Tea Party Convention

[Smoke]

Hi, I'm not going to read the whole thread, so I apologize if this has already been pointed out, but the Tea Baggers were never anything but an astroturf PR exercise on behalf of the Republican party. You can read the smug gloating of the firm that manages the narrative of the tea bag movement in scraps of press here and there. I have, but am too drunk to think where at this moment. I have posted links before.

Anyway, I've called it before but I'm calling it again: the Tea Baggers are soon to discover that they have a leader, and that that leader is Sarah Palin (barf smiley? Anyone). She will either be a Republican presidential candidate or the leader of a "new" party called the "Conservative" party. If a "conservative" party emerges, it will be a cynical tactic to dupe moderate voters into believing the Republican party has restored some of its credibility and offloaded the embarrassing pro-life, anti-evolution, fundamentalist nutters onto the "Conservatives". If this is the strategy, the Democrats will win the presidency but the Conservapublicans will still have a majority everywhere it counts.

Sounds extremely plausible.

I'm not a big Palin fan, but I love the way it makes peoples eyes bug out whenever her name is mentioned. Lol. I wonder how she will decorate the White House? Just Kidding! Jeesh!

Oh, my god. Caribou heads and Christian kitsch. It would almost be worth it just to see the look on the Queen's face when President Palin presents her with a Precious Moments figurine and a Thomas Kinkade print.

 

[dust1n]

Really? Lol. That's kind of a surprise, frankly. The only serious research I've done tonight is peering into the depths of a bottle of vodka. I don't know whether I'm right or not, for once.

Well, not point for point. I mean, you had a unique way of sounding, whether that be the Alceste I've known talking or her cheap greasy vodka, but the general gist has been expanded on a decent bit.

 

[dust1n]

Sounds extremely plausible.


Oh, my god. Caribou heads and Christian kitsch. It would almost be worth it just to see the look on the Queen's face when President Palin presents her with a Precious Moments figurine and a Thomas Kinkade print.

The carpet in the oval office will be replaced with one made of a thousand illegitimate teenage mothers carcasses.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Americans are just plain crazy. Just read this.

The new ABC/Washington Post poll will undoubtedly get a lot of attention for its findings about health care, Sarah Palin, the Tea Partiers, and whether or not Americans think Republicans should obstruct President Obama's agenda. But there's a little nugget in there--see question #28--that reflects a common and very durable finding about Americans' attitudes toward government spending: They believe that more than half of what the government spends--53 cents was the average answer--is "wasted." More than half!


Maybe I need to get wasted before I try to unpack what, exactly, the belief that the US government wastes half of all its revenues really means. But before we get to what we don't know, here's what we do know, but I'm embarrassed to admit I had not know about until today: For the past two decades, though increasing slightly, this half-is-waste figure has remained more or less the same, ranging since 1991 between a low of 46 percent and a high of 56 percent in the ABC/Post poll. That means for the past twenty years--including all four combined terms of the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies and one year into Obama's term--on average Americans believe one dollar out of two raised and spent is wasted. Gallup polling over the same period echoes this finding.

The possibilities for what makes government "wasteful" are many, but it seems to me waste can be reduced to three non-exclusive types:

1. Ineffective spending: Spending on programs that do not work;

2. Inefficient spending: Excessive spending or overhead/overpayment on programs that do work; and/or

3. Inappropriate spending: Efficient and effective spending on programs that the respondents normatively view as something the government shouldn't be involved with in the first place.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/02/what-is-government-waste.htm

If the averge Joe believes that .53 is wasted out of every dollar. How in the hell can we get anything done in this country.

 

[Alceste]

Sounds extremely plausible.
.

Most of my drunken flights of fancy do.

TGIF, man. TGIF.

 

[Alceste]

Well, not point for point. I mean, you had a unique way of sounding, whether that be the Alceste I've known talking or her cheap greasy vodka, but the general gist has been expanded on a decent bit.

It's the inner me, holding forth on my personal opinions without being constrained by the super-ego demanding I fact check and link to evidence for every god damn assertion.

 

[dust1n]

It's the inner me, holding forth on my personal opinions without being constrained by the super-ego demanding I fact check and link to evidence for every god damn assertion.

Right, so it's the greasy vodka.

 

[Alceste]

Right, so it's the greasy vodka.

