(Joel Pett via GoComics.com)
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Okay, it’s in poor taste. But it made me LOL — especially the zipper tab.
Also promoting healthful laughter, Paul Constant passes on the news that Newt Gingrich predicts a “huge election win” for Mitt Romney! Click the link for full details, plus a video suggesting that the Giant Georgian Amphibian is after Bill Kristol’s job…
RSA
Via TBogg, check out Unskewed Polls: Romney will win in a landslide, with 359 electoral votes.
Arclite
Don’t forget about Dick Morris’s job too.
poco
Talking of Gingrich–ewww– yesterday, after I came home from work, the phone rings and it is a Washington number. I was feeling too tired so I let the machine pick it up. It was Callista Gingrich–can you believe it??!! She was robo-calling people to shill for her book–something about Christianity and the need to keep God in our politics–went on and on and on about the threats to God and Christianity and ended by saying that if I remain on the phone someone will take my address and mail the book to me.
I am flabbergasted; have never heard of an author robo-calling to shill for their book–and she is doing that in New York??!! Has her hair finally eaten her brain?
I mean I am glad she is wasting her time and money in this way–but have any of you had this call?
bemused
Oh man. Maddow is showing clip of Richard Murdock getting more questions from a reporter…would you force a 13 year old who was raped to go through the pregnancy. Murdock said he has already made his statement…only the life of the mother…and wouldn’t say any more.
dmsilev
@RSA: Heh. Nate Silver has today’s update out already; Obama is up to nearly 75% win probability and climbing steadily.
MikeJ
I was glad to see that the Stranger’s voter guide had as half assed a reason to approve 8223 as I had to vote against it. My main is is that my default position on any initiative is No, unless I know it’s a damned good one (like R74).
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Birmingham, Alabama. That’s where I’m headed on Monday. 4:00 am to be exact. The volcano and earthquake in Puebla didn’t get me. I survived a week and a half of terror, lack of sleep and food, and general hostility in Hermosillo. So they’re sending me through Atlanta to Birmingham with a hurricane on the way. Nice. At best the airlines will be all bitched up because of weather disturbances. But I’m betting on widespread power outages and squatting in the dark at the Holiday Inn wondering when I’ll get home. It would be par for the course.
Baud
If the cartoon is supposed to be Rmoney, he should be kicking the balls in his own goal.
beltane
@poco: Seeking advice on Christian values from Callista Gingrich is as pathetic as looking to Chris Christie for weight-loss tips.
I understand that in a country as large as ours there is room for a few clowns to rise to prominence but it seems that we have far exceeded our clown quota lately.
Chris
@poco:
If only we could shove him the fuck OUT of our politics. You know, in accordance with “founder intent.”
Or more saliently, his brain-addled followers.
Raven
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: There is ZERO chance of rain here, and in Birmingham, for the next week. This is the third hurricane in a row to totally miss us. You might die of thirst here but that’s about it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: an even better sign, Slate has an article titled “MittMentum is Real!”. I expect Willard’s numbers to collapse on Monday (not really, I’m a worrywart concern trool, I’m just trying to keep it to myself and to stop grinding my teeth).
The Dangerman
@RSA:
Each Obama State is close, Romney State’s are all blowouts; nothing wrong there.
cathyx
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: So you’re RossInHermosillo now.
redshirt
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Wow. Dude! Is this your first big trip for the job too? Get home safe!
Chyron HR
How does Newt find the time to do whatever it is he presumably does for a living and post here all night long?
poco
@beltane: ::Chuckle::
I have to admit I still don’t get the strategy–I am in NYC–what does Callista hope to gain by grifting here??? I mean its a stupid fucking strategy.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Raven:
Thx. We checked the weather reports for ATL and BHM over dinner and saw the chaos would be safely eastward. My employer sending me into or near harm’s way has become a bit of a thing. Not that they could have predicted the earthquake, but still.
I feel for the people who are in the path of this monster. I know it’s been chewed over a lot in the media but there’s going to be a lot of suffering and loss. That keeps me up nights.
Hal
From another Slog commentator, bedipped:
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@redshirt:
In the last 7 weeks I’ve been to Puebla, Mexico, Nashville, Norfolk, Hermosillo and a couple of local day trips. I may be forgetting one or two. In Feb. I go to Germany for training. Then the real travel starts.
poco
@Chris: Yup. I swear I am honestly fucking tired of being used for target practice, either when they want to attack east coast seculars or now, when they want to grift off of god-botherers.
Raven
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Homewood, over by Samford U, is a pretty cool little neighborhood.
redshirt
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: International Sock Salesman, I assume? ;)
James E. Powell
Last night a certain troll was going on about the Purple Strategies polls to be released today, Obama doomed and all that. I wonder if he or she saw those polls.
beltane
@poco: Maybe it’s some sort of scam where Callista provides her book for free but charges you $50 for shipping & handling. It’s an easy way to grift from the old and senile. NYC might not be the most fertile ground for this type of grift but Callista must believe in casting as wide a net as possible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E. Powell: He did the same thing about the Time Ohio Poll that had Obama up by five. I think we have a really weird spoofer going on.
