(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
__
__
Professor Krugman, perceptive as always:
As Sandy barreled toward New Jersey, there were hopeful mutters on the right to the effect that it might become President Obama’s Katrina, with voters blaming him for the damage, and that this might matter on Tuesday. Sorry, guys: polls show overwhelming approval for Mr. Obama’s handling of the storm, and a significant rise in his overall favorability ratings.
And he deserves the bump. For the response to Sandy, like the success of the auto bailout, is a demonstration that Mr. Obama’s philosophy of government — which holds that the government can and should provide crucial aid in times of crisis — works. And conversely, the contrast between Sandy and Katrina demonstrates that leaders who hold government in contempt cannot provide that aid when it is needed…
Like Mr. Clinton, President Obama restored FEMA’s professionalism, effectiveness, and reputation. But would Mitt Romney destroy the agency again? Yes, he would. As everyone now knows — despite the Romney campaign’s efforts to Etch A Sketch the issue away — during the primary Mr. Romney used language almost identical to Mr. Allbaugh’s, declaring that disaster relief should be turned back to the states and to the private sector.
Greg Sargent, at the Washington Post, as “Mitt Romney insults the American electorate one last time“:
… The important thing to remember here is that the GOP argument for a Romney victory rests explicitly on the hope that those who turned out to vote for Obama last time won’t be quite as engaged this time around. Republicans are hoping the electorate is not as diverse as it was in 2008, and they are arguing that the GOP base’s enthusiasm is much higher than that of core Dem constituencies. The Romney camp seems to think it will help whip GOP base voters into a frenzy — and perhaps boost turnout — if Romney casts the way Obama is urging Democratic base voters to get more involved in the process as something sininster and threatening. This is beyond idiotic; it is insulting to people’s intelligence.
The Post editorial board, in a widely cited piece, has claimed that the one constant about the Romney campaign has been that it is driven by “contempt for the electorate.” To make this case, the editorial cites Romney’s nonstop flip flops, his evasions about his own proposals, his refusal to share basic information about his finances and bundlers, and his monumental Jeep falsehood and all his other big lies. It’s fitting that Romney’s closing argument rests heavily on one last sustained expression of that contempt for the electorate — one focused squarely on a call for more engagement in the political process, i.e., on something that is fundamental to democracy itself.
Actually, I believe Mr. Sargent may be unduly optimistic; there is, at a minimum, another good 48 hours for Willard to insult us all before the (please Goddess!) overwhelming electoral victory marking President Obama’s second term distracts the Koch-compliant media from the current figurehead of the GOP Revanchist Party…
Finally, via Paul Constant, a reminder — even Republicans who had to try and work with Romney during his one stint as an elected official found him frustratingly disconnected and self-involved:
MikeJ
From the King County(WA) Election Commission:
amk
sam wang
Can you any of BJ’ers essplain the piece ?
amk
Of course, Nate has Obama up to 86.3% with 307.2 EV. mittbot down to 13.7%.
Patricia Kayden
So hoping for a disaster to show up the President is a political and winning strategy for Repugs? Nice.
To hell with the human beings who would be hurt if that happened, right?
sharl
Yet another good video, my only gripe being the captioning that covers up the names/titles of the interviewees. But I assume there is a “clean” version on the innertubes somewhere.
#NitPick
MikeJ
@amk: He means Florida could go either way, but Obama will probably win the election as a whole either way Florida goes.
sharl
@sharl: Ha! Just saw the option – in the pop-up horizontal menu along the bottom edge of the video – for turning off close-captioning.
Nevermind…
arguingwithsignposts
@MikeJ:
Ye gods, man! What manner of sorcery be this?
Hal
I know this has been asked a million times, but what the hell is up with Florida? You would think the one state where seniors would be the most sour on Romney/Ryan is Florida. But as many have pointed out, this is the state of Rick Scott, Allen West, Terri Schiavo, Jeb Bush, and Katherine Toomuchmakeup (can’t remember her last name) and of course, Bush V Gore, so I guess I answered my own question.
Narcissus
I think a function of this campaign, given just how much of a non-entity Mitt Romney is, will be to illuminate precisely how racist certain parts of America are, especially Florida.
JPL
@Hal: Seniors were told they could choose between two wonderful medicare plans with Romney and only a crappy one with Obama. The President made a mistake by not defining the Ryan/Romney plan first. I think it was another case of MSM wouldn’t let them get away with a blatant lie would they.
The number one problem in America btw is government funding for abortion and the deficit. Mitt can solve both these problems by giving tax cuts to the wealthy.
