A.M. Links: Rebels Bomb Hotel in Damascus, Thompson Wins Wisconsin GOP Primary, Palin Thinks Clinton Should Replace Biden, Iran Accused of Training Syrian Militia

• A bomb attached to a fuel truck has exploded near a hotel used by UN staff in Damascus, injuring three people. Rebels have claimed responsibility for the attack. 
• Former governor and presidential candidate Tommy Thompson won the GOP Wisconsin Senate primary in what has been described as a win for the Republican establishment. 
• The Obama administration is encouraging illegal immigrants to pay a fee and fill out a form in order to avoid deportation and obtain a work permit as part of a new program. 
• Sarah Palin has suggested that Hillary Clinton replace Joe Biden on this year's Democratic ticket. 
• Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has accused Iran of training a pro-government militia in Syria. 
• One Jail Deputy has been fired and another has resigned after being discovered trying to friend a female inmate on Facebook. 

Don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily AM/PM updates for more content.

Comments

[Translucent Chum]

I find the lack of alt text disturbing.

[Suthenboy]

I was going to suggest the same thing about all the Ryan pics lately. Considering the chin and ears, how about;

"Well, this is another nice mess you have gotten me into!"

[Translucent Chum]

Joe Biden - "Literally. Whooooo!"

[Auric Demonocles]

On an AM Links? THIS. SHALL. NOT. STAND.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Seconded. The alt text in general has been lacking lately. Not sure if it's the redesign or the influx of new....talent.

[Brett L]

They obviously haven't been beating the interns hard enough.

[Auric Demonocles]

Probably the new talent. You guys should join me in my crusade. I got Suderman to turn it around, but I'm only one man.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I will train any new reason hires in the fine art of alt text (not what to write, mind you - how to type it into whatever metadata field they have in their content management system) for the low, low salary of $200k/year. Oh, and I'll do it via Skype from my Waitsfield, VT living room in the house my phat salary will buy.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm sorry, but Skype would require something faster than dial up.

Also, I'm going to undercut you for $190k a year (and no benefits).

I'll also continue to complain in the comments of alt-text less articles for free.

[RedDragon6009]

I'll do it for free and the occasional dirty phone call from Lucy Steigerwald. Or $500 a week and a dirty phone call from Nick Gillespie. You're pick.

[Mr Whipple]

Hold out for, 'Nick must be wearing his THE jacket during the phone call'.

[Ted S.]

You're pick.

For that, you get no money each week and a dirty phone call from Doherty promoting his book.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I went to look at a house in Jeffersonville a few years ago, and the realtor and owner kept going on-and-on about how they had DSL in the house. I couldn't understand what the big deal was until I talked to some VT friends.

[Killazontherun]

Things have been going down hill ever since Suderman took up Diablo 3.

I thought Skyrim would be the one to do him in, but, except for a few lousy movie reviews, he kept the flame pretty strong until he discovered the baddass monk.

[Auric Demonocles]

I... still haven't really played Skyrim. I need to upgrade my graphics card, and haven't bothered because of a lack of enough free time.

[Killazontherun]

I love the Skyrim though the consolification that began with Oblivion is a bit of a let down. It's a good game world to get lost in, and though Diablo is twitchy fun, it's a Skinner box no matter how you dress it up. Though if I could just collect four more chipped skulls to make a . . . damn it, gimme some cheese!

[Quetzalcoatl]

This never would have happened under Balko's watch.

[Loki]

"No really, it's this big!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sarah Palin has suggested that Hillary Clinton replace Joe Biden on this year's Democratic ticket.

When she tweeted that, were crosshairs involved?

[wareagle]

Hillary's the same genius who saw Assad as a reformer.

[Rich]

She's a diplomat, wareagle.

"Reformer" doesn't mean "good".

[wareagle]

no, but she tried to sell it as being good, that Assad was someone we could work with. Then again, she's part of the crew that knew the Muslim Brotherhood would take over in Egypt, but folks want to keep pretending she's the smartest woman who ever lived.

[Killazontherun]

The ties between her lead Middle East analyst and the Brotherhood are pretty damn strong if the sources stand up too scrutiny. Mother a member of the female branch, WTdoubleF?

[R C Dean]

Hillary's also the same genius who thought the Muslim Brotherhood were moderates who would never stage a coup and implement a(nother) radical Muslim state.

[VG Zaytsev]

Does Palin calling for it make the move more or less likely to happen?

[Loki]

She's probably just hoping to sow enough descension within the Dem ranks that Hillary finally bitch slaps Joe Biden and screams at him to "shut the fuck up already!" I just hope it gets caught on camera.

[robc]

OT (and taunting John):

Today is the last day for FSU to announce they are leaving the ACC for the BigMeth.

Whats that?

[crickets]

People who believed that drivel made up entirely out of nothing but a bunch of butthurt WVU fans show a complete lack of judgement.

[robc]

s/but/by/

[John]

What, they can't leave next year? Is it illegal for them to move. They are moving dude. The ACC is done as a major football conference.

[robc]

Lol.

You really are an idiot.

The story was that "it was a done deal" for them leaving this year.

Of course, even WVU is backpedaling on it. And suddenly, with Comcast dropping FSN, they are realizing how bad a TV deal they signed. Exposure is often (but not entirely, obviously) worth more than $$$ in these deals.

[John]

Time will tell. But I bet they leave. And if they don't, they will never be able to compete with Florida.

[RBS]

They should and so should every other team that cares about football and isn't located in North Carolina.

[robc]

They cant compete with Florida because Florida is the flagship state school.

Unless FSU gets an SEC invite, nothing is going to change the money/power difference between them (and if FSU gets an SEC invite, I will help them pack).

[John]

FSU will never get an SEC invite. And FSU owned Florida for 20+ years and as recently as the late 1990s. Given that, it is hard to say they can't compete with Florida, they can. The problem is that no one wants to play in the ACC.

[robc]

The problem is that no one wants to play in the ACC.

Which is why over the last decade or so, the ACC has pumped as much talent into the NFL as anyone. Especially on defense.

[robc]

FSU will never get an SEC invite.

Agreed, which is why my offer to help them pack is easy to make. But, the SEC is the only conference improvement that they can make. And honestly, since they are Wake Forest's bitch in football, not sure why being in the SEC would help them.

[wareagle]

sad part is that FSU belongs in the SEC. But there is no financial gain to the league by adding the Noles. AM and Mizzou were about t-v markets and $$$, obviously.

They'll compete with Florida. It's not Michigan/Mich St. Till Bowden and Spurrier, neither program was great shakes.

[robc]

As the Bear said, when UF gets a decent coach, we are all playing for 2nd place.

Pretty much true in the Spurrier/Meyer eras.

[John]

I will give you credit Rob. You are the only trash talking ACC football fan in the world. It is charming in its own way. Like one of those little rat dogs that are always pulling at the leash to go after German Shepherds.

[robc]

Im not an ACC football fan. I hate most of the teams in the conference. Im hoping UNC and Miami get the DP. (Okay, Miami actually doesnt deserve it, but I think UNC might)

I refuse to be a conference homer.

"Conference homers are the lowest form of fandom, that is why the SEC has so many of them."

BTW, that quote was my sig on a football board account for a few years. Damn, it pissed off SEC folk.

[John]

I am not really a conference homer either. I hate nearly every team in the Big 12. And frankly was hoping the Big 12 would die and OSU would go to the Pac 10. But sadly that didn't happen and it looks like the Big 12 is going to turn into one of the four monster conferences.

[wareagle]

there will be no death penalty for UNC because it is not applicable. The one time it was used was on a school already on probation for previous recruiting violations. UNC's issue is a potentially huge academic scandal that will have an impact but there will be no death penalty.

And not being a conference homer does not nothing to change the reality of what the SEC is. Dominant is dominant. Maybe some other league will post a similar record at some point.

[RBS]

The SEC is dominant and nobody can argue with that. But Vandy fans and Kentucky fans bragging about how awesome the SEC is a little much. And South Carolina fans. God I hate them.

[wareagle]

you would think UK fans would stick to basketball and Vandy would just brag about academics. SC fans are just glad to be in the mix after decades of mediocrity and worse.

[John]

I think there run is about to end. These things go in cycles.

[robc]

Agreed, SEC will remain near the top, but the fluke of 6 champions in a row wont continue.

Actually, the run already ended, Big12 was clearly the best conference last year.

And the way they played, OSU plows LSU in the title game if the rematch hadnt occurred.

[John]

It is a shame that OSU didn't get a shot last year. LSU had no QB and no offense. And they would have come into that game totally believing their won hype. I think Stanford, Oregon or OSU all three would have plowed LSU.

[wareagle]

LSU beat Oregon pretty handily in the opener, which rules out the Ducks. OSU had its road clearly paved and stumbled against IA State of all teams.

Would have been interesting to see the OSU offense and LSU defense, though I think the difference would have been the opposite matchup - could LSU's less than great offense score against OSU's not so hot defense?

[John]

Oregon was playing a lot better at the end of the year than at the beginning. I think they would have won a rematch. And OSU's defense was better than people think. It led the Big 12 in fewest points allowed and the nation in turnovers forced. Their yards given up was high, but that was skewed by the kind of offense they run. They defended over 300 more plays last year than Alabama. The reason was Alabama ran a slow time consuming offense that kept their defense off the field. OSU ran the opposite. Put OSU's offense with Alabama's defense, and you would have incredible team, but Alabama's defensive stats would not have been as good.

[wareagle]

and, when in synch, LSU's offense was not that bad but the team had to be able to run. Jordan Jefferson was left in far longer than he should have been.

One flip side to bama's time-consuming offense is a defense that more often than not was getting three-and-outs. The BCS game was more than rule than the exception defensively.

[robc]

OSU and Bama both finished 11-1. OSU had the far tougher SOS, and it wasnt like ISU was typical complete crap ISU team. They were decent last year.

