Mitt Romney is just like you and me, except that he grew up pretty wealthy and went to prep school and Ivy League universities and thus had no problem getting access to the kind of people who could help him earn more money than you or I could ever conceive of earning in a hundred lifetimes.
He’s rich! And that makes him better than you. Except when it comes to judging what normal people make. He’s not so great at that.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is $100,000 middle income?
MITT ROMNEY: No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.
Wow, people making $200,000 are still what we would call “middle-income”? Maybe! If you define “middle” as the middle 97 percent or so! Because according to the Tax Policy Center, you’re in the top 20 percent of earners if your household income is above $100,000. If you bring in more than $180,000, you’re in the top 5 percent.
But Romney has a point; $250,000 isn’t car elevator money, or “quadruple the size of your San Diego beach house” money, or “I better get some Cayman Island investments to lower my tax burden” money. So to those of you out there who are earning $250,000 a year, remember that Mitt Romney is deeply concerned about the struggles you face as you drive your luxury cars to five-star restaurants before heading to the opera.
[ABC]
{ 782 comments }
Why do old Mitt Romney photos always look like a Grizzly Bear video still?
Personally, I'd like to know how they managed to sweat money. There's a secret that, if he promised to teach us, I'd vote for him.
Can be true. The more a person sweats at their work*, the less money they make.
* – blanket exception for professional athletes.
True.
On the other hand, I'd be able to buy a small Caribbean island after a hard bike ride.
I'm going to give up typos for Lent. Can't be true.
"I'd like to know how they managed to sweat money. There's a secret that, if he promised to teach us, I'd vote for him."
*whispers*
They sweat it out of the people who work for a living.
It's rather simple; you just sell your soul to the devil.
Heh… reminds me of a favorite line from MST3K's version of Manos: The Hands of Fate:
"Every frame of this movie looks like someone's 'last known photo'"
If only.
*passes Dr. Zoom some of Torgo's crazy bread*
one of my very favorite lines ever!
How many "Lehman Moments" can you have in one week?
I am enjoying this.
All of them, Katie.
That's OK. For every gaffe, his campaign prolly gets a million Koch dollars to make up for it.
"Koch dollars." huhuhuhuhuhhuhuhhuhuhuhuhuhuh…
Quite a few if you start the morning with a prune juice and Ducolax cocktail.
Ask him how much he thinks a dozen Fabergé eggs cost.
Then ask him how much a dozen eggs cost. I'm guessing the answer would go something like this:
"Well, I've only ever bought one Faberge egg, [chuckles] and that was for Anne on the occasion of our fourth and a half anniversary, and that one cost me $80,000.00 at a Christie's auction. So I suppose a dozen would come in at almost a million dollars. As for a dozen hens eggs… oh, I guessing… what… fifteen dollars? About a dollar and a quarter per egg? Am I right? Or at least close? I haven't been to a grocery store in a while."
"But I have some friends who own grocery store chains."
I have some campaign managers who fuck chickens.
"About a dollar and a quarter per egg? Am I right?"
Only at the health food store.
Yes, but they're certified.
And so are you if you buy.
And free
rangeroll.But where's the Laid Certificate?
He has Fabergé eggs for breakfast every morning. Only he doesn't know what they cost as they just magically appear. They're brought in by an angel carrying them on golden plates. That's his everyday china.
Until, one morning, the Fabergé egg won't appear. That's when he will know he died. Or perhaps just lost the election.
You people and your "low incomes". Stop it already! You're embarassing your betters!
I always hoped I was middle class. But I'm not that surprised to find out I'm low class.
According to the good Mr. Romney, my household is holding onto middle class by its fingernails. Guess I'm not buying enough lottery tickets with my take-home.
Refrigerator magnet:
Just when I finally make it into the middle class, it disappears.
I can no longer see the phrase on your first line without thinking of Hot Fuzz and the wealthy appliance store owner described as a "refrigerator magnate".
♪ I'm on a looowww budget ♫
What did you say?
♪ I'm on a looowww budget ♫
I thought you said that.
Mitt Romney cares about the middle class. FACTCHECK: True*
Mitt Romney can correctly identify the middle class.
FACT CHECK: Pants on fire
Mr. Romney's idea of the middle class? FUCKEDUP: True!
Mitt Romney's policy for the middle class: outsource it to China.
FACT CHECK: True!
I imagine Mandy Pepperidge from Animal House giving any one of these fine gentlemen a hand job in the car, and inquiring, "Is it supposed to be this soft?"
Mittie, and Paulie, and the rest of the Hitler Youth.
Word has it as Senator Blutarsky's wife she's still giving them handjobs only now the fine young men are middle aged lobbyists.
With plastic gloves on (eeww)
Is the correct reply: "It's soft because you forgot to wear the sailor's suit and chaps" ?
MItt: That Barry Obama ought to be expelled!
Mandy [sighing dreamily]: I'll say!
Mitt: You'll say what?
Mandy: Darn it, Mitt! If you're not even gonna TRY, I'm just gonna stop!
*snaps off rubber glove*
Well, I earn over $250.00 a year and……oh…….
Braggart!
Ketchup on your hobo beans. Fancy.
Can we get clarification that Mitt thinks $200K a YEAR is middle income? He might think it's only per month.
Or maybe the Age 70 "Required Minimum Distribution" from the average middle class moron's merely $10,000,000.00 IRA.
Howdy, stranger. Nothing personal, but I have a nagging curiosity about how Intense Debate works, and your 159p is the highest reputation rating I've ever seen on Wonkette. Since you appear to have only three comments on the Wonk, the p must come from elsewhere on ID.
Would you mind sharing where from?
Rafalca probably costs Mitt $200,000 per month.
Looks a little like Rod Serling in that picture. Appropriate for the Twilight Zone he's living in.
Rod Serling had more compassion and humanity than all of those fuckwads in that picture put together!
"$200,000 to $250,000" is what Mitt spends on magic undies.
Per month.
Did we forget our Spanish cussing lesson already? No te das cuenta, que este tipo es un tremendo estupido comemierda? New word is coño, as in: Coño, que tipo mas comemierda! BTW, coño is the f-word!
No, hon, I wrote it all down. You sure do cuss a blue streak, girl!
Coño is the C word and Joder is the F-word.
???
I thought "chinga" was the F-word?
Those suckers are "dry clean only". Between the undies, the jodhpurs and Annie's "nipple vulture" dresses, the laundry bill really adds up. Of course, the (R)moneys outsource this work to an actual Chinese laundry. Probably the only laundry bags that get seats on a Lear Jet.
Do you have any idea what vintage ironing boards go for? Do you?……
"Here's $10. Go see a Star War."
"On you way home, buy a loaf of bread. Here's a dollar. Keep the change."
Keep talking, Mitt. If very many undecideds are listening, you'll talk your way to an Obama landslide.
Which I prefer; it makes the election night party that much more festive.
Also coattails, too.
Yea, I mean, I'm already able to start making plans for victory parties. I can snap up all the good caterers. He keeps this up and it's not going to be so easy.
Now that you mention it, I better stock up on the champagne now…
It's like he's losing on purpose.
He made a huge bet on a sports book back when he an Obama were basically a pick-em, and now he means to crush the point spread. I mean blow that mutha wide open.
God, I love "mutha"! I love reading it, typing it – Hell, I just sit and say it to myself over and over, and giggle like a little school girl! I sometimes try muhfuckah, but it just comes out all whitey.
I've had that odd feeling since day 1 of his campaign. Like he's going through the motions for someone else, and deliberately blowing it every chance he gets.
It is hard to imagine that he is receiving competent advice from professionals in his campaign. Or maybe he's not listening. No one in their right mind would do what Mitt has done over the past couple of days, especially slamming the President over the Libyan Embassy debacle. I don't know why Pres. Obama doesn't have a double-digit lead in the polls. Oh, that's right; a significant minority in this country are illiterate assholes. I forgot that part.
It's always the illiterate assholes that make these things nail biters.
At the wonkettes I can be a literate asshole and still be cool.
Illiterate RACIST assholes.
OK, fine, I don't disagree.
I will say, however, that I've seen and heard quite a few comments lately, to the effect of, "I would never vote for Obama, but I don't like Romney, either" [actually, it works if you switch the names, too].
I interpret it as meaning something like, "I would vote for a dead dog to get THE BLACK GUY out of office, and even *I* don't like Romney".
BLACK, also, too
Here's what's scary: the response to the Libya debacle was not Romney's knee-jerk top-down "write me a speech justifying this position" bullshit, which most people seem to think. Romney's FOREIGN POLICY TEAM — a bunch of neocon warhawks from Bush's days in office — were monitoring Twitter when they came upon the US Embassy/Egypt's Tweet and decided it was a great opportunity. These are people who have been in politics for years. You'd think they would know, better than anyone, how bad their timing was, and how badly it would play with anxious Americans. His foreign policy and communications teams worked together on it. And not one of those idiots thought to speak up and say, "This could wait a day or two."
I know why President Obama doesn't have a double-digit lead in the polls, and so do you. It's because an awful lot of white people are total fucking racists who are really upset that there's a BLACK man in the WHITE House.
I may rent a tux
This shatters my image of the man and his Kirkland shirts. And to think he seemed so genuine when he was singing "Who Let the Dogs Out."
Or when he pretends the waitress is flirtatiously grabbing his buttocks and she should knock it off as she knows very well Mitt is happily married to the mother of his 5 male children and an MS and breast cancer sufferer. That's comedy gold, put it in the bank with the $250K, middle class.
Unrelated to this post.
Baconz got a new jerb so next month you will probally see less of Mr Zgood during working hours.
This makes me both happy and sad.
I didn't even have to do a Resume. I literally walked 2 blocks down the street and asked someone I had worked with before if I could have a job. He said "sure!, I was just going to call this lady (showing me her resume) and offer her one but now that you walked in I'll hire you. When can you start?"
Wow! Now that's a piece of good luck! Congratulations, and knock 'em dead.
Errr, not literally. Save the stabby stuff for Republicans.
It really was serendipitous. If I had come in 2 hours later I wouldn't have had the position I have now…..Not that I know specifically what I'm doing there yet. It was really an odd interview. We talked more about baseball than we talked about my job description.
You should have haggled for "wonkette time".
Put it in the contract. And a desk bowl full of ONLY blue peanut M&Ms, to be refreshed daily by staff.
That is terrific! The resume shit just eats you up. Someone like you shouldn't need to send out resumes. Networking is what you do, and I'm very glad it worked out for you.
Now change your fucking tagline.
On it.
Congrats on the job. Sorry we won't see you. Sneak in once in awhile.
Will try.
Try not! Do or do not! There is no try.
Congrats! Did you put your fab Wonkette contributions on your CV?
No, you see, he *wanted* the job.
Hey, congrats, Baconz! Hope it goes well.
Congrats!(?)
That's the perfect avatar for how I feel about not being on wonkette durring EST working hours. I'll still be around until Oct 15 so give me p-ness so I can go out with a bang until I can feel safe in my new position to be a wonker again.
Tee-Hee
P-ness, Bang, Position.
Wait, Wonkette commenters have jobs?
Somthing has to pay for boxed wine and fapping materal.
Not all of us, praise Jebus.
*voice from the back of the crowd, a la "Life of Brian"*
I don't!
Srsly? Cause I'm'a start worrying about YOU now.
Agreed… happy AND sad.
I hope jobzgood!
It pay as well and it's a family buisness. I kinda like being a cog in the wheel of a fortune 500 company.
I want to be a cog! Well, I already am, but I want to be more of a cog. Right now, I feel more like something that fell between the cogs.
If you get bored or feel that your job is crushing do what I (used to) do, replace some ones lunch baged lunch with a dead sparow. Just don't get caught.
…working hours.
?
8-5
3
I work 6 to 4, but take PTO in 6 minute increments throughout the day as I check my wonkett.
Sell out!
Mitt can give you tips on how to set up your Cayman account.
YAY! Baconz! (Hugs the little piglet ten times)
I am SO FUCKING GLAD for you, baby. I know you probably had a few acorns squirreled away for lean times, but a man with kids pretty much has to work. The little buggers cost bucks. Hugs to you, to your li'l lady, congrats on your new job.
This is why I use my iphone at work. Everyone thinks I am busy with work stuff. It only backfires when I sometimes laugh out loud during a meeting. That can be awkward.
I remember the very first time I came to Wonkette. I shared an office with an associated. Reading the comments of the awesomer Wonketteers I was snickering and sniffling and tears were coming from my eyes.
He asked, "Whats going on over there?"
Me: "Oh, nothing. I think I just found MY people."
A while ago I tried to explain wonkette to my BFF, but I refused to tell her what my avatar was. She decide that she knew me well enough to figure it out, so she read through a days worth of posts and called me the next day. She was "amazed and very disturbed that so many fucking smartasses were all congregated in one little corner of the internet." Her words, not mine. And she never did figure out who I was.
I usually send the link to a friend. One day, I must have been particularly on my game, when the friend sent back an LOL with my comment in quotes. I was so proud. It was something about Mrs. Limbaugh and little Rushie.
If they have the drinky thing in my city I will refuse to reveal myself as Baconz.
"I think I just found MY people."
Some friends invited me to a Labor Day event in the park — hot dogs, balloons, music, etc. What I didn't know until I got there was that it was run by some church — and not even a normal church, either, one of those real looney Christer ones, the church of Jesus' bloody mangled forehead or something, real Carrie's mother stuff.
So, I'm sitting through this guy's speech about how he found Jeeeeebus (sample text: "I didn't come from a monkey!" I yelled out, "Apparently you haven't found Darwin, either!"), and I was thinking about how much longer I had to sit there to be polite, and how soon I could return to wonkette.
First I thought I was weird and pathetic to want to go home alone, because I prefer interacting with a bunch of people I've never even seen face to face than being with the company of actual people in real life. Then I remembered… Oh, yeah… you guys aren't assholes.
" real Carrie's mother stuff. " — teehee!
And that's how I think of the people at the"Values Voters Summit". (Recycled tweet alert): They should change their name to "FantasyCon". And then build an ark together and set sail for Kolob.
I know the feeling. I want to travel on a Drinky Thing caravan to meet everybody.
This is pretty much the asshole-freest space on Teh InterNetz that is not mind-numbingly dull and tl;dr.
This wouldn't have something to do with:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/one-man-trav…
He can stay on my couch.
Well, if the plan doesn't work, at least he will have food.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I suppose congratulations are in order, though make no mistake: we will miss you…
Maybe me too. More of the moneyz and less of the killer commuting.
