY UPSET … except for that 3 pounds of reefer I just inhaled.
(BTW, you don’t happen to have ‘bout 20 tons of “Screaming Yellow Zonkers©” on you? I could do with some nom-noms.)
Davis X. Machina - August 10, 2010 | 6:39 pm · Link
@Zandar: Cops and teachers share one thing—they take your tax money, and turn around tell you, or your kids, ‘You’re doing it wrong’, or ‘You can’t do that’.
There is no constituency for any occupation that earns its bread by telling the Great American Electorate ‘No’.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 6:40 pm · Link
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
That’s very funny and very true.
The most popular sports figure in Cleveland is the second string quarterback that stands on the sideline holding the clipboard. Because everyone just knows that if he only gets a chance he’ll be the savior they’ve been waiting for. The guy who is currently leading the team always sucks, except Bernie.
General Stuck - August 10, 2010 | 6:41 pm · Link
@Davis X. Machina: Hell, you could write a dozen or fifty ads of wingnuts going on teevee screaming about the stimulus, HCR, and all the other commie shit they demagogue about, and ten minutes later catch them at a town hall taking credit for that same soshulist Obomanation
The country knows wingers are hypocritical assholes, but they mistrust dems who don’t take up the mantle of grownup and make the nutters pay for their delinquency. Instead, we get co dependent drivel from dems and half measures with mugwamp transactional analysis/
And the same could be true of a lot of average citizens acting like all this was ordained by gawd and set on automatic for eternity. It isn’t, and the well scrubbed populace is about to get an education in the foreseeable future. Regardless
BombIranForChrist - August 10, 2010 | 6:41 pm · Link
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
You are exactly right.
I just don’t get Democrats. When it comes to things like war, they will punch hippies until green juice comes out of their nose, but when it comes to something obvious, like helping cops, they are quiet. The only real passion seems to come out of the Dems when they are hippie punching. It’s what they love. No passion in saving cops, even though it will probably get them more net benefit.
Cacti - August 10, 2010 | 6:43 pm · Link
I think Obama should scream about it and grab his nuts while he does.
If he doesn’t, I won’t vote in November.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 6:51 pm · Link
Didn’t they just do that?
I agree they really suck at tooting their own horn.
The Moar You Know - August 10, 2010 | 6:54 pm · Link
My prediction: Dems will dig right past this vein of gold in their continuing search for a lump of coal to put in the stockings of whoever dares to help them.
Fuck, I’m getting sick of my party’s inability to do anything.
Martin - August 10, 2010 | 6:55 pm · Link
Well, there’s little point of making hay of this now. It’ll just cause the GOP to stop saying stupid things. Videotape is forever. Keep giving them rope and the ads will be easy to piece together later.
We’ll see if they do this, but Obama was pretty good about it during the campaign.
Makewi - August 10, 2010 | 6:58 pm · Link
Everyone knows that the GOP hates cops and fireman. It’s shocking that more hay hasn’t been made of this. If only people would be as willing to just look at the surface of an issue, then they would share your outrage.
Keith G - August 10, 2010 | 6:58 pm · Link
@Zandar:No. It could actually happen, but it won’t. The West Wing has shown a much commented on affinity for playing an inside game and not putting in efforts at constructing and reinforcing a brand that resonates with much of middle class America.
Assuming that the DNC and the POTUS People have the willingness, ability and desire to rally the Middle doesn’t mean they have or can create any buy-in. They would be looking to harvest a crop from seeds only halfheartedly sewn.
Erik T - August 10, 2010 | 6:58 pm · Link
@The Moar You Know: Did you seriously just complain about how your party can’t do anything based on a GOP foot-in-mouth related to a major Democratic accomplishment? I mean, that happened, last I checked, today. Like, hours ago. I think anything should be a word that is off-limits at least until the weekend.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 7:05 pm · Link
Try this.
zattarra - August 10, 2010 | 7:08 pm · Link
@The Moar You Know: Inability to do anything? Like pass a $26 billion aid bill to keep people employed. Stuff like this is why I agree with everything Gibbs said in that article. Pass something, get shit on by the left for not doing anything.
Malron - August 10, 2010 | 7:09 pm · Link
@mr. whipple: Thanks for the info, do you have a link?
