Primaries Today

Today is a primary day, so there will be much to talk about tonight. TPM has a primary primer.

Today’s Obama Outrage: Two junior White House staffers were caught playing beer pong on Sunday! And they were shirtless (and male, note)! (See photo if the link works.)

Update: I am really tired and will not be sitting up for returns, but keep talking among yourselves. I will catch up in the morning.

21 thoughts on “Primaries Today

  1. Please, please, please, let Mary Landrieu lose today. PRETTY PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!

  2. I just feel like something like this speaks to how crazy our lives our. These guys are still youngish (like me) and work 70 + hours per week, the fact they play some beer pong is a surprise (NO)? And yet they are followed by people whenever they aren’t working because people want to shoot them down. Is it normal? I don’t think so.

  3. I meant Lincoln. Jeez, where’d that come from?
    Maybe I’m nervous because I’ve got a job interview, but it’s for a job I really don’t want – selling insurance. Yuck. But, it’s a job.
    I keep trying to find something in charity or non-profit, but there’s nothing out there in my area. Last year I interviewed with a few places to teach autistic youth and adults job skills, something I really, really wanted to do, but I was too physically handicapped with my leg, but not officially handicapped enough for government help. Ironic, ain’t it?

  4. The men aren’t even American! Look at them, not a love handle in the bunch! How un-American can you get? Let’s get them out of the White House and impeach. Yeah.

    Ok, I feel better now.

  5. Hey Gulag I hear you. As a still unemployed guy I’ve found good volunteer work with non-profit organizations, but meaningful, paid work is hard to come by. Good luck!

  6. If they were playing drinking games at the white house then that would be a story, it’s at a bar for cripes sake on their day off. But yes I remember Bu$hco never took anytime time off unless you count the 977 days spent either playing cowboy at his ranch or fucking off at Camp David! Redstate.hate gotta love’em.

  7. OH NOES! JUNIOR STAFFERS HAVE A DAY OFF!

    That PROVES that this is as bad as people dying while Bush staffers didn’t want to interrupt Bush’s R&R. Obama is clearly incompetent, because otherwise all those rightwingers would be whiny babies squalling because life isn’t exactly the way they want it to be!

  8. If they were playing drinking games at the white house then that would be a story, it’s at a bar for cripes sake on their day off.

    omg, Righties are bitching about that? I give up.

    Gulag, good luck at your interview!

  9. There was no laughter in Mudville that night as mighty Casey had struck out.
    Thus it is with Republican America this ‘night.’ The mighty right-wing juggernaut has struck out.

    Possessed by the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy, that someone somewhere may believe himself free to pursue happiness, that someone somewhere may not be as miserable as they, the righties devote their days and nights mulling over how to make the rest of us as miserable as they are.

    Unlike much of the rest of our Constitution/ Bill of Rights/Declaration of Independence all of which draw directly from established English law among other pollitical disciplines, the ‘pursuit of happiness’ is unique to us. Good God – it just may be that to not pursue happiness, even to not be happy is unpatriotic, un-American, subversive, heretical, even treasonous?

  10. We’re having fun in California today, but most of it is on the GOP side. Each wingnut promises to be the meanest of them all; while other candidates simply run out of cash. The wingnut I’m rooting for is Orly Taitz, birther supreme, who might actually win the GOP nomination for Secretary of State:

    According to Politico, infamous birther Orly Taitz may emerge from today’s California primary with the Republican nomination to become secretary of state.

    Taitz, an Israeli emigre, dentist and lawyer, has become nationally known for filing lawsuit after lawsuit predicated on the notion that President Obama was not born in the United States. She is perhaps the best known of the “birthers”…

    In dismissing one of Taitz’ many lawsuits last October, Judge David O. Carter wrote that “Plaintiffs’ counsel has favored rhetoric seeking to arouse the emotions and prejudices of her followers rather than the language of a lawyer seeking to present arguments through cogent legal reasoning.” He also noted that “the Court has received several sworn affidavits that Taitz asked potential witnesses that she planned to call before this Court to perjure themselves.” Taitz has been fined $20,000 as a result of her lawsuits.

