Ask post: Where are all my forecasters at?

The Democrats probably aren't going to win sixty Senate seats, and even if they do, they probably won't have the unity required to actually stick together. Which means that the Republicans will continue to use the same two-pronged strategy they've been using ever since the 2006 midterms:

1. Record-breaking levels of obstruction, causing absolutely nothing to get done;
2. Blame the Democrats for the fact that absolutely nothing gets done.

posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie at 11:08 PM on October 6, 2008

MeFi post: Literal Videos

"I'm gonna kick some ass with my own pipe wrench" is, quite possibly, the greatest single lyric of all time.

However, I'm not convinced that it's accurate. It has always seemed to me that that shot was of one of the bad guys raising his pipe wrench up in front of Mr. Ha's face, not Mr. Ha raising his own pipe wrench. The latter possibility never even occurred to me, any of the many, many times that I have seen this video.

And now that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 4:10 PM on October 6, 2008

The Ramones rocked
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:55 PM on October 6, 2008

In fairness, on the positive side, at least it's different than the other Ramones song in existence.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:06 PM on October 6, 2008

MeFi post: Sarah Palin may be a better debater than you think

Is there a Sarah Palin VP Debate Drinking Game (tm) yet?

Drink whenever you remember that there's a decent chance that this woman will become the President of the United States of America.

I know I'll need a stiff one whenever that occurs.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 4:52 PM on October 1, 2008

That Supreme Court video... she's a child who finds herself up in front of the class giving a book report on a book she has never cracked open.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:08 PM on October 1, 2008

Let's see what Gwen Ifill lets her get away with.

Likely quite a bit, given the raking over the coals that Ifill's gotten in the past couple of days.

I sincerely doubt that Gwen Ifill is going to let any shit fly.

"The big meanies are being mean to me" might impress Palin supporters, but it's not going to faze Gwen Ifill.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:18 PM on October 1, 2008

shockingbluamp, I fully expect your psot to vanish soon because MetaFilter is not abou exchange of free ideas but the current mood--biased opinios of the webmaster.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:20 PM on October 1, 2008

Perhaps the problem is simply that she doesn't know what the word "specific" means.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 8:02 PM on October 1, 2008

I don't know that refusing to acknowledge Obama means McCain is racist.

Yeah. John McCain may very well be racist -- I wouldn't be surprised -- but what he's showing is merely that he's a small, petty, bitter man.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:03 AM on October 2, 2008

The Palin-Drome: Two candidates enter. Both will emerge victorious, in the eyes of their camps.

That's true of more or less every presidential debate ever, specifically including even the McCain-Obama one from last week.

But only one of them emerged victorious in the eyes of people outside of their camps. And he did so by convincing margins.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:05 AM on October 2, 2008

I reckon she thought the question was a trap, and hesitated to commit to a certain newspaper.Yeah. You can't say the Washington Post or the New York Times; those are elitist liberal papers. But, geez, what about the Wall Street Journal? Surely that would be a safe answer.Well... she probably knows that the NYT is viewed by her fellow crazies as communist propaganda. And maybe WaPo too.

But I have serious doubts... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 4:08 PM on October 2, 2008

Sarah Palin Imagines the Vice Presidential Debate

GI (serious): Governor Palin, Senator Biden, thank you for joining us this evening. Governor, the first question is to you: Many people are saying that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Given that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, what are your opinions on the matter of blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?

SP (bright and chipper):... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:12 PM on October 2, 2008

"The chant is 'Drill, baby, drill'."

Oh, snap! Joe Biden forgot Poland!
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:36 PM on October 2, 2008

Disgusting that they share the position on making marriage unavailable to same-sex couples.This is true of Obama and Biden in terms of the religious sense of marriage. In terms of the civil sense of marriage, they're all for it.

And frankly, this is as it should be. Just as the government has no business telling Catholics that the Catholic church must allow divorcees to marry, the government also has no business... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:45 PM on October 2, 2008

did he say "Bosniac's" ?

Yes. I was surprised by that, so I looked it up, and according to both the OED and Merriam-Websters, "Bosniacs" is a synonym for "Bosnians".
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:05 PM on October 2, 2008

She's completely insufferable.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:12 PM on October 2, 2008

So if it’s a pod of whales and a murder of crows, do you call it a team of mavericks?