But I did have to hold my tongue and not ask "does your firewall block Wonkette.com"?
Good luck to you.
I hope it works out for you as well.
Good luck. And yay, on the commuting.
My work doesn't block it, but the last two weeks every time i try to log in it's stuck on "Paul Ryan is a Lying Liar who Lies." So I've given up.
Yay? Be sure to update us, dood.
Yay, Baconz!
I assume you'll be in Romney's middle income bracket so you won't be relating to us in the economic basement. When you get a house with a car elevator let me know if you need an elevator person to run it. I haz uniform.
I seriously had a job that involved wearing a uniform and running an elevator-in Washington, DC- a long long time ago
Did you keep the hat? Those hats are fucking awsom with a capital Kick Ass.
I used to be a chef, but did not have a chef hat.
This makes me sad.
congratulations and may you have no new deputy director dales.
For the love of god, remember to put some quick set 2 part epoxy in your lunch sack on the first day. 'Cause you never know….
Congratulations! Unemployment is a drag, and frankly sending out the resume repeatedly becomes worse than any job. May you soon be middle income!
Yay. Deadwood's coming back!
'grats. Now all your P are belong to us…
Aw, we'll miss you, but good luck!
Wow, 60+ replies to this comment, is that a record?
Anywayzgood glad to hear the news and BTW your OT workplace stories are hilarious! Feel free to give us more at any time, even in the middle of the night. Especially in the middle of the night!
Congrats!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Wow. In case you get to the end of this thread, 5 hrs. later, CONGRATULATIONS!♡♡♡
I'm checking it days later and I keep thinking "you like me. You really really like me" its nice I get so much support from people I don't know personally. It makes me almost have faith in humans again.
Congratulations! I will have to try that technique of "just ask" also, too.
YAY!!! I am very, very happy for you.
Mazel tov. And as you can see, Wonkette is open all night, so we'll leave the light on for you…
Baconz, you say you won't be here as often and you get 125 thumbs up??? That's just wrong! Maybe they're cheering because they're thinking MORE MONEY. Good luck, Sweetie.
Hooray!
I want to live in Mitt's world because in my world, the math is a lot more sucky.
Maybe if we really concentrate we can move the decimal points in our salary…with our minds.
I just now managed it! Only it moved to the left. Darnation.
"A million here, a million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money"
I want to live in the world where Bill Clinton is in charge of math, because that was the least sucky math I've ever seen or heard of.
"Some of my best Middle Class friends make $200,000 to $250,000 a year."
I suspect that Mittens has no "friends" as normal people would use the term.
There, fixed.
You'll notice that not a single person has come forth of their own free will to offer a glowing testimony as to the goodness of Mittens' heart, other than his own family and paid spokesmen. For a man to reach his advanced age and not have a single voice raised in his defense — doesn't that say everything you need to know about Mitt?
Those would probably be the toadies who take his jackets to the cleaners when Ann's too busy with her horsie.
Why would he need to take his jackets to the cleaners when he has a new suit and mom jeans everyday?
Ha! It's true. The very rich are not like you and me.
I went to college with some very, very wealthy people. (I, of course, was on loans and scholarships.)
You know how women have "period underwear"? Some of these girls would literally throw out their period underwear after a single use.
Yes, many of them are towering sociopathic assholes and I'm not.
Towering, I mean.
"Some of my best Middle Class
friendscontracted at-will employees make $200,000 to $250,000 a year."FIFY.
I don't believe Mitt has ever spoken to anyone who makes less than $250,000 pa. I just don't.
Sure he has – "park it near the front, Sonny, and there's a buck in it for you"
"I didn't know you people had families."
I hope Mitt spends the rest of his life in dire poverty. It might make a
betterperson out of him.I'm picturing him at the end of his life as Charles Foster Kane at the beginning of Citizen Kane.
I'm picturing him at the end of his life in no particular fashion, just at the end of his life.
Yeah, I'm definitely prefering this picture to Baldar's, sorry, Mr. Flagass.
I'm hoping Mitt never reaches the end of his life. I mean, after all the shit he's rained down on my beloved native land, he dies and then gets his own planet?
That just sucks.
I'm hoping that when he dies, thinking that he'll now have his own planet, he'll wake up somewhere on Mars with only one of those Rover-thingies for company. At least the Rover will be in charge due to having seniority.
I hope Mittens gets put in charge of a giant ball of super heated methane.
There's a reason Mitt and his fellow richies stash some money overseas. The peasants might seem quiescent, but the do have lotta guns.
The way things are going, the whole ConserviTard " let the Little People have their guns" thing may prove to be a bit of a miscalculation
No, I'm pretty sure that they are right to think that the poor will turn against each other, first. Especially if the rich can start the race war that they've always wanted.
The only way to make a better person(s) out of him would be to divvy up his organs for transplantation
I am beginning to question the path I have chosen in my career. Aside from having different parents, how can I become a rich as Mitt Romney.
Maybe I should listen more closely to his message???
I believe his message is that it all starts with rich parents who can fund your private school education and business startup. If you got that, you are good to go.
Just remember, it all starts with pretend eating tuna and noodles off an ironing board in a basement apartment. Funded by about $400K in stock.
And seed money from Central American death squads.
And that child slavery ring in the Cayman Islands.
And the fetus grinding factory in Florida:
http://jezebel.com/5922811/romney-blatantly-lies-…
She's as mechanical as he is. I mean, who that has ever actually eaten it, doesn't remember the name of tuna-noodle casserole?
Hey I'm still trying to figure out how and WHY they used the ironing board to eat off of—-seems kinda narrow and flimsy. Would've made more sense to use their "desk" from a door, their laps or cashed $5 of stock to buy table from a thrift shop.
Oh yeah, it's all from a comic strip/1930's movie Marie Ann-Romnette was permitted by Mormon elders. So she just figured that's how teh poors do these things.
Then there is this, from our Canuckistanian neighbors.
"Every day, Dagwood–I mean, Mitt would come home with a new story of hard work and humiliation at the hands of his boss, Mr. Dithers."
Well, okay. But maybe when Ann said "pasta and tuna fish", what she was remembering was a nice pasta primavera tossed with bits of lightly seared ahi.
Hmmmm?
The scenario seems plausible, but were any Americans calling tuna 'ahi' back in the 60's?
As prepared by her ladyservant, I'd buy that…
Who do you think he is? Rich Dad?
Oh please! It's easy to make money! Look at Mitt, he made $350,000 from just one speech!
So go out and give speeches. Lots of them. You'll be rolling in dough in no time!
I'ma start a small business giving speeches. Can I borrow some seed money? I need to buy some words.
He has a message?
Apparently his only message is that Obama is a very bad man. Please Elect me King.
You don't need different parents, just their money. and their friends and connections. Maybe you can convince you parents to join a cult, too.
Well, I have only one parent since I was 10. And Mom is too darn rational, logical and lucid to join a cult.
If being Romney rich is any example of how it is done, maybe I am better off. grin.
Your Mom sounds like such a wonderful person, J_W. I hope you fixed all the stuff you were going to fix for her.
To revise the punch line to an old, vulgar joke:
"Why do you want a big box of parents, little boy?"
"Because Mitt Romney only has two parents, and he owns *both* those Cadillacs!"
I'm just like Mitt.
well, except for the fact that my dad was a butcher and I started my working career following in his footsteps by making hamburger patties.
Ah, cool. I bet you are the one person who can answer the questions of that sweet, kindly Clara Peller.
As a matter of fact, I was the local expert on that subject at that time.
Also, "Know Your Cuts of Meat" on Letterman.
Hey! You lost your BOOBS AND the kitteh!
How am I supposed to recognize anybody anyMOAR?
Sorry my friend, I've been hung up lately on this old clip from that 90's cartoon "Heavy Metal."
If you're not familiar with it, there's a scene with space pirate Captain Stern on trial using a man named Hanover Fist coming to his defense with blatant lies because Stern gave him a shitload of money. The physical resemblance from Stern/Romney and Fist/Ryan in uncanny.
See if you agree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgMsvpFm08
I'm just teasing, dood. I love poking everyone about av/name changes, which is pretty cheeky since I've had more than anybody here, I think.
Thanks for the linky. Will go see.
Mitt may not understand a median annual income of $50,000 but some of his great friends pay their hard-working employees that much, or less.
Obviously, those "people" work three or four jobs. How uniquely Amercian!
I make just a little bit more than that so obviously I'm also on food stamps because I must be one of the poors in Mitt's world.
“MITT ROMNEY: No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.”
It’s true if you believe making less than 100k makes you subhuman.
Has anyone identified the other money dudes in that photo and revealed what they are doing today?
"Where Are They Now: Got Rich Quick Edition."
If I recall correctly, that shot was taken after Mitt and Bain closed on Staples, so if you can dig up the SEC filings on that, the names will be in there.
i thought it was when the thousandth nun was killed by their central american financiers?
I was asking if anyone who gets paid to do so has done so — you know, "journalists", if such a thing exists anymore.
Hahahaha.
these day, we have "The Press Corpse"
This article says everything you need to know. Their names are:
Geoffrey S. Rehnert
Robert F. White
Patrick Graham
T. Coleman Andrews III
Eric A. Kriss
Joshua Bekenstein
Fraser Bullock
- Four of the partners have donated to Romney’s campaigns.
- Bekenstein, the only original partner still at Bain, remains a friend of Romney’s, but gave $2,500 to Obama in 2011 and has given tens of thousands of dollars to other Democrats.
- Bullock, a fellow Mormon, was selected as Romney’s No. 2 when he ran the 2002 Winter Olympics.
- When he was MA governor, Romney chose Kriss as his secretary of administration and finance.
Hmmm — there are seven "people" in the picture, and you have listed seven names, none of which are Willard "Mitt" Romney.
So this picture is clearly a fabrication like the moon landing pictures.
Edit: Okay,maybe it's real. I've been told that Graham was too smaht to be in the photo.
Thank you for enabling my moment of Google-laziness!
T. Coleman Andrews III sounds like the name of a schmuck who wears a little captain's hat.
I instinctively mistrust anyone who parts his name on the right; also anyone with three interchangeable names.
Clearly, T. Coleman Andrews is up to no good.
People with those pretentious little initials before their chosen name irritate the holy living shit out of me. Go with your chosen name, nobody gives a shit if it's your first, second, or third fucking name. We don't care that your mom named you Timothy and you hate that name. If you hate it that much, you'd drop the first letter. Just be fucking Boone Pickens, it's not like any other asshole in the world named their kid Boone Pickens and even if they did, you're the bigger asshole so no one's ever gonna mistake you for the OTHER Boone Pickens, jesuschrist.
Sorry. I'm tetchy as fuck-all this morning.
Wasn't he the white dude that got fucked over in "Trading Places"?
That was Mortimer and Randolph Duke.
"Fraser Bullock"?
Excellent work, Tequila. That's why I love the Wonkette – journamalism!
I'm guessing what they are doing today is a lot more blow than us.
Off of hookers' asses. Gender of hookers, fielders' choice.
"identified the other money dudes in that photo and revealed what they are doing today?"
"Douglas C. Niedermeyer: Killed in Vietnam… by his own troops"
"Have a
beerKristal. Don't cost nothin'."5-10 in medium security?
I dunno, but they have the look of future pedophiles and porn hounds written all over them.
I'd be willing to bet that none of those CVs would mention anything about the military. Except may "selling military surplus to Children's Armies in equatorial Africa."
Mitt's got a look in that picture of 'they'll never discover where I buried the bodies.'
You know, most of the time when someone uses that expression, they're speaking figuratively.
Your statement is literally true.
Here's the thing: if he read a newspaper, magazine, or book, occasionally, or listened to the news on the teev, the radio, or the InterToobz, there is NO FUCKING WAY on god's green earth that he would NOT know what the median income is for a family of four. Because for at least 12 years now, I have had that little factoid drummed into my head daily.
This guy is Sarah Palin with testicles. Just as stupid, ignorant, ill-informed, and incurious. I want to say I'm fuckin' done with this and just retire to my cave, but this election is IMPORTANT. Goddammit.
Dude named his kid Tagg. That's more Palinness than I can handle.
I'd love to say, "Look on the bright side, at least it wasn't Tragg," but I suspect this comment will be eated.
He's not Palin with testicles (though I imagine he has some), He's Palin with a shitload of $$$$$$.
He sure doesn't have enough to stand up to Limbaugh.
That's because he's trying to play at politician. If it weren't for that, he'd release the hounds if Limbaugh came near him.
I'm not believing in any testicles I've never seen and no, I don't ever–EVER–want to see them in all their shriveled, pasty and graying glory. Otherwise, what you said.
Sometimes you gotta believe in testicles you've never seen or you never get to see them.
Is that like if you don't believe in Santa you won't get presents cuz I don't wanna see Santa's testicles.
Yes.
NObody wants to see Santa's testicles, geez.
Santa does have a very big sock.
"I don't wanna see Santa's testicles. "
Nobody does; that's why he has to come down the chimney.
For some reason this reminds me of the apocrypha about the Pope's chair.
You got it backwards, I think? "Sarah Palin is this guy with testicles."
Could be, could be.
These are the worst economic times in 80 years and the Republicans come up with this jackoff. Hey, who says conservatives have no sense of humor?
Oh, is that what they're calling it these days? Must remember that.
I think this is one of the evil humours.
Bile, or choler?
Tsk. Choleric, sanguine, melancholic (baby) and one more that i forget.
As odious as he is, I don't have to shriek to cover the sound of the voice emanating, except when he sings. So there is that difference.
True. Her voice brings all the dogs to her backyard — howling for her to shut the fuck up already.
I have to disagree here, MittBorg. Sarah Palin, at least, never gave me those Pod-Person vibes. Hillbilly grifter, sure, but Pod Person? I can't lay that on her just yet. (Yet!)
And S.P. knows the value of a hard grifted buck, from the free Neiman Marcus clothes to the fake hair. She's stupid, but no one does a reality show because they love America. She just can't help her stupid, insane, hate-filled hill- fucking-billy self.
Oh, do I sound testy?
Maybe just a smidgin, dear.
Oh, no, I agree, Sarah's got Mitt beat mitts-down when it comes to authenticity. She's a rotten obnoxious ignorant hate-filled screeching loon, but that's who she really is from top to toe. With Mitt, it's hard to tell WTF you're holding from day to day.
It's not "tone deafness", either. He's just a rich motherfucker who doesn't know or care to know how anyone else would live.
You're absoright. MoneyBadger don't give a shit. I'm still dumbstruck by his comment to the nice gay mother who asked to meet with him. "I didn't know you people had families," he said.