Or the litre of wine (Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon - cheapest in the shop!) that we guzzled before the greasy vodka. I don't know, don't care. Just gonna roll with it.

See, this is as good a place as any to vent this particular TGIF anecdote. Here is the reason I am aiming for coma-calibre intoxication tonight. I am a nanny. I like it, most of the time. I'm good at it, most of the time. But today. Today there was a major scatological incident. An incident spanning three rooms and two cute little outfits, punctuated by gratuitous screaming and bumping of heads. The traumatic image of fecal matter dribbling between the couch cushions while I dash to the shower, cursing the god that designed human children without a neck scruff by which one could suspend them at a hygienic distance, is blazoned into my Friday evening retrospective of the week just passed. AND, the mum short-changed me for the second week in a row. I'm trying to be magnanimous. Maybe she just can't do math.

Anyway.

Next month I'm flying to Montreal and making a movie. So I guess a few more horrific tête-à-merdes are not going to kill me.

 

[dust1n]

Next month I'm flying to Montreal and making a movie. So I guess a few more horrific tête-à-merdes are not going to kill me.

Kids are ********.


What kind of movie?

 

[Alceste]

Kids are ********.


What kind of movie?

Looks like a bilingual Quebecois deal, like Good Cop, Bon Cop. (No, I don't expect you to have seen that. It's good, but only people who have lived in Quebec would think so. Les filmes bilingue sont souvent crap mais ils get the funding). I've only read the first 20 pages of script but I like it.

Here's a song I wrote after work today (to the tune of Beautiful Dreamer)

Children are loathsome, repulsive and vile
tickle my gorge and awaken my bile
When they're coated in dribble, piddle and poo
I wish they could live in a cage at the zoooooo

 

[dust1n]

Children are loathsome, repulsive and vile
tickle my gorge and awaken my bile
When they're coated in dribble, piddle and poo
I wish they could live in a cage at the zoooooo

Beautiful. :cigar::rainbow1:

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Looks like a bilingual Quebecois deal, like Good Cop, Bon Cop. (No, I don't expect you to have seen that. It's good, but only people who have lived in Quebec would think so. Les filmes bilingue sont souvent crap mais ils get the funding).

J'ai habite' en Ontario toute ma vie, mais j'aime Bon Cop Bad Cop beaucoup.

 

[Kathryn]

Laissez le bon temps rouller.

 

[Kathryn]

Oh, my god. Caribou heads and Christian kitsch. It would almost be worth it just to see the look on the Queen's face when President Palin presents her with a Precious Moments figurine and a Thomas Kinkade print.

Yeah, that would be right up there with those US-mode DVDs that you can buy at Sam's Warehouse that Obama gave her last year. You know, the ones she can't even play on her DVD player...if she even wanted to, which I sincerely doubt.

 

[Smoke]

Yeah, that would be right up there with those US-mode DVDs that you can buy at Sam's Warehouse that Obama gave her last year. You know, the ones she can't even play on her DVD player...if she even wanted to, which I sincerely doubt.

No, he gave the DVDs to Gordon Brown. He gave the Queen an iPod.

America needs help. It's just a matter of time before somebody gives the President of France a McDonald's gift card.

 

[Kathryn]

LOL, you're right - I forgot about the iPod - that's even richer!

Hey, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLVftPCyKzk

I don't care what your political affiliation is - this ****'s funny.

 

[Alceste]

J'ai habite' en Ontario toute ma vie, mais j'aime Bon Cop Bad Cop beaucoup.

Moi aussi, et je viens de Calgary! So I'm going to be making one of those types of things. I'm pretty excited. It's been years since I worked on a film. I love it.

 

[Magic Man]

Moi aussi, et je viens de Calgary! So I'm going to be making one of those types of things. I'm pretty excited. It's been years since I worked on a film. I love it.

Je suis Americain, mais je vais regarder ce film. J'aime les films francais, donc il y a une chance que j'aimerai celui-ci.

 

[DallasApple]

I said "the accents"..

Love

Dallas

 

[Alceste]

Je suis Americain, mais je vais regarder ce film. J'aime les films francais, donc il y a une chance que j'aimerai celui-ci.

C'est un film Quebecois, pas francais. Moi, je ne comprends toujours leurs accents, mais il y a des sous-titres.