Pens can clinch tonight.
You know, a lot of people are flaming Larry Summers for dozing off, and having sat through a three hour meeting this morning in which I had to resort to stabbing myself in the thigh with my keys to stay awake, I’m with him. It happens.
What I think is surprising is it doesn’t happen more often, especially during campaigns. The hours these people keep is just insane.
Glyph_2112
After reading through the posts today, it is painfully obvious that no matter what the issue is (ie judges, appointments, reconciliation, torture inquiry/prosecution) the republicans are going to go nukular.
It may save alot of time if they just tell us what they are willing to actually vote on.
Just Some Fuckhead
John, when are you going to post about joining the temperance movement and put up some pics of yer high horse?
John Cole
@Just Some Fuckhead: I completely do not understand this comment.
robertdsc
I just have to say that the First Lady is wonderful. She didn’t do anything for me during the election, but once she hit the White House, I’m sold lock, stock, and barrel. Ooh, la la!
TenguPhule
I believe it refers to your question regarding his drinking.
Also, JSFH is posting drunk.
LV-426
Boston’s already waiting for the 2nd round? :)
Is clinched the right word?
LV-426
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Why you dissing Tunch?
gnomedad
An attempt to tune up a comment I made a while back:
Q. Why do Republicans suck at “Jeopardy”?
A. The only answer they understand is “tax cuts.”
Thank you; I’ll be here all week.
SixStringFanatic
So can the Red Wings!
Michael D.
I didn’t criticize Cheney for dozing off; I won’t criticize Summers. Political meetings have GOT to be boring as all hell.
TenguPhule
Only because Obama didn’t pull out a bullwhip and take some credit card company scalps.
JK
Happy Thursday Evening
Two revealing quotes about Dick Cheney from people who knew him well.
“He has the least interest in human beings of anyone I have ever met,” says John Perry Barlow, his former supporter. Cheney’s freshman-year roommate, Steve Billings, agrees: “If I could ask Dick one question, I’d ask him how he could be so unempathetic.” Source: The Curse of Dick Cheney, Aug 25, 2004 rollingstone.com/politics/story/6450422/the_curse_of_dick_cheney
This is a great article and worth taking time to read in full.
Barlow was a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and chairman of the Sublette County, Wyoming Republican Party.
Litlebritdifrnt
Heard a very interesting interview with SecDef Gates conducted by our local radio station today. (He visited Camp Lejeune today). He was relating his conversation with the CO of a particular unit of Marines. The unit was scheduled to be deployed to Okinawa, 200 of them decided not to reenlist. Due to the President’s new directive the units orders were changed to being deployed to Afghanistan. 180 of the 200 then immediately reenlisted. I thought that it was a fascinating story. SecDef Gates also said that Marines serving in Anbar Province are “bored” and “they want to be in the fight” and are “itching to get to Afghanistan.”
JK
When will tough guys Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Joe Scarborough belly up to the bar and not allow themselves to get shown up by Sean Hannity?
Sean Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity
huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/hannity-offers-to-be-wate_n_190354.html
TenguPhule
Except as targets.
KRK
Yeah, when I saw that photo of Summers, my first thought was “I bet he’s not getting much sleep these days.”
P.S. Your open thread is missing a Tunch photo.
Dennis-SGMM
But, but, where will they get the cars for the next Batman movie:
Linky
iluvsummr
I’m tired of Republicans today, so something different. From my IEEE magazine: a Menlo Park, CA company has come up with an electric battery that can power a hybrid-electric *bus* for up to 160 km in electric-only mode. Good news for public transportation. In China.
Litlebritdifrnt
PS) John Cole at top, I have had to sit through inumerable classes in the RN where I swear I could only keep my eyes open by the use of matchsticks. In recent years when my boss is dictating a brief to me, if there is a long pause, (for instance if he is reviewing cases on line and gathering his thoughts) the eyelids start drooping and it is all I can do not to start snoring. You can only study law degrees, admissions to the various bars, and photos of the Onslow County Bar association on the wall for so long to keep sleep from the door.
gnomedad
I can’t believe the Joe Barton video is still up, especially considering it was doubtless posted with the help of a number of staffers who also had no idea what a fool it makes him look like.
Where’s “Search Wingnuttia” when you need it? Has anyone found interesting comments about how Barton totally pwned the so-called Nobel prize winner?
JK
Fun Video Segment
Bill Maher interviewing former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY)
youtube.com/watch?v=iFEAqy8GbnA
I don’t agree with Simpson’s politics, but he’s very entertaining. When he was in Congress, he always gave great soundbites
Adam
Summers dozed off during some extended Obama remarks which Summers had probably read a dozen times and probably helped write. Seems like the right time to me.