To be fair, we mostly eat our young.
Are they tasty? Are they crunchable, precious?
Mitt Romney is neither stupid nor ignorant. It's ridiculous to put him in the same intellectual category as Sarah Palin. He is a walking disaster in his own particular phony, tactless and rapacious way, and we underestimate him at our peril.
I don't understand how he ever got two pennies to rub together. Brute-force seems to be his first solution to everything, and he has no sense of strategy, no finesse, no intellectual heft (srsly. Snooki?). A man who doesn't know the median income of American families is not ignorant? What is he then? How can anyone not know a figure that has been daily dinned into the ears of all and sundry? How can anyone not PREPARE for a job they've been groomed for all their fucking lives?
I'm sorry, as the election draws closer I find myself becoming less reasonable, but I really don't understand how a public figure who hopes to soon become the leader of 300 million can not know basic economic facts about said millions and not be considered ignorant. Perhaps I'm being overly rigid in my definition of ignorance, or there's something else I'm not seeing that you will be good enough to explain to me.
Even pre-loaded with money, connections and a pedigree, a person as stupid as Sarah Palin would not have succeeded in starting up and profiting wildly from an outfit like Bain. See the article that Tequila Mockingbird helpfully posted:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/1984-bain-…
Mitt's obfuscation and hairsplitting and dissembling about what is or isn't "middle class" isn't about not knowing the definition, it's about obscuring what his tax policy really is. He wants to cut taxes on an income level that is clearly part of the upper middle to upper class, so he's trying to bullshit through it by calling $250,000 "middle class". He doesn't know how to be a good liar and a good bullshitter, but that's not Sarah Palin stupidity.
Z, I'm sure the Money Badger has a pretty good idea of what the median income is. Someone has told him that, repeatedly. When he says shit like "the top end of middle-income is $200K or $250K" he is employing the venerable rhetorical technique known as "lying".
I do not think he is stupid. I also don't think he is anywhere near as smart as he thinks he is (the born-on-third-base syndrome is strong in this one). I also too, further, additionally, think that he is borderline sociopathic, but his upper-class-bubble life has prevented him from developing the charming persona that distinguishes truly successful sociopaths.
You're right, of course. I just wanted someone *else* to say it for a change, since I've been screaming LIAR everytime I see that smug, smirking shmoo.
There's no fucking way I'm reading all of the over 50 replies to your astute comment, including my own.
Ooooo-KAY.
Did you know that if you hold a sea shell next to your ear you can here Mitt Romney's economic plan?
(From Rafalca Romney)
I thought you had to hold your ear up to Rafalca's butthole.
There might be some options in Enumclaw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enumclaw_horse_sex_c…
Rafalca's anus = Mittens = horse's ass. All the same.
I love that naughty little bugger.
Wait, so what you're telling me is that he's going to drown all the poorz in the ocean? Can't say I'm surprised. That's certainly one way to deal with poverty.
Actually, if you stack all the drowned poorz in the Atlantic, Mittens will be able to drive to the Caymans to count his dosh.
You get my humor. I bet you tell one mean "dead baby" joke.
I never joke about veal….
Perhaps what Mitt should have said is that, from his lofty perch, people making less than $200,000 to $250,000 seem poor.
That's not what he said? I must have misunderstood his meaning.
Romney's Theory of Relativity
To be fair, over 200K a year is not richy-rich-rich, especially in the northeast. Two NYC public school teachers with masters degrees could pull that in if they managed to stay in the system long enough (Once they bust the unions, that won't be an issue). Middle class can be a big tent. I think there's room in it for families earning up to 250k a year — which still might not be enough to get the third child through college without substantial loans. The problem is Romney dismisses anyone making under 200k. If we aren't middle class what are we please? Upper Poors?
Sorry, but if your family income is $200K you're in the top 10%, no matter where you live. Just sucks if you live in NYC where it costs so much. But the median family income for the northeast is just over $56K.
Middle-class has nothing to do with what the median income is. The higher the level of poverty is, the lower the median will be. In ten years when the median is down to 40K, that won't mean more people will be in the middle class. Fewer will.
Actually, above $180K puts a person in the top 5% of earners.
Well, here's the thing: economically, middle class has a very precise definition, which we'd like our politicians to adhere to.
But there's a sociologic middle class, a values basis, which as you point out, could include people who make a boatload of money (relatively speaking) but who still have to choose to skip a vacation or bag lunch every so often. They consider themselves middle class because they have to make some small sacrifices.
I mean, let's face facts: median income for a family of four is $50K. If a family in NYC makes $200K, it doesn't cost four times as much to live in NYC as it does in the rest of the country. Those two teachers may have opted to live in Manhattan for convenience, say, as opposed to farther out in the boroughs. They have obstacles, but some of those are by choice.
Honestly, it kinda does cost 4 times as much to live in NYC (former NYC'r here). Even living in an outer borough is still very expensive.
Lifelong NYer, and current resident here.
NYC is expensive, but it might only be twice the national average.
The closet measure that shows anything approaching four times was a 2009 study by the Center for Urban Future, which claims that a $60,000 wage in NYC would be equivalent to earning $27,000 in a typical American city like Atlanta.
And Atlanta is actually kinda cheap, being a hell-hole and all.
Late comment here, but "middle-income" doesn't (at least to me) mean "median income". "Middle-income" is a range. One could argue that the range should be centered on median income — maybe 25th to 75th percentile — but the top end of "middle-income" is somewhere above the median.
The notion of "economic class" depends on the relationship between income and cost of living (which is, predominantly, the cost of housing). In my view, you're in the "middle class" when you can afford reasonably secure and weatherproof housing, three square meals a day, decent quality education for your children, necessary transportation, health insurance, and the occasional extravagance, as long as you remain employed (or in business). Obviously, there is a range.
You're below middle-class (aka "working class" or "poor") if you are missing some of the above.
You are "well-off" if you have accumulated enough wealth that the return from investing it is sufficiently large that you would be at least at the low end of "middle-class" if you never worked again. If your investment income, alone, puts you at the high end of middle-class, you are "rich".
If your investment income is higher than this, you are someone that Mitt Romney might consider a "friend". Provisionally.
Yes. This is what I was getting at. I saw later they used the word: "middle-income" rather than "middle class". Maybe because Republicans don't see class? I've known people who were working poor — within 125% of the poverty line, but considered themselves lower middle class — a question of values and aspirations. Thank you for stating this so well.
200k/year is richy rich enough to be very comfortable. Not richy rich rich but only one rich removed.
Really does depend on where, just because of the cost of housing. I'll agree that even in coastal urban commie-holes it's enough to be "very comfortable", but to me that is the definition of "very-upper-middle-class", not "rich".
I'd say it would be that way in Portland—-maybe Seattle, but in San Franciso or the OC, you'd still be teh poors with $200K.
No, you'd just have to be a little flexible about housing. The "high cost of living" in expensive areas is pretty much entirely the high cost of real estate.
We can argue the definition of "rich" until Tagg's term in office is over. Mitt said that $200k-$250k is "middle income." Under no definition of "middle" is this true.
That is an excellent point, and one which I missed despite reading the quote a couple of times (being fixed on "middle class").
The upper limit of middle income must certainly be less than 95th percentile, or "middle" has no meaning. In fact, the 80th %ile (which is around $100K) seems a little high, but maybe one could use that to allow for the somewhat higher distribution in coastal urban areas.
So, yeah, "middle income" tops out around $100K.
It's a telling indication of the stagnation of income, for all but the very wealthy, over the past decade that in quite a few parts of the country, the lower range of "middle income" is no longer enough to put you in the "middle class".
"It's a telling indication of the stagnation of income, for all but the very wealthy, over the past decade that in quite a few parts of the country, the lower range of "middle income" is no longer enough to put you in the "middle class"."
Very good point, and a very important distinction.
However, it may be worth pointing out that our culture has something to do with this, too.
A middle class household when I was growing up had one car, one phone, and one TV. We never missed a meal, we took a (modest) family vacation every summer, and it was assumed as a given that we would go to college — but we definitely had far less stuff.
We don't just live in a culture of spending (or did, when anybody still had a job and money), we live in a culture of economic waste. While I agree that wages have fallen further and further behind cost of living for at least the last 30 or 40 years, the standard of "middle class" has also changed, and consumerism has eaten up a lot of what we do make.
I honestly think it's an outgrowth of MBA culture, where if you can step upon somebody else's head to get a leg up, you take it. Asymmetric information and all of that. Just because the person on the other end of the contract was working all day doesn't mean you shouldn't take advantage of their naivete regarding the market.
Sure one party gets to spend all day in an air conditioned office, studying the markets, but the other party is spending the day cooking food, repairing plumbing, or fixing servers.
Seriously, the DOJ needs to come down like a ton of bricks on a good percentage of people involved in the robosigning debacle, just to put the fear of god into them, and more importantly, restore faith in the financial system. When a Mattress outperforms negative yield bonds, which outperform stocks?
Shit be fucked.
I take your point. I was an only child; both my parents were teachers. We had one car, one phone line (two extensions, though), and one TV. Et cetera.
And I definitely thought we were middle class (lower-middle, but still, no complaints).
I don't think my view of "middle-class" has changed all that much. It does include two cars, for two working parents (my mother never learned to drive, although she taught for forty years). It also includes cell phones and computers, because they exist, and multiple TVs, because they've become commodities (although I, personally, don't have cable, and hence only the one TV, for dvds).
I guess I disagree with your proposition that the standard of "middle class" has moved upward. The physical details have changed, but the proportion of income spent on things (except real estate) hasn't changed that much.
And, yes, we are inundated in crap. But we were inundated in crap when I was a kid fifty-five years ago. It was just less durable crap.
I do know people who with 2 salaries made that with higher level government jobs but that wasn't us. still, when we worked and now that we are retired(with one good pension- well, I thought it was- and one crap pension), I think we are middle class although we make way less than that. RMoney is an idiot
"Poor Plus"
In other words, about half of the trust fund he and his ladywife lived off of while eating spaghetti from an ironing board. Totes believable as always.
Photos of the Romney's eating spaghetti off a fold-down ironing board or GTFO.
Have you ever tried to iron a shirt on an ironing board covered in spaghetti sauce? Oh, the humanity!!
Christ, I'm jumping through my ass trying to scrape together a couple hundo to seed part of my yard and put up some temp fencing around it to keep the dogs off it.
I hear ya. I save and save, then had two oaks die. So, I'll pay and pay to have them cut down. It's always something, isn't it?
I told the tree guy (nice guy actually) just throw them down, don't hit the house. I will cut them up and deal with it all.
I'm thinking roadside stand selling firewood.
Well, my brother has that corner. He cut down the last two huge oaks I had die.
Oak is great firewood but can be a bitch to split, unless it grew up real straight.
Running that stand should qualify you to be President, too!
I built that!
Just be grateful it didn't come down ON the house while you were in it, like ours did. Imagine waking up at 3 am in the middle of a fierce winter storm to the distinct CRUNCH! CREAK! of the oak tree on the back hill landing on the roof of your bedroom and lying there red-eyed awake as it slowly creaked its way down to the ground below.
Oh wow. I understand. Yes, one is so near the farm house it has to come down. I had to take down one in the back last year which was supposed to be the tree I'd put a swing in for any potential grandchild(rens). Argh.
I'm SO glad YOU understand, J_W, 'cause I just re-read what I wrote, and it sounds like the oak tree had red eyes, and I'm glad you realized that wasn't the case because, you know, I don't want you getting all paranoid and stuff.
Geez, this is some *good* shit in the old smokester. (makes note to refill at the pharmachy)
You could just hide out in a hutch with a clear sight of the lawn, holding an extra-high-pressure Super-Soaker. A more time-intensive technique for keeping the dogs away, but cheaper and vastly more entertaining.
Oldz, I find, will readily give up "more entertaining" for "more comfortable." Slackers.
Romney unwittingly locks up middle class vote for Obama.
Obama must be laughing his ass off….that is if he is not busy with the exploding Middle East.
Yeah, fucker, and at that income level one would pay about 25% more taxes than you.
Gives a whole new meaning to Mitt's earlier statement: "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair , I'll fix it," he said. "I'm not concerned about the very rich…. I'm concerned about the very heart of America, the 90 to 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling."
BTW… aren't they trying to git rid of the safety net, now, too?
Yes, this statement really begs the question: how does Mitt define the "very poor"? People who earn a mere $100k?
"Sarah Palin with testicles"
Oh, thanks a lot, MB.
There's some images that can never be banished from the mind.
I always thought Palin was trannyesque.
TRANSSEXUAL LIBEL!!!!!
I'm picturing TruckNutz, in my head.
They're Star-Spangled.
Shouldnt that be Sara Palin WITHOUT testicles?
A little from column A, a little from column B.
Sorry, sweetie! (Hugs the Little Star)
So to those of you out there who are earning $250,000 a year, remember that Mitt Romney is deeply concerned about the struggles you face as you drive your luxury cars to five-star restaurants before heading to the opera.
Piffle. Only poors drive their own cars.
Let's tell Mitt what the POTUS earns per year ($400,000. plus a stipend for expenses).
Maybe he'll decide he can't afford to take a pay cut.
And that's salary, and fully taxable at 35%.
He will make enough in tax relief to more than compensate for the lower income from the salary. Mitt doesn't do salaries anyhow, he does return on investment, or better yet, return on someone else's investment.
Many months ago, Romney in all earnestness said that he felt that presidential pay should be revised to be done on an "incentive" basis. That's right, he wants the president to be paid on some sort of commission/bonus deal. He didn't go into detail. Perhaps a percentage of GDP? 10%? 20%?
Mitt'll finally realize what the rest of us have to go through, slumming it on $400K/yr…..in some shitty house with no car elevator. I couldn't do it.
With statements like that, Romney shows that his IQ is definitely below the median.
And he is below mean.
And he is
belowbeyond mean.fify
To be fair, he thought George was asking about membership qualification categories for one of the country clubs to which he belongs.
In Mitt's defense, I make $250,000 and there's no way I can afford to hire a gentleman's gentleman for my gentleman's gentleman. What is this: Mexico?
I wonder if Romney pays the people who look after his horse, his yard and his houses a middle income kind of wage or a homeless hobo kind of wage.
"Wait, you mean we're supposed to PAY those people?!?!"
True story: There was a woman and her son in NYC that were involved in the kind of crime you have to be pretty expert in computers to get away with — e.g., they'd hire some homeless guy to mow the lawn, steal his name, then steal the Social Security number from *another* homeless guy, to make a composite fake identity, etc. This was in the 80s or so, when not everybody was into computers.