I just looked this up in the OED, too. It turns out that the proper term is actually "a coven of mavericks".
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:14 PM on October 2, 2008

Heh - Kevin Drum: "... a lot of her filibustering ended up sounding like random strings of phrases from the Hockey-Mom-o-Bot 3000."
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:47 PM on October 2, 2008

And yeah, the way he executed that momentary choke-up at the end was a performance of Oscar-winning calibre.

You're suggesting that he was faking emotion about the death of his wife and baby daughter?
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:56 PM on October 2, 2008

I hate T. Boone Pickens.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 8:16 PM on October 2, 2008

I did find it amusing that Palin co-opted the phrase "Never Again" from the Holocaust and used it in reference to... the credit crisis.Well dontcha know, gee golly, maybe it's just because I'm a Joe Six Pack Hockey Mom Washington Outsider, but whillikers, dontcha know they really are the same thing, because our Jewish brother and sisters, God bless 'em, dontcha know they were right there in the middle of the Holocaust and the credit crisis, dontcha... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 8:20 PM on October 2, 2008

MeFi post: Because there are more important things to do on Friday night

So, name one possible VP who would have had a serious shot at saving the McCain ticket.

Jesus.

Of course, the McCain campaign would keep him in a media-free protective bubble, because they wouldn't want it to get out that he has crazy ideas like caring for the less fortunate and not judging people.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 12:55 PM on September 27, 2008

she can be as mean, nasty and combative as possible.Yeah, because that worked so well for John McCain. It's going to work superbly when it's coming from a featherweight who doesn't even understand what her scripted attacks are supposed to mean.

I understand the idea that very little is expected from her, and therefore anything that she does remotely well will be stretched out of proportion and viewed as an extreme positive. But... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 3:57 PM on September 30, 2008

Honestly, before you listed some of the (Supreme Court cases) I knew, I had a deer-in-the-headlights reaction myself in actually naming the cases.

Are you running for Vice President of the United States of America?
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 4:16 PM on September 30, 2008

Boy, it's been so long since I've seen "I'm Just a Bill" that it almost seems like a parody of "I'm an Amendment To Be".
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 4:56 PM on September 30, 2008

fourcheesemac:

OMG.

Couric v. Palin on the newspapers she supposedly reads. (Youtube)

Wow.

Wow.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:06 PM on September 30, 2008

That "newspapers" video... it is just so awful that, while I'm watching it, I get a low level gut feeling that it's impolite of me to watch. I feel like I should look away, out of basic human decency.

And maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's exactly what the look on Couric's face seems like to me when she looks away as Palin segues into "Alaska is not a foreign country".

Jesus fucking Christ.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:19 PM on September 30, 2008

Homer Simpson as Sarah Palin

"You've been Safety Inspector for two years. What initiatives have you spearheaded in that time?"

"Uh... all of them?"
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:33 PM on September 30, 2008

Doh! That was the wrong Simpsons link. Here's the real one.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:35 PM on September 30, 2008

Not that the "newspapers" thing isn't awful enough on its own, but...

I just remembered that her college degree is in journalism.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:44 PM on September 30, 2008

What I want to know is when Putin rears his head into our airspace, how is she going to find the time to send those out there if she's reading all newspapers?
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 10:25 PM on September 30, 2008

There's a 4 point margin of error with that poll. Its still a dead heat. Those numbers are meaningless except MAYBE for Virginia and Minnestora.A 1% lead in a poll with a 4% margin of error corresponds to a sixty percent chance of the seemingly-leading candidate actually having a real-life lead.

That's obviously not overwhelming, but it's significant. To say that it is "meaningless" is completely unmathematical.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:52 PM on October 1, 2008

Look 4pts MOE is terrible. Look, I heard the same BS with Kerry. "OMG HE'S UP IN THE POLLS AGAIN. IT'LL BE A LANDSLIDE."

On this day in 2004, the latest polls showed Kerry down 221 electoral votes to Bush's 276.

Today, the same measure shows Obama up 286 to McCain's 190.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:58 PM on October 1, 2008

From that My Holiday with John McCain link:I commented on the tragic consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII -- but no, he was not to be dissuaded. He went on to say that if it was up to him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs on Japan.Ignoring the sheer repulsiveness of this sentiment, one would think that John McCain would know that, by the time Japan had surrendered, there weren't any more nuclear bombs to drop.

It's true... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:32 PM on October 1, 2008

MeFi post: Completely new websites!

Wait. So it this web 3.0 or web 2.0.1 or what?

Web 2.0 version 2.