Redshift - August 10, 2010 | 7:10 pm · Link
I already got an OFA email with a tag line of “I’m not a special interest. I’m a teacher” and there was a good statement from Kaine along the same lines, but since everyone seems to agree, obviously Democrats are incapable of doing this.
And if you think that the mass of people in this country don’t care about teachers and public safety, you must have sat out any public meetings the past couple of years dealing with state and local budgets. Parents of school children are one of the most vocal constituencies in this country, and the police nearly always get everything they ask in budget “compromises” (despite the fact that their budgets have been going up faster than everything else for the past decade), because if they make ludicrous threats to stop doing all sorts of things that lots of people care about. “No constituency,” my ass.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 7:10 pm · Link
Or this.
(They are very prolific post office namers.)
Rommie - August 10, 2010 | 7:10 pm · Link
When you are convinced Government itself is the problem, it’s easy to condemn any part it plays and pays a role in. The 1860’s express rolls on – and this time, they’ll win
Martin - August 10, 2010 | 7:10 pm · Link
@Zifnab: The money they’re taking from food stamps is by agreeing to not extend a provision past 2014. It doesn’t impact anyone for 4 years, and they have 4 years to restore the provision, which we’ll probably find 90% of the GOP sign onto if they do it outside of an election cycle.
I don’t see the problem. It’s the same kind of accounting shenanigans as the Bush tax cut expiration.
HumboldtBlue - August 10, 2010 | 7:14 pm · Link
Yeah that Gibbs was just fucking clever, I mean, shit, we’re the fucking people who voted the administration into office but turning around and criticizing them is just more proof of being drug-addled.
I mean,l fuck Guantanamo. Fuck torture or actively prosecuting those who ordered and performed it. Fuck ending a disastrous war in Afghanistan and fuck Iraq, they asked for it bitches, just like liberals asked for it.
Let’s take food stamp money, not say, billions given to crooked bankers, to make sure our teachers and cops get paid. Let’s make sure big oil gets billions in tax breaks while millions of lazy-ass unemployed can just go fuck themselves. Leadership schmeadership, let’s make sure we prosecute a juvenile whose been jailed at Gitmo and you fucking bleeding heart pussies can just go suck a lemon.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 7:17 pm · Link
@Malron:
Damn. My posts keep getting eaten.
Here.
Pancake - August 10, 2010 | 7:18 pm · Link
Digby is misrepresenting the Republican argument against the multi-billion special bailout. The thrust of the argument was that states receiving the bulk of the funds were states that have grossly mismanaged their budgets over recent years, especially California and New York; in fact, setting aside California, New York alone will receive more of this “bailout” money than all other states west of the Mississippi combined. The upshot is that states that lived with in their means by trimming expenditures when the downturn started (such as Minnesota, Kansas and Texas) will be subsidizing the handful of states that failed to even try to live within their means.
I don’t think that the Dems are stupid enough to try Digby’s argument on the American electorate, especially this year.
Fwiffo - August 10, 2010 | 7:19 pm · Link
You need to add “What Digby Said” as a category.
jlo - August 10, 2010 | 7:19 pm · Link
Who knows? Maybe tomorrow Gibbs will talk about the Republicans fucking us instead of bitching about the professional left?
60th Street - August 10, 2010 | 7:21 pm · Link
Dday: House Passes State Fiscal Aid Bill
Dear Mr. Dayen, you mentioned nothing in there about firing Robert Gibbs for his crimes against humanity, please correct this asap, then, die.
JAHILL10 - August 10, 2010 | 7:22 pm · Link
@mr. whipple: Thanks for the info/ammo! I bet you are sweezeably soft too!
Erik T - August 10, 2010 | 7:23 pm · Link
Pretty sure there’s going to need to be a “point on the doll to where Gibbs touched you” tag. I mean, if there’s not one already.
Bobby Thomson - August 10, 2010 | 7:23 pm · Link
@Martin:
Well, someone’s on drugs. Those assholes won’t even fund pay for firefighters and you really think they’ll open the purse strings for “young bucks”? Election cycle, schmelection cycle. Evil never goes out of style.
Martin - August 10, 2010 | 7:23 pm · Link
@Pancake: And California gives $60B per year more in federal taxes than it receives in services. New York isn’t far behind.
Maybe some of those other states that California is subsidizing could pay their fair share?
60th Street - August 10, 2010 | 7:24 pm · Link
@Pancake: Would that be the same Texas that used Stimulus funds to balance its budget?