The cops knew she was crooked, but they could never prove anything, and she would smirk
Cop: What happened to that homeless guy who used to mow your lawn?
Crook Lady: Why officer, I don't know who you mean!
and that made them *real* mad, and determined to make an example of her.
Finally, they caught her using some illegal immigrants for household help.
Crook Lady: I let them stay in my house in exchange for doing a few chores, just until they get their green card.
Cop [suddenly very happy]: A HA! Put your hands out Ma'am. [cuffs her] I'm placing you under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…
Crook Lady: Arrest? For what?
Cop: Slavery is illegal, Ma'am.
Yep — in New York City, in the year of our FSM 1985, she was a slaveowner.
Ah, the sweet, sweet, sweet sound of justice!
Stupid fucking Guera. (If you'll pardon my french, so to speak…)
From where Millard sits, middle class is so far down he can't see it clearly. Slightly above them are the "affluents," as those of Millard's tax bracket like to say of others who think they're rich but wouldn't ever dream of building a car elevator. Car elevators are truly the culmination of the money pile rush–imagining and building something so over the top it is strictly for impressing others.
Car elevator tier is really the "shit that belongs on an aircraft carrier tier". The tier contains related posessions like "private nuclear reactor" "sea vessel" "million dollar aircraft" and "private army".
So, according to Mormon math, the entire range of middle class-ness is only $50,000. Above or below that range is dirt poor and filthy rich. Noted.
Which is why they don't want the number of tax brackets expanded. Whether you make $1 million or $100 million, the top tax bracket remains the same.
So Mittens was just barely above middle class on the $350K he earned for work last year? Oh, wait, I forgot he made about eleventy million in interest income and fuckoverpeople income.
And iirc, he referred to that $350 as "I made a little from speaking engagements" or some depreciating shit like that. So what he considers the middle class makes about 70% of his "little". The real middle class lives on less than what he wrote off for his horse.
So is this what he pays his hired help or all the people Bain fired and rehired at barely minimum wage? Didn't think so.
Also, too, also: it's all their own fault for not being rich, anyway.
I just…
I just…
I can't do it any more. I can't take any more of his inanity. Someone shoot me.
The debates should be entertaining.
It'll be a slaughter. Sort of like that time Butterbean boxed that dude from Jack Ass.
boy howdy
In the comments over at ABC, some of the morans are trying to defend Romney because of the "and less", not realizing the basic fact that someone making $200,000 a year is not by any stretch of the imagination middle-income but upper-class, just not quite super-rich.
Soros, I don't wanna get in an argument about this, but while you are correct that $200K is well above "middle income", in places like the Bay Area that translates to upper-middle, not upper-class.
Hate to be a wet blanket on this one, but Obama is using the same 'under 250,000' to define the middle class tax cuts he would protect. It is a stretch to call 250K middle class, but there you are. Just read it on the White House site.
I think its funny 'cause Mitt said it, not because its true.
Technically, he wants to let the Bush cuts expire on incomes over $250K, not cut taxes at all.
It's not what he says, it's how he says it…
It can be argued (I don't think it's a great argument myself, but it's not prima facie stupid) that "middle class" is a broader concept than "middle income."
A household making $250K is "(upper) middle class," in that they're not "rich." But there's no freaking way they're even "(upper) middle income."
You're confusing the definition of a term with the IRS' definition of a term.
If you asked Obama what middle class was, I doubt he'd give the same answer that Mitt did.
Now, if you asked him what middle class was in terms of taxation, then yeah — that figure holds.
Does that make sense? Or am I doing a piss poor job of explaining it (very likely)?
"Middle-class tax cut" is shorthand for a policy, not a definition. Mitt gave a definition, which is very different.
Yea, I'm not sure that Obama would have even gone that high on the top end income limit (my guess is he would have stopped at $100K) but he was advised that a lot of two-income families would be turned off since they could conceivably make that high an income in the northeast and west coast, so he bumped it up to make the line very clear.
You're right, but what Mitt says is that $100,000 is NOT middle income, but $250,000 is. The official stand for years– and like you, I disagree, but who's listening to us?– is that $250000 is the upper tip of middle income, based on a careful survey of certain blocks of Manhattan and Orange County, I suppose. But in this quote, Mitt implies that $100,000 isn't even high enough to be in the middle
so as an official Mittens poor- what kind of assistance can I get?
Man is this dude an ass hole.
Lately it seems like Romney must not even want to win the election.
Having to work for a living, and get paid a salary barely over middle income? Mitt's thinking about how nice it would be to play with his car elevator next year instead.
I'm thinking if he actually get to be President (note that I didn't say win), I'm guessing that he will vie with Bush, Jr. and Reagan for most vacation time spent by a President.
Which made me smile for about three seconds, until I realized that that would leave Crazy Eyes in charge.
I thought Crazy Eyes was Michelle Bachmann? No? The GOP has so MANY crazy people, it's hard to keep track.
Romney draws a "red line" at under $200K/year.
Adding to the list that includes:
"I was paid a little for a speech, $350K or something like that"
That's just an honorarium. Or more than some people earn in the whole lives. Whatevs. It all get's turned into gold coins to swim around in.
Look at your watch. Now you know the exact moment Rmoney lost the election. Cheers.
There's so many exact moments to choose from though….
i would have liked to see a real debate.
If things keep up this way, they're going to have to call them in the first round like Tyson's fights of old. Barry will cream him.
Oh goody, that means Mitt loses twice a day!
There are no words in the English language to adequately describe just how out of touch Romney is.
I mean, really.
Comments like his can only come from someone who has spent his (or her) entire life in privilege — never having to worry about buying anything, including cars and houses, due to family money that he's convinced he's "earned."
Romney has never had to earn jack shit — all he has was given to him by others. Fucking prick …
He meant 250 000 yuan.
That's about right
On a personal level I find it quite hard to identify with anyone in the 2012 Race…
Mitt Romney- well, no… I don't wipe my ass with hundred dollar bills, and believe that Jesus visited in the moon in the 1860s…
Paul Ryan- well, no… I've actually had a real job before…
Barrack Obama- well, no… I never got to kick it in Bill Ayer's living room or study at Harvard..
Joe Biden- well… maybe… I tell bad jokes… say stupid shit all the time….
Gaffer Joe is so relatable. Also the photo of him macking on the bike mama was magical. Gaffer Joe gives the very fewest fucks of any politician since Teddy Roosevelt.
I actually think Biden is way more down to Earth and likeable than Obama or Romney. I think hanging with either of those guys would be like taking a wet dish rag to a dance club. Biden, I bet he could really cut foot loose…. with his mouth. Imagine if he drank what the hell he might say…
It's probably good he doesn't drink, then.
I'd hang with Obama as long as he (or the secret service) (or Michelle) would let me. But that's just me: I tend to like erudite, educated, yet sexy, men. But Joe would be fun too.
actually i'd love to hang with obama. but i'm a chicago nerd so of course i would.
for one thing, i'd like to ask him why he likes Niebuhr so much. and more importantly i'd like to ask him why the fuck he told david brooks that.
and i hope you take the train and wear fabulous cloth caps from the 70s.
I guess I don't expect to "identify" with someone with enough moxie and mental sharpness to be US president. I have plenty of friends with whom I can have a beer or a shot, but I don't think that I'm looking at any of them for the damn tough job that we lay before the pres. They're certainly not looking to me for the answers, either (although I gladly share when occasion warrants.) I want something more than an ordinary guy 'cause the job requires a hell of a lot more than just an ordinary job.
This.^^
Of all the things you go for the Bill Ayers, thing, eh? Keep fuckin' that chicken.
Yup.
Actually, I'd quite like to have a chat with Bill Ayers.
I'm sure a lot of us would. But, of all the things he could have pulled out of Obama as unrelatable, to go to Ayers is pure right-wing troll bait. Sorry.
I suppose you didn't notice my unoriginal insults toward Romney and Ryan, huh? Just the Ayers comment, eh? Geez….. you could have at least called me out on fucking the chicken with the played out Mormon comment….. I expect more.
That's it. I am demanding a raise today. I had no idea how fucking poor I am!
Dammit weejee. If my boss reads this I am going to have to kick your ass.
Yikes! Sorry. Fixed, sorta.
It's okay. Just tryin to keep my Internet stalkers at bay!
Now that you've replied to him, he can't edit it to [Redacted].
He could delete the whole comment, though.
done did
We'll just keep the wonderful Skullfucking Dog all to ourselves. :)
The cost of a fucking elevator for your cars, Mitt – that's about what the average family lives on a year.
A car elevator is almost certainly more than $250,000. Those things are pretty heavy duty and when we were remodeling the little hotel I run, the bid to put in the smallest, most basic person elevator came to $250,000.
Needless to say, my guests are all "StairMasters."
you’re in the top 20 percent of earners if your household income is above $100,000.
Except if you're residing in San Francisco. That's just about minimum wage to live here.
Q: how can you tell you live in California?
A: you make 200k a year and still can't afford to buy a house.
Jesus, Mitt, I am consumed with guilt about how much of a rich parasite I am and I don't make that much! Of course, I also have zero children and not even a roofdog.
May I steal "roofdog"?
Sadly, my partner and I were both offered decent jobs in NY. $250,000 in NY very much IS middle class ( we definitely do not make that much). With rent and student loan payments, in addition to rising health care costs (one of us has a lifelong disease- yay!), we can save a f bit a month. That's it. While we aren't quite living paycheck to paycheck, we certainly can't even think about buying a home, having a child (or even a dog for that matter). We laugh about the taxes we will pay once we hit that threshold, because while that is wealthy outside of this metro area, it doesn't get you too far here.
I love our little menagerie, but you're probably right about the dog. It's a nightmare if we want to go on vacation. Places to park your dog in the city seem to start at $50 a day. We take her about 45 minutes away for less, but that requires using a car to get her there and back.
All true, but the vast majority of us live outside the NYC Area and find it difficult to relate to your economic circumstances or your choice to endure them.
Hm. When was the last time Romney had his software patched?
I know in our company, we push version updates Sunday early morning. Look for Mitt to go blank about 6:00am PDT.
Can't I just go into SourceSafe and revert all those revisions back to the time he didn't want to run for President? I swear I will comment the changes and do the work very precisely.
SOURCESAFE? Did you just namecheck SourceSafe? I really hate SourceSafe.
SourceSafe is the work of Satan. A really inept Satan.
I pulled that from the past. We use Perforce. But, I am not sure that is better.
Is there ANYBODY who LIKES SourceSafe?
If you want rollback, you gotta go get the backups from the offsite vault.
Is that the one with the car elevator?
He canceled his Colorado speechifying today, so they're probly rolling out a patch even as we squeaik.
Whoops, who the fuck programs this fucknut?
Add it to the list of things he won't discuss.
$250,000 buys a lot of pasta and tuna fish. Good times.
Goddamnit! I have absolutely NO hope of ever getting to the middle classes! I remember, fondly, when I had some hope that I might make it, if I could just get to a hundred K a year, but TWO hundred K? They keep moving the finish line on me! Now, I shalll just have to go and apply for a bailout, or move my "fortune" overseas, or shelter my taxes. Does the Mittster do seminars?
iknow wtf i jumped up and and down when i reached 100k now i'm the stupid?
Today, Romney also said that there are very few obese Americans, that we don't have enough fast food restaurants in the United States, that we don't build enough roads, that our public school teachers are well-paid, and that our infrastructure has never been better. He also said that there are no hungry, poor, disadvantaged or unemployed people in the United States. He also said that the United States sympathizes with cowardly murderous thugs. He also said that increasing greenhouse emissions, climate change, global warming and evolution do not exist and are conspiracies from the left.
Twit, you only have about 15 good years left. Do yourself a favor and go out and get loaded.
does he have tourettes?
Romney would only benefit from Tourette's Syndrome – he would be more likable.
He'd just keep yelling "POVERTON! SERF!" at interviewers if he had Tourette's.
Fuck no.
"I think it's time to send somebody TURKEY DICK to Washington who will CHOAD actually get the job done."
Is there an "out of touch" variant? If so, yes
He pays people to have Tourettes for him. Like Sununu. And that "kiss my ass it's a sacred site" guy.
"How much could a banana cost? Ten dollars?"
If I had 250,000 I could pay off all my bills and retire now instead of in 4 years…
Me too!!
Cue the Washpost/NYT/WSJ 'splainer stories about how $250k just doesn't go that far if your "peer" group includes people who inherited $1 million a year.
"Middle" income- when you're in middle school. From the trust fund.
Remember during the primaries, when everybody was all, "Why can't the right wing stop supporting all these crazies and just accept that Rmoney is the only serious GOP candidate?" Haha, turns out they were right. Cain couldn't have done any worse.
apropos of absolutely nothing i hope that car park body with an axe wound they discovered is, in fact, Richard III.
that would be so cool.
Car park? So it turns out that Richard III couldn't get away from Bosworth field because he lost his keys?
Shakespeare made a sound dramatic choice in taking the equine option.
Well, Richard parked in the Municipal lot of Market Bosworth and some asshole Sherriff's Deputy put a Boot on his car. It could have happened to anyone, but really – there were signs.
but when you put it like that (RIII, car park, car keys) many 'coarse acting' scenarios come to mind.
(you probably know these, but if you don't – they are a delight. we did a few a while back and made more money than we ever did with straightforward shakespeare…).
[Quick flurry of Googling later] Hey, thanks fuflans! I had never heard of "Coarse Acting", (or Coarse Rugby, or Coarse Sport, or…). But on a quick pass over the different pages I found on Michael Green, I think I'll be spending a lot of quality time with his Oeuvres.
his book (from the 70's i think?) 'the art of coarse acting' is totally worth buying.
heh…reminds me of the Ian McKellen RIII, set in a fascist-1940's version of Britain, in which a broken-down jeep is the reason for "My kingdom for a horse!"
THAT is a great movie!
Richard III in the park? I'll bring wine and a picnic basket. Wait, what?!
Really, how are they going to really determine if it's R III? They got some DNA from way back when to compare it to? The Royal Dental records? Was he carrying his AMEX card when he got battleaxed?
Apparently they have some descendants from London Ont. I'm not sure how they would be descended from Richard; I know there was a bastard son and maybe a daughter as well. But I had always thought that his body was thrown into the river after the dissolution of the monasteries. However, that might just be from The Daughhter of Time and not necessarily accurate.
Sorry. serious Richardian here. I have visited Bosworth Field on August 22nd, AND cursed at the grave of Henry VII in Westminster abbey.
