What day does the Weblog Awards committee announce their finalists? You know, the list that our overwhelming dominance of the nomination thread suggested that we might make for a change? That’s right, tomorrow. We could still debate the fine points of conservatism versus authoritarianism but let’s be honest, John salutes Nancy Pelosi now.
Oh well. I hope that next year they have a category for Best Newly Democratic Cindy Sheehan Addict With A Godawful Sense Of Timing.
gypsy howell
Well, there’s always the Koufax Awards.
Best Double Reverse Gainer With A Twist?
Punchy
HE’S ALIVE !!!!!!!!!
So…how does Gitmo look in the fall? Which was worse, the water or the board? I heard it really kicks ass if you’re either thirsty or have a shitty mattress.
capelza
Tim, don’t fall into the trap! The GOP does not own the word “conservative” as much as they’d like us to believe they do.
ninerdave
Whoops!!
guyermo
quick Tim, there’s still time for you to re-register as a Republican and there-by save the nomintation!
akaoni
Come on, do you really need the recognition of a stupid net award now that John’s prostrated himself before his new, only slightly less corrupt masters?
Jammer
Cindy Sheehan? Did you have to mention her? Is John a Cindy fanatic or was that yet another snarky conservative bait and switch?
Tim F.
The chicken tetrazzini was overdone and the jukebox doesn’t have anything but country and late-period Rolling Stones. In other words, TORTURE.
Seriously though, blogging isn’t helping me to write my paper. Sorry guys, once I submit I promise that the venting from my corner will resume. However, I would promise very interesting new changes next week if I hadn’t been burned the last time I promised an upcoming announcement. So you’ll just have to forget that I said that.
Jake
Tim F. Tim. F.
The name sounds familiar but I can’t quite place it.
I still think BJ is a shoe in because the other nominees aren’t conservative, they’re fucking crazy. The only blog I saw that came close in votes was LGF (gack).
capelza
Jake..haven’t you heard? LGF is a “left leaning, pro-islamist blog”…
Okay..catch your breath, quit laughing…
tBone
Confusion, lack of coordination, no message discipline . . . heck, John’s already got this Democrat thing down pat.
jcricket
We don’t salute so much as we perform oral on her. That’s the liberal salute. Limbaugh says so.
Jake
Heh. You forgot Middle-class hating.
Warning: If you follow the link on SN! back to the original (Spartan Spectator) you’ll be visited by a horde of pop-ups.
Dennis-SGMM
“No blogging for me, mum, I’m writing a paper.” Get a clue: real, two-fisted bloggers don’t educate themselves – they just type whatever comes into their damned heads. Sheesh.
jcricket
For all the race/jew/gay/arab-baiting the GOP is involved in, the one thing that will kill their electoral chances for, well, ever, is losing the middle class white voter.
It’s the reason the GOP is so afraid of Social Security sticking around or being improved (privatized = being destroyed). It’s the reason the GOP fears any kind of universal healthcare plan that’s actually going to achieve something good (i.e. not HDHP + HSA).
If the Dems are successful at passing any big government program that is seen by the public as helping and protecting the “middle class”, Repubs will never win elections on a national level ever again.
ConservativelyLiberal
This is the place for me, award or not. One fun part about being an independent is that you get to toss grenades at both sides without being beholden to either. John has been reaching into that box and tossing grenades, mostly at the right, and hitting the target each time.
I take back what I said earlier John. I said that things were a bit slow here awhile back, and you must have started mainlining RedBull recently. I can hardly keep up now! Of course, these gems keep landing in your lap. ;)
Mike Duncan, new RNC chairman, was on with Wolf Blitzkreig today. Every time Wolf asked the poor guy about this or that republican problem, Duncan responded with:
Democrats! Hillary! Taxes going up! Licenses for illegal immigrants! “9-1-1!” Lets look to the future!
He might want to refer to it as 9-11, not 9-1-1. More bite to it that way.
capelza
jcricket..I think you are on to something.
