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Open thread

by DougJarvus Green-Ellis

Do not miss your chance to blow.

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January 18, 2012 3:41 pm Posted in: Open Thread, Readership Capture  75 Comments

75 Responses

  1. D-boy - January 18, 2012 | 3:45 pm · Link

    busy losing myself in the music

  2. Brian S - January 18, 2012 | 3:45 pm · Link

    It doesn’t matter what you think about Occupy—charging protesters with lynching is bullshit. http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_n.....allegation

  3. flukebucket - January 18, 2012 | 3:46 pm · Link

    My wingnut boss is shittin’ bricks about Obama supposedly nixing the pipeline that I don’t know a damn thing about. He is stuttering around here sentences containing “god damn snail darters” and ” fucking spotted owls”

    Somebody clue me in.

  4. piratedan - January 18, 2012 | 3:47 pm · Link

    anyone in the Phx area looking to add a cat to their personal animal repertoire? Please let me know, I have a line on a young gent named Truman who likes folks but doesn’t feel the need for constant cuddling.

  5. lacp - January 18, 2012 | 3:48 pm · Link

    Thought the folks on this site might like to know about about who’s delivering human services here in Pennsylvania….http://www.philly.com/philly/n.....=125459078

  6. Cris (without and H) - January 18, 2012 | 3:49 pm · Link

    #FactsWithoutWikipedia

  7. Corner Store Operator - January 18, 2012 | 3:50 pm · Link

    Angry DJ the Balloon Juice community needs your take on the Big Dog in Esquire.

    http://www.esquire.com/feature.....-2012-0212

    There is plenty of reasonable sounding words and then stuff like this

    “But I still believe John Boehner has good sense, and he’s got a pretty good feel for America, you know, all that time he spent in his daddy’s bar, he’s got a pretty good feel for where Joe Six-Pack is, and I think that is important.”

  8. Zifnab - January 18, 2012 | 3:50 pm · Link

    There goes my mom’s spaghetti.

  9. dmsilev - January 18, 2012 | 3:51 pm · Link

    In one single sentence, Newt Gingrich removes any possible doubt that he should be kept far far away from the Presidency:

    In an interview with Wolf Blitzer that will air today at 5:25 pm E.T. on CNN, Newt Gingrich said he will ask Sarah Palin “to play a major role” in his administration if elected President.

  10. Violet - January 18, 2012 | 3:54 pm · Link

    That Very Special Number makes another appearance:

    In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 60 percent say Mr. Obama is attempting to work with Congressional Republicans to try to accomplish something; 27 percent say Republicans in Congress are making the same effort to work things out with the president.

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.....-gridlock/

    Who are these idiot 27%-ers? Have they brains?

  11. handsmile - January 18, 2012 | 3:54 pm · Link

    Copa del Rey. Bernabeu. Catalans. 4:00pm EST. ESPN Deportes. For thems in the know.

  12. The Moar You Know - January 18, 2012 | 3:54 pm · Link

    @flukebucket: Tell your boss the reason the pipeline terminates in British Columbia is so the Canadians can ship their oil directly to China. That’s shut up every wingnut I’ve run into so far.

  13. dmsilev - January 18, 2012 | 3:54 pm · Link

    @Zifnab: She can get some fresh cuttings from Switzerland.

  14. Angry DougJ - January 18, 2012 | 3:55 pm · Link

    @Corner Store Operator:

    I’ve soured on the Big Dog but I don’t disagree with him there, though I hate the “Joe Six-Pack” cliche. If Boehner could do as he pleased without being shivved by Cassius Cantor, the Republican Congress would be in much better shape today. Boehner is sensible politically, but he can’t handle his caucus.

  15. Punchy - January 18, 2012 | 3:55 pm · Link

    5 mins until Real Madrid v. Barca rematch and the R-Dude who posts soccer shit here is nowhere to be found!

  16. Maude - January 18, 2012 | 3:55 pm · Link

    @Corner Store Operator:
    Boehner got a good sense of where the booze was.