I believe the descendant is a direct line from his sister.
There is also physical evidence such as wounds, a metal arrowhead, and curved spine which support (not prove) the conclusion, as well as physical evidence around the site.
There can be only one?
Did Richard III kill the young Princes, or was it Henry Tudor? Tune in next week!
My money's on the Duke of Buckingham.
No one has ever called Willard a monkey. But, why wasn't he at the values Voters Summit with Paulie and Ollie?
$10,000 bet!
That's like a week's pay for your typical middle class worker!
Dear Mitt:
Should you become president, every federal employee in the United States would like to be middle income. Make it so.
Sincerely,
La Bibliotequetress
Civil Servant
(that's the type of servant that doesn't wear a black dress and an apron, sort of like your gardener but inside and with papers)
Paul Ryan on line 2. He want's to know if your papers are in order?
Will he accept my short form birth certificate? It's all I've got.
Why would Mitt Romney stoop to the level of George Stephanopoulos anyways?
Big numbers are always better than little numbers.
Willard: "So my tax plan is to encourage investment in growth in America, more jobs, that means more people paying taxes." + "And finally, simplify the code, make it easier for people to pay their taxes than the way they have to now." = WTF
The only people now who don't pay are the Willard's of the nation and the um, sub-"middle class". So, where will all this extra money come from? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Is Mitt's brain capable of realizing when he doesn't hit a home run? His smirk says no.
No wonder Mitt and Bain Capital outsourced all of those jobs at Ampad and that Steel company… that would mean all of those middle income workers were making $120 per hour. (yeah, right.)
Think of all the money they saved by sending the work to Indonesia where they will work for about $2 a Day
The folks in the midwest who make $250K a year are independent contractors, middle management, franchise owners, and other folks who can be convinced they're Not Really Poors for the amount of time it takes for them to be convinced to vote Republican.
Considering how much I remember it cost to live in D.C. twenty years ago, someone who makes $250K could just about afford an okay place in Arlington, am I right?
Mitt Romney is starting to make Marie Antoinette* look like a progressive, friend-of-the-working class.
*I know she wasn't as awful as is popularly thought, cutting you history majors off at the pass.
I am confused. George Stephanopolous asks if $100k is middle-income.
Romney says, "No, $200-250k and less is middle-income."
So, does that include $100k as middle-income, since $100k<$200-$250k.?
Or, is he suggesting that people who make more than $100k, but less than $250k are middle income?
It's like that scene in the jerk. "You win anything in this general area. Anything, below the stereo, and on this side of the Bicentennial glasses. Anything between the ashtray, and the thimbles. Anything in this three inches. Right in here, this area, that includes the Chiclets, but not the erasers."
That caught my eye at first, too, but after re-reading it seems pretty clear that what he meant was "No, $100K is not the top of the range for middle class, it's really $200K or $250K".
As usual, he didn't say it very well.
Who knew Trent Reznor was quite the prophet?
I'm just looking forward to all the government cheese I'm apparently owed now on my paltry lawyer's salary.
If God had wanted Mitt Romney to know anything about regular people he would have created him with human compassion.
He really just doesn't fucking get it, does he?
He doesn't have a clue. He's got no idea how most people live in the US and, worse, he doesn't give a flying fuck. All he wants are for enough of the little people to vote for him so he can strut around being President Willard and make him and his buddies richer.
He's an odious sack of shit. Quite frankly, I detest the man.
Here is an article which hit one of my News Gators half-hour ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/us/politics/oba…
If the frakin NYTimes paywall hits you it says that in a NYTimes/CBS News poll of likely voters Obama is now seen by 49% of those to better handle the economy and create jobs and Romney is down at 46%.
Just FYI, there's a trick to get around the NYT paywall.
Simply search for the title of the article in google news and BAM, paywall dodged if you go via their link.
Title of this article is "Poll Finds Obama Is Erasing Romney’s Edge On Economy"
This trick also works for stuff on ft.com , the site of the Financial Times.
Thanks I'll have to try that. One of my Gators is supposed to provide hard links but if I try to go to 'Page 2' the paywall pops up.
OTH I could pay for it, but going back to when a CFO asked me what is the internet for and I told him; "Someday there will be ads, just like when you open the paper." I think all they should get is those ads.
Back during the 1992 campaign George came into the room and a guy next to me said, "I was told I couldn't bring my kids."
i take back everything I ever said about Walnuts, Bush jr,,Dole and Bush sr.. not Raygun. at least Nixon got the EPA and Dept. of Ed.
this Mittens is really awful. AWFUL I TELLS YA!
If the median income is $50K, then that's the top 50% mark.
But if you marry another $50K earner, then you're at the %80 mark???
Um, yes?
Um, don't drag opera into this please. I doubt seriously Rmoney, or any other rich asshole, has any real appreciation of Verdi, though he might have been bored by him a few times.
All the hard core NYC opera people I have met are usually quite liberal and can be more than a bit pretentious. I wished I could afford a set of Ring Cycle tickets at the Met this year. But at $980 for what was available it was no way. However, now that they are showing it on Great Performances I am less disappointed. I really enjoy the second act of Siegfried but the orchestral introduction was horrible. Good Brunnhilde though
Is Mittens Fafner?
Yes, and Raflaca leaves the golden apples when ever she performs.
Strange this version of the Ring in that Fafner, the Norns and a few others all had Rastafarian looks. I expected "I shot Fasolt but I did not kill Herr Gunther"
A trio of pasty, overweight sopranos with blonde dreadlocks just blows the whole mood. I actually went to bed while Siegfried was explaining to Gutrune "I slept with Brunnhilde, but I didn't really sleep with her."
For the record, I've never cared for opera. This PBS glimpse into it has opened my eyes and mind to it, though I doubt I'll ever attend one. Blue jeans and Hawaiian shirts are probably frowned upon, and that's as dressed up as I can get. With Tevas, of course.
My former boss used to blast Wagner in his office.
Once he didn't hear me knock, and when I walked in, he was "air conducting" to Ride of the Valkyries.
Did you tell him he could poke his eye out?
Agree. I'd guess that if Mitt goes to the opera it is to make a show of himself as being edumacated and all cultured up. If he could tell Verdi from Puccini I'd be surprised. But he could tell the difference between himself and everyone else. Hitler liked Wagner (bless me, St. Godwin, for I have sinned) and maybe Mittens gets a charge out of Das Rheingold and all the gold and power stuff.
My beer is Rheingold the dry beer,
I drink Rheingold whenever I buy beer,
It's not bitter, not sweet,
It's an extra dry treat,
Won't you buy extra dry Rheingold beer?
Limericks in 2/4 time, Wagner can't top that.
Look, at least Wagner died before he could license his tunes for commercials.
It's not over 'til the fat lady sings
Somewhere, those guys' mothers are looking at at that picture and repressing the urge to dope-slap them across the back of their heads and snap, "Take that money out of your mouth!"
Why, I'm not even related to any of them, and I'm repressing the urge to dope-slap them across the back of their heads.
Never fear. They had soaked the money in non-toxic disinfectant for four minutes and air-dried it before the photo shoot.
Yes. When your money passes from South America, through the U.S. and then on to the Cayman Islands; it's wise to disinfect it at each step along the way.
No no, honey, that's a good urge.
I worked as a bank teller during a bad spell career-wise. When I would go to the restroom and wash my hands, the water would be grey. Really disgusting.
There is almost no professional skill, no matter how good you are, that will garner you $200,000 a year. That is exclusively the territory of MD's, executives, and a few superstar lawyers, and very successful artists of whatever stripe. 200K a year is strictly the territory of hotshots and the extremely fortunate.
The most demanded professional skills top out at around $100,000. Many no less needed professions, such as teachers, etc. top out at around 60K, and that only comes in the last decade of a very long and brutal career.
Very good contract programmers will get that.
Easily, if they can face working for banks. For example, I've been offered $1200 a day by banks.
Like I said, hotshots. Programmers can make reams of money if they're brilliant, but it is by no means common. You can't base your thinking on that. In general, programmers make less than other IT people.
You may be correct about 200,000k as a wage. But your statement that needed professions top out at 60k is not true in NYC.
See this schedule for teachers salaries in NYC:
schools.nyc.gov/nr/rdonlyres/eddb658c-be7f…/salary.pdf
NYC teachers go up 100K per year — granted that's with master's plus 30 additional credits at 22 years, but lots of teachers supporting families work after school and/or summers. Someone who is BEGINNING a teaching career but has a masters degree will have a base starting salary of 51K. Administrators such as assistant principals and principals make considerably more.
Nurse practioners, and other professionals including city workers — police, firefighters,etc.– also make good wages. I hate the idea that anyone would think that a fire fighter and a teacher who are trying to raise a family in this city (including within its boroughs and suburbs) are rich because with overtime they might in mid or late career manage a combined income of 200k. The reason why workers in the city make even what they make is because of unions and hard fought battles.
Romney is an idiot, and the fact is most Americans don't make enough money. Our standard of living is not the highest in the world. But people who pull down good salaries, even if those salaries put them in the top 10% aren't buying dancing horses, or even summer homes. They are still working people who may be a lay off or health crisis away from disaster.
The real class warfare is perpetuated by the republicans when they start talking about those lucky stiffs in the public sector with their "gold-plated" health plans and benefits and use that to bust unions and depress wages for everyone. It's not that teachers, policeman and fireman (who Romney would love to fire) make too much money, it's that most other Americans don't make enough.
Well, NYC is a very odd case, with a fantastically high cost of living that offsets all that.
Yeah, and according to Mittens math, only about half of USAmericans live there. Sucks for the rest of us.
Man, I wondered why the lines were getting so long at Starbucks.
True Geographic Fact:
Half of all the directs from anywhere in NYC to anywhere in NYC include mention of a Starbucks.
Smirk.
Oo-Rah! Or whatever it is those grunts are saying these days.
JMC – No reflection on you. I fell out of love with my comment.
Still it is essential that if one wants the victory I expect you advocate it is time to get into the trenches.
I have held myself back advocating because the environment here can be a little snarky. Yet, even for those who are expressing disappointment with Obama over not doing everything they expected, the alternative is far worse.
On the other hand, it is down right depressing to be having some of the same arguments I had with people forty years ago.
For example, the trend now to cut the deficit by cutting the so-called entitlements to those who are at the lowest end of the earnings spectrum. Those dollars are spent 100%, not sent on a vacation to the Cayman Islands. Dollar for dollar I produce more economic stimulus then Mitt Romney. Each of my dollars earned produces a percentage of stimulus a hell of a lot closer to $1 then each of the dollars Mitt Romney earns.
If those who are advocating a 'free market' economy as it has been defined since Adam Smith and right down to Ayn (rhymes with swine) Rand they are deceiving you if they ignore this point. It is and has always been an essential component of a 'free market' economic philosophy.
So call me a nerd and give me a swirly but I'm still going out and fight for what I believe and that includes the well being of a heck of a lot more people than those Mitt Romney is trying to enrich with his tax cuts.
Preach it!
(Hugs you) I wanna march in your army. I'll watch your back.
No shit. If you want to increase money circulation (and thereby boost the economy), give money to seriously poor people. They will immediately put it back into circulation. Unlike the "middlish-class", they don't even have the option of using the money to pay down debt, because no one has ever loaned them anything in the first place.
Shovel-ready infrastructure project are nice and all, but if you want to kick-start the fucking economy, give a $5K check to every family under the poverty level. And this would only be $100B or so.
A graph I should have kept since I don’t recall its source showed $1 of income vs. $X of GDP growth through incomes from $LOW to $VERY HIGH.At the level of median US income the $1 of income produced well over a $1 of GDP. At $LOW it was in the $1.60 range of GDP Growth. At $VERY HIGH it was down to the $0.33 of GDP Growth.My memory for these things is fading as I age and using GDP as a term for the effect on national economic growth is somewhat wrong as GDP traditionally includes all income.But the point remains that lower income wage earners plow more back into the economy per dollar earned that those whose income is in the Quarter Million Dollar a year range.Its call “Propensity to Consume” and is a significant factor in projecting the economic growth derived from $1 worth of income.
He's right. $250,000 is middle class…on Manhattan.
Yes, but $100,000 is still middle-class in Manhattan, too. Not comfortable, but not "working class". Stephanopolope gave him some slack there but Mittens snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Mittens reminds me of the great story about then-Prince of Wales Albert Edward Victor. He was in a silversmith's shop with an equerry ordering a christening present for a niece, and he saw something he didn't recognize in one of the display cases.
"What are those?" he asked.
"Silver napkin rings, your Highness," said the equerry.
"What are they used for? inquired the future king.
"After their midday meals, each person rolls their napkin up and saves it in their monogrammed napkin ring, so that they can reuse it at the evening meal," the equerry explained.
"My God!" said the prince. "I never knew there could be such poverty in my kingdom!"
"… in a silversmith's shop with an equerry ordering a christening present for a niece…"
*puts up fingers to form a frame* Yeah, that's it right there that's the median value, someone call Mittens we've got this one.
OT
Scott "Weasel-Faced Arse" Walker's union-busting collective bargaining ban has been struck down
Don't worry. They'll get it up to the WI Supreme Court, which will eventually overturn any lower rulings against the thing.
Between yourself and Negropolis, you're the smartest guys in the room. We're all snarky out in Internet world but your analysis is impressive.
What's the smart way to solve this problem because I respect both of you.
Dude, you must be drunker than I usually am. Well, apart from what you say about Negropolis: he's a very smart fellow.
Not really. My wife is asleep, and I am working on a waste plastic to crude oil conversion project. My point is that yourself and Negropolis distill the news media noise and their context into meaningful and useful information to me. Thank you.
I am complementing you two for your service. That's another lost skill today: complementing people. You are a wise person. Thanks.
Thank you. I'm not good at taking compliments.
I'll say that being singled out with Negropolis feels wrong when there are so many erudite, intelligent and insightful people on this Wonkete.
Why, all of a sudden, am I craving Hobo Beans?
You want to know the scary thing about this? Data was just released showing the poverty rate growing to 15%. This isn't even about people not being able to break into the upper class, anymore. that "problem" is one we'd kill to have again. No, not only are people not being able to break into higher classes, but entire swaths of the middle class are actually falling into poverty.
I don't think either sides really addressed the real problem, which isn't that the ceiling has turned to glass, but that the bottom has fallen out, and Mitt's further off the target of the actual issue than any of the other candidates. I 'm from Michigan; let it be a warning. There are two solutions: we either seriously start to bolster American manufacturing, or we get very, very serious about education. In fact, we can do both, but we MUST do at least one of these or we are through.