You can die too now. Also.
Martin - August 10, 2010 | 7:25 pm · Link
@Bobby Thomson: Of course they will. The GOP regularly votes for small things like that. It’s the visible stuff they vote against. You should look more closely at how they vote. They aren’t complete sociopaths, they just want to appear to be complete sociopaths.
Just Some Fuckhead - August 10, 2010 | 7:30 pm · Link
Ah yes, Gibbs attacking other Democrats is a circular firing squad.
scarshapedstar - August 10, 2010 | 7:35 pm · Link
Why did the paid, professional spokesman for the leader of the free world feel it was necessary to talk shit about the home team?
BTW - if the Democratic Party wants to rail against this, then they will, regardless of what Vice President Hamsher says. If they choose to continue tripping over their own feet, is is not Jane Hamsher’s fault.
Tinkerbell didn’t go away, she just switched parties…
Xecky Gilchrist - August 10, 2010 | 7:37 pm · Link
I agree with Digby, too, but she says:
They are voting against nice, white, suburban middle class Americans this time (along with nice brown and black suburban middle class Americans) with this crusade.
That was true with the stimulus bill and HCR too – I guess this time it’s really that it’s less abstract?
jlo - August 10, 2010 | 7:39 pm · Link
Also, too. John you’re sounding an awful lot like a “very reasonable person” here. Once again someone in the White House does something stupid, people on the left from Keith Ellison, to Kos, to nonprofessional nobody voters like me say, WTF? That was fucking stupid! and then the very reasonable people bitch about how the dirty fucking hippies are petulant for complaining, and it will be their fault if Dems lose big in November.
mr. whipple - August 10, 2010 | 7:40 pm · Link
@Bobby Thomson:
“Well, someone’s on drugs. Those assholes won’t even fund pay for firefighters and you really think they’ll open the purse strings for “young bucks”? ”
It really isn’t about them. It’s about Big and Small Ag, grocery store owners, etc. Even Bush pimped the hell out of food stamps. They are evil, though.
wobbly - August 10, 2010 | 7:41 pm · Link
What is a “fee-fee”?
What does “ZOMG” mean?
I’m all for Latinos speaking
LatinSpanish wherever they roam, but in the blogosphere, shouldn’t it beEnglish only???
Just saying, and, yes, I am too old for this.
Comrade Luke - August 10, 2010 | 7:42 pm · Link
Good one!
Comrade Luke - August 10, 2010 | 7:42 pm · Link
Good one!
Erik T - August 10, 2010 | 7:42 pm · Link
“I think Gibbs was stupid to say that, but he’s not entirely wrong.”
This does not seem like a deeply nuanced position to me, but it seems to be flying over the heads of a quarter of the posters here. Perhaps they are just really excited to be angry about something.
Frank - August 10, 2010 | 7:43 pm · Link
@Pancake:
This type of argument is just beyond me. We can afford to spend a trillion on a dumb war in Iraq with no regards about how to pay for it. But when it comes to assisting unemployed people here in the US, or helping teachers, police, firemen etc, the GOP is basically giving the middle finger.
Fine. Tell your governors in the red states to give stop taking credit for the stimulus money that the rest of us gave them. Give the money back!
You do realize that a state such as Minnesota is in terrible shape due to the Republican governor’s refusal to increase income taxes.
KG - August 10, 2010 | 7:43 pm · Link
@Xecky Gilchrist: the stimulus and HCR are way too abstract, too complicated for the most people to understand. Voting against them is easy because you can fall back on trope lines about limiting government and liberty and blah blah blah. But voting against a bill that will keep teachers in class rooms, police on the beat, and fire fighters on the street? That hits home in a real way because now you’re talking about the part of government that people see and deal with regularly.
scarshapedstar - August 10, 2010 | 7:43 pm · Link
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Uh… yes. I’m pretty sure Digby is aware of that. If you have any evidence that she is a racist, I’d like to see it.
I’m pretty sure her point was that even a racist Teabagger would be unable to ignore the detrimental effects of these cuts. I don’t think she was saying that only black people have been affected by this recession.
El Cid - August 10, 2010 | 7:51 pm · Link
@Frank: You do realize that occupying Iraq and claiming to rebuild the blowed-up Iraqi state is not soshullism while paying teachers her is.