  17. Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 3:56 pm · Link

    Making lentils. Don’t judge me. :)

  18. Jim, Foolish Literalist - January 18, 2012 | 3:56 pm · Link

    a few minutes ago on MSNBC, they showed Gingrich being thanked by a supporter for “putting Juan Williams in his place”. Maybe it was my liberal bias, but I swear Newtie looked a little nervous. “Oh shit, don’t these fucking rubes know about coding!”

  19. Brachiator - January 18, 2012 | 3:57 pm · Link

    My new response to supposed progressives still whining about how Obama has failed them:

    Vada a bordo, cazzo!

    From the Reuters story:

    The Coast Guard officer who ordered the captain of the capsized Italian cruise ship to go back aboard unwittingly became an instant hero on Wednesday, credited with saving the national honor on one of its darkest nights.

    Italy has become enthralled with the tale of two captains.
    One is Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco, who furiously ordered the skipper of the Costa Concordia to return to his ship and oversee the rescue operations.

    The other is Captain Francesco Schettino – whom newspapers have branded a coward for fleeing in the face of adversity and who is now under house arrest, accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

    “Listen Schettino, perhaps you have saved yourself from the sea but I will make you look very bad. I will make you pay for this. Go on board (Expletive!)” De Falco yelled at Schettino during a 4-minute radio exchange made public on Tuesday.

    The Italian word De Falco used, “cazzo” in Italian, is slang for the male sexual organ but it is commonly used to emphasize something, equivalent to “Go on board, damn it.”

    A better translation might be “Go on board, pr^ck!”

    Anyhow, it’s re-election time.

  20. JGabriel - January 18, 2012 | 3:57 pm · Link

    DougJ @ Top:

    Do not miss your chance to blow.

    Whom?

    .

  21. JGabriel - January 18, 2012 | 3:58 pm · Link

    @Yutsano:

    Making lentils. Don’t judge me. :)

    I thought lentils were grown, not made.

    .

  22. BO_Bill - January 18, 2012 | 3:59 pm · Link

    Flukebucket;The Keystone pipeline is designed to transport liquid fuel from Canadian deposits to existing refining capacity in Texas. In order to construct this pipeline, federal permitting is required.

    The federal government hates liquid fuel as it is transportable, allowing Americans a great degree of independence. The goal is control and monitoring, which is to be imposed upon us with smart meters in the short term, see also SOPA, and the suspension of the Constitution in the longer term as the country is driven to hyperinflation, with the necessary collapse of the social safety net being used as an excuse to impose marital law.

    Therefore, the federal government comes up with completely bullshit reasons to deny permits to construct the pipelines. You need to understand that the Democratic Party is a far more Religious organization that those people in the Appalachian region dancing around with snakes. Their plan is really stupid and will not work.

  23. feebog - January 18, 2012 | 3:59 pm · Link

    Just got back from a golf lesson. low 60s here in SoCal, and Dan the Man figured out the flaw in my setup after three swings. Best $50 I ever spent.

  24. MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 4:01 pm · Link

    @Punchy: Just Wolves v Bham City on here.

  25. dmsilev - January 18, 2012 | 4:01 pm · Link

    @JGabriel: That’s only true if you believe in the atheistic soshalistic theory of Evolution. People of faith accept that God created the lentil, mainly because he wanted some nice soup on his day of rest.

  26. Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 4:02 pm · Link

    @JGabriel: Heh. Went to college in the region where about 80% of the world’s lentils are grown. Yum.

  27. MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 4:02 pm · Link

    @flukebucket:

    Shouldn’t he favor fucking spotted owls? Right to life and all that.

  28. smintheus - January 18, 2012 | 4:03 pm · Link

    There’s some devastating stuff in John McCain’s oppo research on Mitt Romney.

    For ex. Mitt’s involvement with Damon Labs in the early ‘90s encapsulates most of what is awful about him. Romney and Bain profited from a company that committed Medicare fraud on a vast scale while he sat on the board of directors. It was the biggest Medicare fraud settlement up until that time. Mitt later offered false and contradictory justifications. He even claimed that he exposed the fraud, when in fact he just went along with it quietly until he could sell his shares for a huge profit (about 500K).

  29. Martin - January 18, 2012 | 4:03 pm · Link

    @JGabriel:

    I thought lentils were grown, not made.