I keep banging on about this, but there's a reason. Intergenerational social mobility in the US is lower than France, Denmark, Canada etc etc and so on.
What does that mean? It means that if you're born poor, you are fucked. It's rare anyone in the US can earn more than their parents.
American Dream? My arse.
It's scary. There has to be some middle-wage manufacturing jobs unless we want a banana republic. The disparity in the classes is completely and utterly out of hand.
I was fortunate enough to go to a community college when I was in high school and learn enough CS that I could take a contract at MIcrosoft when I graduated, but there was no way I could afford housing, a car to commute with, insurance, rent, AND Tuition.
All of these "investors" that are busy burning human capital in the form of educated people in order to bolster their portfolio which will be meaningless when they die. They are just selfish assholes.
It's like they think that greatness comes from genes and money, not education.
It was heartbreaking to hear Tavis Smiley and Cornel West on the radio the other day, saying exactly what you just said. T.S. was essentially pleading with the debate moderators to ask the candidates SOMETHING about this.
Sorry. That wasn't very hilarious.
Forget about education. I give our schools less than a decade before the pillagers are allowed to step in and privatize everything. The sad part is that the left is just as desperate as the right to turn a profit on education.
I don't believe for a moment that the left is itching to turn a profit off education. I don't think that is the motivation, where that is the primary motivation on the right.
I'm with you on that. The left's view is fundamentally altruistic in that everyone benefits from a well-educated populace. A laudable aim.
The right's view seems to be either
a) Why isn't anyone making money out of this? The Free Market!!!
or
b) We shouldn't educate kids because otherwise where are our voters coming from?
Obviously both are stupid. (a) is the most cynical in my opinion, since there will always be government money going towards education (unless Willard gets his wish) and thus private education is a really good way to siphon money from everyone and give it to a few fuckballs.
I do want to clarify that I do agree with his point up to a point. It's very obvious, now, that there is a wing on the left that advocates for "school choice" which ultimately has the same result as conservative school "reformers", and that is the mantling the public school system. However, it's pretty clear to me that their motivation is alturistic and not-for-profit if even I still believe it's misguided, whereas it's pretty clear that the motivation on the right is almost exclusively wrapped up in destroying public education and/or finding another public space from which to milk a profit. The school 'reformers' on the left seem to genuinely be concerned with the actual issues of public schooling, I just wish that they didn't believe that you have to destroy the village to save it.
The left's view is not altruistic; it meets the definition of enlightened self-interest. The right's view, on the contrary is either selfish or deluded, depending on who espouses it.
Arne Duncan is indistinguishable from Jeb Bush. He is a big proponent of standardized testing, evaluation of teachers (union busting) and allowing the military in schools. I would love to see the difference between the right and the left on this issue, but I just don't see any daylight between them. The left you're thinking about is the progressive left and not the corporate left that is in charge at the moment.
No one is arguing that the results are different. The only distinction being made is that their motivations are different. It's an important distinction to be made, because it's informs how you offer the counter-argument. You can't make and win the argument against the dismantling of public education if you're going to treat Duncan and Bush, for instance, as one and the same. There is a poblem when we start off from square one putting potential allies and obvious foes into the same category thus losing both at the same time.
And here is a good explanation as to why. Tl;dr version: Wealth inequality fueled by low tax rates and rent-seeking.
"O beautiful, for spacious skies…"
"…for fetid piles of Bain"
"Above the gilded frames…"
at the risk of being a whiny dick:
donate and volunteer. subjectively: obama is better for america.
objectively: obama is better for america.
to my wonkette comrades… money is the key. do you want to allow KARL FUCKING ROVE to take this election from you?
KARL. FUCKING. ROVE. if the name "karl rove" makes your butthole pucker, please do what you can.
Doesn't do that- but it does make me involuntarily clench a fist and imagine slugging him. I'll kick in some more. Lets slug him…with votes!
(Hugs you)
Doing what I can. And fuck the "not being a whiny asshole." We're fighting for our lives here. And those of our daughters, sisters, lovers, wives, and friends.
I'm registering people down here in Florida. I'm also going to be making phone calls as the election nears.
I will be throwing in some more, this is too important to the future of the country and the world we bequeath to our kids and grand-kids. If those ass clowns are elected I fear for everything right down to my neighborhood school.
I'm gonna steal the write in ballot of my friend who refuses to vote. Democratic voting fraud exists!
I've had to do this twice with my wife.. Not that she'd vote the "wrong" way, it's just that first Tuesday morning rolls around, she goes off to school, and her damn ballot is sitting there on the kitchen table, unfilled-in and not ready for the dropbox at the courthouse.
I sometimes fill in my wife's ballot because I'm not allowed to vote yet.
Hurrah for fraud!
Karl Rove?
Hmm, that rings a bell.
If only the Democrats had managed to win the White House in 2008, and bring Karl Rove to justice.
Instead we have the DOJ going after whistle-blowers, journalists, medical marijuana, and of course, history's greatest monster, John Edwards.
Oh well…
~
Well, that's it, then. Romney 2012 for me. I, for one, welcome our wealthy reptilian overlord.
Ann Romney has MS. She is being very brave about it. If I had that shit, I'd want to kill myself. The only thing that would stop me is that then I could never get into the Celestial Kingdom, and be the god of my own planet, and make spirit babies with my many goddess-wives. But because she's a woman, Ann is ineligible for that reward. She'll just be Mitt's principal goddess-wife, pumping out spirit babies right along with her sister wives. In the face of all this, she's a champ.
I'd like to root for Ann, because she has had to deal with the fact that even when you're rich, you can still get sick.
But she is such a fucking asshole.
This is serious cognitive dissonance.
Her husband wants to do away with the ACA, so that people can't get insured if they have MS and lose their jobs.
Fuck Ann Romney. Wait, that came out wrong. Ann Romney can rot. Worthless husk of a human.
Yeah, even rich people can get MS and ALS, so there's some things they can't buy their way out of at the moment. Wouldn't wish this stuff on anyone, but when the rich can buy their way out of these things, what next, the Body Banks? Certainly organ donation/stealing is a scary precursor. Of course, I'm a donor.
I can't help feeling that if Ann Romney really loved her husband & her country, Mitt would not be running for president right now…
OT- but I just noticed your avatar.
Did you know that there is an awesome ice cream place in San Francisco named Humphrey Slocum? (Yes, THAT Humphrey and Slocum!)
I was just there and had one of their most popular flavors: Secret Breakfast, (bourbon and cornflakes). They also have "Jesus Juice," (red wine and Coke).
That's very cool! I hadn't heard of them before, but looked at the web site & am now deeply curious about many of those flavors- McEvoy olive oil? Peanut butter curry? Strawberry Szechuan sorbet? Salt & pepper? http://www.humphryslocombe.com/Flavors.html
The owner/chef is a little…um…eccentric. When I was there, I had lots of choices, and almost got chocolate with smoked salt or browned butter.
Ann should drag her MS to a Chicago water treatment facility and work for a living for a few years, like Michelle Obama's father did. It would be good therapy, and she might learn something that would make an impression on Mitt.
Celestial cum-dumpster.
OT:
"Dear Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Jews,
You’re living in the age of the Internet. Your religion will be mocked, and the mockery will find its way to you. Get over it."
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/h…
What made the actions so disconcerting, to me, was that this was literally a "movie" which had no one watching it on its single-screen, opening night according to one of the promoters/producers, and which Terry Jones had been shopping around but no one bit on it because of it's horrible and laughable production value and too-ridiculous-to-be-believe script. You'd have thought by the reaction this received after the idiot community leaders over in Egypt whipped up the frenzy that Steven Spielberg had produced a Hollywood epic and it was opening nation-wide. The violence is inexcusable regardless, but the propoganda being spread over there was so disproportionate as to be shocking.
On the issue of religion, it's always been my belief that the only people that result to violence are those so scared that their religion can't win an argument that they have to help it along with physical force. If you don't think your religion can win an argument with words, maybe you should be checking yourself and your belief system.
On the issue of religion, it's always been my belief that the only people that result to violence are those so scared that their religion can't use an argument that they have to help it along with physical force. If you don't think your religion can win an argument with words, maybe you should be checking yourself and your belief system.
I'd argue that there are just as many stupid Muslims are there are Christians and that the narrative "The US is at war with Islam" is just as seductive as the "All of the middle east hates the US and Christians and Jews" narrative that we see here.
edit: although I 100% agree that there's no reason on earth for the bullshit violence
Did you guys watch the youtube trailer? It makes me so goddamned mad that people lost their lives over that fucking piece of shit.
It's a sub-community-college greenscreened piece of shit with horrendous overdubs.
I did watch the trailer and it made very little sense at all. That people around the world are getting fucking mad as a box of frogs about it makes zero sense to me, unless it fits with a preconceived narrative about the US (and all its people) hating Islam.
Bullshit back to front, and sad for the whole damn world.
I can't speak for this incident but I was in New Delhi while the uproar over the Danish cartoon was ongoing.Muslim drivers were furious over the protests there which included effigies of American soldiers dragged through the streets. They told me that the people who were in the trucks yelling had been brought in from the countryside and couldn't read or write and hadn't seen or understood the cartoon in question. Being caught out in the street during one of these events was terrifying.There is a lot more to all this than we will find out for a long while.The movie is a small part of the whole picture and Terry Jones,Pam Gellar and the meth cooker who *made* this thing need to get locked up.During the Ground Zero Mosque bullshit I had to deal with those pigs on my own street.
I wasn't talking about any one religion, specifically. It was a general statement.
That said, I am dumbfounded by the Egyptian rioting. If anyone has any excuse for rioting outside of anyone's embassy, at the moment, it should be our idiot mouth-breathers after those fucking murderers killed our ambassador in Libya.
The more I learn about that ambassador the sadder I get. Actually, I won't write more on that subject because I'm honestly distraught about the waste of a good man.
Mormonism isn't any more crazy than the other ones. They're all crazy.
I didn't read the article. As a person from a different culture, I just want to tell all of you that you don't have the first fucking clue. And I mean that in the most loving, if crotchety, way. You're basing everything you're saying in these comments on your understanding of these other people and their religion and culture. Except none of you really understands what it's like to BE from another culture. Well-meaning though you may be, Libyans are not just brown Americans who talk funny and worship a different deity. They have a culture many thousands of years older than yours, and it has formed their habits, of mind as well as body. When you are a member of that culture, that society, you don't have an American world-view, no matter how long you might have spent in America. They are a product of their culture. When I go back to that side of the world, I find myself slipping into ways of thinking that I cannot even explain to the people here who share my life.
In their world, in their culture, America is a greedy giant, an enormous, powerful, but very ignorant child that steps on them as if they were ants. The film was propagandized through Arab bloggers as "an answer to the death of bin Laden," which would show who the real terrorists were. Imagine going to the movies expecting to enjoy maybe an action film with lots of shouty stabby, when you're faced with a horrible shoddy piece of shit that is OBVIOUSLY American and denigrates your religion, your culture, everything that is dear and sacred to you.
Yeah, that's still no reason to kill people. But it's rapidly becoming apparent, from the latest reports on-scene, that this was NOT an angry mob that got out of hand, but a pre-planned incident that deliberately targeted Chris Stevens. Kinda like those peaceful campus demonstrations that are seeded with agents provocateurs who attack the police, or our very own Occupy and its Black Bloc.
</rant off>
Thanks, MittBorg. I think a lot of us imagine that America's less-than-wonderful image overseas is a PR problem that began with Dubya's administration & should have ended with his tenure.
Our image problem is long-standing, and since any attempts to improve it are called APOLOGIZING FOR AMERICA, I'm not expecting much improvement with same. Yeah, Obama's better than Bush in this respect, but he's continuing many of Bush's policies abroad, and he's constantly having to publicly defend himself against Americans insulting him by calling him a Muslim from Kenya…
Imagine how modern, progressive Muslims feel about the fact that "Muslim" is the worst insult many white Americans can think of to hurl at their dark-skinned President. Many people in Asia and Africa don't have strong positive feelings about Obama, for many reasons, the main one being that he is American and there is a long history of American meddling in the politics of other nations. Yet, when they see him reviled by his OWN people for being a dark-skinned man and erroneously reviled for sharing their religion, they feel insulted and infuriated by the white Americans doing the reviling.
When I moved from England to southern CA, for college, it was during the Iranian hostage crisis. Everyone I met was dumbfounded and shocked that the US could be hated. As I had also lived in Turkey, I had seen a kind of poverty and desperation they could not imagine.
This is no excuse for violence, but many people here are unaware of how we are seen in the world.
Well then, you should read the article.
Link, please? Here's the one Dok posted, which contradicts what you're saying here: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/09/egy…
The film was propagandized through an Egyptian Glenn Beck who convinced a bunch of people that the movie was somehow the product of the American government or some major Hollywood studio, deliberately designed to insult Islam as some kind of official American policy. The piece of shit trailer would probably have been ignored if not for that willful lunacy. The movie has never played in its entirety anywhere except an empty theater here in the U.S., so I don't know what you're talking about as far as people going to the movie theater and then being insulted with this nonsense. Where's your evidence that the movie was marketed as something Muslims would want to see, and then be completely shocked by?
Also worth noting: As far as anyone knows so far, there doesn't even appear to be a full movie, or at least there doesn't appear to be more than the one print that (maybe) showed once to a near-empty theater.
Excuse me, wut? Don't put words into my mouth. I never said the movie was marketed as something Muslims would want to see.
Here's Juan Cole on the issue. I'm sure you're well aware that Juan Cole is a far better analyst of MidEast issues than the VF writer: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/289-134/1…
You unfortunately decide to put words into my mouth, and then prove me correct in my criticism of your (and, generally speaking, most Americans') tendency to interpret the world through their own narrow lens. The Egyptian Glenn Beck? Good god, man. You, of all people, ought to know better than to toss off something like THAT.
Arab friends told me that they heard that the movie was about the death of bin Laden, and that all Muslims interested in finding out more should see it. It was originally advertised as "The Innocence of bin Laden."
Thanks for this. I think it definitely needs to be made clear that what happened in Libya was different from what happened in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan, etc. What happened in Libya was clearly a coordinate terrorist attack on a consulate that didn't have anything to do with the so-called movie. It's also important that you pointed out that we can only imagine the level of propoganda, superstition and conspiracy theorizing in some of these societies.