Schlemizel
I thought this cartoon might have some impact with anyone thinking there is no difference or are otherwise undecided:
http://www.gocomics.com/jeffdanziger/2012/11/04
Its Rmoney’s cabinet picks
amk
@Narcissus: It’s time dems started a strategic plan to turn TX blue than come a cropper against this stupid state repeatedly.
Raven
@Hal: The are just as scared as all the people here with the “I’m a scared if we win, I’m scared if we lose, I’m scared if we tie.”
JPL
@Raven: Did you have visitors in your attic or did your patch work?
Schlemizel
@JPL:
Don’t all BJ commentors have visitors in our attic?
Happy Monday ev’body
kay
@Hal:
I wonder if it’s (slight) differences in class, the folks who can afford to move to Florida are a little better off than the people who stay here (Ohio).
I got a lot of nervous questions on Ryan’s plan at senior centers and things from people who have, say, a paid-off 50k house and a pension and/ or SS. Older people who are in the middle class but could very easily fall out of it seem to stay put. They can’t risk a move. I wonder if the people who retire to FL are a little more financially secure.
1badbaba3
Ya gotta love Krugthulu, railing against the storm of idiocy, with his faithful sidekick Sliverboy (BoySilver? Super Nate? – hey, it’s early. Coffee +1) fighting off the yahoos at their own paper. Whodathunk that the GreyLady would need to be cockblocked from schlepping for the Reich. Interesting times, indeed.
Schlemizel
@kay:
Where in FLA you are makes a big difference. The corner of hell I inhabited (Brevard County, that bump on the East coast) had several developments of mobile homes or lower quality pre-fab jobs for seniors. They were not particularly well off. They sure did luvs them some Rush and FAUX news though. I saw other places in the state (Naples being the stand out in my mind) with million dollar retirement homes. You probably could have bought a whole development in Sun Tree Woods for the cost of one of those places.
arguingwithsignposts
@1badbaba3: StatBoy?
That would make an awesome photoshop – Krugthulu and StatBoy vs. the Moustache of Understanding and the League of Incompetence.
hep kitty
24 hours. Wowee. I can’t believe it’s finally here. So ready for it to be over! Reached craven mendacity saturation point several days ago.
kay
@Schlemizel:
Yeah, I know there’s a lot of low-cost housing in FL. I still think people who are less secure stay put, partly because they want/need to stay closer to grown children. I just noticed the difference this year. I don’t think it’s huge, I know we’re not talking about millionaires down there, but a lot of our seniors are living very close to the edge. They really have just enough to get by. I don’t know that they could put together 10k to move unless they sold their house here. It would be a big risk for them. I think that’s why they stay.
1badbaba3
@arguingwithsignposts: I am liking that very much. Stat Boy. Yes, that will work. I wish I was blessed with the art fu, or I’d be all over that. Especially that villainous moustache and douchehat, or bag or whatever.
Yes, Krugthulu and Stat Boy… I like the cut of their jibs. Or whatever the plural of jib is. Still too early (as Raven said earlier) coffee +1 1/2.
dmsilev
@amk: Simplifying somewhat, the reason that Obama’s expected Electoral Vote count suddenly dropped in his model was that North Carolina shifted from toss-up to favor-Romney.
piratedan
Florida, where seniors are most likely to vote for the Soylent Green option.
Napoleon
@amk:
@dmsilev:
And to take it a step further the EV is not necessarily predictive of the percentage likelyhood BO will prevail. You could have the EV drop yet the % rise as BO consolidates his lead in the states he leads in. In the EV race an inch is as good as a mile.
Suffern ACE
@JPL: yeah. That kind of sums it up. That expensive Medicare advantage plan isn’t welfare! It’s my god given right.
Punchy
I now certain that they will attempt to litigate every single swing state’s voting totals, in an effort to help delegitimize O’s clear victory and paint him as an election stealer and illegitimate winner. If they cant win (and they wont), I expect this character assassination to be full-force and severe.
1badbaba3
Soylent Green, it’s what’s for dinner.
magurakurin
@amk: Sam Wang posted a comparison of his model and some of the other biggies. One thing I took away from it is that his model is more concerned with predicting who will win and not as much on a prediction of the actual EV total. He has said many times that his bread and butter metric is the Meta Margin and that is a more steady metric than the EV count because it is just who wins. If Obama wins by 1 or by 150 the Meta Margin wouldn’t really change much.