OSU should have been in the title game because of their great regular season wins. Bama basically beat Arkansas and no one.

[wareagle]

I'm with you about the BCS game and not because bama is my least favorite team. I'm not sure any other school could have gotten away with not winning its division and still get to play for the big trophy. Would have liked to see SEC defense/Big 12 offense, especially OSU's passing game against LSU's secondary.

[robc]

Just for fun, old school taunting:

Reggie Ball 2, Auburn 0.

[wareagle]

you missed out on the '04 team.

[robc]

Yeah, we would have prevented your whinging about getting left out of the title game.

Good job on canceling that game.

[wareagle]

we canceled with a team loaded with first round draft picks in order to use the second game to break in a new qb? There was no cancellation; first game was in ATL, second in Auburn. Home and home.

[robc]

The original contract was home/road/neutral. With neutral game in Ga Dome.

The game @Tech was supposed to be in in '04, but we asked it to be moved to '03 to open the new stadium expansion. You agreed, but only if neutral game was canceled.

Original Schedule:
Dome in 03
Tech in 04
Barn in 05

It changed to Tech in 03, Barn in 05.

[sloopyinca]

Why is 'bama you least favorite team? Your name's wareagle. Aren't 'bama and Auburn like sister schools or something?

**runs for cover**

[wareagle]

best rivalry in college sports, though others will disagree. Also the most overheated rivalry in college sports. It's a lot more tolerable the further one lives from AL.

[sloopyinca]

best rivalry in college sports, though others will disagree.

Oh, it's a pretty big rivalry, but I'm sorry to say that it pales in comparison to Ohio State-Michigan. Seriously, it's not even close.

[sloopyinca]

It's a lot more tolerable the further one lives from AL.

Yeah, if by "tolerable" you mean not even given a second thought. I've lived in plenty of places, and outside of Alabama, parts of Tennessee and the Atlanta metro area, that rivalry doesn't mean all that much. Hell, in Augusta, GA it didn't mean a thing.

Now take the Buckeyes-scUM rivalry. I've never been in a city in America where I couldn't find at least one bar full of Ohio State fans arguing with scUM fans on the day of "The Game." Matter of fact, Papa Joe's in Ceiba, PR (a decent titty bar just outside of Rosie Roads Gate 3) was packed with tOSU and scUM fans on game day both years I lived near there.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Fuck Michigan!

[Ted S.]

I presume sloopyinca went to An Ohio state university?

Disclaimer: I went to an Ivy League School. I have no dog in 1-A football (no, I'm not going to use the new nomenclature).

[Anacreon]

Meh. Some of us went to schools considered in the same breath as Ivy League but also have FBS teams (Stanford, Duke, Northwestern).

[Ted S.]

True, but the point was those schools still have 1-A teams (and conferences) to shill for: Stanford is in what used to be the Pac-10; Duke is in the Acc (and thankfully we're not talking about basketball at this time of year); and Northwestern is in the Big Ten Sic Conference.

[Almanian 1]

Still nothing worse in the world of fandom than a fucking Notre Dame fan. Absolutely the worst. Fuck Notre Dame.

[RBS]

I usually hate ND, but for the next few years I will let it go because Golson is from my hometown and I want to see him succeed.

[robc]

Have I ever denied SEC dominance?

I dont think there will be a DP either, but considering this possibly dwarfs* the PSU scandal (from an academia perspective), the NCAA may have to take "special action" again.

Honestly, if everything that seems to have happened at UNC is true, I dont know how they keep their accreditation.

*or possibly doesnt, if more comes out of PSU

[John]

What did UNC do? I haven't been following it.

[RBS]

Cheating in the classroom.

[robc]

At least 55 entirely bogus classes.

The loltastic part was an NCSU fan finding a "sample" transcript on the UNC website, that was clearly Julius Peppers transcript with minor changes.

DOB was changed from Feb to Jan (or vice versa) for example, classes and grades lined up with some public stories from back in his playing days.

Basically, the African and Afro American Studies Dept is a complete joke (Im sure this shocks you to the core).

[John]

That is awesome. Forget the NCAA, what about accreditation? If some school were selling grades, they would lose their accreditation in a heart beat. Why is it any better to do it for football players.

UNC might get the death penalty. The NCAA only picks on no name programs. They get so mad about Kentucky cheating they put Cleveland State on probation. UNC could get by with that in basketball. But in football, they are begging to be made an example of.

[robc]

The problem is, basketball is going to be involved too. The hoops players were taking the same "classes".

Peppers, for example, played both.

[John]

The NCAA would never give UNC basketball the death penalty. I don't care if it turned out Roy Williams had secretly suited up Micheal Jordan for games and was running a prostitution sting.

[robc]

The NCAA would never give UNC basketball the death penalty.

I thought the same thing about PSU football, they got what I predicted, almost exactly. But, it turns out, the DP was considered.

UNC's violations, if true, go to the core of the NCAA's reason for being. If nothing else, if UNC sports is so rogue it isnt considered to be a part of the university, what does it do to their tax exempt status?

[Loki]

Basically, the African and Afro American Studies Dept is a complete joke

Isn't that true of most college's African/ Afro American Studies Dept? Not to mention Wimmyns's Studies, Latino Studies, [Insert ethnicity here] Studies, etc?

[RBS]

We had Latin American Studies. It was basically the Spanish major plus whatever other bullshit classes would fit in your schedule. So everyone who majored in Spanish got a free double major.

[robc]

http://blacksportsonline.com/h...../?pid=7345

If you want to peruse his transcript. The siren is the "independent studies" courses, which were part of the 54 class problem found from 2007 to 2011. UNC said that the problem didnt extend previous to that from their investigation. Ooops.

Not sure why this links to page 3.

[Randian]

The potential for a racial circus is the most terrifying possibility.

[John]

I tend to believe the Daily Fail article yesterday about boosters being involved with Sandusky and Sandusky providing said perverts with kids. That is the only way I can explain why Penn State didn't kick Sandusky off campus in 1998. Perhaps he had friends in very high places.

[robc]

If that turns out to be true, PSU is toast. And Im not talking about the football program.

[John]

The problem is we will probably never know. Hard to prove that. But you really have to wonder why PSU was so eager to do its own investigation so quickly and was so happy to turn that investigation over to the NCAA and accept all of the penalties. Sure the Freah report was horrible. But if the truth is even worse, the best thing to do is admit what you have to and hope the whole thing goes away.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

That is the only way I can explain why Penn State didn't kick Sandusky off campus in 1998. Perhaps he had friends in very high places.

Well, sure--he had Paterno, the most powerful man on campus, watching his back.

The other Big Ten schools have to be salivating at this, even if it's just innuendo--"Are REALLY sure you want to go to a school that not only harbored, but actually aided and abetted a child molestor?"

The biggest joke, of course, is PSU's former players filing an appeal on the sanctions. They don't realize that any outcome on that is irrelevant at this point--they're always going to be known as graduates of "Pedophile State University" from here on out.

[John]

What is amazing Red Rocks is that they still cling to Paterno. You would think they would hate the old bastard. All of the things they built as players, Paterno pissed away protecting his sicko assistant coach. And they still defend him. It wasn't a football program it was a cult.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

It wasn't a football program it was a cult.

Bingo!

[Restoras]

I really don't understand why so many people care about minor league football/basketball.

Tribal instinct?

[robc]

I grew up in KY, there was nothing minor league about our college basketball.

[John]

It is much more entertaining than the No Fun League. Every NFL team runs basically the same offense and one of two or three defenses. Every game looks exactly the same.

[o3]

i believe SI published 101 reasons why college football is better.

reason uno - the team aint moving

[Restoras]

I'll grant you that. The NFL is insanely boring to watch.

[John]

I like the NFL playoffs. And I can watch the Chiefs on the rare year they are any good. But just to sit and watch some random NFL game, they are getting to the point of being EPL level boring.

[Ted S.]

At least the NFL has parity, unlike the EPL.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The NFL tends to run those sets because they're the ones that have been shown to be successful year after year, but I agree with you that it can get tedious. I can only see so much West Coast, I-formation, and 3-wide sets before my eyes start to glaze over.

With so many dollars on the line, experimentation isn't really encouraged unless a coach feels they don't have anything to lose by trying something different--Bill Walsh running the wishbone for one game during the 1987 strike, for instance.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Also:

In the NFL teams pick the players. In college players pick the teams. You can tell by watching.

Almost all rule differences between NFL and NCAA favor the NCAA, IMO.

TV coverage is better. In quantity at least. I say the quality is about a tie.

It's not just homogenous nature of the NFL offenses, its the fact the the one offense that everybody does run it boring and cheap. If the Patriots offense in optimal strategy, then they need to change the rules. Something is wrong.

But ya tribalism too.

[wareagle]

if you think it is minor league, then you clearly have had no contact with big time college sports. Like robc says, minor leagues can only dream of what major schools work with.

[RBS]

Keep in mind he just made the comment that Rugby should be our national sport.

[LTC(ret) John]

Amen, brother. And none of that pansy League stuff either. I want 15 man, Union mayhem. Ok, and a good 7s summer league.

[Restoras]

College football/basketball is a de facto farm system for the NFL and NBA.

Minor. League.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I think of NFL as the retirement league. They gotta get paid sometime.

[wareagle]

and in fairness, some of it is tribal. The NFL's history in the South starts in the mid-60s with some truly horrible teams in NOLA and ATL, and an AFL expansion club in Miami. College ball has a century of history. Same applies to the NBA and MLB. Without a professional presence, people flock to what exists.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Your observation is particularly applicable to the whole state of Florida--people just do not support professional sports in general there the same way they do the college teams. Too many migrants from other states and decades of very intense, competitive rivalries by the Big 3 college schools in particular.

[Suthenboy]

first on morning links?
Huh.

[Suthenboy]

Damn, not even close.