But, I think the distinction also needs to be made between right-wing religious criticism of the response to this movie, and the secular criticism. I can understand certain regions of the world harbor a deep and abiding distrust – and in certain cases even hate – for the American government. What I think hurts is that we have a president in office who has reached out more and more genuinely than any other president in a very long time, and who helped facilitate the transfrer to democracy of most of the nation's where these protests are taking place. In the case of Egypt, what made it even more crazy was that their president was actively calling on protest even after what had happened in Libya. Talk about offensive and tone deaf. Leadership would have been stating – as clearly as our government did in response to this film – to knock it the fuck off.
The problem isn't just the agitators and the illiterate. We have so-called, often Western-educated leaders exacerbating the situation. And, again, all over a "film" by some fucking, no-named drug addict scammer that we're not even sure exists in its entirety. Had this been something bigger by some major studio, I could see a legitimate protest about why we didn't get ahead of this. But, for a movie that I'm not sure anyone put the creators even knew existed?
So, yeah, the agitators all across the board from the reprehensible creators and producers of this thing, to the irresponsible clerics and media in the Arab world purposefully misrepresenthing this bullshit should be punished. But, if this is the reaction to some youtube trailer, can you even imagine the reaction to something better financed? Something this clumsy and offensive should actually be a very easy test of free speech, and yet it turns into an international incident.
The United States has responded amazingly well to this. I'm glad I'm not president, because I'd have went off at the disproportionate response. You can't expect a government in a free society to police even larger offenses, let alone a youtube video, and yet that's exactly the remedy I've been hearing in the past few days, even from the top cleric here in Dearborn.
I'm rambling. My thoughts are all over the place from anger to hurt to confusion to understanding. Let me just end with the fact that people make and post stupid, offensive shit on the internet all of the time. So, god help the people that whipped this up and misrepresented this, because they are the most to blame, in my opinion.
You know how much I value your analysis, always, even when you think you're rambling. I want to say that my desire to slap the shit out of the people propagandizing this whole thing proves to me yet again that being in charge of a country is no laughing matter. The President is to be commended for his amazing coolth. His refusal to let anything distract him from his goals is rare indeed. I dread to think what could have happened if McCain or Mitt were in charge right now.
There appears to be increasing evidence that some very unsavoury people financed and produced this piece of propaganda (the 14-minute clip on YouTube is, apparently, only a trailer, and some Salafist cleric got the whole thing aired on a TV channel, no doubt with the specific intent of riling people). Pamela Geller might be involved. Her good buddy, Joseph Nasrallah, certainly appears to be involved. There's talk about Mormons in the CIA who might have leaked information, but I think that's sheer paranoia. Still, someone, or ones, put time and money into doing something designed to cause trouble between America and Muslims in every nation, and conveniently leaked information to Mitt Romney about it. They contacted people in the US and in the Mideast with a vested interest in damaging international peace. And they came very close to achieving their goal. When you say "something this clumsy and offensive should be a test of free speech," you don't understand.
There is no such thing as free speech in most of those countries where the problems are taking place. Or there hasn't been until very recently. In a country where EVERYTHING is controlled by the government, where nothing can be published without being submitted to the government censors for approval, what the fuck is free speech? Until I came to this country to live, "free speech" was just theory to me. I had lived for so long expecting to look over my shoulder and be followed and have my phone tapped and my mail read, that I didn't even realise that things weren't that way here for a few years. (By which time YOUR government was reading people's mail and tapping their phones, but hey.)
As for the efforts being made by Barack Obama to deal fairly with people of other nations, do you think that hundreds of years of oppression can be forgiven after four years of effort? The US dropped more bombs on the tiny nation of Cambodia than it dropped in the entire Pacific theater during WW II. It amazes me that most people really don't hate Americans. Many Libyans lost their lives trying to save the American ambassador. The incidents of violence against Americans are very few compared to what Americans have done to the people of these many countries. When Americans kill, they kill by the hundred thousand. I don't mean to sound bitter. I love this country. But if people as educated, intelligent, and enlightened as our Wonketteers don't understand these issues, dare I hope that the pignorami who surround us will?
Something still doesn't add up in the story that the embassy and consulate attacks are a spontaneous response to a viral youtube video. The quote in your comment is germane, Chet (as your comments invariably are), in that content that will offend any given target audience can readily be found on the internet.
Logistically, though, there are several steps between the production and posting of a ridiculous video, and the culmination of virtually simultaneous well-armed attacks on US diplomatic missions across a large region. It makes more sense as an orchestrated operation than it does as simply a spontaneous response to a religious insult.
The video itself may or may not have been a false-flag production — the whole Bacile thing is bizarre and fishy — but someone or some organization was pulling the strings to
Publicize it among poor, ignorant, probably young and desperate, Muslim wingnuts;
Spin it as an official US government insult to Islam;
Provide weapons; and
Put the armed wingnuts at the right places at the same time.
This has the fingerprints of a well-organized operation by someone who has a strategic objective. The religious insult was a strategic tool. If, say, a video about the US planning to nuke Iran would have stirred up a mob more effectively, they would have used that instead. Religion was not the point, but simply the fuel.
Religion is actually the most effective tool. If you told people in, say, Libya that the US was planning to bomb Benghazi, a large proportion of the population would panic and flee, others would refuse to believe, and probably only the worst nutbags would think anything would be achieved by storming the embassy/consulate. But if you tell the same people that the American government is creating mass propaganda to insult their religion and the prophet, then it makes sense that people will turn out for a peaceful protest at the consulate, which any smart enemy will use as a cover to carry out a specific targeted attack on the personnel within.
Well said, Mr. Borg. Religion is definitely one of the most powerful tools available to transform any given group into an insane, murderous mob.
And has been pointed out in this thread, the insane, murderous attitude many Americans have toward Muslims, and are so proud to proclaim loudly, makes it real easy to sell your average Libyan/Egyptian/Yemeni wingnut on the idea that insulting the Prophet is official US policy.
For that matter, if Romney is elected we will actually be one step closer to insane murderous hatred of Muslims as official US policy. Welcome back to the Dark Ages.
Mmmm, that's good Slate patronizing.
And of course, the short takeaway here is when you kick over an anthill, don't be surprised when the little fuckers swarm up your leg and start biting the fuck out of you.
I didn't kick the anthill, some asshole kicked it over with his "free speech rights" and everyone else has to pay for it.
I hope you don't think I was referring to you.
These assholes also love to say that teachers are overpaid because they make $70k a year*. As Krugman points out, the GOP fucking loves to move the middle-class goalposts all the time.
*They do not actually make $70k a year.
Only tangetially related, but this reminds me of what conservatives tried to do during the auto loans. They added in wages plus benefits of the workers and then compared that with just the wages of certain other workers. They also failed to mention that wages for new highers had been drastically cut years before the recession. Othere times, they just pulled wage numbers out of their asses. This is their MO.
They especially like to do this against public employees. In California, they'd pull some number out of their ass and repeat it, long and loud. Pretty soon, that's the "truth". All part of their union-busting agenda, especially the public sector unions, because they feel like it's their money.
PROTIP: he totally does think that, and has said that 90% of Americans are middle-class even though that's mathematically incoherent. Of course, he also likes to say "us" when making that claim, because he's also a disingenuous entitled asshole.
OT Editrix leaves Harlem en route to LA.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13152388@N00/7988385…
She was an excellent houseguest, she bought flowers, not a whit of trouble.Sorry to Barb for not SKYPING but I passed out early and Rebecca came home late.
Well, that answers the age old "does she dare wear shorts shorts shorts" question.
She looked like Daisy Duke on safari.
Thanks for the additional photogs from the NYC drinky thing. BTW, in this photo is the bird resting on the coil of yer still? If so, aren't you and Mr. LL worried the poor thing will get a hot foot?
That definitely elicits an "oh my!"
My pool shot in SF passes the baton to you, Lizzy! What will be needed to top this? The Editrix washing a car?
Do you have any Grey Poupon?
So, Mitt, what do you call people who are earning less than $200,000?
Dupes? Marks? Stooges? Suckers? Greenhorns?
Nah… oh, here it is: Victims. Right next to Prey.
OT 58% of Americans think Obama could kick Romney's pansy ass.
Also "The majority of Americans, nearly 65 percent, say Obama is better suited than Romney to handle an alien invasion"
Insert your "Welcome to Earf!" joke here.
Little Paul Ryan must be totally bummed to have hitched his wagon to this sinking ship.
That he took the call as if he thought Romney was a winner shows his incredible hubris. I mean, Palin knew right off the bat that McCain's dusty, old ass wasn't winning, but grizzly mama needed a new pair of shoes…and silk boxer shorts for her vallley-trash husband. In a strange way, I respect her cynicism and grifter talents realizing tha the game of politics is largely rigged, anyway.
It couldn't happen to a nicer guy!
I hope so.
Fucking idiot fucker is simultaneously running for his current seat as well, and will probably win.
Fuck. Why do people vote for these slimy fucks?
Don't think so. Rob Zerban (at http://www.robzerban.com, for those who want to kick in some bux) is coming up fast from behind.
Why am I not getting fucking food stamps?
Oh, SNAP, you're asking for the wrong thing.
I see what you did there.
Wait, there are fucking stamps? Where do I sign up?
From the same Stephanapolis interview: asked about the debate, Mitt says he may struggle because Obama has a "history of not telling the truth" in debates. He also said he may bust out a Reagan line, but not "there you go again". George points out that Bill Clinton used that very line against Mitt at the DNC, and Mitt claims he didn't watch it.
The lies, they burn.
"A history of not telling the turth"?! Are you kidding me?! This is a man who's VERY FIRST ad took the president completely out of context and then he admitted it was a lie and didn't back down.
Fucking sociopath.
It's going to feel so good to send this bastard packing back to Beacon Hill, or wherever the hell he's from on any given day of the week. Hell, maybe he should move to the Cayman's after the election so he can spend more time with his money.
"…Mitt says he may struggle because Obama has a "history of not telling the truth" in debates."
Sounds like he's making excuses for a poor showing before the thing has even started. The sound of a loser is starting to echo throughout the land.
Oh look: former Wonkette contributor C. Jefferson has an article up on Gawker that looks a lot like this one. How about that? Wonder where he got the idea?
http://gawker.com/5943330/romney-believes-middle+…
Synergy!
Well, it was an interview with Rmoney on a national network, after all. And it published 2 hours before Jesse's story (though I can attest from looking at the Sekrit Wonket Editorial Chat Thing that he proposed his take on it in the late morning, and posted the draft right around the time the Gawker thing ran.)
So please, it's just a coincidence. Lots of people blog about the same outrageous shit on the same day, without any of it being swiped. (Basically we all just see what stupid things are on Twitter, then we go trawling through other blogs)
I like the quote from the Virginia woman. Yes, it IS looking that bad for Mitt.
Apropos of Nothing, Gretchen Carlson still got them CRAZY eyes.
She looks like someone left the plunger in the toilet bowl.
Mitt isn't out of touch, he's an insider through and through. And judging by the polls, he's just plain through.
And people who make under $200,000 a year are what my family refers to as 'the mud people.' They come out of the sewers to perform service jobs for brief periods of time, and then go back there to breed. It's unclear if they vote, and if they do vote, if their votes are counted by the machines. Most of them are illegal because if you are born beneath the surface of the earth you are not legally a human.
In fact, if you don't have a shell corporation in the Cayman islands, why should you be voting at all? You really have no idea about how the real world works.
I believe Orwell called them "proles."
Wow! Those other guys are SO white, that the Mittster looks a little "Jindalesque!"
Entertainment Weekly is quoting Romney insiders as saying that Mitt is producing a remake of Blake Edwards' The Party, with himself in the Peter Sellers role. The fanboys in Provo are beside themselves with joy (which is not an image I wish my worst enemy to imagine). http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6o8LyR-U_i0/T6A-pKYCu1I…
Here's five more white guys, young, wet and dancing next to a pool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSAGR0arBUo&fe…
Which one is you?
Fast Forward the video to 2042 and you’ll recognize me.
Now I get the whole gay guy thing. Thanks!
I could eat them with a spoon!
(And I don't care if they're gay or not.)
It's the Mexican ancestry…
OT
Rick Santorum accidentally tells the truth
Yay!!!! Stupid people rule!!!!!
And I bet everyone in the audience cheered!
What is it about Washington hotels that makes hacks act even stupider than they usually do? Must be the mints under the pillows.
You only *think* those are mints.
No duh, dumbshit. They're smart.
Rick in more words: "We will never have the smart people on our side. We will never convince them of the virtues of hate, fear, and deception using our nativist wiles. We will never win their minds with visceral appeals to ignorance most sublime using our offensive guile."
If one looks through many of Santorum's quotes there is an alarming sense of his opinion that he leads a group of self righteous that are being deprived of their rights by the oppressive majority. To little Ricky, it does not seem to make any difference that, by an actually democratic process called voting, his "group' comprises a population measured in a percentage in single digits.
Worst revival of Snow White ever.
I'd really like to see someone investigate whether this "movie" was deliberately put out there to mess up things prior to the election. Why would the front person, supposedly a bank fraud, meth dealing crook ever bother with something like this unless he was being paid a bundle for it?
It makes no sense.
Also if you have not seen it, here it is. I like the compositing – especially the scenes that should have "shadows" – I've seen better work done by grammar schoolers:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2012/09/12/th…
Makes no sense at all, but these folks rarely, if ever, make sense. It's their MO. A few years ago, my best friend and I came this close to signing a contract to co-write and direct a series of "biblically-themed" movies aimed at the fundie church and home-schooling market and financed by a very naive but rich right-wing lady in California. We were disappointed (though not surprised) at not getting the gig, not only because of the money, but we were planning to include some subtle anarchic stuff in there as well as wanting to find out more about what these peoples' stories were (no question that the making of doc would have been the best part). Now I'm curious about not only who that backer was, but if she has any connection to filmmaker/meth-baker Besseley Nakoula. I'll let the Wonketteering World know if I find out anything of relevance.
Update: No connection found between the dimwit and the rich bitch, who I've learned is now technically speaking an entombed rich bitch. I wouldn't be surprised if they hung out in some of the same insane shadowy circles (within circles within circles within worlds without end amen).
Alas and alack about the missed gig. What glorious homages to Don Luis Bunuel we had planned!
(For what it's worth, I don't wish give the impression that we were out to rip this lady off. We budgeted, to the penny, a quality product for the low amount of money they were willing to expend. One lesson learned, and not for the first time: rich people are cheap arses).
Ms. Smith sings for those who make it through the thread.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0TDNR3NEY0&fe…
Has Mr. "Special Relationship" come out with an incisive, brave stance on the Princess Kate booby scandal yet?