His EV count is now where my own personal ballpark guess has been for quite a while now, 303. I think Romney takes FL and NC and the rest of the “battleground” is a blue sweep.
can’t wait for this shit to be over though. Rmoney turns my stomach. A despicable life form he is.
mai naem
@kay: I have seen a lot of people including seniors in the last few years(esp. the last couple of years) who are having financial issues. I know several people who’ve lost their homes. I have way too many pan handlers come up to me when I am at a store. A friend of mine said he had a well dressed woman come up to him outside a grocery store pan handling for money because she didn’t have money for necessities. I find it really scary and sad. And then when I see idiots vote for the guy who pays 10 percent in tsxes because he won’t abort babeeez just makes me want to scream. Who cares about aborting babeeez when you have adults who are homeless who can’t get healthcare.
Paul
@kay:
I don’t know if that’s it, though. Even if elderly people in FL are more financially secure, a lot of them will suffer significantly if medicare turns into vouchercare. You really have to be very wealthy not to be impacted at that point.
I just surprises me that seniors either are that selfless (they are OK with vouchercare as long as it helps our country’s finances), selfish (they believe vouchercare will just be for those 55 or younger)or just gullible (they believe vouchercare will just be for those 55 or younger).
Boy are they in for a surprise if Romney wins.
1badbaba3
@Punchy: Yeah, ‘cos they’ve been holding it back these past four years of harmony and understanding. Kumbaya!
NotMax
Speaking of Florida:
Rankles deeply that Trayvon Martin will never get an opportunity to vote (he would not have been old enough to register for this election).
SiubhanDuinne
Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
Remember, remember
The Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Question for R-Jud, Litlebritdiffrent, and any other Brits/expats in these parts: Is GFD still celebrated or even observed much in the UK? Do kids still go door to door begging “a penny for the guy,” or has Hallowe’en pretty much supplanted that tradition?
Jeremy
Obama is going to win Florida narrowly. I don’t why people expect Florida to go big for any candidate in the general because it never does. I don’t care about crappy right wing polls like Mason-Dixon which have a track record of being wrong. Look at the early vote(ground game) and look at the more legit polls. CNN, NBC-marist have had the race close in that state. I see Obama pulling a 2 point victory in the state.
jayboat
@Schlemizel:
You ain’t kidding- sometimes it feels like Naples ain’t nothing but gated communities and high-end restaurants. There are a few areas designated for the help and the pool boys to live, but there are few what I could consider real neighborhoods here.
During the primaries this place was a regular stop on the grift circuit- every one of the lizards came through with their hands out. I seriously considered actions that would have gotten me arrested a few times. Hell, Rick Scott has a place here… if knew where he lived and could get to his house, I’d go egg it today I’m so pissed at him.
debbie
Flipping around the radio stations on Thursday morning, people were already complaining about East Coast liberals lining up for government handouts.
@punchy:
I agree. Glenn Beck has predicted a 50-state sweep for Romney, so anything less than that will be painted as voter fraud.
Emma
@Hal: For an answer to that, I refer you to the novels of Carl Hiaasen. Who, IIRC, has said he’s no longer writing them because his imagination isn’t up to it.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Some person or group, some years ago, did an analysis based on the number and size of the kegs, what is known of the quality and composition of the powder, and the structure of the room and its immediate surroundings.
Their conclusion was that had everything been set off and exploded, the result would have amounted to little more than cosmetic damage (and localized oxygen deprivation).
Raven
@JPL: They are there, I probably sealed them in but I have traps too so I’m hoping.
Raven
President McCain is on Joe explaining why Libya is worse than Watergate.
Elizabelle
Listening idly to Morning Joe. President McCain is on.
Someone mentioned that Jeff Zeleney of the NY Times thinks the enthusiasm is on Romney’s side.
Seriously??
Obama/Bill Clinton just held a rally that drew 24,000 to a Northern Virginia outdoor ampitheatre on a cold Saturday night.
Anybody know what Romney’s event numbers look like?
Also, we’ll all rest easier knowing that President McCain is calling for a Senate Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi consulate deaths.
This is Morning Joe doing GOTV for Romney.
PS: Stephanie Cutter’s up on Morning Joe shortly.
A dispatch from the sane world.
J.D. Rhoades
@Punchy:
I expect impeachment hearings to begin in the House on November 7th.
That’s what I find depressing. Even if, as seems likely, President Obama wins, he’s going to face the same obstructive House (minus, please Lord, Michelle Bachmann)and a Senate where a single wingnut Senator can and will throw a wrench in the works just for shits and giggles. Will the Rethuglicans learn from their defeat? Have they ever?