[robc]

People who make first comments are LITERALLY the worst people on Earth.

[Suthenboy]

I feel better then. Whew!

[robc]

You made the comment, you just missed. That makes you both evil and incompetent.

[Drax the Destroyer]

...evil and incompetent.

So that makes them what? Democrats? Republicans? WHAT ARE THEY? Both? Either?

[Restoras]

Is there a difference? I hadn't noticed any lately.

[Auric Demonocles]

Which is worse? Incompetent evil or competent evil?

[wareagle]

I vote the latter. Being able to do evil makes you far more dangerous.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I don't know. South Park (the go-to-guide for truth), posited that people would rather have maniacal conspirators running the government than fucking morons who really have no idea what is going on. Personally, evil is worse...but we live with the latter now, and we all know how much that fucking sucks.

[Auric Demonocles]

Between Dr. Evil and Lex Luthor I would take Dr. Evil.

[robc]

Dr Evil seems to be better at hiring.

[Auric Demonocles]

He's got a competent organization... which he ruins by ignoring most of their good advice.

[Loki]

He's got a competent organization... which he ruins by ignoring most of their good advice.

"I've got a gun in my room. I'll go get it, come back, bam! I'll blow his fuckin' brains out."

[Auric Demonocles]

While you were in space, I created a way for us to make huge sums of legitimate money, and still maintain the ethics and the business practices of an evil organization. I have turned us into talent agency; the Hollywood Talent Agency.

[Rasilio]

I pick Xanatos for supreme overlord

[Kaptious Kristen]

I would take Dr. Horrible over either of those chumps.

[Auric Demonocles]

It's hard to tell whether he's competent or not.

[Brett L]

Sarah Palin has suggested that Hillary Clinton replace Joe Biden on this year's Democratic ticket.

This is really the best way for the GOP to use Palin. Have her make sensible suggestions to the Dems, who would rather march proudly to their own death than be seen agreeing with Palin.

[Tim]

They drove her out, but now they miss having her around.

[John]

More importantly they blew a whole lot of credibility doing it. What they did to Palin they won't be able to do to anyone else. They would love to do to Ryan what they did to Palin. But you can only go insane and eat the furniture so many times before it starts to lose its effect.

[Drax the Destroyer]

And, arguably, Ryan isn't going to be caught dead talking about seeing Russia from his house or fumbling what newspapers he reads (both were mortal sins to liberals, because the worst thing to a liberal is stupidity in politics...I know, the irony is lost on them).

[John]

Of course Palin never said she could see Russia from her house Tina Fey did on SNL. And the interview with Couric was edited to make her look bad. But it is not like truth ever got in the way of a good liberal narrative.

[sarcasmic]

Go TEAM!

[John]

Nothing says go team like telling the truth.

[sarcasmic]

Red Tony!
Go! Go!
Red Tony!

Yay TEAM!

[John]

Why don't you tell us all about Johnson Sarcasmic. Then you can explain how everyone but you is on a team.

Come on Sarcasmic, tell us how handsome he is and how he is the only politician you have ever loved.

[sarcasmic]

Red Tony wants to hear about my Johnson!

[VG Zaytsev]

Johnson's dreamy.

[Rasilio]

Uh, I really don't need to hear about Sarcasmic's Johnson

[wareagle]

and this is where H-R starts resembling its own version of Team.

[Restoras]

At least the MNG battles were entertaining. All this other shit is just boring and pathetic.

[Auric Demonocles]

When you quote Obama saying "If you've got a business, you didn't build that" you're unfairly taking things out of context.

When you quote Fey-as-Palin saying "I can see Russia from my house" you're bringing up legitimate character faults.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Well, I guess my ignorance of Palin's apparent genius-level IQ and the fact I voted for the reanimated corpse of the Lindbergh Baby shows how much I actually gave a shit about the major parties/last election/anything in general.

[Bee Tagger]

Tina Fey, portraying Paul Ryan, might talk about seeing Russia from his house, though.

[wareagle]

Alaska from WI. That is some impressive eyesight.

[wareagle]

and Russia from WI is even more impressive.

[robc]

Even Canada would be impressive from Janesville.

[BakedPenguin]

Roger Daltrey could do it.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Thanks BP. 🙂

[Tim]

Ahh, morning links where the topics roam without fear and all the sugar is free.

[Brett L]

Ladies, Kenny G is about to be on the market again if you're into that kind of guy. Or his big piles of money.

[Rich]

Balynda Helene Benson-Gorelick (on the left)

[Dagny T.]

That is a lot of names to spell "beard."

[Brett L]

Are you sure that isn't a gender reassignment case postop?

[Dagny T.]

Nah, any tranny worth her implants would never allow her man to have prettier hair than hers.

[Ted S.]

Kenny G is straight??

[Lord Humungus]

Consider as well: There is no law of nature that says football must be legal. Congress could be moved to outlaw the sport, or to impose restrictions.
http://espn.go.com/espn/playbo.....-seriously

[wareagle]

alternatively, Congress could stay the hell out of it and focus on the things in its mandate.

[Almanian 1]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, good one, wareagle!

[Restoras]

Congress should pass a law making rugby the official sport of the US.

Either that or reduce the number of players on the gridiron to 7 a side. Get rid of the 300lb. behemoths that are literally demolishing the sport.

[Quetzalcoatl]

They should mandate a maximum total weight for the team, and remove restrictions on the number of players. That way you could field Andre the Giant as long as you also fielded Verne Troyer.

[Restoras]

I like this line of thinking!

[Fist of Etiquette]

One Jail Deputy has been fired and another has resigned after being discovered trying to friend a female inmate on Facebook.

Inmates have access to Facebook? That gives me an idea for a new Zynga game, something to do with chain gangs maybe...

[Tim]

This opens a world of opportunity for computer literate libertarians...

[T]

Shame there aren't any of those.

[Warty]

Prisonfarmville?

[Warty]

A bomb attached to a fuel truck has exploded near a hotel used by UN staff in Damascus, injuring three people.

If you detonate a gasoline truck bomb and don't even manage to kill anybody, you really fucking suck at your job.

[Brett L]

I'm guessing they don't teach things like optimal fuel-air mixtures or "why gasoline isn't a high explosive" in Syrian terrorist camps.

[Tim]

Hint for future reference:
Modern trucks are actually designed to not explode.

[R C Dean]

I thought that's what the bomb was for.

[Ted S.]

Dateline NBC begs to differ with you.

[RBS]

You mean it's not like the movies?

[VG Zaytsev]

Or NBC documentaries.

[T]

That seems like it'd make a great area-denial or property damage effect, though. You'd need a two-stage ignition, though. A bursting charge to blow the fuel everywhere and a secondary to ignite it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

My thoughts as well. You need to vaporize and then ignite it.

[T]

That's how fuel-air or dust bombs work. Somewhere I have the plans for a dust bomb initiator that advises you should use 5-10 pounds of aluminum flake for the primary. I keep thinking that'll fun to try someday.

[Brett L]

I hope you borrowed someone else's computer to type that comment.

[Caleb Turberville]

Can I be the first to wish Ben Affleck a happy 40th birthday?

[robc]

Or me a 43rd.

[Brett L]

Happy Birthday.

[Bee Tagger]

Happy Birthday

[SugarFree]

Sweet fuck, you are so old.

[Warty]

How have you managed to go this long without dying of your morbid obesity? You ancient fat fuck.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Happy Birthday you no talent hack.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Oops... that was supposed to be directed at Affleck

[Rich]

+40

[T]

Happy Birthday, rob. Hurry up and start selling beer so we can toast your birthday with your beer.

[kinnath]

Happy Birthday robc. What are you drinking tonight?

[robc]

Tonight?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Happy birthday you old fart. Jeebus.

[kinnath]

43 and single is not old. 43 with a couple of grandkids is old.

[nicole]

Happy birthday rob!

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Happy Birthday, old boy!

[BakedPenguin]

Happy birthday Rob. Now, start your own blog where you can have your college FB 400 post smackdowns with John. Somewhere where those of us who don't care won't have to scroll past.

[Clich? Bandit]

Happy B-Day. And don't listen to 'em Rob...College Ball is for all the "special" boys.

[Generic Stranger]

I'd rather he die in a fire. Hopefully one caused by his birthday candles.

[Caleb Turberville]

This was a scary statement:

"he's currently being eyed by Warner Bros. Studios to direct the anticipated superhero flick Justice League."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Because Daredevil was such a great movie

[Loki]

Maybe Warner Bros. hates DC fanboys and is just planning on fucking with them by deliberatly making the Justice League as horrible as possible. Next they'll bring back Joel Schumaker to re-boot Batman.

[John]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....n-rand.php

Why is there no liberal Ayn Rand? I thought there was. His name is Will Wilkerson.

[Ed]

Karl Marx?

[Fluffy]

I think it's because - even decades after the "Reagan Revolution", and after decades of "conservative" rule in Washington - statism is still the dominant ideology in the western world in practical terms.

It's like asking why there was no clerical alternative to Voltaire. It's because ossified power structures are focused on maintaining their position, and not on creating alternative intellectual systems.

The state grows larger, more powerful, and more pervasive every day even now. That means that to be Voltaire one must be against the state. And that's what liberals can't be.

[John]

The difference is that the clerics admitted they were the establishment. Liberals in contrast still thing they are a struggling vanguard.

[Randian]

Wilkinson's not a very good libertarian, to be sure, but I do not think liberal would be the right descriptor either.

Believe it or don't (brought to you by Garfield), but the liberal Ayn Rand is Tony.

[ant1sthenes]

George Lakoff?

[VG Zaytsev]

Ezra Klein

[Lord Humungus]

John C. Goodman: Why the Doctor Can't See You
The demand for health care under ObamaCare will increase dramatically. The supply of physicians won't. Get ready for a two-tier system of medical care.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

[o3]

as if they havent been going to emergency rooms anyway.

why do you hate the uninsured?