Looking through Time’s photo essay on Obama’s first 100 days — I do not know how that guy does it. I’ve met some insanely focused people in law school, and none even comes close to that. After he quit smoking, too.
That dude is a machine.
pattonbt
I live overseas and was watching the nightly news broadcast (SBS Australia) and they did a segment on the torture issue and showed Hillary at a House (pretty sure it wasnt Senate) hearing where she was asked about the memo release, etc. A representative asked her about Cheney’s assertion about the efficacy of torture blah, blah, blah, and Hillary killed with her response.
Paraphrasing “Dick Cheney is not someone who I would consider to be a very credible person”. My jaw just hit the ground. It was awesome. It was just cold and ruthless.
What has amazed me though, is you would think this would have hit some form of news in the US, at least on the net, but nothing. I mean the current Sec State basically called the former VP a liar.
Did anyone else catch that?
The Grand Panjandrum
@JK: It would be a damn shame if the person administering the “treatment” didn’t know quite when to stop.
How ’bout dem Bruins. eh? Second round, baby!
robertdsc
The President & Tiger Woods in the Oval Office
W I N.
Krista
Good. I hope he cries like a little girl and completely soils himself. Not that I normally wish harm upon people, but in my fantasy world, anybody who minimizes someone else’s horrible experience would be required by law to undergo a simulation of that experience.
Martin
He should do the SERE training for charity. I’d put money into that pot.
JK
Meet the new economic advisors who’ll head the taskforce formulating policy proposals for John Boehner
youtube.com/watch?v=ieKTU94-BgI
Just Some Fuckhead
@JK: I always liked Alan Simpson because he was so congenial and funny. Back in the 80s he seemed moderate but whenever I see him now he has a hard wingnutty edge to him.
28 Percent
It is not Sumners fault ther ewas probably a woman speaking and Larry know what they are like amirite?
But that is not the picture of the day scandal picture is this one for you who like Michelle “Right to Bare Arms” Obama we will see if you still liek her after this look close she is not usin ga coaster and that is THE PEOPLES HOUSE!
Mr. Stuck
@Krista:
Yea, Grodin shredded the little twerp. I loved the part when Grodin goaded him about what branch of service he served in, and Hannity’s voice squeaked like a three year old when stating his father had served in WW2. Priceless./
Krista
That is just too cool for words.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole: Sorry to leave you hanging, was making dinner. Stuffed green peppers.
Let’s just put our differences aside and give it to Jesus.
Krista
Weird…that’s what my husband made me for supper tonight.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Krista: That is weird because that’s what I made my wife. Is that you, honey?
John Cole
BTW- new ice cream tonight. It is very good.
ellie
So can Detroit. GO WINGS!
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I thought I was gonna auto-asphyxiate if you two didn’t make up soon.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole: Do you like butter pecan? When I have the rare bowl of ice cream, that’s what I prefer.
JK
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home–
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay–
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain–
All, all the stretch of these great green states–
And make America again!
Ejoiner
Ok – My mom insisted I check out this Dave Ramsey on Fox who is staging a giant “Hope” concert to save our economy. He looks (a little) and acts (a lot) like Dr. Phil but he’s all about commen sense, down home, good ole white bread American solutions to our economic ills.
And liberals are really really wrong – “you can be sincere but stupid” is repeated a lot.
BTW – did you know it wasn’t government spending that ended the Great Depression but WWII? See, everyone was working in factories making tanks and saving the world (big applause line there).
No word on who exactly was directing and paying for all that increased production.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W:
Yer doing it without the erotica part??
John O
I agree, John, as a longstanding member of Corporate America. It DOES happen.
That said, Summers is so beholden to the banks, and the photo is so pathetic, he should be fired.
I’m one of those people who can’t fall asleep in public. Never in school, never even at a party when overserved, and no way, no chance, no how in a meeting with the POTUS. So I’m biased.
skippy
forgive me if i repeat myself, but my buddy gil christner needs clicks on his jimmy dean commercial (he’s the guy in the fog suit). his commercial is now in second place on the website, we’re shooting for first place, just click the link, watch & enjoy!
Laura W
@John Cole: NO!! Ginger, sesame AND coconut! How can this be?
Ice cream PORN!
JGabriel
@28 Percent:
Damn. Queen Rania is smokin’ hot.
.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead:
You two aren’t that exciting, you know.
areg
Hey John,
You’re right, if you’re a part of the president’s cabinet, the hours you keep will probably be insane for most of the time. But at the same time, Summers’ has to realize that an image like that goes a long way. Perception is reality…
Plus, I’ve never been a fan of Summers – there’s a reason he was one of the shortest serving president’s in Harvard’s history. His demeaning comments about women and science don’t really sound like someone I’d want on my team
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: Or maybe yer just too hard to please?