Just Some Fuckhead - August 10, 2010 | 7:53 pm · Link
What do you America-haters have against citizen militias, volunteer bucket brigades and one room schoolhouses that go all the way to the eighth grade?
El Cid - August 10, 2010 | 7:58 pm · Link
@Just Some Fuckhead: The commonists of the very 2nd Congress our nation ever had passed a law requiring citizens to either prepare their existing owned equipment or go out and buy their own muskets, ammunition, and so forth, with their own munee.
IT WAS A MANDATE!! OMG GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS HITLER! OMG WE KAIN’T WEAR TRICOLORED HATS AND PURTEND TO CROSS THE DELAWARE ALL THE TIME!
Frank - August 10, 2010 | 8:00 pm · Link
@El Cid:
Yes, that appears to what have been taught to ours kids over the last decade. Obama is a socialist while Reagan was not eventhough their policies are not all that different when it comes to how to govern.
El Cid - August 10, 2010 | 8:04 pm · Link
By the way—are “Democrats” in a circular firing squad, or just bloggers and twitterers?
Erik T - August 10, 2010 | 8:06 pm · Link
@El Cid: Emphatically only the latter.
Brian Sipe - August 10, 2010 | 8:10 pm · Link
Hey, I did okay.
middlewest - August 10, 2010 | 8:12 pm · Link
Off-topic, but I just voted for my extremist left-wing black muslim congressman again. Feels good, man. Everybody should try it.
frosty - August 10, 2010 | 8:17 pm · Link
@wobbly: Welcome to the blogosphere:
“fee-fees” = feelings, but with nothing but sarcasm intended.
“ZOMG” = Oh My God. The Z apparently is an intensifier. Can be placed before or after the phrase, as in “LOLZ” Laugh Out Loud—like, lots.
Dunno if these are in the lexicon yet, but they oughta be.
BombIranForChrist - August 10, 2010 | 8:18 pm · Link
Also, “fee fee’s” is probably the funniest thing ever written. Much better than the killing joke.
Cacti - August 10, 2010 | 8:20 pm · Link
@HumboldtBlue:
Yeah.
It was totally the internet left that won the day for Obama in North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, etc.
Napoleon - August 10, 2010 | 8:22 pm · Link
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
Unfortunately I am both.
Omnes Omnibus - August 10, 2010 | 8:25 pm · Link
@Napoleon: Sorry.
Xecky Gilchrist - August 10, 2010 | 8:29 pm · Link
@scarshapedstar: If you have any evidence that she is a racist, I’d like to see it.
Wow, I REALLY didn’t mean to say that. I just mean that what she said was also true of the other issues.
Colt McCoy - August 10, 2010 | 8:31 pm · Link
And I’m still the third-string QB, not the second-string!
Xecky Gilchrist - August 10, 2010 | 8:31 pm · Link
@frosty: “ZOMG” = Oh My God. The Z apparently is an intensifier.
As I understood it, it started out as “zOMG” with a lower-case z, meant to look as though the person was in such fervent haste to type OMG that they missed a bit and mashed the z key and the shift key at the same time.
Princess - August 10, 2010 | 8:33 pm · Link
Obama this morning on the jobs bill:
Just Some Fuckhead - August 10, 2010 | 8:35 pm · Link
@Napoleon: Get over here and let’s hug it out.
HumboldtBlue - August 10, 2010 | 8:37 pm · Link
@Cacti: No dipshit, Democratic voters who turned out in droves to keep Palin and McCain from fucking the country up even further.
But you stick with the torture apologists, I’ll continue to volunteer to feed the hungry and find shelter for the homeless. Let me know how the fucking torture regime works out, will ya? also, when you see a nice rich banker ask him where our fucking money is and then repeat the question to Obama.
Fucking condescending weasels, expect support and then turn around and repeatedly scream “fuck you, lib” while catering to the same motherfuckers who nearly ruined our country.
Oh and when you’re feeling particularly plucky, go join the fucking infantry and spend some time in Afghanistan and tell us just how wonderfully we’re doing in that cradle of empire’s demise. Then tell me about Virginia and fucking North Carolina.
Allison W. - August 10, 2010 | 8:38 pm · Link
I heart Gibbs and the reactions all over the liberal blogosphere proves him right. Hell, this is a “conversation” that we have all had before so I don’t get the poutrage. The same people offended by his comment are the same ones who have long proclaimed that they are done with Obama so why is anyone upset? Some of you are acting like you just found out your bff is talking about you behind your back.