[Lord Humungus]

because they're poor.

[o3]

and thieves by definition

[Lord Humungus]

hang 'em!

[Suthenboy]

Is this a spoof?

[Rich]

No, it's a spo3f.

[T]

Or a spooof.

[Clich? Bandit]

oooo plus 1 trolls! well done.

[ant1sthenes]

People on Medicare were going to insurance rooms? Why even have those programs then? Oh, you didn't read the article. Of course, you're illiterate, so I won't hold it against you.

[mnarayan]

wtf is an insurance room?

[ant1sthenes]

Something that happens when your brain just grabs a vaguely relevant word at random.

[Bee Tagger]

Sarah Palin has suggested that Hillary Clinton replace Joe Biden on this year's Democratic ticket.

Would this guarantee a Lazio-like media freakout during the VP debate?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...in what has been described as a win for the Republican establishment.

Good for the GOP establishment. Those boys could use an ego boost.

[LTC(ret) John]

@#$% the GOP Establishment. Or rather, fuck off country club slavers!

[Drax the Destroyer]

So the "freedom-loving," western-supported Syrian rebels are using terrorism with resulting unintended consequences? Interesting.

[o3]

what happened to the gop calls for direct intervention?

[wareagle]

perhaps they were dissuaded by Hillary's characterizing Assad as a "reformer." That's going well, don't you think?

[Restoras]

Well, the country is being reformed as we speak, just not the way intended.

[sloopyinca]

why don't you go on a GOP fanboi board and ask them, Urine.

[o3]

gop likey rentbois

[Long-time Poster]

You know I am the person who gave o3 the sobriquet Urine. I feel very good about that.

[Almanian 1]

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA - I lay claim to hanging that moniker around Urine's neck!

PISTOLS AT DAWN! THIS IS ABOUT HONOR!

[LTC(ret) John]

"Swords? Swords?! Only girls fight with swords. These days men fight with real weapons. Cannon!"

[Clich? Bandit]

LINKS or it didn't happen...FROM BOTH OF YOU!

RC will moderate.

[Lord Humungus]

The Bedwetter Caucus
GOP 'pros' trash the Republican ticket.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....on_LEADTop

"GOP pros fret over Paul Ryan," reported Politico, the website with perfect Beltway pitch, on Tuesday: "In more than three dozen interviews with Republican strategists and campaign operatives?old hands and rising next-generation conservatives alike?the most common reactions to Ryan ranged from gnawing apprehension to hair-on-fire anger that Romney has practically ceded the election."

[John]

Are you sure they were not talking to the Reason staff?

[Bee Tagger]

Let's all agree to save this eventual 400 comment sub-thread for another post, deal? Let's not sully AM links unnecessarily.

[nicole]

Yes, not when they are meant to be sullied by 400-comment subthreads on college football.

[RBS]

sullied by 400-comment subthreads on college football.

Does not compute.

[nicole]

All you evil patriarchs just don't understand lady-jokes!

[Bobarian]

Hey! wait a minute.

Are we being othered?

[wareagle]

haven't the various Repub strategists and operatives damaged the brand enough? Ryan is capable of speaking in complete sentences and making cogent arguments. Sorry, his name isn't Rubio so the party could pretend to pander to Hispanics, but living in Florida, I'll tell you there are plenty of red flags to be found on Marco.

[Randian]

And besides, we get to have Ayn Rand slapfights with the Left for the next three months, and I for one am stoked as all hell at the prospect.

[RBS]

Hilarious and original...

[wareagle]

UFC 2012: Rand vs. Marx. Dana White will need an outdoor venue to accommodate teh ticket demand.

[Brett L]

I don't know about that but Epic Rap Battles of History could certainly pull it off.

[wareagle]

I actually know a battle rapper. Not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it.

[Kaptious Kristen]

My ex thought he might have a career as a battle rapper. A white guy from Garrett Park, MD (i.e. one of the wealthiest and whitest towns in the DC metro).

I think he actually did OK. He had a lot of charisma when he wasn't snoring drunk.

[wareagle]

as best I can tell, one of the better guys is white, from CA.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Intergalactic rap battle courtesy of Deltron 3030.

[Elspeth Flashman]

This has already started amongst my facebook acquaintances. "But, but, he read Atlas Shrugged as a preteen, and it warped him!" seems to be the gist of it.

[wareagle]

your new best friend is going to be the "Unsubscribe from...." button. Using it has eliminated a great deal of the stupid that used to show up.

[Brett L]

Shit, I had to read all or part of it for 3 classes in 3 years between the ages of 17 and 19. It definitely warped me. I started to think that The Fountainhead was well written.

[Ska]

Just go with Anthem and call it a day...

[Kaptious Kristen]

I need to track down and thank my high school sophomore year English teacher for introducing me to Ayn Rand (we read Anthem). Her writings helped me offend all my subsequent (super-liberal) English teachers.

[RBS]

I did this all the time in college. Just about every class I took started with everyone filling out note cards with bits of trivia about themselves. I always listed Atlas Shrugged as my favorite book. My card was usually as far as we got that day.

[Kaptious Kristen]

My first chance to offend with Ayn Rand was junior year "American Lit". The final exam was for us to choose and read an American novel, and the exam would be essay questions sufficiently generalized to apply to any book (like, "how did the author address 'The American Dream' - shit like that).

Anyway, teacher suggested The Grapes of Wrath or Red Badge of Courage.

I picked The Fountainhead. When I announced that, the teacher looked like she had swallowed a frog. Then she privately tried to dissuade me.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I actually managed to make it out of HS and undergrad without being required to read any Rand at all.

[Clich? Bandit]

EF: Haven't I admonished you in the past to get new FB friends? I think a house cleaning is in order.

Plus, the real value of FB is finding out which of your friends you actually don't like...I consider it a market efficiency.

[nicole]

And besides, we get to have Ayn Rand slapfights with the Left for the next three months, and I for one am stoked as all hell at the prospect.

Dude, that's because you're a Randian!

Nah, it's probably just because you're more willing than I am to get into a slapfight. I just have no tolerance for the confrontation over what is complete bullshit they don't understand.

[wareagle]

that's exactly it. You just cannot argue or debate with folks who refuse to concede that a viewpoint other than theirs even exists, let alone that it might have merit.

The left is not only convinced that it is right; it is also convinced that any opposing viewpoint is evil and must be confronted as such.

[nicole]

I mean just imagine trying to explain, not just that Paul Ryan isn't an Objectivist, or that he isn't a libertarian, but that Objectivism and libertarianism are actually super, super different.

And you'd be explaining this to someone for whom cutting taxes at all equals killing old people in the streets.

No thanks.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Yeah, nuance and principle go right over these people's heads. There's always a "Yabut" with them.

[Anonymous Coward]

"GOP pros fret over Paul Ryan," reported Politico

Made up bullshit is made up.

[Lord Humungus]

Romney calls Obama 'angry and desperate' as campaign turns uglier
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z1

Mitt Romney lashed out at President Obama with some of the harshest rhetoric of his campaign at a Tuesday night rally here, accusing Obama of leveling "wild and reckless accusations that disgrace the office of the presidency."

The already divisive presidential contest took on an even uglier tone after Romney seized on the latest campaign-trail skirmish ? a comment at a Virginia rally by Vice President Biden that Romney's plans to loosen Wall Street regulations would "put y'all back in chains" ? to go after his opponents.

[Bee Tagger]

Seeing how thin-skinned the Obama administration is, this might not be a bad idea. Keep poking at them and get them to continually overreact.

[Rich]

Excellent strategy.

The GOP could even preface each taunt with "There are some who say that".

[T]

"Some people are saying you sell nude barbies on the Senate floor."

[mr simple]

Did they not have any background on Obama before getting into this election? They should know that the only way Obama knows how to beat an opponent is to destroy his or her public persona.

[LTC(ret) John]

Specializing in leaking previously sealed court records!

[Bee Tagger]

pro-government militia

You just blew Janet Napolitano's mind.

[Lord Humungus]

Soldier who took buttocks from Saddam Hussein statue has charges against him dropped
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....opped.html

A former SAS soldier who was investigated by police after taking a piece of Saddam Hussein's toppled bronze statue has had the case dropped against him.

Officers arrested Nigel Ely after Iraqi officials claimed he had 'illegally removed cultural property'.

Now, after months of investigating the case, police have dropped it, casting doubt on the 'authenticity of its origin'.

[Translucent Chum]

Dat ass.

[Rich]

He helped himself to the 2ft left buttock

Please. Wasn't John teased enough *yesterday*?

[o3]

35 yrs ago today *THE KING* retired

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqe-JnHzjU

[Quetzalcoatl]

Retired to Miami, where he lives off rich divorcees and engages in capery hi-jinx with his friend Michael.

[o3]

i heard the elvi wuz hangin w the hulkster...or was it brooke?

[Delroy]

Bubba Ho-tep and Burned Notice references in one! I applaud you, sir.

[Scooby]

He died on the 16th, you moron.

[Rich]

The Obama administration is encouraging illegal immigrants to pay a fee and fill out a form in order to avoid deportation and obtain a work permit as part of a new program.

*Registering* undocumented workers?! Is there no low to which the administration will not stoop?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Obama administration is also charging them the modest sum of $465 for this "deferral."

It raises the question (for me anyway) that if Obama wants to play Imperial President when it comes to illegal aliens, why not for marijuana users (ordering the DEA/BATFE to back off) or college students (ordering the DOE to stop collection/destroy records of student loans)?

[Anacreon]

perhaps because MJ users and college students will already vote for him?