    And Yutsano said, Let the earth bring forth lentils, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

  30. Ben Cisco - January 18, 2012 | 4:03 pm · Link

    @Violet:

    Who are these idiot 27%-ers? Have they brains?

    1. They are who we thought they were. 2. No, but they are in search of some.

  31. eemom - January 18, 2012 | 4:03 pm · Link

    @Yutsano:

    fakes, as we Greeks call them.

    Yum.

    ETA: pronounced fah-KES.

  32. The Moar You Know - January 18, 2012 | 4:03 pm · Link

    Newt Gingrich said he will ask Sarah Palin “to play a major role” in his administration if elected President.

    @dmsilev: As if. Chief Ballwasher, maybe, but Newt doesn’t do equality.

    Like a pro DJ, he knows just what the idiot base wants to hear to keep the bar sales going. None of that shit off the new album, just the greatest hits, with the cool singer.

  33. El Tiburon - January 18, 2012 | 4:04 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill:
    Let me see if I understand you correctly.

    If I bend over and insert a rubber garden hose up my a-hole, then I do a jig whilst blinking out the Macarena in Morse Code, then we all get a pretty pony?

    Now, you tell me where I got it wrong.

  34. dmsilev - January 18, 2012 | 4:04 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill: You do know that ordinary tinfoil doesn’t work properly as a hat material, right? You need to use the heavy-duty stuff.

  35. Jim, Foolish Literalist - January 18, 2012 | 4:04 pm · Link

    @flukebucket: ask him if he knows what the Ogallala aquifer is, and which species is most dependent on it.

  36. Gin & Tonic - January 18, 2012 | 4:05 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill:

    impose marital law.

    After nearly four decades of matrimony, I can tell you that in my household, at least, marital law was imposed long ago. She’s right, I’m wrong. And if I think I’m right, then I’m wrong.

    It has worked so far.

  37. BO_Bill - January 18, 2012 | 4:05 pm · Link

    It all depends upon the contents of the garden hose.

  38. Martin - January 18, 2012 | 4:05 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill:

    Flukebucket;The Keystone pipeline is designed to transport liquid fuel from Canadian deposits to existing refining capacity in Texas. In order to construct this pipeline, federal permitting is required.

    So, this is a big government giveaway to the people of Texas rather than just allowing the good people of Montana to build their own refineries and create jobs there.

    Fucking soçialist plots.

  39. gaz - January 18, 2012 | 4:06 pm · Link

    @flukebucket: And if he doesn’t care about the environment, you could always ask him why Boehnor is personally enriching himself off of his position as speaker.

    Environmentalists note that in December 2010, according to Boehner’s financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada’s oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport. The firms include six oil companies — BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon — along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada.

  40. Judas Escargot - January 18, 2012 | 4:07 pm · Link

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    ask him if he knows what the Ogallala aquifer is, and which species is most dependent on it.

    Here, have an Internet.

    (Parts of it are blacked-out today, but I hear that’s temporary…)

  41. MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 4:08 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill:

    Their plan is really stupid and will not work.

    Your strategic brilliance has captured my interest. Do you have a newsletter that I can subscribe to? Please, send me your name, address and bank details and I will mail the first check out right away.

  42. redshirt - January 18, 2012 | 4:08 pm · Link

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: HAHAHA, yeah, “Right to Life”, soooo very concerned with life. Well, precious “white life” maybe, but nor dirty Liberals either…

  43. BO_Bill - January 18, 2012 | 4:09 pm · Link

    Martin; Montana does not possess the refining capacity to process the Canadian oil and it is impossible to create new refining capacity for the reasons previously disclosed. Now, I’ve got to go and purchase saline solution. Have a nice day.

  44. PPOG Penguin - January 18, 2012 | 4:10 pm · Link

    @smintheus: 500K, a huge profit? Why, in Mitt Romney units, it’s only 1.33 “not very much”es!

  45. Judas Escargot - January 18, 2012 | 4:11 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill:

    It all depends upon the contents of the garden hose.

    Liquid fuels, obviously.