NotMax
@Raven
Suggestion I learned from an exterminator a long time ago and have benefited from ever since:
Mix roughly half-and-half creamy peanut butter and powdered Sakrete or other cement mix.
Form into small balls and place them around.
Critters will nibble on it, and when they drink water afterwards it is lights out with a gut full of concrete.
Recipe as originally received called for some Nestle’s Quik powder to be added, but I’ve never bothered with that bit.
kay
@Jeremy:
I think Republicans called Florida for Romney (and media went along) because they didn’t want a lot of scrutiny on the voter suppression going on down there. “Ohio! Ohio! Ohio! Look over there!”
If this had been sold by media as a toss-up on BOTH Florida and Ohio, and we had 4-5-6 hours lines to vote in Florida, Governor Scott’s voter suppression would be a bigger issue.
Raven
@NotMax: Yea but if they die behind the walls?
eta
I guess they would have to leave to get water. Wonder how fast is happens. The other worry is my voracious Cocker. She’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat her first.
sherparick
I am going to link to this Juan Cole column about what a Romney administration would actually mean and govern. Since his obvious primary policy goal will be to have a massive transfers of wealth to the top .1% from everyone else, he and his class will have to figure ways to maintain power other than what is called “Democracy,” and replace it with an authoritarian regime (which Cole calls “Capitalist Dictatorship.” http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/5-disturbing-signs-romney-would-steer-us-towards-capitalist-dictatorship
By the way, the VSPs in the media, as signaled by the Allen and Vanderhei piece in Politico, would not have a problem with this as they already consider the votes of the Browns, Blacks, and DFHs not really equal to the votes of the wealthy, as their class interests and values (bolstered by all those $50,000 per event speaker fees) firmly ally with the .1%.
NotMax
@Not Max
Should specify that that is for varmints (rats, mice, raccoons and the like).
If roaches are the problem then small balls of one-third boric acid, one-third Kool-aid powder and one-third peanut butter will work quite well.
Elizabelle
@J.D. Rhoades:
Then we just work all the harder to prevail in the midterms of 2014. Seriously.
Paul
@J.D. Rhoades:
Let’s not forget the electorate. They voted in the GOP House in 2010. This is the same House that killed every jobs bill over the last two years. This is the same electorate that claims they want jobs and an improved economy. And now they apparently want to re-elect the House.
Let’s not keep the electorate free from blame.
NotMax
@Raven
Possible, but slim likelihood. The concrete powder makes them thirsty, and unless you’ve got leak problems, they’ll eschew the space between the walls and go searching for water.
Elizabelle
@NotMax:
Forgive me, but the expanding concrete in the gut sounds so cruel. What a painful way for a raccoon or small mammal to die.
It would be more humane to run them down with a car. (And yeah, I know we’re not talking car in your attic.)
Isn’t there another way?
amk
@MikeJ: @dmsilev: @Napoleon: @magurakurin: Thank you all.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Raven: Grandpa Walnuts seems very concerned.
About the seniors voting for the Rombot(now with Windows ME); I’ve always had a pet theory about today’s seniors. Remember the ‘Greatest Generation’ are getting along in age, all in their late 80’s and above. The older baby boomers are just entering the senior population. The vast majority of the elderly are the ‘Silent Generation’, or as I call them the ‘Happy Days Generation’. They remember Truman from their youth as the guy who got us into Korea and the Ike years were their teen years and early 20 years. Good times, then the world went to hell in a handbasket when the oldest boomers got into their late teens and early 20’s. They’re just going to naturally lean to the R’s.
J.D. Rhoades
@Elizabelle:
I know. I’m just exhausted.
amk
Drats. Moderation. The post was to thank the peeps who answered my sam wang question.
Schlemizel
@jayboat:
The worst example I ever saw was Palm Beach/West Palm Beach. Most people are aware of the money in Palm Beach but they don’t know that over on the mainland is West PB. Its where the help lives; many are undocumented Haitians. It is literally (and I mean that in a literal not euphemistic sense) tin shacks many with no windows, no plumbing and no electricity. It is the third world right there in the US.
NotMax
@Raven
Thought you mentioned it was an enclosed closet or shed or such. Should be a way to keep the doggie out (chicken wire perhaps?).
When drought hits here, we see Norwegian rats roughly the size of stretch limos come down from the hills and up from the fields, showing up inside houses looking for water and that recipe has yet to fail me in such circumstances.
arguingwithsignposts
@J.D. Rhoades:
Not no, but hell, no. They never learn. Who’s going to school them? Frank Luntz? Ari Fleischer? Karl Rove? Rush Limbaugh?