Ash Can
@pattonbt: Oh yes. I posted a link to a GOS story detailing this on another thread, but I blew up the blog format with it so I don’t dare do it again.
She kicked ass, took names, kicked ass again, then tossed a lighted quarter stick over her shoulder on her way out of the room. It was a thing of beauty.
@JK: Langston Hughes FTW.
AhabTRuler
@John Cole: Yes, but how many ounces in the package? 14?
JGabriel
@Ejoiner:
Yes, we all knew that. Did you know that spending was working and the economy was improving until 1937, when FDR tried to balance the budget too soon, before the economy had completely recovered?
Sigh.
.
John O
JGabriel,
They both are, but QR is most fantastically my cup of tea.
Recommendation: The Onion’s “Our Dumb World,” a coffee table book faux atlas that spends its entire page on Jordan about the lovely Queen Rania in a very funny way.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I doubt that.
Comrade Kevin
@JK:
Perhaps Rush can offer to be put on the Rack, and Bill-o and Beck can offer to be put in an Iron Maiden.
Litlebritdifrnt
@JGabriel:
No more than the first lady. IMHO.
WyldPirate
Not to take up for Summers–because I think he is a rich wannabe plutocrat who’s a pawn of even wealthier interests–but judging from that turkey wattle pretending to be a healthy human’s neck, I wouldn’t be surprised if he suffers from undiagnosed/untreated chronic obstructive sleep apnea.
I’ve had it when I was much, much heavier, and it’s a bitch. Chronic headaches, always falling asleep despite “sleeping” for 8-9 hours. It’s a nasty condition that many people ignore that takes a toll on both your physical and mental well-being.
D-Chance.
Premier radio signs on… Randi Rhodes?
Perhaps the suits in AM-land are reading the tea leaves?
Ash Can
@Laura W:
Serve that stuff with a wedge of lime and the FDA and FCC will both send moral-turpitude SWAT teams out on your ass.
@JGabriel: Oh, aren’t they pretty? What a lovely photo. Even though I know beauty is only skin deep, I’m still proud that such a great picture can be taken in our White House these days. Nothing against Laura, mind you, but Michelle is just a knockout, as is her guest here.
nhoj
Our friends over at redstate have a truly epic “award” for Caribou Barbie. I don’t think images are allowed so here is a link:
redstate.com/josh_painter/2009/04/23/two-shootin-tools-for-sister-sarah/
JK
Bill Kristol Wins a Prize
gawker.com/5222857/bill-kristol-wins-prize
douglasfactors
I just discovered that one of my brother’s Facebook friends is Pamela Geller.
TenguPhule
The government.
John O
John, I don’t have the muscle, blogo-wise, but this idea should be pushed.
Take it or leave it.
chuck
@Comrade Kevin:
EXCELLENT! (*air guitar*)
JGabriel
From NHOJ’s link:
They just have no filter, do they? I mean, this stuff is so obvious, it makes Freud yawn from the lack of challenge.
.
arguingwithsignposts
@Ejoiner:
If you listen to his show too much, you’d know that he’s borderline fundamentalist at heart, though.
Not that most of the financial stuff isn’t true, but he’s a christianist in Will Rogers clothing.
Dennis-SGMM
@nhoj:
From the link:
.50 Beowulf in the AR:
Kill the Hippies! Kill the Hippies! Kill the Hippies!
JGabriel
They gave this to Sarah Palin. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that scenario.
Also: Alaska has an urban area?
Count this Manhattanite among the skeptical.
.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Dennis-SGMM:
See, I totally didn’t make that connection. I figured they got her the gun to prevent another one of her kids from gettin’ knocked up before her 2012 run.
Hyperion
Vancouver Canucks already have.
And they are playing extremely well these days.
Bring the cup home!
Hyperion
@John Cole: you eat too much ice cream. as you get older, if you keep this up, you will eventually blot out the sun. i can eat ice cream no more than once a month.
AhabTRuler
My gift to you, a strange but wonderful treat: GBI (German Bold Italic).
You may thank me (although you cannot enjoy the full splendor of the album cut).
SGEW
@Dennis-SGMM:
Interestingly (ironically? not-ironically?! I can’t tell anymore), someone in Alaska probably has more reason to chamber a .50 cal round than pretty much anyone in th’ lower 48. Remember Abe Simpson’s argument for 2nd Amendment Rights?
That actually makes some sense in parts of Alaska. [Not, you know, for the Governor or anything, but there you go.]
MikeJ
Somehow this quote seems to go along with the answer to the next quote:
Imagine a beowulf cluster of stupid!