[Lord Humungus]

America's Alleged Economic Recovery Is Slower Than Japan's During Its Lost Decade
http://www.forbes.com/sites/re.....st-decade/

In light of claims that we've been in an economic recovery since late 2009, news such as the unemployment rate bumping up to 8.3 percent is disconcerting. Our so-called "recovery" is slower than Japan's during its Lost Decade. In response, many are calling for even more government largess to promote prosperity, yet they conveniently ignore the magnitude of our attempts thus far. Such thinking will keep us stuck in the mire. Allow me to tell you why we can't hitchhike our way to recovery...

[sarcasmic]

McKayla is finally impressed.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....eeing.html

[Brett L]

Some girls just know how to look at a camera.

[Dagny T.]

I wish those girls would give lessons. I manage to pull the weirdest faces in pictures.

[Brett L]

I have the same problem in addition to being hideous.

[Dagny T.]

Men always think they are uglier than they really are, so unless you are deformed you're probably fine. People think Paul Ryan is good looking, don't forget.

[Kaptious Kristen]

He's good-looking by DC standards. He's a weasly pipsqueak by Wisconsin standards, I imagine (extrapolating what I know of other Midwestern boys).

[Warty]

What about those of us who are hideously deformed? Should we just wear hats or something?

[John]

Sure Warty, you can do that, unless you have a horn. Thanks for othering me you heartless bastard.

[NeonCat]

Just put a tiny top hat on the tip of the horn.

[Kaptious Kristen]

The hideously deformed male can always move to DC and go up a few notches on the good-looking-o-meter.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That looks like a Wizard of Oz reunion.

[RBS]

Of course Cullen Jones looks like a dipshit.

[John]

What is up with all of these elite athletes, who should be the epitome of cool, dressing like hipster douschebags? Why the fuck would some young good looking rich guy want to look like some beardo from Williamsburg?

[Restoras]

It's just a fashion trend/fad.

[RBS]

That only makes it worse.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I think he's evoking 50's doo-wop musicians myself

[ant1sthenes]

She's pretty when she isn't scowling.

[sloopyinca]

What's up with the pic with Cullen Jones? Does NBC have a one negro per pic limit for olympic athletes or something?

I wouldn't be surprised if they do, actually. Either way: RAAAAAAAACIST!!!!!11!1!11111!!1!!!!

[Enough About Palin]

McKayla Maroney's always has her head tilted forward, which is pretty weird.

[sage]

Photographer: ok let's get a shot of all of you biting your medals.

Me: fuck you camera fag! that's the stupidest thing evar!

[sarcasmic]

Chelsea Clinton admits to wanting children, but nobody except John is willing to fuck her.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-life.html

[Brett L]

I guy I went to HS with dated her in college. What was even funnier was that he was such a toady, I remember someone saying to me, "I'll be he tries to date Chelsea Clinton."

[Quetzalcoatl]

I think most guys don't want the Mother-in-Law.

[John]

She is thin and doesn't have much of a figure. She looks perfect for you Sarcasmic. Has a nice adolescent boyish feel to her.

[sarcasmic]

So says the guy whose only standard is that the victim has a vagina.

Pulse is optional.

[John]

The vagina part was pretty important last I heard. You apparently missed that memo.

[sarcasmic]

John's calling me a homo! How cute!

Did your therapist tell you to let out your inner child?

[RBS]

I noticed he didn't deny the pulse is optional part.

[John]

And you are calling me a fatty lover. How cute. Why don't you give it a rest and I will do the same. At some point every fucking morning links with you claiming
John would fuck it gets tiresome for everyone.

Go find a new insult. Everyone would appreciate it.

[sarcasmic]

Chelsea Clinton is fat?

[sloopyinca]

Go find a new insult. Everyone would appreciate it.

Exactly! Which is why I am proposing the following insult: "She's so ugly, not even John would fuck her" as a replacement.

Can I get a second?

[sarcasmic]

Works for me.

[John]

Sure Sloopy. And I will continue to point out Sarcasmic's love of transvestites. (NTTAWWT). Boy that sounds so much fun.

[sloopyinca]

Does sarc love trannies? I thought it was just skinny little women, or as some would say, "petite."

Fine. In the name of fairness, I'll also propose "That girl is so skinny, I bet sarcasmic would fuck him."

Fair?

[sarcasmic]

"That girl is so skinny, I bet sarcasmic would fuck him."

I somehow doubt that thin women would like the implication that they are male, but then again I doubt fat chicks like the implication that John would fuck them.

I guess that's fair.

[sloopyinca]

Good to know you didn't get all butthurt at the harmless joke. It's like I don't take offense to people pointing out my wife's enormous (and growing!) breasts and her otherwise petite figure, prego-belly notwithstanding.

[Enough About Palin]

There are some who say that Sarcasmic is a disciple of Jerry Sandusky.

[sloopyinca]

There are some who say that Sarcasmic is a disciple of Jerry Sandusky.

Well, I believe we have found the line and crossed it in one fell swoop. Bravo!

[sarcasmic]

There are some who say that Sarcasmic is a disciple of Jerry Sandusky.

Nah. I've never been a big fan of sports. Watching grown men run around in tight pants has never done anything for me.

[Bobarian]

It isn't so much the 'grown' men we're worried about.

[sarcasmic]

Take this one for example.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....t-off.html

She's so fat, not even John would fuck her.

Well, then again he probably would.

Oh well. It was worth a shot.

[John]

Needs more "team" sarcasmic and maybe some "christfag".

[tarran]

John, Sarcasmic's jealous that your kids are going to be smarter than his; women's fat reserves provide the fatty acids needed for brain development.

Curvy women have smarter babies...

[RBS]

Then why was Arnie Grape retarded?

[sarcasmic]

Then why was Arnie Grape retarded?

I dunno. But ever since Darlene Cates lost 240lbs, John doesn't want to fuck her anymore.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....40lbs.html

[John]

Needs more "Team" Sarcasmic.

[sarcasmic]

No, John. I reserve the TEAM comments for when your face is buried between the legs of a Republican.

[John]

So Republicans are fat? Give it up sarcasmic. You are more tiresome than Shreek.

[sarcasmic]

Now you're deliberately conflating things, Johntony.

[Bobarian]

Because he was played by Leonardo DeCaprio?

[Lord Humungus]

that face could stop a truck

[Tim]

or cause it to explode.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I'm going to start using this.

[T]

I prefer the older version: a face to make a train take a dirt road.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Correction: I'm going to start using that. Old school is always better.

[Tim]

One day you'll confuse your grandchildren...

[Drax the Destroyer]

Done and Done.

[Almanian 1]

that face could stop stopped a truck

FIFY

[Mike M.]

* Shudder *

[Christina]

I knew people who went to Sidwell Friends with her (she was my grade, though more than a full year younger than me, bitch). By all accounts she was a spoiled brat.

And though she is thin, she suffers from having inherited her mom's kankles. Sadly there is no remedy for that affliction other than cosmetic surgery. You know there's a reason Lucifer Clinton sticks to pant-suits.

[sarcasmic]

NYC cop shoots a dog.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....okers.html

[Drax the Destroyer]

So what...Tasers don't work on dogs?

[sarcasmic]

Syrian rebel snipers on the sofa.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ascus.html

[sarcasmic]

Paul Ryan jokes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-ball.html

[Jerry on the road]

Meet Ann Friedman's Canadian cousin: Romney pick Paul Ryan is hard-right theorist Ayn Rand in a prettier suit.

[aelhues]

Wow! If Heathers version of Ryan were accurate, I'd be really excited about this election. Alas...She is clearly off her rocker.

[John]

If you read Reason, Ryan is Obama in white face paint. If you read the leftist blogs, he is some kind of zombie Ayn Rand Hayek hybred.

[aelhues]

I'm personally reasonably happy with Ryan as VP pick. Much more happy than I am about Romney. Regardless, I'm voting for them. I save most of my protest/symbolic votes for the primaries.

[John]

The truth of course is in the middle. But it is funny how the same guy can illicit such totally different perceptions.

[Killazontherun]

No, the truth is not anywhere close to the middle. His entire voting record backs us up.

[John]

I know he is a monster. Worse than Obama. I frankly don't understand how Ryan isn't in jail right now.

[Cytotoxic]

Jesus no please not this no more.

[Elspeth Flashman]

same here.

[Christina]

John don't exaggerate. Leftists don't know who Hayek was.

[John]

Touche

[Lord Humungus]

The Second Obama Administration - 2016?
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....obama-2016

[John]

Zombie Obama. I don't think so. If the Dems lose this election, they will have no interest in any hopey changey shit in the future. Obama was always an outsider. He never had the juice in the Democratic Party that the Clintons did. If he loses, they will drop him lick a bad habit.

[wareagle]

Obama's more interested in being head of the UN, anyway. Better fit for his emperor of the world desires. I mean, what's the point of diminishing America if you can't later be in position to take advantage of that.

[T]

They'd have to rewrite the UN rules. Sec-Gen can't be from one of the veto countries.

[wareagle]

but he's The Obama. Old rules do not apply. Besides, he'll break out his old book jacket - born in Kenya, raised in Indonesia.

[Enough About Palin]

Kenya is a veto country?

[VG Zaytsev]

If he loses, they will drop him lick a bad habit.

Nope.

They've all got to much personally invested in his awesomeness. He could become a perpetual candidate for pres for the next thirty years. Especially since campaigning is his only competency.

[John]

Wow. Maybe you are right. But I have to wonder what the Republicans could have done to deserve such good fortune. The last four years have been terrible. People are going to want to forget them. No one is going to want to be reminded of them every four years.

[wareagle]

you overestimate the intelligence of hte public. Obama has a better than average chance of winning re-election. That doesn't sound like a desire to forget.

[John]

I don't think he has a better than average shot. And I think once he loses his supporters will let go with a lot of pent up frustrations about him.

[wareagle]

I want to see Obama lose far more than to see Romney win but I'm not convinced it will happen. Based on performance, the race should already be over. Yet, it isn't.

On one level, he should win so the empire can crash and an actual rebuild can start.