They’re already denying the validity of polls. Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed.
NotMax
@ Elizabelle
a) Not to be glib, but not a concern of mine. I’m certainly not going to live trap rats and set them loose to become someone else’s nuisance. YMMV
b) it is quick, and not a lingering death.
NotMax
@Raven
Thought you mentioned sometime earlier that it was an enclosed closet or shed or such. Should be a way to keep the doggie out (chicken wire perhaps?).
When drought hits here, we see Norwegian rats roughly the size of stretch limos come down from the hills and up from the fields, showing up inside houses looking for water and that recipe has yet to fail me in such circumstances.
sherparick
This is why I freak out a bit at all the privileged white angst about how “there is no difference between Obama and Romney” and how these people simply have not been paying attention to what Romney has actually said and promised to do in the Republican primaries. (See the latest such talk from Mike Kimmel at Angry Bear, http://www.angrybearblog.com/2012/11/obama-romney-enthusiasm.html#more)
Raven
@NotMax: They are behind the kneewalls of my office space in the upstairs of my old house. There were some pretty big gaps where I connected a sunporch/deck to the house a while back. I did my best to seal them and set traps (again) a baited them with canned catfood and peanuts.
Kirbster
One problem with voting in Florida (and a lot of other states) is that putting on any election is expensive, messy, disruptive, and necessary, yet very low priority in a state’s budget. So local election officials pack the presidential/congressional ballot with all manner of stuff: legislative representatives, city/county/state officials, judicial races, and dozens of ballot initiatives because presidential election years are the only time a large turnout is guaranteed. If a voter isn’t prepared (I used to bring a cheatsheet with me), it can take a long time to fill out the ballot. Even without deliberately cutting hours or under-equipping certain precincts to discourage voters, the lines tend to be long and slow-moving.
Raven
@NotMax: Squirrel cost me $4k in repairs on my rental. I am not concerned about how they go.
NotMax
@Raven
If the gaps are where the porch roof is supposed to meet the main building (and the gap not a chasm), might consider getting some metal flashing of the type used around chimney stacks where they come through the roof and a small pot of roofing tar to seal the edges of the flashing.
jayboat
@Schlemizel:
Out of sight, out of mind.
There’s a decent sized Haitian population here as well. They mostly work as baggers at Publix and taxi drivers.
A drive through Arcadia will open your eyes, too. It seems to be the unofficial state capital for migrant workers. Very sad looking place.
NotMax
@Raven
$4k?
Phew. That’s rough. Sounds as if they nibbled though the wiring?
Randy P
So if Cole and Tunch show up in your dreams, is that a sign of too much obsessive BJ reading/refreshing or something? My wife and I were meeting Cole at his house (in the dream) to go to NYC for unspecified reasons and I remember saying I wanted to meet Tunch in person. Then there was an argument about whether the Chelsea neighborhood (apparently our destination) was what used to be called Hell’s Kitchen.
All very random.
bjacques
If the gunpowder had gone off, it would have wiped out the building and everyone in it (scroll down to Reconstructing the explosion”).
In London, as I remember ten or eleven years ago,it was mostly sparklers (whoop-de-do) and illegal fireworks frightening dogs.
The best way to have fun is find a big public bonfire or a serious production like the one in Lewes, near Brighton. Order a £20 pound (10 years ago) ticket and a bus picks you up from a London pub, drives you to Lewes and back. Meanwhile, you follow the crowds to the old town center, where 20 or so Protestants were burnt in the time of Bloody Mary, and watch the bonfire crews march through three times, each parade noisier, flashier and smokier than the last, then head off to the field indicated on your ticket.
If you like fireworks, you absolutely must do this.
danielx
The sense of wingnut desperation in Indiana is almost palpable. Oh, they’ll probably win the governorship – John Gregg is a nice guy, but there’s no gainsaying the fact that Mike Pence is a lot more telegenic and has a lot more money behind him (surprise!), even if Pence is dumber than a post and a serious wingnut to boot. If you like living in a state with some of the worst environmental standards outside Texas, you’re going to love the next four years.
But Mourdock is a lost cause. Every time one of these guys opens his mouth and lets slip what he really thinks, a lot of other Republicans can’t create enough distance between them and the speaker quickly enough. They have a shrinking constituency, relative to the country at large, and every time the mask slips it shrinks a little more.