250k just doesn't buy what it used to …
I've had floppy discs worth 250k!
This comment makes over $300,000 and says to go fuck yourself, I'm good
I got -37 cause I used to post on Breitbart.com…also, it seems I'm fucking poor.
Gimme some love,goddamn it.
Breitbart paid for comments? Now you tell me!
I thought negativity was all the rage these days.
I can't find the hide rate button.
This.
It's…
Sheldon's bizzy wiz having a few challenges? http://buswk.co/U3USoE
I'll bet that wherever Sheldon Adelson walks or crawls there's a slime trail deep enough to engulf one of Mitt's houses, or one of his own fucking casinos.
I'm a fan of his bright red hair.
It fools me into thinking he's really only 45!
It is also emblematic of his awesome judgment skills.
(Actually, it makes him look a lot older than he probably is.)
You made me look- he's 79. Oddly enough, he shares a birthday with Barack Obama…
One in 27 chance, isn't it?
Okay, I'll bite- why 1 in 27 rather than 1 in 365-ish?
Are we sure he didn't mean his income during middle school?
In Mitt World, it's called preparatory school.
Mitt Romney will never talk us out of our Social Security.
He doesn't have the skills.
~
Go, MoDo, go!
(She's not pissing me off, for once.) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/opinion/sunday/…
haha, PNAC (pdf), who called for a Pearl Harbor level event in order to invade a middle eastern and far eastern country in order to be sure that the US could be dominant in the 21st Century.
That's talking about the inertia of US voters against stupid interventionist or manifest destiny wars. A year later, 9/11. A Pearl Harbour event.
This document was signed by Wolfowitz, Epstein, Bill Kristol, and Fred Kagan.
Now, I'm not a chap to indulge in idiot conspiracy theories, but 9/11 was just the event required by this PNAC document. Do I think that GWB was venal enough to kill Americans in order to promulgate a vision of American dominance in the 21st century? No. I don't think he's that smart.
I could believe it of Cheney.
The best evidence that the Bush administration wasn't behind 9/11: It worked.
That would imply that Cheney told Bush to do nothing when those memos crossed his desk all through 2001. I don't believe that; I believe it was just plain ole America-style laziness and negligence mixed in with the fact that our national security and intelligence apparatus quite literally didn't communicate with one another because of petty turf wars. Had the CIA and FBI been able to stand each other just long enough to pass on their information, a few thousand lives might have been saved.
The story of all of the different parties involved in intelligence gathering and how siloed they were prior to the attack is epic.
What is clear, however, is that the neo-cons had been itching to get back into Iraq for years, and had planned an invasion of Iraq before Bush even got in, but they definitely saw Bush as their in. In fact, 9/11 may have actually diverted them from their goals for a few years as Bin Laden just had to inconveniently be in Afghanistan. How they were able to get us into Iraq after Afghanistan is a story of sheer and hideous willpower on their part. Even up to the month of the war, there was no clear polling concensus in America for the invasion, and Dubya forced it anyway.
"Panglossian" I like that. With the use of secund, Candide will be running through my head all day.
"$200,000 to $250,000 and less." Less than what? Get thee to an accountancy, Mitt.
Accountancy is for other, little, people. Willard is all about raping the shit out of companies for no real benefit for the company. Because he's Willard.
Scum.
Pfft, Marie Antoinette was out of touch, Mitt Romney is from the planet Kolob.
Somewhere in a suburban basement, a Ron Paul supporter is rubbing his Cheetos-encrusted hands together while chortling, "We've got you where we want you, Romney. Everything is going exactly as planned."
Haha – I saw someone's mini-bio that said "Eats Cheetos with Chopstix" – 'effin' brilliant!!
It's not the 'haves and the have-nots' anymore; it's the 'haves, used to haves, and the will never haves'.
If I were among the wealthy, Mittens would make me ashamed of it. BTW, when I posted this article on my FB, local peeps piped up 'explaining' what Mittens actually meant…My farts communicate with more clarity, offend fewer people and require less explanation than Mitt's pronouncements.
Little did I know that I would need to increase my salary four-fold to be regarded as a middle class American in Romney's world.
Since Mitt does not worry about the problems of the poor, and since he regards folks who earn a quarter of a million dollars per year to be middle class, it implies that Romney doesn't give a crap about 85% of the American public, he's indifferent about the next 14%, and his primary focus is, of course, meeting the needs of the top 1% of income earners in the nation.
…what a douche.
nuff' said.
You realize your p-ness will go soft, right?
"It really was serendipitous"
Well done, Baconz. I have a pretty good one already, but starting today I'm just going to ask for a job everywhere I go.
I've conducted and participated in interviews like that. I've found tey are much more revealing and helpful than crap like the "Structured In-Depth Standardized" format my last employer required for interrogating possible cannon fodder.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
That's how Louisiana got on the list of 10 best states to retire in. Undoubtedly the only criteria had to be cost of living.
What- you have the Flying Biscuit and the Highland Bakery and Wonkette was there- and I visit for 5 days every year now.
(Hugs Baconz again) If you knew how much I've been worrying about you!
It's Friday, go get wasted and take the li'l lady for a roll in the hay.
PS: I approve the new tagline. Slut.
I'd probably get caught. I'm a remote worker, so the only lunch bag is my own. And hopefully Suddenlink (my only choice in Internet service providers in my area) will hurry up and approve laying some cable between the nearest cross street and my house (they've been waiting for funding for their part of the project for seven months now), as my squatting rights in the house I've been using as an office may be coming to an end.
Not the only thing – time goes by more slowly too. A day in Louisiana feels like a week. Sure, you're thinking "oh god, get me out of here" but the clock just does not move.
Ohhhhh, I get my sales dick all in that shit. And if there's a problem after you buy? Forget about it. That's when I loving insert the moist finger in the service bung hole until my clients say "stop Baconz! I can't busniess cum this much. Can you employment go steady with me? I'd even do a industry orgy if you want"
Baconz iz alz aboutz the ser-vice.
Baconz good, and mostly, Baconz safe, so me no need to worry. Baconz can pork his customers till they squeal for mercy, for all this Borg cares. Whatever Baconz does to his customers, they probly deserve it. Long as you keep 'em eating out your hand and paying the $$ you need to enjoy your life, that's all I care about.
Magic period underwear? Who knew?
What is this "underwear" of which you speak?
Look at you bein all smart and stuff. When I tell people where I went to college their first question is usually "was that your first choice?"
Er … I do know that the wife was remarkably particular about her pantalones at certain times. (This was a woman who IRONED her underwear, I kid you not. She got really shirty when I asked if she starched it as well, and put creases in the front to, you know, accommodate the naughty bits.)
I never heard of that and I am old. Good grief.
Everyone I knew in school took care of their "Sears Best" and they lasted for years. We still do. Adjusting for size of course.
You're not a sociopath or an asshole either, CRE. 0 out of 3 ain't too good, hon.
OK, it's time you took the Kaikai Aniani book out of the kitchen. MB.
Before there is Trouble.
They're best at 6 months or so. Any less than that and they are barely a meal. And then its all about the rotisserie. We should really publish a cookbook.
You're a pretty perceptive cybernetic organism, MB, or I'm pretty transparent.
Or a little of both.
I love you for being such a bad, bad doggy.
You and HistoriCat. I'm'a NEVER hear the end of this.
(sulks)
The Wonketz Big Buch of Foetus BarBeCue?
I'm not as dumb as I pretend to be, mostly. :)
(Makes with the hug again)
Don't listen to them. Their pallets just aren't as refined as ours.
Yeah. So there. (Sticks thumb in nose, waggles fingers at the others)
C'mon, hon, I'll take you down to dinner. (Links arms with BSFD)
As long as you are okay with a dining partner who misspells palette for pallet. Please forgive me as I work in a place with forklifts all day.
Dudina! Do I look like the kind of person … oh, wait. Never mind. I figured you were getting your pallets mixed up due to daily surroundment.
Eat first, worry about spelling later!
I've not been paying close attention, but I'm loving the idea of refined pallets.
(BTW, palate).
Exactly.
A gallon of milk or a gallon of gas is going to cost about the same, give or take a few cents.
My small house would cost four or five times as much in a nice suburb in the NYC metropolitan area.
Hell, it would cost two or three times as much in a nicer part of Portland.
Exactly. Tech costs are flat over geography, which means when you push up the cost of housing and the commensurate rate of pay, the wider delta drives the real price of gadgets down.
Author's pretty much in my head, huh?
Me too! As in: ¿Adonde vas, Fidel?
¡A chinga su esposa!
Ooh, thanks for reminding me! Forgot to get my daily abortion today. #Obama2012
It's helpful to look at the big picture, from a distance.
Immortal Mitt would be quite perverse. He becomes the boss of Bain, becomes Boss of companies Bain Buys, becomes Boss of a state, tries to become boss of America, but immortality would prevent him from becoming the boss of a planet. What a twist!
That's Commando Doggie to you!
Ah, the 'ol lumps of coal.
Evening stroll though the mean streets of Wonkette……..this ……this…….is
I don't even know……..
He's gonna get blackballed, fer sure
It's been done.
Crap. Now I can only speculate on what weejee sed.
Verily, your words ring true…and with all the free stuff that kicks its ass- WTF?
I'm tellin' ya. Who knows WUT-ALL she gets up to when we're not watching.
Dude, you totally harshed my mellow, man. I was all looking forward to fellow-Wonketteerz submitting recipes and what-not.
Yes, it has.
For historical reasons, I'm living in a 2500 sq ft house, on a 2/3 acre lot, in Pine Mountain Lake (aka Groveland), CA. If this house happened to be in the hills of Saratoga, CA, I believe it would appraise upwards of 4M. In the flatlands of San Jose, it would bring 1.5M. Here, I'd be lucky to get 250K.
But, the thing is, this is a vacation/retirement area. There are no jobs. Un-retired people still have to live in, or near, Silicon Valley or its equivalent.
You two are getting TOO kinky!
That would be a switch from Karl Rove currently telling Mitt what to do…
Nice catch.
I don't think I've ever heard the original version, but I wore out my vinyl copy of 'One for the Road' when I was a young lass…
There seems to be some specific trolling in it intended to be offensive to those who know the early history of Islam. But it is so badly done, like a million other attempts at amateur-SNL on youtube, only without any jokes.
It would be irresponsible not to.
I be mostly just sniffing peoples crotches and scooting my butt around on the carpet, sans underwear of course.
Fawk! I don't bring much intellectually to the table. I thought the least I could do is attempt to spell correctly. But fuck it, I'm doin it live.
I refined my pallet by sanding it first
Pallets are constantly being refined on Pinterest these days. Turned into shelves, planters, tables…. so it made sense to me.
First rule of Santa's Testicles – don't talk about Santa's Testicles
An old ROTC friend of mine used to use a similar argument for his lack of emotion: "Feelings are like your mother's breasts — you know they exist, but you never want to touch them."
Might be useful if you're old and retired – you expected to live another 20 years, but in LA it'll seem like 80.
Well played, sir. Although, in retrospect, that was such a softball I threw it's no surprise you hit the cover off of it.
They're just jelus. So there. (Hugs you)
Nah, you just bring a Costco-load.
(skritches your ears anyway)
You mean legitimate eggs?
I wrote a util for perforce called perforget. It would scan your enlistment for changed files that you didn't open for edit before you checked in.
I’m not a great Opera fan and I had seen several before I went to an ‘Opera House’ type performance, like the Met or any other big city opera. I still seem to appreciate more the small ‘Opera Company” versions. But the major opera houses have merit as they often produce operas no one else will do. Verdi’s Otello is done by everyone but equally enjoyable is his Macbeth which is done by almost no-one except small city companies.I have lost a lot of interest but still would like to see a few favorites again.
Your attire might be a little out of place at a gala or opening night, but that kind of event happens only a few times at most in any opera season. Most other performances are fairly casual so far as dress goes, especially in the less pricey seats.
A rule of thumb I like to use is to look at the price of a single opera ticket and imagine that is the cost of dinner for two without wine. Then dress appropriately for the restaurant where you'd pay that sort of tab. So, for example, if you've sprung for $200 for an opera ticket, you're probably going to want to wear a jacket and tie; if the price is more like, say, $40, then casual is the way to go.
Single ticket sales at the Met this season run the gamut from $495 down to $20. The cheapest seats are way up in the rafters admittedly, but there are also day-of-performance rush tickets sold in the orchestra section for most operas at $25. Depending on the title and the cast, there are sometimes hundreds of these discount seats available, which brings in a broader base of audience (students, people on fixed imcomes) that don't regard opera as a social (i.e., "dress up") activity. So there are definitely jeans on view, if not a huge number of Hawaiian shirts in my experience, but that last point is more about nippy fall weather than any sense of fashion faux pas.
Red-eyed creaking? I'd forgotten that about California trees.
When you are irritated like that, I just wanna fap fap fap!
The CIA always said they got more info out of someone while playing chess with them.
The hen wasn't able to shut that whole thing down.
That man was a poet and didn't even know it, but a very strange poet, indeed.
!! I don't even want to THINK about my mother's breasts, pardon me for breathing. Geez.
The Koch brothers.
That man should not be issued a rifle and live ammunition.
Bilious.
Srsly. Bile, the black humour. (haha). Choler is yellow, of course, and sanguine red. I forget what melancholy baby gets. Probly green, from long neglect.
Munnies for Baconz!!!
Just come to it. Where is your city?
I was wrong, actually
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem
edit: another fun stats thing is the Monty Hall problem, which Mythbusters did.
Blue, obvs.
:)
How can you be a chef and not spring for a toque, dudine? My ex always wore his at work. Said it kept hair and sweat from getting in the food. Such a lovely man. (Barf)
I have plenty of toques (no joke, freebees from industry trade showes) I can send you one if you really want.
Thanks, I think. I mean, it's nice to know SOMEbody faps to me, right? No?
Touche!
Modestly.
(Takes a big hit off the vape) I've seen things, my girl. Strange things. Things no man should see.
Shorter Gotterdammerung:
Siegfried: I did not. Have. Sex. With that woman.
And then he died. The end.
Livin' on a thin line, eh?
I guess I won't have to worry much. I looked up opera in the nearest city to me, Las Vegas, and found they have a 2 night "season", in June, and nothing current to show any action or interest in a 2013 "season". We shall see. Or not. Maybe I should just go to the Amargosa Opera House instead. It's only a 1/2 hour drive, and I've had some good times there in the past.
On edit, I see by your website that you know a thing or two about opera. Thank you.
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