Folks you really ought to get out more. You’d be surprised at the amount of people who don’t know what the heck is going on.They’ve never heard of Gibbs, don’t know what the “left” is, don’t get the boehner jokes, and could honestly care less that you think Obama loves to hippie punch (you will also have to clarify what that means). There are far far far far more of those people than those complaining on the blogs and THOSE are the people that make up the vast majority of the base.
Allison W. - August 10, 2010 | 8:39 pm · Link
Hey look what Gibbs did: we are no longer talking about Michelle’s trip to Spain.
Nick - August 10, 2010 | 8:42 pm · Link
@Zandar:
which is of course why Harry Reid for the Senate into multiple cloture votes to pass this and Nancy Pelosi called the motherfucking House back into session to hold a vote.
See what I mean about Democrats not getting credit for ANYTHING.
Allison W. - August 10, 2010 | 8:44 pm · Link
@El Cid:
Just anyone in the bubble.
Nick - August 10, 2010 | 8:45 pm · Link
@scarshapedstar:
Because a reporter asked him a fucking question
Cacti - August 10, 2010 | 8:48 pm · Link
As I say to every Firebagger who jacks their jaws about Afghanistan…
Considering I actually do have a family member who died there, you can take that bloody shirt you’re trying to wave in my face and shove it right up your DFH ass.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko - August 10, 2010 | 8:50 pm · Link
@Napoleon: I’ve come to love living in Northeast Ohio—I even enjoy the world o’snow in winter, honest to god. There’s far worse cities all in all, and well, Great Lakes and Thirsty Dog.
As for the Republicans? I’d rather be a disorganized, circular-squad-firing Democrat than a neo Confederate Republican rat bastard fuck.
Fuck those guys, fuck ‘em sideways. I hate ‘em with the heat of a fuckin’ nova.
Cacti - August 10, 2010 | 8:58 pm · Link
@HumboldtBlue:
And might I add, you refuted exactly nothing that I said.
When did “professional leftist” become a synonym for “all democratic voters” other than in your fevered imagination?
The fact of the matter is, you belong to a mouthy minority of the party at large, who thinks the entire party should hang on your every whiny word.
The DFH vote amounted to precisely dick in any state that was flipped.
joe from Lowell - August 10, 2010 | 9:03 pm · Link
This really is a gold opportunity.
I kind of sent the paid partisan operatives scurrying away on this thread on boston.com.
This is a horrible, horrible vote for the Republicans. They voted to lay off 300,000 teachers, cops, and firefighters, whose cost is paid for by eliminating a tax break for corporations that ship jobs overseas. Even the food stamps issue – they are arguing that we shouldn’t adjust government spending to use accurate, instead of inaccurate, inflation estimates, while trying to act worried about the deficit.
This is a Joe-Barton-apologizing-to-BP moment, if the Democrats seize it. They can go on the offensive with this vote.
joe from Lowell - August 10, 2010 | 9:09 pm · Link
@Cacti:
Eggs-actly.
You know what, whiney little bitches? Stay the fuck home on Election Day. The Democrats are going to hold both houses this November, and I don’t want there to be even the slightest confusion about who made that happen.
You want to be part of the coalition, like everyone else? Get a little cowbell, like everyone else? Then be a fucking Indian, because you sure as hell aren’t the chiefs.
You’ve been whining like fan belts, threatening to go Galt with your oh-so-awesome fundraising, and the Democrats are kicking the Republicans’ ass in fundraising anyway.
Bunch of spoiled brat bubble babies who think that seeing comments from similarly-whiney people on left-wing web sites makes them a force.
Not only are your threats hollow, they’re also immoral – the politics of hostage-taking. “Give me what I want, all of it, now, or the women, minorities, gays, workers, and environment gets it!”
Screw you. Ever see “The Untouchables?” Take the shot! Take the shot!
FlipYrWhig - August 10, 2010 | 9:31 pm · Link
I like how some of the first several comments were all about how the Democrats were far too ball-less to make some political hay out of this vote… and then the Democrats, today, already set about making political hay out of this vote… and got bupkes credit for it.