I remember my socially conservative grandparents, yet they remained Democrats for all their lives because of FDR and the 30’s. They never forgot how he “saved” them and the country.
jcricket
Totally. Social Security lifts 13 million seniors out of poverty. Keep it around in its present form by simply raising the wage cap and you guarantee that probably 30-50 million seniors in the future won’t be out on the street eating cat food.
Pass universal healthcare, even in some crappy form and you give 50 million people their health “insurance” (in all senses of the word) back. You give another 50 million people the feeling of security they don’t get when any time they lose their job or their employer chooses to, they lose health care coverage.
Nothing is a bigger threat to the GOP than successful government programs. It proves their party’s core belief (government is always the problem) is a BIG LIE.
jcricket
This sounds like another one of those songs from the “Right Brothers” :-)
Ryan S.
Oh, well Tim, think of it this way if John wins best conservative blog the wingnuts will think that the awards are a giant left conspiracy and boycott the next one, thereby ensuring that John wins again next year.
Dreggas
Just start pointing out, in simple to understand language that thanks to this president, uber rich people like Warren Buffet and George Soros pay 18% in taxes while you and I (the middles class) pay around 30.5%.
Just mentioning that thanks to republicans and George Bush the middle class person is paying far more in taxes than george soros should be enough to make them go apoplectic.
Zifnab
Double back-flip followed by a handspring, a half-gainer, a Russian waltz twist, and a… Ow! Could not stick that landing.
Well, with luck we’ll see’m back in four more years.
Jake
Fixed.
Dennis-SGMM
As sole custodian of the “Best Blog with Oblique References to Riverdance” award I hereby convey the “Tappy” to John Cole’s “Balloon Juice.”
Everybody’s very happy.
RSA
Screw the awards–I wanna know why Tim F. is pissed off at John.
Dreggas
Oh and Tim. Just because He registered Dem, does not make John any less conservative. You can be conservative and still be a democrat. You just can’t be conservative and be a republican.
Davebo
Look on the bright side John!
Sweet!
John Cole
I am not a lawyer, and I just glanced at the headline and will check it out later, but the free-speech implications of that upsets me greatly.
capelza
John Cole..I was going to post something and saw your post.
I understand the free-speech implications, but is it free speech when the basis of their protests are wrong, though I don’t know that libelous would work.
Complaining about the military’s “support” of homosexuality is just crazy. It is crazy in a way that begs the question of what they are really trying to accomplish…Phelps and his ilk. That they are anti-gay is obvious. But to target funerals of slain soldiers to protest the alleged support of homosexuality in the military is nonsensical. I do believe they are massive attention whores with a big dose of crazy.
It’s like a group protesting the funerals of nuns because they are against loose sexual behaviour (note: I did not say priests, you contrarians :) ). It’s senseless
So in their case, it isn’t even a “legitimate” thing to protest. When does free-speech become harrassment?
jcricket
My effective tax rate has been all over the map. I’ve paid more than 300% (AMT related) and 2%. If the average middle class person actually grokked that 90% of the tax code’s complexity was not designed at giving anyone other than the uber-rich or mega-corporations a tax break they might actually flip out.
The problem is it’s a hard “sell”. I think the Dems need to package the tax increases better. Make it clear, if you make less than $100 or $200k (or whatever) you pay less in taxes. If you make $200-500k you pay a little more. $500k+ much more. Eliminate marriage penalties (everyone hates those and they sound bad) along the way too. Stop being afraid of the rich people.
Sure, taxing people at 90% would be a disincentive to work, but raising the cap gains rate back to 20% or raising the top marginal tax rate from 30 to 40% would do nothing but provide more solvency for the government and make taxation more fair.
Jake
I understand why the plaintiff filed suit and I understand how this ruling came down but if it doesn’t die as soon as it hits the appeals court we’ll see the death of protests in the US.
AkaDad
I’m confused. How can an America-hating liberal/commie blog like Balloon Juice be nominated for best Conservative blog?
