US POLITICS election/post-election edition: your country will improve immediately.

His hair's the color of a cheese omelet.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/bob_ney_red_nr.jpg

in that climate it was totally easy for people to get swept up onto the "kill everyone!" train

...right...one thing that theoretically sets an elected representative apart from you or me is the notion that they won't vote away our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms because of some bad shit that went down last week

so have we assigned someone on K-Lo watch tonight?

it's all you dog

aaaaaand it looks like Coats and Paul win.

welcome back to Congress, Dan Burton!

write in aqua buddha everybody

d'oh! I wrote-in Xenu for one of the races on my ballot. I wish I would've remembered Aqua Buddha.

aqua buddha is by FAR my favorite thing that's happened throughout the whole campaign.

At the very least, I am very curious how a Rand Paul - let alone someone like Angle - will fare in the public eye, as opposed to the periphery where they've been hanging. I reckon neither will be able to successfully push, let alone achieve, anything close to their agenda, yet each seems the sort whose constituency would take compromise ... let's just say personally. Wonder if they'll regret all their pro-gun posturing when the angry shouters start showing up at their own functions.

it was kinda funny in a Spicoli sorta way

tbh I'm willing to risk it with Sharron Angle. If she wins over Reid, I'm looking forward to six straight years of hilarious shenanigans, or at least for as long as party leadership will let her go before shutting her down.

one thing that theoretically sets an elected representative apart from you or me is the notion that they won't vote away our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms because of some bad shit that went down last week

okay you are smarter than this

total aside: I voted for a Green Party candidate for state treasurer!

hilarious like michelle bachmann who.. well actually has quite a following. there really seems to be not much limit on how crazy you can be in the GOP these days. as long as you don't go full paladino

Bachmann is in the house. Angle will be in the senate, and the senate don't play.

okay you are smarter than this

lol ppl are always sayin' this kinda thing to me but the fact that I'm articulate, talented, forceful, & incredibly attractive doesn't mean I actually have the smarts to back any of that shit up

ha i dunno, it's like the housing market: no way is this the turn from the 'bottom' for the GOP. '10 midterms are gonna be wild as fuck

― goole, Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:10 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

yay me

like I'm living proof that being able to neatly & accurately define "nuance" doesn't necessarily mean you're capable of grasping nuance

re: angle the thing is, does she have any serious agenda other than to act crazy. she did nothing in the legislature in nevada iirc. national GOP doesn't seem to have had much luck reigning in the crazy this year.

to briefly reprise the subject of americans not knowing their geography:

only today as i passed through the town of harper's ferry did i realize that john brown did not lead that slave revolt on an actual boat.

haha that's wonderful

in the midst of tea party madness, feels pretty good to be able to vote for a muslim and know he's gonna win

nb re Paladino: i think that he'd be TOTALLY electable in some non-Northeast Corridor (aka "elitist liberal") state.

Angle has us all in suspense. She's been the "I'll only give my positions once elected" candidate.

By contrast., about three in four expressed negative views about the federal government. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems.

this is emblematic of where the real failure is - people have this deeply ingrained illusion that the federal government is the source of all their woes, that government cannot (and SHOULD not) even attempt to solve problems. everything will just work itself out! nice corporations will take care of us all! it's just the stupidest, saddest worldview imaginable.

it'll have to be reality-tested i'm afraid

this is a generation since 'government is the problem' became conventional wisdom. it's freaky to consider we're seeing the continued rippling effect of ronnie.

reading Supreme Power right now (thx Alfred!) and struck by the contrast that FDR continually made the argument - which much of the public readily and heartily endorsed - that the federal gov't was all that stood between the "common man" and total oppression/exploitation at the hands of moneyed interests. Like, this was a narrative that was just taken for granted, and the real pushback came from people who feared the fed over-extending its power. This is now completely reversed, no one understands (or even thinks it's possible) that the federal government can solve anything.

like, no one thinks the federal gov't protects the common man at all, and those that think it can and should are afraid that it doesn't even have the capacity to effectively do so.

tbf, very few candidates/elected officials offer any evidence to the contrary. xp

national GOP doesn't seem to have had much luck reigning in the crazy this year.

From a party that has Michael WHAT UP? Steele as its chairman, I'm assuming that they're not even remotely interested in doing so.

Well, FDR's immediate forebears were the last to think gov't can solve everything. I'm more interested in government mediating.

People need to stop thinking there's a difference between the "national GOP" and the Tea Party.

Other than a difference in tone, name one issue on which the "national GOP" and Tea Party have split and has surprised you. The "national GOP" has endorsed insane drivel for years!

Tea Party, the GOP equivalent of a WWF "rebellion"

Tomorrow is going to be awesome.

Here's a piece for some of you. It's like every Obama apologist, and every bit of Democratic complacency/piety/naivete/stupidity that gets ridiculed around here, rolled into one depressing and mind-numblingly squishy fan letter:

I Still Love Obama. Love. Love. Love.

I like it and more or less agree with it.

(Beats a hasty retreat.)

We posted this earlier, and, yes, we would have ripped you a new asshole.

It'd be awesome if a few dudes in Congress actually went all Ultimate Warrior on us. Like, replete with face paint and stuff.

Glad I could help!

speaking of exit polls Andrew Sullivan posts some data that's as bewildering as the stuff I read in 2008.

Tea Party, the GOP equivalent of a WWF "rebellion"

hahah yeah, mostly. but it is the case that had GOP nominated whoever that other nevada candidate was, and castle in delaware, they'd be winning those races going away prob

the new Congress is going to be way better than WWF. And more fake.

chris wallace has a writeboard and says the GOP could pick up 60 in the house

hi, Don!

538 is saying 55-56 at the moment - on the back of bigger House wins in Indiana than expected…

theoretically this should be a heavy drinking night, if i didn't have so much work

I'm on my third glass of wine and will switch to shoe polish if necessary.

and I don't even have cable.