[mr simple]

That's the problem: we haven't hit rock bottom yet. Everyone knows you have to hit rock bottom before you will start to make positive changes in your life.

[Lord Humungus]

^this^ - his showing in the polls is a scary sign that America has in fact dramatically changed since even the 90s.

[ant1sthenes]

They've already got their narrative set -- the Republicans stole the election by passing laws that kept us from stealing the election.

[Zombie Jimbo]

I'd love to see the switch during the VP debate. Biden at a podium, sweating, slurring his words, answering the first question incoherently, normal Joe stuff. Then he lurches to the side, staggers to the ropes, and touches Hillary's hand. SHe leaps over the ropes and jumps into the fray, as Biden is wheeled off in a gurney for a well deserved "vacation".

It'd even be better if she broke a hip leaping over the ropes.

[John]

Iowahawk says Biden will have a family emergency in Argentina the day of the debate.

[Suthenboy]

"One Jail Deputy has been fired and another has resigned after being discovered trying to friend a female inmate on Facebook."

This pisses me off. Really pisses me off.

I 'adopted' a young girl years ago from a very troubled home. I credit the efforts of my wife and myself with keeping that poor child out of the grave. However, she did get in trouble a good bit and did a few days in jail once. When she went to court the bailiff who collects and keeps cell phones at the courtroom door got her number out of her phone while he had possession of it and later kept texting her for a 'date'. While she was in jail, two jailers harrassed her for 'dates' and kept trying to contact her after she was out.

Little did these stupid predatory fucksticks know I have coffee with the sheriff a couple of times a week, so they were shut down summarily.

I get the notion that this is a serious problem nearly everywhere. The most shocking thing about this story is that these guys were sanctioned.

[sarcasmic]

I'm quite sure that they're not being sanctioned for what they did, but for who they did it to.

[Suthenboy]

You are probably right. The same is true in the case I mentioned.

I asked around and the guys I mentioned were well known in the jail and on the street for their predatory habits. Only because of my 'connection' were they replaced, but by whom? who would want that job except some fucking hyena? That is all I ahve to say, I am going to leave this subject alone before I grind my teeth off.

[Randian]

Related:

Columbus SRO accused of 'sexting' a freshman in high school.

[R C Dean]

I get the notion that this is a serious problem nearly everywhere.

How could it not be? Jail staff is pretty much the bottom of the grimy cop barrel. They have women in their power. Of course they are going to abuse their authority by hitting on the women, or worse.

Its what they do. It who they are.

[Brett L]

The not so funny joke at the FL Dept of Corrections was that the only reason the guards were on the outside was they hadn't been caught yet. It is the shittiest $11/hr job you can work.

[Brett L]

Sparkly vampire dude to play TE Lawrence. Zombie Peter O'Toole must be rising from his grave to save us as soon as he gets finished carousing with Burton and Olivier.

[RBS]

Terrible news.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

That turd doesn't deserve to lick O'Toole's boots, much less inherit one of his roles.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Peter O'Toole, the world first Living Zombie.

[Brett L]

Should've "live-or-deaded" him. Well then I eagerly await him whipping that kid's ass.

[John]

O'Toole is alive. And yeah that makes me want to vomit. Oh well, he could be playing Henry II. So it could be worse.

[Fluffy]

Why not just get Marky Mark to play TE Lawrence?

Or the kid who used to play Corky?

[Drax the Destroyer]

Strikes in South America, government fucking up everything it touches, endless stories of cops being violent assholes, Amazon botching it's deliveries to me, and yet, today, this bothers me the most. First world problems.

[Drax the Destroyer]

South America = South Africa

[Auric Demonocles]

Portugal? Well, gonna live it up in ol' South America, aren't we, Michael?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It bothers you the most because quality entertainment provides a refuge from the problems of the world which aren't going away any time soon.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Yes, you are right Nerfherder. I keep forgetting that fact.

[sloopyinca]

Ah the Bay Area. That bastion of liberal tolerance, acceptance and love. Unless, of course, you do something a cop doesn't like.

[o3]

everyone knows cops are closeted gop homos

[sloopyinca]

Cops falsely arrest man, break his arm in prostitution sting in Miami, Florida. Problem is: the man refused the offer when the "prostitute" asked if he wanted to fuck.

[John]

You have to remember cops get rewarded for arrests not successful prosecutions. So don't give a fuck if the guy is actually guilty. They only know they have a prostitution sting and need so many arrests. Given that, it is not surprising that they would just arrest anyone who happened to drive by.

[Brett L]

How dare he imply that the undercover officer wasn't attractive! He's lucky his disrespect of cop only cost him a broken arm.

[Auric Demonocles]

Damn you Brett!

[Brett L]

One day, grasshopper, you will be able to get your comment in before me. On that day your training will be complete.

[Auric Demonocles]

the man refused the offer when the "prostitute" asked if he wanted to fuck.

Add on an assault on a police officer charge for his hurtful words diminishing the officer's beauty.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

He probably pulled away quickly while the undercover cop was leaning in, thus "endangering" a cop. Or he told her to get the fuck away from him.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I'm sure complaining about paying exorbitant pensions for these assholes constitutes "endangering" a cop in their eyes. Fucking cunts.

[Auric Demonocles]

You want them to eat cat food?

[Drax the Destroyer]

Why yes. How did you know?

[sarcasmic]

There's a catch-22.

If you accept the undercover cop's offer they get you for prostitution, if you don't they get you for contempt of cop.

[Tim]

no means yes.

[VG Zaytsev]

Cuadra adds that the officers called him a "piece of shit." When the officers ran his record and found that he was a veteran of the armed forces, they began to mock Cuadra for being in pain, telling him, "You call yourself tough? You should man up."

Just a routing day for the heros in blue.

[Killazontherun]

At the minimum people should be so angered by the cascading occupation army abuse that some laws could get passed, like any civil suit arising from cop violence comes out of their collective pension fund, to keep them in line. That would incentivize those stupid fuckers into policing themselves.

[Loki]

The Obama administration is encouraging illegal immigrants to pay a fee penaltax and fill out a form in order to avoid deportation and obtain a work permit as part of a new program.

FIFY

[Zombie Jimbo]

Even further off topic:

314159265 Americans

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.co.....ve-in-u-s/

American Pi !

[Brett L]

Nice.

[Almanian 1]

Bye bye

[Ska]

Props to CNN for the hot schoolgirl photo.

[Clich? Bandit]

Take THIS PIE! I support only Tau.

[Enough About Palin]

"Tea Party leader Cindy Pugh, who was inspired by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's call to arms over health care reform, easily defeated Rep. Steve Smith.

http://www.startribune.com/pol.....16796.html

Note to self: DO NOT LEAVE THE HOUSE!!!

[Auric Demonocles]

Note to self: campaigning involves kissing babies, not raping hikers.

[Mike M.]

Is it just my imagination, or is gasoline starting to get really freaking expensive again?

[Drax the Destroyer]

I saw $4+ somewhere in Delaware. My pearls exploded when I clutched them.

[sarcasmic]

When it costs fifty bucks to top of an economy car's tank, they yes it's getting really freaking expensive. Again.

But I'm sure it's Bush's fault.

[Mike M.]

It may be Bush's fault (like everything bad that happens in the universe), but it's not good news for Obama, that's for sure.

[sloopyinca]

Obama won't get any heat for it as most of it is due to a refinery fire in Richmond, CA. If anything, Obama may be able to cash in on it by calling out Chevron and their "greedy chase after record profits" by raising their prices in response to the fire.

Wait and see. The net result will be an expose into why oil companies raise prices when they make a mistake and pass the cost onto consumers while they rake in record profits year after year. Hell, it might even win a Pulitzer in the run-up to election day.

[CampingInYourPark]

"Obama won't get any heat for it as most of it is due to a refinery fire in Richmond, CA"

Gas prices have been rising since June and are up $0.30 since then. The refinery fire was 9 days ago and the price has risen $.07

[sloopyinca]

Gas prices have been rising since June and are up $0.30 since then. The refinery fire was 9 days ago and the price has risen $.07

Citation required, please. Out here, they were dropping since the start of summer until the refinery fire, and since then they've shot up by at least .40/gal.

Here's where I'm getting that from.

[sloopyinca]

Here's a second link I meant to include above.

FTA: "The recent fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond has created a short-term spike in gas prices across may parts of the Pacific Northwest and Nevada," said Cynthia Harris, a spokeswoman for AAA Northern California.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

El Primero catches on fire, while El Segundo keeps pumping out that gasoline. NoCal burns while SoCal earns!

[CampingInYourPark]

We don't all live in California. I'm sure that region has experienced a spike because of the refinery.

http://ycharts.com/indicators/gas_price

[CampingInYourPark]

I misread the data, since July and not June...but the point is the same, average prices for the nation can't all be attributed to the fire:

Gas prices have been rising since July and are up $0.30 since then. The refinery fire was 9 days ago and the price has risen $.07

[CampingInYourPark]

What will the price be when there is anything close to normal economic growth? The price isn't ever going back down with our current energy policy. Might as well surrender and buy a Volt.

[Tim]

Bush's reach is long, he's why Obama can't have anything nice.

[Mr Whipple]

But I'm sure it's Bush's fault.

No, no, no. Haven't you been paying attention???? It's TEH EVUL SPECALTERS fault.

Try to keep up.

[Almanian 1]

Been steady at $3.99 in SE Mich for a few weeks (refinery and pipeline issues, doncha know). But I enjoy spending $120 to fill up my Super Duty, so it's all good.

[Enough About Palin]

2 tanks?

[wareagle]

you are not imagining it. It's just that the story is staying below the radar.

[John]

But Shreik swore gas was going to be below $3 before the election. Must be your imagination.

[aelhues]

Strangely, oil prices haven't gone up much. Though, inflation plays a part in that translation.

[sloopyinca]

Again, oil prices don't have much to do with it this time, as the refining capability has been diminished due to the Richmond fire at the Chevron refinery.