(for all the old timey ./ peeps.)
cmorenc
I was assistant referee for a girl’s varsity soccer game today that was SO inept, slow-paced and boring that I had to struggle against dozing off into daydream-land while standing with my flag. Normally, refereeing soccer (especially competitive-level high school age girls, or especially boys) is fast-paced, intense, and demands (and holds) every molecule and brain cell of your focus and energy, and after you finish a game like that you feel like you’ve had a great workout, and your legs are sore from running and your mind is still spinning on certain things that happened, whether you saw, called, and managed them correctly.
However, this game today was so boringly bad that a video of it would make a great sleep or meditation aid. I might have had to run like three times the whole game, the rest of the time walk leisurely up and down a few paces with the equally inert defenders.
AhabTRuler
You were right the first time. That is only Morrisette-grade irony, totally useless for producing weapons-grade snark.
At first I thought this was going to be one of BOB’s wacky stories. Were any of the players toothless lesbians?
Mr. Stuck
Plus it takes a whole lotta caliber to reach Russia from the front porch.
Comrade Kevin
So much for that.
nhoj
@MikeJ:
Don’t make fun of republicans, you insensitive clod!
MikeJ
At first I thought this was going to be a Penthouse Letters story.
Ed Marshall
Slashdot ID 34189
You don’t *get* more crusty ./ than that.
Ed Marshall
I logged in to figure out what the number was and they’ve changed things and it actually lists “accomplishments” and one of them is “Member of the 5 Digit UID Club”
MikeJ
33237. I held out on registering because back in ’94 I hated the idea of registering for a website. Still do in fact.
Ed Marshall
Oh, snap!
demimondian
@nhoj: Newt Gingrich, naked and petrifi…
umm, maybe not.
AhabTRuler
@MikeJ:
@Ed Marshall:
Gentlemen, gentleman! You wanna roll those things up and put them away? These are new s-hoes!
Just Some Fuckhead
Wrong thread.
wilfred
Ah, the sweet smell of success:
Secrets are breaking out all over.
Argive
Game six will be insane. Go Flyers.
gnomedad
Rush bait.
Brian J
As someone who falls asleep pretty much every place where his legs aren’t moving, I can sympathize, too. I’ve dozed off in about 95 percent of the movies I’ve been to in the last five or six years. If I am laying on the couch at home, with or without people around me, I don’t have a shot in hell. In fact, I fell asleep during a four-hour period today after taking one of those five hour energy capsules
(though, to be fair, I tried the decaf to see if it wouldn’t kill my stomach, which was a potential problem last time).
You know, the more I think about it, the more Larry Summers and I resemble each other. We both fall asleep during long time periods, we both leave things laying around, and we both say things that get us in trouble. If it weren’t for his wealth, his PhD and ludicrously impressive resume, and his access to the most powerful man in the world, we’d practically be twins.
JGabriel
@Brian J:
And we’ve never seen the two of you in the same place. Getting very suspicious. I think Cole should demand a Certificate of Live Birth from you.
.
Brian J
Hey, before we get to that, let’s prove that Obama isn’t really the same person as Bill Ayers. I mean, have we ever seen the two of them standing next to each other?
William K. Wolfrum
Big move at the trading deadline! Obama trades Texas to Mexico for Cancun, Cruz Azul and Lorena Ochoa.
;)
TenguPhule
For a Quick Laugh: Potential Future Darwin Award
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
Or beer.
passerby
Hannity shot off his mouth tonight by saying to Charles Grodin that he would subject himself to waterboarding for charity.
KO tonight offered Hannity $1000 for every second he lasted being water boarded and double the amount if afterwards he would admit that he thought he was gonna die while enduring it. Go Keith–brilliant idea.
And what Boehner said at the mike today was a stream of bald face lies. But what may be the worst part of his idiocy, is that no one in the media will come full out and call him on this bullshit.
I tried watching a clip from Hardball today and Chris had some Republican strategist, Harris somebody, who just sat there spewing all these lies about how the Democrats have not been bi-partisan and blah blah blah. In other words, same bullshit/different mouth.
Seriously, is there any hope that a reasonable, conservative group can come forward with alternative plans or at least be able to debate the counterpoints to what they deem is social ism? I think we all agree that a serious debate would be beneficial. I’m officially sick and tired of hearing this NON-SENSE.
[end of whine, good night]
Joe
Flyers baby! Can’t wait for game 6. Malkin may have to upgrade to the Hummer windshield instead of the sedan windshield his helmet currently sports.
JGabriel
@passerby:
BEEP! BEEP BEEP! Oxymoron Alert!
.
passerby
@JGabriel:
Quite. There is no evidence to the contrary. Alas.
Keifus
One thing I have always found chilling is that the most successful administrators (and politicians) are not merely the people who can stay awake during interminable and pointless meeting, they’re the kind of people that find them invigorating.