And I love hearing about “what Democrats should do” and having it rather often be something they’re already fuckin’ doing.
scarshapedstar - August 10, 2010 | 9:54 pm · Link
@joe from Lowell:
More like Joe from Connecticut.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal) - August 10, 2010 | 9:57 pm · Link
When he talked about the “professional left”, I think Gibbs meant people who have a ‘stake’ in whatever issue(s) they are screaming about. People who want page clicks, pundit jobs and appearances on the web and TV; people who need an outraged audience to push their agenda or whatever. Of course this means that these people and their fluffers are butthurt and howling out loud. What is even funnier is that Gibbs was only pointing out that the noise from these factions will not diminish because whatever Obama does (or does not do) is never enough for these purists.
Listening to all of the yowling I would have to venture a guess that the truth hurts…lol!
SiubhanDuinne - August 10, 2010 | 10:19 pm · Link
@wobbly #56: I’m guessing matoko_chan’s posts have sent you into severe depression.
Corner Stone - August 10, 2010 | 10:31 pm · Link
@scarshapedstar:
I think of him as joe from LOL, but he does seem a lot like that pandering motherfucker from CT as well.
joe from Lowell - August 10, 2010 | 10:38 pm · Link
Actually, I think that better describes the people who keep stabbing Democrats in the back while congratulating themselves on their purity.
That’s the Joe from Connecticut I’ve seen.
I think the fact that the single least-respected regular since Brick Oven Bill bears a grudge against me is a point of pride.
greyjoy - August 10, 2010 | 10:43 pm · Link
Ha. We had a freakin’ bridge collapse because our governor was too busy “trimming expenditures” to fix it (but oh, we could find the money to build a new Twins stadium). Don’t use MN as an example for prudent spending.
cleek - August 10, 2010 | 10:43 pm · Link
@wobbly:
it’s something cool kids pretend not to have because they, unlike most people in the country, pretend that they don’t evaluate politicians on anything but cold, factual, objective performance metrics. only a drooling rube would let something as uncivilized and gauche like feelings guide them in their decision making.
Corner Stone - August 10, 2010 | 10:43 pm · Link
@joe from LOL:
The most important thing to people who bear a point of pride is that they are seen to bear a point of pride.
Susan Kitchens - August 10, 2010 | 10:59 pm · Link
@wobbly:
Another fascinating bit of trivia re: ZOMG.
It’s a typo-joke.
Think of someone being so amped in the process of typing OMG (or omigawd!) that s/he misses the shift key (which is next to the Z key) and hits the Z key in addition. ZOMG! Which has that little extra bit of emphasis, with the typo included.
Typo jokes. Kinda like teh as in teh awesome and teh internets.
Another one that’s like that is the anything with a series of
points! interspersed with 1s; both of which are the result of tapping the same key—one using shift, one w/o. (You can’t type a bunch of these together here at Balloon Juice, 
, for some reason, FYWP!)
So I’ll give an example, but with a space inserted between each one to overcome the BJ FYWP problem.
LOL! ! 1 ! ! ! 1
Comrade Kevin - August 10, 2010 | 11:01 pm · Link
It’s a phrase that should be banished from the Internet forever.
AhabTRuler - August 10, 2010 | 11:09 pm · Link
@Susan Kitchens:
<grin>
Sure ya can!!1!!!1!!
</ grin>
Tib - August 11, 2010 | 1:25 am · Link
That rotten leftist, Digby, has already done her duty, now its Time for Gibbs to dump on her and bend over backwards to please unreasonable republicans. In other words, snafu.
joe from Lowell - August 11, 2010 | 9:47 am · Link
@Corner Stone: Dude, I matter waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much to you.
sparky - August 11, 2010 | 10:05 am · Link
@Davis X. Machina: alsome!
so what’s america’s other white meat? fear?
August J. Pollak - August 11, 2010 | 10:26 am · Link
Fake macho posturing, application of movie scenes to real life, forced slang, empty threats, and delusions of grandeur.
The rest of my comment writes itself in your mind!
mds - August 11, 2010 | 12:17 pm · Link
Oh, come on, guys. joe from Lowell is not from Connecticut. He’s from Massachusetts, the state that elected Scott Brown to the US Senate because Democratic pols fucked up so badly and acted like voters were obliged to vote for them no matter what. I’m sure it was really the fault of the DFH’s in Cambridge who nevertheless voted for Coakley 84-15 rather than replace Ted Kennedy with a shallow Republican phony. Hey joe, tell us again how great the morning turnout for Coakley looked in Lowell … which went for Brown, probably because of Jane Hamsher.