Ah, for the halcyon days of 2000, when I could have invested fifty dollars in this at the IPO and been a millionaire by 10:30 AM.

Much more pleasant than the market today, when I have to encase that fifty dollars in lucite to avoid its scent being picked up by any roving packs of feral former investment bankers that happen to wander near my house.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:35 AM on September 30, 2008

MeFi post: It's not the economy, stupid.

McCain's right! What a fucking waste of money. We could fund killing Iraqis for an additional sixteen whole minutes^* with this money! Meanwhile, what the hell has science ever done for us?

*: Well, almost sixteen.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:53 AM on September 29, 2008

You youngin's. Back in my day, and I'm sure in McCain's day, you didn't have any of these fancy-schmancy "character points". You rolled your 3d6 like a man. Then you pretended that you rolled an 18.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 5:59 AM on September 29, 2008

On a more serious note, a lot of people have pointed out that (A) earmarks don't assign new funds to agencies, they just make sure that those agencies spend some of their already-existing funds on specific projects, and (B) Congressmen probably aren't the best people to decide how much money should get spent on what scientific projects.

I basically agree with that, more or less. But "scientific projects" are not the only things that are earmarked.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:18 AM on September 29, 2008

OK, mostly makes sense; a step in the right direction. But WTF about the pizza place? Did anyone who saw this on teevee hear this? What's he talking about?While in a restaurant, a person (who was not a journalist) asked Palin what should be done about Pakistan. Palin responded that we should absolutely invade and get them mean ol' terrorist fellas you betcha.

This was less than 24 hours after John McCain tried to make a big deal out of Obama saying... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 9:05 PM on September 29, 2008

MeFi post: Oh sh*t.

Palin and McCain interview with Katie Couric. I guess Tina Fey wasn't kidding about a lifeline.Yeah, this is just fundamentally absurd. Can they honestly not understand that this makes them look even more ridiculous? Even more like she can't handle being interviewed?

I love watching McCain during the parts where Palin is speaking. He's constantly making these exaggerated gestures with his hands and face intended... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:20 PM on September 29, 2008

I mean, the previous interviews made her look unprepared, ill informed, and not deserving of serious consideration. And all that's bad enough.

But this "hold my hand while the mean lady is mean to me" interview goes far beyond that. It makes her look like a young child.

And it does that even before a question is asked, just from its fundamental premise. After the questions are asked, and McCain... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:26 PM on September 29, 2008

I really, really would like to see someone play a Joseph Welch to McCain's Joe McCarthy.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 8:02 PM on September 29, 2008

MeFi post: Bottoms up

Second, you don't say things like that in public if you're a politician with any kind of ambitionI am not claiming the story you're talking about is true. However, I frankly don't see any reason to believe that McCain is not the kind of man who says things like that in public. On the contrary, he's exactly the kind of man who says things like that in public, political ambition or no.

The man publicly joked about... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 6:52 PM on September 27, 2008

The joke is super tasteless, but I could imagine someone thinking it's funny. Calling your wife a cunt is awful, but it's the kind of thing some people do when they lose their temper. Calling one of your children "that black thing" and saying you hate her to some stranger you've just met on vacation? That'd make him a moron and a sociopath.First, I don't see where the article claims that he said he hates her.

Second, like you could imagine... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:20 PM on September 27, 2008

And I'm not saying this story should be repeated. I'm just disputing your claim that McCain is not the kind of man who says things like that.
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 7:32 PM on September 27, 2008

Ask post: He wants to be "friends" but still likes me? Did I kill the attraction?

I guess I don't understand what's not to understand.

You told him you don't want to have sex without a commitment. He told you he doesn't want to commit. What's the confusion?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie at 2:33 PM on September 27, 2008

MeTa post: stuff.metafilter.com

Yeah, um, thanks guys. Condescend much?

TheNewWazoo, your search reveals, essentially, three things.

Alan, yours reveals those same three things, repeated many times each over forty links or so.

Is it unreasonable of me to think that there might be an actual canonical list?
posted to MetaTalk by Flunkie at 11:27 AM on September 27, 2008

Thank you, carsonb.
posted to MetaTalk by Flunkie at 11:27 AM on September 27, 2008

MeFi post: Interview Sarah Palin

Ah, Miko, I had never seen MarkovFilter before. That's great, thanks.

Sticking my own username came up with the following, which I am highly proud of:

"Nice, so because Obama can recognize that McCain was checking out her ass."
posted to MetaFilter by Flunkie at 11:00 AM on September 27, 2008

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