Maybe if the fucks at the EPA would actually let companies build refineries ten we wouldn't be in this bind. But nobody in office or in the media wants to point that out for some fucking reason.

[wareagle]

the media won't because it's not in the narrative. Just yesterday, The Obama was in Ohio talking about, you guessed it, alternatives. Windmills specifically.

[Tim]

You know who else was obsessed with windmills.

[Almanian 1]

The Archway cookie company?

[Anonymous Coward]

An old man with a lance?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Mount Vernon Unitarian?

[Loki]

Don Quixote?

[LTC(ret) John]

William of Nassau?

[Ted S.]

Joel McCrea

[aelhues]

True. When was the last time a refinery was built in the US? The 70's?

[Mr Whipple]

They closed three, I think, in Philly. I think one of the airlines companies is buying one to produce their own jet fuel.

[Lord Humungus]

yeah, filling up a "not quite full-sized" truck with a 24gal tank is getting expensive. Luckily the underpowered V6 isn't too shabby on gas.

Of course the wife has been eying a V8 or large V6 SUV lately, so I can double my gas consumption!

[Spoonman.]

Drought means higher corn prices, but ethanol mandates mean that corn has to be put into your car.

Higher gas prices will also drive up the cost of transporting food, conveniently.

[R C Dean]

Its a win-win!

[Spoonman.]

Hey, if you're a corn farmer in eastern Pennsylvania, this year is probably fantastic even though it's a little dry. The corn fields between me and Allentown are beautiful and green.

[Randian]

The late rains came just in time. The corn crop was in danger in most parts of the country of being an 80%, if not a total, loss.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Fuck those farmers. I grew up in farmland in Indiana, and every year the farmers were complaining that the crop was terrible. Then every harvest season, guess what? Record yield! Same with the Florida citrus crop. Every fucking year.

Now I live in California, and I never hear those complaints from the ag industry. In fact, we just produce more ag products every year, with fewer farms, and less land.

[Randian]

Ehn, yeah, I get what you are saying, but the corn did look bad this year.

Anyway, the marvelous part of the market was that even if the corn had been a loss this year, there was no projected increase in the price of food as a result.

No government could have planned so well.

[Mr Whipple]

Blame Congress for the drought. They refuse to pass a Farm Bill.

It's NEVER Obama's fault. GM is doing GREAT!

[Enough About Palin]

In news that's sure to anger animal rights activists, French paleontologists and evolutionary scientists announced on August 8 that a vegetarian branch of the human family tree went extinct around 1 million years ago.

Our meat-eating ancestors, however, lived on and kept evolving.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/08.....z23chZrhAl

[RBS]

I see this as evidence that we should encourage them in their vegetarian lifestyle.

[Tim]

That was Arthur C. Clarke's idea in 2001. The monolith taught the starving hominids to eat meat, burn carbon and discriminate against homosexuals.

[Auric Demonocles]

My girlfriend was trying to convince me I should eat less meat to be healthier. I responded by saying that we starting taking over only after we began meat eating. Little did I know how right the AM links would prove me.

[wareagle]

she's not anti-science, is she?

[Auric Demonocles]

Evolution FTW.

[Lord Humungus]

related: Can Vegetarian Diets Cause Mental Disorders?
http://www.dietdoctor.com/can-.....-disorders

[Warty]

I don't think they cause, but they certainly demonstrate.

[Brett L]

Yeah. Correlation is there, causation not so well demonstrated.

[aelhues]

I've got a cousin who recently decided to be vegan. He was told he was out of the will.

Truth is, even if I found out that eating only plants was by far the best way to go, I'd still eat steak...it's just too damn tasty.

[Restoras]

I started eating a lot more sea kittens lately in place of red meat. Still eat the occasional steak and it is a tasty, delicious treat.

[LTC(ret) John]

Nice PETA riff!

[Auric Demonocles]

It looks like the mobile site has been enhanced. I can now access comments from my phone's browser. I'm going to the nomobile H*ampresand*R page and then clicking on the articles. I'm not sure if that has stopped redirecting me to the mobile page for the article or the comments have been added to the mobile page, but either way, bravo.

[Espantapajaros]

Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to pay a fee to be free. I lift the lamp beside a well-guarded fence.

[Tim]

I can also register you to vote, I'll lift the lamp in the Home Depot Parking lot.

[Long-time Poster]

Ghost Tits:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/08.....mer-video/

[Rasilio]

Yesterday someone questioned whether GDP had actually grown after subtracting out government deficit spending recently. This made me curious so I went and did a little research.

I took GDP and Federal, State, and Local Debt numbers from 1970 through this year, all in constant 2005 dollars from here ...

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us....._H0fH0sH0l

Since the year over year change in debt is your deficit/surplus I then calculated the Federal, State, and Local deficits for each year and subtracted them from GDP.

Turns out that today's inflation adjusted GDP net of government deficit spending is basically equal to 2005's meaning we have had no economic growth at all in the last 7 years.

However if you take the calculation one step further and do the Per Capita GDP then you basically find that there has been no economic productivity growth since 1999 when it stood at $39500 to today where it is at $39900.

What it all means? Well Our economy has been effectively stagnant for 13 years now, ever since the Dot Com crash and the only gdp growth we have seen since then has come from inflation, government deficit spending, and population growth.

[Rasilio]

Next thing I'd love to do is to find some reliable numbers on private sector deficit spending (household, corporate, and financial sectors) in inflation adjusted terms and work those in. I suspect that they would push us back to sometime around 1991 for the last time we saw real economic growth because that is when the Fed began aggressively dropping Interest rates but is is possible that the real productivity gains brought on by the computer industry in the 90's would have overcome some of that.

[R C Dean]

Nice work, Rasilio.

Thoughts on what the best metric is for evaluating how our economy is really doing?

There are always quality v quantity problems, of course. Cars last longer, IT performance goes up, etc.

Personally, though, I think there's a good argument to be made that "growth" paid for by debt is not "real" growth - its merely the displacement of demand/economic activity from the future to the present, and will eventually be subtracted back out of the economy. That works for debt that funds consumption, but maybe not debt that funds capital investment, as that debt should theoretically produce marginal growth.

[John]

It can be real growth if you are borrowing to build productive capacity. If a business goes out and buys new equipment paid of by debt, it is growing. If we had been borrowing all of this money to put to productive use rather than giving it away to cronies and government employees, it wouldn't be so bad. But that is not what we did.

[Spoonman.]

If the stimulus had really been spent on making every bridge in America gold-standard, it at least would have produced something of value. Inefficiently, financially recklessly, etc, but it wouldn't have been completely pointless.

[John]

Yes, we would have real assets to show for the debt. Instead we spent at least some of the stimulus actively destroying assets (cash for clunkers).

[Rasilio]

Actually no it would not.

Maintaining existing infrastructure cannot be counted as a capital investment. Basically that bridge already exists and whatever economic effects it grants by facilitating transportation is already in place. Maintaining the bridge is required to prevent the loss of that existing economic benefit, however no new benefit is gained from money spent on that maintenance.

In order to count as a capital investment you would be required to build an entirely new bridge at some location which would provide an economic enhancement by having a bridge (no bridges to nowhere).

So they could for example have gone out and installed a trillion dollars worth of windmills and solar panels, and regardless of how said power sources compare to others at the end of the project you would still have all of that new electric capacity available. So it may not have been an efficient capital investment but it would have been one.

[Mr Whipple]

There's good debt, and bad debt. Good debt is the "self-liquidating" type. For example a farmer borrows X dollars to harvest a field of cotton that he already has a buyer for, and repays with a percentage of the take. It's the long term, interest only type that does not produce, but steals from savers.

(If I remember my Palyi correctly.)

[Rasilio]

While this is true it only matters on the micro economic scale, in macro economics what matters more is where the source of the money is rather than what it is spent on. Also on the macro economic scale it is REALLY hard to determine what spending is a capital investment and what is consumption.

[sloopyinca]

If a business goes out and buys new equipment paid of by debt, it is growing.

Sure, but by growing, you mean it is increasing it's manufacturing capacity. How does that correlate to a nation, which is not designed to be a profit center?

Also, if that business fails to break even, it is held accountable and its shareholders can leave. If a nation's government fails to break even, it devalues the currency by issuing more debt and imposes undue burdens on its "shareholders," which cannot sell their stock in invest elsewhere.

[John]

How does that correlate to a nation, which is not designed to be a profit center?

It correlates because nations have productive assets too. If we had spent that money on productive assets like say roads or building a bullet proof power infrastructure or something else that will be of use and value, that debt wouldn't be so bad. But we didn't spend it on anything of lasting value.

It is the difference between buying a car that allows you to get a job and go to work every day and earn money and blowing the money on hookers and crack. We blew that money on hookers and crack.

[sloopyinca]

But the bigger problem is not that we blew it on hookers and crack (in a free market, that exchange of goods would have put money in the hands of the hooker and crack dealer, and they would likely spend it elsewhere---multiplier), it's that we had to borrow it to spend in the first place.

The money would have been more wisely used if we had used a small portion of it to send auto-generated pink slips to 90% of the federal civilian pubsec workers in the US, 20% of those in the military and sent the balance of the money back to the taxpayers so they could spend it as they see fit.

And as far as the infrastructure goes: let the states pay for their own roads and deregulate the power companies and open them up to free market competition. That would immediately solve the problem of our shitty electrical distribution network.*

*I work with a lot of utility contractors/providers. The red tape is mind-boggling.

[John]

You miss the point. It is not that it would have been ideal to spend it on assets. It is that it would have been better than what we did.

And there is no such thing as the multiplier effect.

[sloopyinca]

You miss the point. It is not that it would have been ideal to spend it on assets. It is that it would have been better than what we did.