I am beginning to think that the key word in assessing Republicans at this point is…desperation. This is the last election that they can possibly win without pursuing one of two alternatives: either broadening the appeal of the party to make it more inclusive, to Hispanics in particular, or wholesale disenfranchisement of various voter groups – blacks, Hispanics and anyone else with whom they disagree over how the national pie is to be split up. Strategic disenfranchisement, you might say. Oh, they’re already trying it on a tactical, piecemeal basis, as witness their efforts in Ohio, Florida and wherever else they think they can get away with it. But barring repeal of the 14th Amendment, elimination of voting rights for
everyone who the Republican base detestswhole classes of voters is not in the cards.Republicans are caught in a trap of their own making. They’ve spent forty years winning elections with the Southern Strategy, but that strategy has just about reached its sell-by date. Either they broaden the party’s appeal – which will split the party – or they start losing elections by bigger and bigger margins. The former has already started happening, as lot of commentators here and elsewhere have noted. Bigotry, denial of reality and America fuck yeah! will only carry you so far when, as Lindsey Graham let slip in a moment of amazing honesty, “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.” Without getting into Obama’s virtues or flaws, a half decent Republican candidate this year – say, Jon Huntsman – would have run over Obama like a lawnmower, because there have been few incumbents (if any) more beset by troubles not of his own making than Obama. He hasn’t committed any gross and egregious blunders, but he hasn’t gotten one iota of assistance either and that’s after pissing off his own base in his efforts to compromise with the opposition.
But a party that presents a slate of candidates like those of the 2012 Republican primaries is a party that has little to offer except sheer meanness, especially when those candidates seemed to be competing to see who could be first to shove the throttle of the crazy train to the last stop. The number of candidates alone was an indication of a party in crisis (by American political standards) – one thing at which the Republicans have excelled over the past four decades in presidential election years was unity. None of the Democratic-style inter-party circular firing squads for them, no sir – until now.
St. Ronald of Reagan, to name their first champion, was a policy idiot – but he was a great candidate. People liked him, because he made them feel good about themselves and optimistic about the future, and therefore they didn’t listen too closely as to how he proposed to reach that future. Contrariwise, a party in which people like Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann are taken seriously is a party that’s headed off a cliff.
So this is it for the Republican Party as it currently exists – the last stand. If they win they have the opportunity to carry out, for a time, their programs and philosophy, for better or for worse. To – in effect – be given yet another chance to fuck things up by the numbers after the repeated disasters of the Cheney Regency. (Remember “deficits don’t matter”?) And, not incidentally, to raise further barriers to voting by those negatively affected by their policies, which will include just about everybody with a net worth of less than seven figures.
If they lose, they’re basically screwed – to use a historical analogy, they’re in the position of the German Army after Stalingrad. They might achieve some tactical successes but the long term numbers are against them, a fact of which at least some Republicans, like Karl Rove, are well aware. (Yes, he’s a detestable, odious, mendacious little shit. Nobody ever said he was stupid.) If they can’t win this year with the ocean of money that’s been unleashed by the Citizen’s United decision, they’re toast.
So let’s kick ass tomorrow. At this time on Wednesday morning I hope to be suffering from a serious victory hangover, and it’s the first time I’ve ever looked forward to one.
Mark S.
@Randy P:
Oh boy, paging Dr. Freud.
@VividBlueDotty
@amk: I don’t know what Plan A is for turning Texas blue, although I assume there is one. Plan B, which is virtually guaranteed to be successful, is “Wait 6-10 years.”
It’s gonna happen; the only question is when. And yes, it might well solve all this Florida/Ohio craziness.
NotMax
Monday’s drinking game:
Drink something every time someone says “down to the wire.”
NotMax
@bjacques
If memory serves, the study I mentioned above was done after that program aired, using computer modeling, and concluded that the upward explosion would have occurred and eaten up enough oxygen in the windowless room (due to the sheer number of kegs and to a lot of the interior space being taken up with piles of coal and wood) that, if the thick door was tightly shut, the rest of the explosion would have been snuffed out.
jayboat
@NotMax:
We’ll all be passed out by lunch.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks for not blaming the Boomers for once. This analysis matches what I’ve seen when working the polls.
amk
@@VividBlueDotty: I agree it will take that long but if the dems don’t start planning from now itself, it’s gonna take evn longer. If you look at the map, it’ sickening to see the wide swath of red.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@NotMax: That’s not a drinking game; it’s a recipe for alcohol poisoning.
rikyrah
@danielx:
thanks for your comment.
NotMax
Freaking hilarious.
No, not that someone is selling ‘Michelle Obama in 2016’ bumper stickers, – but that, at least when I accessed the page, the very first thing listed under Other Products You Might Like is a bumper sticker announcing ‘I (heart) Sarah Palin.’