Any other ex-Atriots remember Merkin Patriot? Maybe the greatest spoof troll ever. Actually really damn funny.
Raven
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Fishing on the Sea of Cortez west of Hermosillo.
beltane
@James E. Powell: Maybe that’s the reason the troll was so bitter today. He had to limit his trolling to complaints about Lena Dunham’s looks.
poco
In other news Mr noun-verb-9/11 says: “if President Barack Obama’s health care reform law is going to force insurance companies to cover contraception then “it’s only fair” that men are provided with pills to treat erectile dysfunction.”
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
This is the sort of forward thinking we so appreciate. Asshole!!
h/t abl’s twitter feed.
redshirt
“Purple Strategies” would be a good Prince album title.
JCT
@beltane: Mind you this is a guy who’s entire sexual experience is likely confined to an Ann Coulter blow-up doll.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@redshirt:
Not any more. I quit Saks in 2005. Industrial Laser Field Engineer now. The Field in this case being all North America and a bit of Central. Industrial lasers tend to be used in industrial places, which are widely spread and quite inhospitable.
Speaking of hospitality, I am looking forward to Birmingham. Had a nice time there in 2003.
RSA
@The Dangerman:
I know! As I commented on TBogg’s site, Obama only has a chance (and not a guarantee) of winning states that have voted Democratic in every elections going back to 1996; if a state voted more than about 40% in favor of McCain, it’s a shoo-in for Romney.
gbear
This evening I got what I think was going to be a survey call but when they asked to ‘speak to the woman of the house’, I hung up. Now I wish I hadn’t.
New cat Edward is sleeping upstairs, old cat Halley is sleeping downstairs. They’ve been un-separated for a couple of days and are just about getting along now. Not fighting at all. Tonight is going to be the first night that Edward will have access to the whole house all night so it may get interesting. I’m expecting to wake up with a cat on my head.
I think I set a shopping record this evening. I drove to Ikea, picked up a slip at customer service for the sofa I put on hold this afternoon, made a trip thru the store picking up $100 worth of pillows and lamps, took a cart into the warehouse and picked up a footstool and cover, went thru checkout, back to the service desk to order delivery of the sofa tomorrow, threw everything but the couch into my car and made the drive home and brought everything into the house in less than 90 minutes. I put the footstool together and now I’m pooped. I have a frozen pizza in the oven. I hate shopping.
James E. Powell
@redshirt:
Or the title of his biography
poco
@beltane: Yeah–I guess that does make some sort of very twisted sense. I really hope no one falls for that.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I see Mr. Brooks has stocked another barrel with groggy trout for the marksman Pierce to practice on. Scathing, point-by-point refutation, just as though the subject and author were worth the effort.
James E. Powell
@beltane:
The thing I wondered about the Lena Dunham ad is this: do that many voters, even young female voters, know who she is? Do they care what she thinks?
Spaghetti Lee
@RSA:
Oh, you silly librulz. You do not yet recognize the power of TEH UNSKEWING!
Seriously, there’s probably thousands of right-wing morons fapping to that map, and when he ends up being wrong by 100 Evs or so on Election Day, he still won’t lose any business, the same way a heroin dealer never seems to lose customers. Wingers need that validation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chambers’ map goes down in wingnut lore as the REAL result, you know, before the Obama Media STOLE THE ELECTION!
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Raven:
I never did get to the Sea of Cortez last week. Just put in the hours and when they cut me loose got the hell out before they changed their minds. I’d like to go back in the winter when it’s 10 degrees here. Sonora would be a very nice change from a Michigan winter.
Anne Laurie
@beltane: Working practice on my threads is that two or more consecutive posts selling the same shit qualifies as spam, whether the shit is penis pills or dishonest politics. Racist comments, including dogwhistle audience-testing like ‘that retard Obambi‘ or ‘Mochelle’s fat ass‘, get banned with extreme prejudice.
Cole has his personal standards, and he owns the blog, but I cultivate my little garden plot here by mine.
Hungry Joe
A note on precinct walking:
I hate it … for about the first 15 minutes of every day. Nobody likes to be the schmuck knocking on the door, ringing the doorbell, annoying people. And the first few “Not interested! [SLAM!]s” kind of sting. (“That’s pride.” — Marcellus Wallace) But after a while, and a few positive encounters, it gets to be kind of fun. And you know what? I used to have one vote. Now, after several days of door-to-door, about twelve hours total, having absolutely convinced about 20 people to vote or either change their vote … well, divide by two, just to be safe, and I now have ten votes. Ten votes. And tens of thousands of others are out there doing the same.
Come on, put in a few hours. You ask, “Would it really make a difference?” Well, say you inspire five votes, total. Doing nothing, you had one. You were going to vote, right? It mattered, right? So quintuple your influence! If I (shy, curmudgeonly) can do it, so can you.
Blue state? So am I. So I canvass for local stuff, phone bank for Obama.
Don’t just lurk/comment/vote. Act. (And, oh yeah … give.)
beltane
@Anne Laurie: I thought “tranny dyke” (whatever that is) was wading into bannable territory but that’s just me.