  46. Maude - January 18, 2012 | 4:11 pm · Link

    AP Headline: Cruise captain said he tripped and fell into the lifeboat.
    This is great.

  47. feebog - January 18, 2012 | 4:11 pm · Link

    The Stupid, it burns:

    The Keystone pipeline is designed to transport liquid fuel from Canadian deposits to existing refining capacity in Texas.

    Liquid fuel? The pipeline is designed to carry tar sands OIL to the gulf coast, where it will then be refined into gasoline, other petroleum products and shipped overseas.

    We already have a pipeline from the Alberta tar sands that terminates in Indiana. But that oil is refined and then has to be transported to ports for overseas sales. The Koch Brothers and their fellow oil refiners want the oil delivered to them in Houston, cuts costs and will make them their 26th billion dollars.

    Moran.

  48. lacp - January 18, 2012 | 4:12 pm · Link

    @Judas Escargot: ..or santorum, one…..

  49. gaz - January 18, 2012 | 4:15 pm · Link

    @feebog: Don’t blame BO_Bill – ceramic fillings make the signal come in less clearly than the classic amalgam variety that they used to use.

  50. rlrr - January 18, 2012 | 4:15 pm · Link

    @Maude:

    And was wearing a woman’s dress because he was attending a costume ball…

  51. Cassidy - January 18, 2012 | 4:15 pm · Link

    Open thread: Been watching Korean/Chinese/Japanese action movies lately. Grittier, for sure, but the late 80’s/ early 90’s swagger of Hong Kong is missing.

  52. The Moar You Know - January 18, 2012 | 4:15 pm · Link

    @BO_Bill: Work of art, son. You have my respect.

  53. efgoldman - January 18, 2012 | 4:16 pm · Link

    @feebog:

    ...low 60s here in SoCal…

    Go to hell.

  54. smintheus - January 18, 2012 | 4:17 pm · Link

    @PPOG Penguin: And Damon Clinical Laboratories was only 13th on Mother Jones’ list of the top 100 corporate criminals from the 1990s. So penny ante crime, really.

  55. freelancer - January 18, 2012 | 4:18 pm · Link

    @piratedan:

    anyone in the Phx area looking to add a cat to their personal animal repertoire? Please let me know, I have a line on a young gent named Truman who likes folks but doesn’t feel the need for constant cuddling.

    I’d take him but I get uncomfortably allergic to cats.

  56. Cris (without and H) - January 18, 2012 | 4:25 pm · Link

    @flukebucket: So you got Brick Oven Bill’s take, here’s another.

  57. Mnemosyne - January 18, 2012 | 4:25 pm · Link

    @piratedan:

    Who’s the commenter who’s living alone in a trailer in Arizona for the next six months because of work? I can’t remember her name, but I know she was feeling cat-minded because living completely alone was kind of freaking her out.

  58. MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 4:27 pm · Link

    @Mnemosyne:

    Who’s the commenter who’s living alone in a trailer in Arizona

    Sarah Palin comments here?

  59. Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 4:29 pm · Link

    @eemom: Cinnamon is so underrated as a savoury seasoning in American cuisine. Of course I was going for a semi-Indian effect, but these are still quite nom.

  60. smintheus - January 18, 2012 | 4:30 pm · Link

    This is from a Boston Globe report (Oct. 10, 2002) exposing Romney’s role in the Damon Labs scandal.

    Romney said yesterday he was a proactive board member who helped to uncover the fraud. He said he and other board members became aware of the problem after another laboratory, in December 1992, was found to have committed fraud through use of a billing system similar to Damon’s. Romney said the board used its New York law firm to investigate, and as a result, the board took ‘’corrective action’’ months before Damon was sold to Corning.
    However, court records – including statements from prosecutors and Damon’s own admissions – tell a different story, and reveal that the fraudulent activity occurred right up until the time Bain and other owners sold the company to Corning. Prosecutors also give sole credit to Corning for cleaning up the fraud after it purchased the company from Bain and other owners.

    Could find no link to the original report on line.

    Anyway, there it is: Romney the liar.