Yeah, but spending $10B in taxpayer money per job "created" is better than spending $12B per job. And while marginally better, it's still idiotic on a grand scale. I'm sorry, but creating money out of thin air/debt to do the job of the states and/or private industry is idiotic any way you slice it.

And there is no such thing as the multiplier effect.

Are you on drugs?

[Mr Whipple]

it's that we had to borrow it to spend in the first place.

It's that we had to create it. If that newly created money does not have a matching counterpart in goods and services (if the factory doesn't meet expectations), the new money is inflationary, and reduces the value of other existing dollars.

[John]

It goes back to the fundamental mistake that Bush and Greenspan made in the early 2000s. They never let the dot com collapse recession run its course. Instead they just printed more money and papered over the effects and we had a lost decade of growth.

[Rasilio]

Actually it goes back a but further. Specifically to 1991 iirc. Basically if you go back through the history of the Feds 2 key rates you find that from the 50's through the 80's the rates ranged from a low of 4.5% to a high of over 10% with averages around 7.5%. Then in the recession we had in 89 - 92 the Fed cut rates down to below 3% and held them there for like 3 years creating the Dot Com Bubble, in the mid 90's as the bubble grew they allowed them to slowly grow back to close to 6% but still never even reaching the average rate of the prior 40 years. The after the Dot Com Bubble burst they slashed them all the way down to sub 1% and rates have never again even approached 4%.

[Mr Whipple]

Did someone say "Broken Window"?

[Rasilio]

Well there really is no good way to do it. The problem is aggregate numbers like GDP are the only real measures we can make but in making them we actually influence peoples decision making.

So if we report that GDP went up or went down people will respond accordingly and GDP will change as a result. In some ways it is similar to Quantum Uncertainty in that the act of measuring the economy inherently changes the state of the economy.

Further it presents the impression that politicians can actually drive that metric to produce results which creates even greater distortions in the economy than the simple act of measuring it.

As far as the validity of subtracting deficit spending from the gross GDP number, well I am not sure what the official line from Economists is but I think it is valid because regardless of whether that money was spent on consumption of capital investment it still needs to be paid back in the future.

All this said I would guess that tracking Per Capita GDP net of all deficit spending (Govt, Household, Corporate, and Financial) in inflation adjusted terms would be one of the most effective measures because it is measuring essentially the growth in economic productivity.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Man. I might actually do some work on this tonight. I think the Magic Universal Optimal Figure of Merit of Economic Goodness is:

(GDP - 2 *G)/AU

Start with the current GDP figure. But the goal should be to get the smallest government possible, all other things being equal. So instead of including government spending, what we should be trying to maximize is actually net private spending. So subtract out G twice. Then divide by some deflator. I prefer price of gold. But something like cube root of (gold * beef * oil) might actually produce a less noisy measurement.

Somebody go draw me a graph.

[Rasilio]

The problem with this measurement is it has a built in assumption about values of varying types of spending, specifically that all government spending is equally bad and produces nothing of value. While this is probably mostly true for Federal spending, with State and Local spending however it is not because state and local spending actually deliver quite a few necessary services such as education, fire, police, roads, etc. Sure they may not be the most efficient means of providing those services but they are provided that way currently which is all that matters.

The real goal of economic measurements should not be to drive any particular outcome, using them for this purpose is the cart driving the horse and a REALLY bad idea which will lead to perverse outcomes, rather they should be used to get as clear and accurate a picture of what actually happened in the past.

[Restoras]

Karl Denninger at market-ticker.ord has been all over this.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-.....erynr=3110

[R C Dean]

I also think there may be some double-counting if you do both inflation adjustment and account for debt. Debt issuance is, to some degree, the creation of money, after all.

I don't think anyone can deny this is true for debt that held by the Federal Reserve (which is the majority of Treasury debt since 2008). At the other end of the spectrum, debt that is purchased with (pre-existing) cash may not be money creation, although fractional reserve banking and various forms of debt emitted by banks certainly seem to be money creation of a sort.

[Rasilio]

Yes but creation of money is not in and of itself price inflation. Yes it may lead to that at some point in the future but it may not and the ration of money creation to actual inflation is not constant because it is actually impossible to know what the correct amount of money in existance at any given moment should be.

By adjusting for inflation you are holding the scale of changes constant. The logic for then subtracting out the current years net deficit from the spending is all of that spending was not based on current production or accumulated savings but borrowed from future production, ergo you are borrowing that portion of the economy from the future and by subtracting it out you get a more accurate production side view of your economy.

Basically it is saying how much did our economy produce this year, not how much did it spend.

[John]

I know this is true. But rarely do you ever hear someone in politics just lay it out like this. Rudy on Biden

KUDLOW: You know, what did he say? 'Y'all going to be put back in chains'? That almost has racial overtones, Rudy Giuliani. What's your take on that?

GIULIANI: Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we'd get all excited about it. But the -- I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he -- I've never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there's a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn't bright. He's never been bright. He isn't bright. And people think, 'Well, he just talks a little too much.' Actually he's not very smart.

http://bit.ly/R137Uo

[RBS]

Best thing I've read all day.

[Almanian 1]

lol

[Spoonman.]

Zing.

My wife and I tried to find more context on that last night because we disagreed as to whether it was offensive or not. We couldn't find just two minutes on either side of the "unshackle the banks...put y'all in chains" line. Just a lot of people wanting to give their opinions.

[R C Dean]

What I found offensive wasn't so much what he said (which was pretty bad), it was his blackface, fake-street-preacher delivery.

Really, Joe?

[sloopyinca]

Now what the fuck is this shit?

Is this the only way they could keep Silvio from hosting a bunga-bunga party for the contestants? Either way: fail!

[Loki]

Apparently they don't want to capture the 18-34 year old male demographic.

[Brett L]

That demographic may not have any money in Italy.

[sloopyinca]

There are some that would say England is becoming an islamist hellhole. Others would say it's gonna be another 20 years or so.

[John]

That is a half truth. It is only the top name because that is the only name Muslims seem to want to name their sons.

[Enough About Palin]

Shameless:

Today, just 72 hours after joining the GOP ticket, Paul Ryan is making a pilgrimage to the Sands' Venetian casino in Las Vegas to kiss the ring of Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who's already donated more than $35 million to Republican groups in this election.
That's the same Sheldon Adelson who gave $15 million to help Newt Gingrich against Mitt Romney in the primary, and said he may give $100 million -- basically, whatever it costs -- to defeat Barack Obama.
We're starting to get a glimpse of how Romney plans to cash in on his vice presidential pick. Before Ryan's even been fully introduced to the American people, he's attending a private fundraiser in Vegas with the top super PAC donor.
We're doing this differently, with ordinary people chipping in whatever they can afford -- but it's going to take a lot more of us to match them. Will you donate $3 or more today?
https://donate.barackobama.com/The-Fourth-Day
Thanks,
Julianna
Julianna Smoot
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....an-Adelson

[CampingInYourPark]

"(CNN) - A former four-term Democratic congressman from Alabama and one time strong supporter of President Barack Obama will campaign for Mitt Romney Wednesday."

http://politicalticker.blogs.c.....or-romney/

From the comments:
"The tea party has taken the republicans so far to the right that being in the center looks extremely left. My question is: what was he promised to do this? If he had ANY integrity, he would say no and work to represent his constituents, regardless of party affiliation. This man has been bought and paid for by either the Koch brothers, or Adelson."

[Hyperion]

Koch brothers!!!! OMG! And Sarah Palin, and Booossshhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Randian]

This one is my favorite:

There is no way, given the Republican`s undermining of this President, as revealed in FEBRUARY of 2009 by Mitch McConnel`s plotting [which was caught on camera] , any honorable persom would blame the President And I for one wonlt reward them for their obstruction.

That dastardly Mitch McConnell and his Minority Senate Position blocked the Great One from accomplishing anything!

[Kaptious Kristen]

I was finally able to sign up for a motorcycle safety class, and also found out a friend from high school rides and lives in the nice part of the Commonwealth (the James River corridor).

Watch out - in about 6 months I'll be terrorizing the backroads of southern VA!

[CampingInYourPark]

"Social Security Administration To Purchase 174 Thousand Rounds Of Hollow Point Bullets"

http://www.infowars.com/social.....t-bullets/

[Eduard van Haalen]

So *that's* how they plan to cut the rolls and avert the entitlement crisis...

[Kaptious Kristen]

Shooting at the Family Research Council....must be TEABAGGERZ!!11!!1!

Oh wait....

[The Late P Brooks]

Paul Ryan is making a pilgrimage to the Sands' Venetian casino in Las Vegas to kiss the ring of Sheldon Adelson

I hate to tell you this, Juliana, but you don't go to a pimp so you can kiss *his* anything. You go to get something of *yours* kissed.

[CampingInYourPark]

"WASHINGTON ? A Democratic committee chairman overrode his own subpoena three years ago in an investigation of former subprime mortgage lender Countrywide to exclude records showing that he, other House members and congressional aides got VIP discounted loans from the company, documents show."

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....z23dHAKwsW

[Christina]

Study: Pot May Improve Cognitive Functioning in Bipolar Disorder

http://www.theatlantic.com/hea.....er/261140/

So many things wrong with this write up, but this is my favorite:

Marijuana has been more definitively shown to have negative effects on users with bipolar disorder -- making them less likely to comply with treatment or respond well to lithium (a common mood stabilizer), and more likely to have psychotic symptoms or attempt suicide.

Maybe someone with more knowledge than I have can explain how an epidemiological study can determine that those negative effects were caused by weed and were not merely a corrollary of its use.

[Michael]

This thread might be dead for the day, but I figured I'd throw this out there anyhow.

CNN's front page items at the moment include a story about a kid that got disqualified from a Scrabble competition, something titled "The Search for a Shirtless Paul Ryan" and a video of a cat knocking a bottle of aspirin off the top of a dresser.

Carry on.

[Te Amo]

This is like the worst chat room ever.