@James E. Powell: The RW reaction to this ad was hugely disproportionate to the effect this ad will have with voters. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that 1)RW males are terrified of young women who are comfortable with themselves; and 2) RW males’ experience of young women is strictly limited to rejection and ridicule at their hands.
RSA
@Spaghetti Lee:
This should ruin my night, but it did make me laugh.
Anne Laurie
@James E. Powell:
Well, I don’t even have cable, but I know from ten thousand web posts that Dunham’s TV show is a hot topic. From the bits I’ve seen online, and such commentary as I haven’t managed to avoid, my impression is that Dunham is a young artist-auteur who wants to be paid to talk about her daily life, and since sex is going to occupy a significant section of a hip young person’s life, talking about it will be a significant part of the monologue.
There are three groups of people who seem to be interested in Dunham’s explication of Dunham’s personal life: other young women in her social demographic; young men who believe that taking or feigning an interest in Dunham’s performance pieces will make them more appealling to those young women; and older men, who are willing to pay to watch Dunham talking about her life, especially her sex life. Some of those older men have the finacial power to assign cable show slots, and/or to swamp entertainment websites with articles about the latest hot new artist-auteur.
Back in the early 1970s, when I was Dunham’s age, there was a “voice of the new generation” named Joyce Maynard. At the time, the idea that Joyce Maynard’s writing or her “adorable, waifish charm” represented anything about my generation revolted me, but I was not the one assigning book contracts and talk-show stints. I am older and more jaded now, so I can be philosophical about Dunham’s commercial viability…
As for the political ad, the goal seems to be for Dunham to encourage college students to participate in the all-important Democratic GOTV effort. By that metric, I assume this is a “good” ad, especially since it’s outraging the wingnuts. Dunham’s not my cup of tea, but neither is Sarah Silverman, or John Depp for that matter; if they’re willing to shill for Team D, I am not too proud to welcome their contributions. Face it, very few uncommitted voters are liable to be swayed by a political ad featureing me — or, I assume, you!
burnspbesq
With that lame-ass in goal, even Andy Carroll could score.
Randy P
@Anne Laurie: The whole flap confirms what many on the left have been telling us for years: For most of the “right to lifers” the issue is not really the sanctity of life, it’s that they don’t like the idea of female sexuality, period.
It’s very illuminating that a young woman implying she enjoys sex is a terrible, terrible thing. Worst thing they’ve ever seen, etc.
Yutsano
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I demand you buy lederhosen. And you’d better let us know if you show up round these parts. You don’t wanna make MikeJ pout now do you?
CW in LA
I would like Mr. Pett either to explain how he thinks Willard could do better or even about as well; or kindly to fuck the hell off with that shit until after the election.
gogol's wife
@Anne Laurie:
thank you
Gex
The right wing bluffing about Mitt’s big win makes me sick. You just know some nutbag is going to take an Obama win and go all “Second Amendment Remedy” with it. These people are evil.
JCT
@Randy P:
Something they likely have no experience with, can’t imagine sex with most of them is uh, enjoyable.
James E. Powell
@Anne Laurie:
Face it, very few uncommitted voters are liable to be swayed by a political ad featureing me—or, I assume, you!
I could never do an ad. When I talk about Republicans, I can’t get to the end of the first sentence without using profanity. I heard that’s off-putting.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
Dunham has a lot more in common with Silverman than she does with Maynard — she’s a comic writer/actor/director in a similarly dark and uncomfortable vein as Silverman. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s also not as simple as Dunham selling sex to promote herself.
Joel
@Mnemosyne: Dunham pegs people’s insecurities pretty well. Albeit her material applies to a fairly limited subset of young people, who have a large cultural influence. The demographic is pretty much perfectly aligned with those that watched “Bored to Death”, which this show replaced.That group (I am on the oldest tail of it) recognizes those things and it’s funny, because we can relate! Of course, a lot of people won’t get or like it, and that’s okay, too. Nora Ephron (RIP) compared Dunham to Woody Allen. It’s a reasonable comparison.
This is why it’s so fucking funny that wingnuts are going apeshit over her ad. And even sad-funnier that our resident dipshit trolls have been bagging on her appearance. It plays right into her schtick. Of course, the only only bush these dipshits have seen is George.
Elizabelle
@Hungry Joe:
Good on you. Excellent use of time!
kay
I don’t know anything about the young woman, but I thought the ad was meant to be provacative, not in a sexual sense, but instead to provoke thought. She wants the viewer to think about voting.
It makes me a little sad that young women are assigned such a narrow range, judging by the reaction to the ad. If she’s using this hook to provoke she has to be incredibly physically attractive? Why?
It’s like there can be only two kinds of women, serious (Sandra Fluke) or scandalous. She can be BOTH things.
Marshall
@poco:
I bet they had a robo-call account and some credit left over from the campaign, and decided to burn it off before the election (i.e., massage it as a campaign expense).
grandpa john
@Chyron HR: Newt is doing what he does for a living; being a grifting con-man.
grandpa john
@JCT:
Since most of them are married to republican authoritain men who are only concerned with their own gratification and could give a shit at to whether their wives get any pleasure. Because after all the women are simply there to pleasure the men right?