  61. smintheus - January 18, 2012 | 4:33 pm · Link

    Should have added this graf from the Globe report:

    In addition, Damon’s filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission during the weeks and months just prior to the sale contain no mention of possible legal problems over its billing system, or potential negative impact that would require downward revenue revisions. Such disclosure would be required if any potential legal issues confronting a company would have a ‘’material’’ effect on the company’s financial standings.

    So another kind of fraud Romney and Bain were mixed up in with Damon. This ought to be poison for Mitt.

  62. rlrr - January 18, 2012 | 4:34 pm · Link

    @smintheus:

    But, IOKIYAR.

  63. Danny - January 18, 2012 | 4:37 pm · Link

    Your tax dollars at work:

    A report released Wednesday says the number of homeless people in America fell slightly between 2009 and 2011 despite a teetering economy [...] Despite the dire economy, homelessness decreased 1 percent, or by about 7,000 people, during the period – a development the report’s authors said was most likely due to a significant investment of federal money to prevent homelessness and quickly rehouse people who did become homeless. [...] The report cites the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, or HPRP, a federal program established with $1.5 billion in funding from the stimulus package passed by Congress in 2009 at the urging of President Barack Obama. In 2010, its first year of operation, the program helped nearly 700,000 at-risk and homeless people, the report said.

    Yeah. You’d expect homelessness to explode in the worst recession since the 30s, wouldn’t you? But it’s decreased. Think about that for a minute. A big thanks to you, me, the President, and the 111th congress for helping making that happen.

  64. dmsilev - January 18, 2012 | 4:39 pm · Link

    Oh my. Erick Erickovich is calling for Perry to drop out:

    Perry, however, has a potential trump card up his sleeve as he rebuilds political capital. It’s simple: he can drop out today, and endorse someone else. Doing so today, before the CNN Debate tomorrow, gives the news time to sink in.
    [...]
    With Newt Gingrich surging according to the latest Rasmussen poll and Sarah Palin saying she’d support him, Perry’s withdrawal and endorsement before Saturday could ensure a Gingrich win.

    Pass. The. Popcorn.

  65. trollhattan - January 18, 2012 | 4:40 pm · Link

    @feebog:

    And at present while we’re a net importer of crude we’re a net exporter of fuel because we’re refining more than we’re consuming.

    Tell me again why we have to have this dirty (quite dirty to extract compared to conventional oil) Canadian shite?

    As to BOB’s latest “theory,” it sure avoids the vast Republican love of coal, doesn’t it?

  66. Maude - January 18, 2012 | 4:46 pm · Link

    @rlrr:
    LOL

  67. Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 4:52 pm · Link

    @dmsilev: Apparently Eric ibn Eric didn’t get the memo about Governor Goodhair getting sweet sweet cash to stay in as long as possible.

  68. MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 4:52 pm · Link

    @Danny: Worse than Bush. He sold us out. Veal pens under the bus.

  69. feebog - January 18, 2012 | 4:53 pm · Link

    Trollhatten:

    The only thing this pipeline accomplishes is to further enrich the Koch Brothers. BO Bill, good little rightwing troll that he is, dutifully cites the talking points, even if they are somewhat mangled in translation.

  70. smintheus - January 18, 2012 | 4:56 pm · Link

    @feebog: Why do so many commenters here feed the trolls?

  71. Cris (without an H) - January 18, 2012 | 4:58 pm · Link

    @smintheus: SIWOTI

  72. Calouste - January 18, 2012 | 5:03 pm · Link

    @dmsilev:

    Gingrich can promise Perry Secretary of State in his cabinet. I’m sure Turkey will appreciate that. Probably to the point that they are going to award their ambassador to the US a few weeks extra vacation.

  73. Moik - January 18, 2012 | 5:25 pm · Link

    ‘Cause opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo.

    (..assuming OP is an 8-Mile reference)

  74. JPL - January 18, 2012 | 5:28 pm · Link

    @smintheus: You jest right. Rick Scott is Governor of FL rather than in jail.

  75. Southern Beale - January 18, 2012 | 5:46 pm · Link

    TN Legislators have filed a bill to evict Occupy Nashville.

    Seems like we’ve been there before but whatever…


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