:D
Jake
Actually the protests make even less sense because they’re protesting the U.S.’s tolerance (ha ha ha ha!) of gays. Remember they made their debut at Matt Shepard’s funeral but because instances where a person dies and it is widely known they are gay these fucks had to find some place else to get their dose of attention. According to Wingboro Church, if the US of A would just drive all of teh gays into the sea no more soldiers would die. How’s that for just plain stupid?
But the 1st Am. doesn’t just protect speech that makes sense it protects speech, even gibberish and Phelps was a lawyer (civil rights, believe it or not) so he knows better than to cross the line between stark raving bullshit and illegal stark raving bullshit.
demimondian
I hate to agree with John, but the whole Phelps thing bothers me, too. I’d need to look at the details, but as long as nobody had reason to feel physically threatened, I’d rather see Phelps allowed to protest than need to deal with “free speech zones” that exist to protect the president from…negative press coverage.
ConservativelyLiberal
In one way, the decision against the Phelps is disturbing. But in this case I am really mixed on it. I don’t like the implications on free speech either, but at the same time I feel that what the Phelps were engaged in was not just free speech, but hate speech.
They can protest against gays in the military, that is their right. But what the Phelps were doing was pure hate in action, IMO. They were not there just to get their message out, they were projecting pure hate to every military family that they confronted. They got personal with it, in the worst way.
Still, I think it will be overturned, but it sure is a good warning to the Phelps that they have been crossing the line too often. I doubt they will heed it though. I think states should pass laws to give mourning families of private individuals some protection from stuff like this. My heart goes out to the families who have had to endure these sick fucks (Phelps & Family) and their so-called church.
Ahh yes, compassionate christianity in action.
Heywood Jablomy
Send me $50 and I’ll send you the Heywood Jablomy Prize for Best Non-Porn Site That Gives Me a Giant Righteous Boner Every Day. And I mean that with all due love, Cole, because you are one sweet douchebag-loathing bastard. Now get over your fine self and get back to Daisycutting the asswipes of CheetosAndDewistan.
Dreggas
yeah but stupidity should be painful, monetarily or otherwise. This just proves that point. The people protested, which is their right, and they were sued as a result. It’s like someone yelling fire in a crowded theater. Sure you can do it but don’t be surprised when you get your ass kicked or put in jail.
blueperiod
I hope the Marines father gets their church and starts hosting gay weddings there. Now that would be funny.
jake
I think the monetary pain will kick in when they run out of funds for their cross-country spittle-flinging contests. (Although my money is on a member of the congregation suing Phelchie for conduct unbecoming a horny goat.)
The result of a demonstration should not be a lawsuit just because the people demonstrating happen to be a bunch of knuckle dragging mother fuckers. Today it’s the bereaved dad of a vet v. knuckle dragging mother fuckers and it’s really hard to feel bad about the verdict. But tomorrow it might be Elizabeth Cheney v. Everyone who hates Dick. (“Those pictures that showed daddy eating an Iraqi baby really hurt my feelings your honor, boo hoo!”)
Maybe such a lawsuit wouldn’t be successful but you can bully the shit out of people by threatening to sue them and if you’re a ruthless creep with enough cash to spare you can fuck up someone’s year just by filing a law suit.
No. Thanks.
Dreggas
jake,
put that way I can see your point. Still there is part of me that loves to see these fuckers get slapped.
jake
I hear you. I will admit that this ruling, which would make a major corporation cringe, just seems too tame a fate for these crap stains. I have higher hopes for Rev. Phelch. Something … unusual. Something so embarrassing they can’t get martyr points from the other loons. Something that results in a coroner’s report with those three magic words:
Accidental.
Mechanical.
Asphyxiation.
Or farm animals. I’ll settle for farm animals.
over it
I was under the impression that John switched from Republican to Democratic. I did not see anything that said he had switched from Conservative to Liberal. Did I miss something?
I hope he is a finalist…and he deserves to win.
That’s my (not quite) 2 cents worth.