Digital algorithms spit out the kwayziest things.
chopper
@arguingwithsignposts:
exactly. these guys are going to go even more all-in than before.
of course, the side effect of this is going to be a civil war in the GOP. with any luck, obama’s magical ability to drive his opponents insane will come in very useful here.
dww44
@kay: And, as usual, I think your on the ground observations are both thoughtful and correct. I’ve a cousin, who’s lived in the Vero Beach area for several decades, who despairs of the politics of her state. She’s a lifelong liberal. I try to keep her cheered up a bit. Although I am about to share with her Booman’s post about the disgusting Jim Crow voter suppression going on there.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/11/4/234558/410
1badbaba3
@Raven: Is he also explaining his daliance with the Libyan dictator in ’09, along with Lieberman-Douche, and Senator Lindsay “Blanche DuBois” Graham. They broke bread with that clown, and Walnuts tweeted that he was interesting or intriguing or some such shit.
These fucks have done nothing but whine and obstruct for years. Rusty pitchforks up the wazoo are too good for them. And throw the Morning Ho crew in there too.
Except for Mika, of course.
JoyfulA
@NotMax: I had the same problem years ago when a small warehouse next door was remodeled, and a huge rat, bigger than my cat, somehow got through the walls into my kitchen. The cat sitting guard (well, snoozing) in the kitchen kept the rat in the cupboards. Standard mousetraps didn’t work.
What did work were the sticky traps. Of course, the biggest sticky trap wasn’t big enough for this rat, but it did get one foot firmly stuck, at which point I beat it to death with a cane and dropped it in a water-filled trash can to make sure. Then I felt like a murderer; I had intended to drag trapped rat outside and gently release it.
A sticky trap also enabled me to catch an ugly if ordinary mouse last year.
YellowJournalism
@Randy P: As long as you weren’t cleaning the shower together while naked, you might be okay. Do not worry if Cole wasn’t wearing pants since that is his natural state.
Wag
I was at last night’s rally with POTUS in Aurora. 20,000 people in cold temp for a rally that finished at 11:15. Amazing energy, stating with the line to get in that stretched for over a mile, A great acoustic performance by Dave Matthews, and a classic speech by Obama, stating slow, and building to a great crescendo of a finish.
Photos here via the Denver Post
Schlemizel
@NotMax:
PS Please keep someone near by that can save you from alcohol poisoning!
FlipYrWhig
@Hal: What the hell is up with Florida is the same thing that’s up with idiots in every state — resentment that The Government is giving someone else a cushy life. Old people are VERY easy to manipulate with that line, because they feel like they have earned their benefits, which they badly need, through honest hard work, and if someone else starts to get them, they might run out. I’m telling you, it’s the whole reason why anyone apart from a filthy rich person is a Republican: to prevent the other crabs from getting out of the bucket.
Frankensteinbeck
@chopper:
They won’t learn, but I think they’ll tone it down for another reason: Despair. The racist segment of the population (including a whole lot of congressmen, like McConnell) has invested everything emotionally in defeating Obama’s reelection. Making him a one term president and then erasing all of his accomplishments is their way of punishing the black man for stepping out of place. It’s also crucial for making an example of Obama to other blacks who think they can grow up to be president. If Obama wins, they will have failed their one chance to do that. The risk of assassination (Celestia forbid) will skyrocket briefly, as will the wailing and gnashing of teeth, but then they’ll lose hope and they’ll move on to ‘What’s the point of fighting him anymore?’ It’ll die down to, say, Clinton Era levels of rudeness.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
I agree.
Which is to say, should “That One” win, the impeachment will be on its way by Wednesday morning.
maya
@Hal: Florida is America’s pecker with the clap.
Another Halocene Human
@JPL: The number one problem in America btw is government funding for abortion and the deficit. Mitt can solve both these problems by giving tax cuts to the wealthy.
There’s a ballot measure on there that would withhold Medicaid funding for abortions (I believe, from a plain and simple reading of the language, although Medicaid is not mentioned). Every person I’ve explained this to votes “no”, which actually surprised me, although I did point out how expensive births on Medicaid are, and the reasons they gave were compassionate.
The Dem party has also told people to vote “no” but the AFL-CIO refused to touch it.
I hope this measure fails. There must not have been a concerted effort or outreach, at least not to the Black churches.
J R in WVa
@NotMax:
Gunpowder contains all the oxygen it needs to explode completely – that’s why it works in a bullet, which contains little or no air at all. A modern pistol will fire successfully in the water with normal off-the-shelf ammunition – I’ve seen it done as a demonstration.
So how much oxygen was in the room doesn’t enter into the computation at all.
Brachiator
@Narcissus:
And water is wet, and the sky is blue. Why do you think that the revelation of the persistence of racism in America will shock or surprise people? And even more than the 2008 election, the GOP and Romney have openly appealed to anti woman, anti gay, and anti black and anti Latino bigotry.
Still, I don’t think that Florida is a special problem child. Yes, it skews conservative, but it also has a considerable liberal population. The younger generation of Cubans are tiring of the older generation’s Castro fixation. There is a sizable Puerto Rican population, which tends to vote more for Democrats than Republicans. Haitian Americans are a significant influence, as are Asian Americans there. Ultra conservative whites are trying hard to hold onto power, but they are clearly on the run.
@Frankensteinbeck:
Unfortunately, I can’t agree with you. Obama haters have whipped themselves into a frenzy, and cannot be placated. I look for serious attempts to impeach the president, and increased obstructionism by the GOP.
By the way, here in Southern California, many Latinos are even more vehement in their support for Obama than in 2008, not just because of his support for Latino causes. They rightly see the racists as not only “trying to put a black man in his place,” but as trying to reassert the noxious principle that only a real American white man should ever be president, and that nonwhites should never be allowed to govern or lead white people. It is amazing to see how these people flock to Romney, despite his obvious incompetence and contempt for them. It’s almost suicidal. They would rather be lead by a rich white man who despises them and who will ruin them than be governed by Obama. And they invent lies and myths to justify their hatred and distrust of Obama because they cannot deal with the truth. The hard core haters are a small group, but they will do everything they can to cause problems. And the Tea Party and the GOP leadership will be there to encourage them and egg them on. It’s all the GOP has.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
The other thing you could say in favor of the concrete approach is that, unlike standard rat poison (which is usually strychnine), the concrete poisoning method won’t harm any predator or scavenger that comes across the carcass.
One commenter found her cat dead the other day and it sounded as though it may have been accidentally poisoned by eating a mouse or rat that had gotten standard rat poison, so preventing harm to other animals is a consideration as well.
...now I try to be amused
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yes, but Republicans went from rude to insane after Clinton was re-elected. They’re already insane about Obama. Imagine the feelings of all those Republicans who dutifully fell in line behind a candidate they hate almost as much as they hate Obama, after Romney loses. Imagine their self-loathing after they sold out their “principles” to back that loser. They have to project that self-loathing in Obama’s direction, ’cause that’s what they do.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Brachiator:
That’s it in a nutshell; the GOP hasn’t had a new idea since the Reagan administration and they’re still flogging variations of the half-a-century-old Southern Strategy. Their response would be the same no matter what percentage of the popular vote Obama gets.
The Republicans are going to be in cornered rat mode for the foreseeable future. My only thought for what our side can do to counteract them is to take a serious look at why a Mitt Romney is able to get so many people to vote for him and to begin to deal with those causes (Hint: dismissing it as simple racism is not the whole picture).
moonbat
Remember when everyone was breathlessly predicting Obama’s impeachment in 2010 when the new House majority came in? And what did we get? Crickets.
The man is squeaky clean. If they could have drummed up some impeachable offense by now they would have done it.
...now I try to be amused
I wonder when the big money guys will decide to cut their losses.
Jay in Oregon
@Schlemizel:
I think you mean “belfry”, not “attic”…
danielx
@…now I try to be amused:
That would be the day after the election, if then. A guy like Sheldon Adelson can throw away fifty million and it makes not the slightest difference to his or his family’s current or future personal welfare – kind of like making a contribution to the local animal shelter for you or me.
Death Panel Truck
@maya: I’ve heard it referred to as “America’s Diseased Penis.”
...now I try to be amused
@danielx:
I figured that was a given, for this election cycle. But I wonder how far down the slope of losing other elections the money guys will go before something gives.
libarbarian
NO NO NO Giuliani. You’re doing it wrong.
The correct line is “The response to Sandy suggests that lower level employees in FEMA, and possibly other federal agencies, deliberately sabotaged efforts at relief after Katrina in order to embarrass & undermine a Republican Administration. Any screwed-up responses to emergencies under future Republican presidents will be further proof of the existence of such sabotage.”
You spend the time between now and the next time you take the WH &/or Congress to hammer this line home over and over again until the existence of such a conspiracy is just commonly accepted wisdom on the right. When you finally have the power, you start the purge.
Jesus. These people are even incompetent at being evil.