    Yet despite all this, there is an outside chance that Taitz could defeat former professional football player Damon Dunn in the GOP primary, California operatives said in the Politico story. That would be awful news for anyone who would have to run on the same ticket – including, potentially, Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Meg Whitman.

    Taitz’ views are toxic enough to get her disinvited from a tea party rally in April; through a spokesman, Republican Senate hopeful Chuck DeVore, a Tea Party favorite, called her theories “crazy.”

    I sure hope Taitz wins the GOP nomination, I hear mainstream Republicans are terrified/disgusted with her. Anything to throw a wrench in the whole GOP ticket come fall.

  11. Ok..maybe I’m square, or my age is showing, but what is beer pong? I’ve heard of a beer bong but never beer pong.

    Gulag…Good luck on your interview!

  12. Thanks for the good wishes everyone, but it ain’t meant to be, I’m afraid…
    God, they require that I have ‘entrepreneurial spirit” for this job. Me, who’s definitely a Liberal, and pretty much a socialist.
    That’s like asking Sister Bertrille to let it all hang out in the new video of “Nun’s Gone Wild!” Ain’t gonna happen…
    I actually did pretty well in the interview (I was an actor, if you don’t remember). They want me to take some online assessments. I think my true colors will come out. Oh well. At least I got practice interviewing.
    I’ll keep plugging along at trying to find something in charity or non-profit. It may take a while, though.
    Thankd for the kind thoughts. 🙂

  13. For the record, when a company wants entrepreneurial spirit it usually means that it is a purely commission-based job and they have no problems throwing you to the wolves if you don’t deliver. I did one of those assessments for an insurance company that let you set up a booth in costco to sell insurance (nice office!) and generate “leads”, but first you had to hit up your family and friends (ensuring you would lose both). Anyway, I had my finger on the wrong key and answered all of them with the key next to the one I thought I was hitting. I was not asked to a second interview.

    My friend runs a non-profit (Western Slope Environmental Research Council) and has lost so much funding that he had to let the second person in the office go. This means fewer grants being written, etc. and a real death spiral of no money. Non-profit is not a good bet right now. The non-profit solar energy installation group, however, is cleaning up by holding classes to certify installers.

    And, of course, you could always find religion (of your choice). Preaching can be very lucrative if you can keep a straight face.

  14. You would think the outrage would be on the waterfight. But I guess the media only have a problem with that if they aren’t invited.

  15. @Swani – Beer pong is generally played with 10 cups of beer arranged like bowling pins and ping pong balls. The idea is each player needs to throw the ping pong ball into all ten of the other persons cups, which they have to chug. Some bars now advertise “beer pong” tournaments. Wacky stuff.

    @Gulag – You summed up my feelings towards ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ pretty well. I posted a resume on monster.com a couple months ago and the only people to respond to me and my masters in Urban Planning were insurance people. Applying for jobs and doing phone interviews is exhausting. Last week I had a brilliant phone interview and I really thought I was going to get a job, but its now Tuesday evening and no one has called me… I don’t know what more I can do to get a job. It stinks. I’m glad your here to commiserate with…

  16. Thanks for filling me in, Crazy.

    Gulag.. I agree with Jennifer..”Entrepreneurial spirit” is a euphemism that means that they’ll let you bust your ass to make them money, and when they’ve drained every ounce of generating revenue for them out of your being, they’ll cast you off for another victim full of hope.. It’s nothing personal.. just basic souless American capitalism. Prey for profits!

  17. Thanks Jennifer, you’re right, it’s commission only. As for preaching, well, I’ll leave that for maha’s site and a few others. I’m a good enough actor to pull it off, but even though I’m not at all religious, I feel I have some sort of a soul I have to stay true to.
    I’m going to take the assessments, and I’ll answer honestly, which will definitely preclude me from having a second interview.
    During the Clinton years, because the economy was booming and unemployment was low, companies were handing out bonuses of hundreds of dollars for even some pretty basic jobs, thousands for supervisory or management positions. Now, it’s commission only, or contract jobs with no benefits.
    And this is just the way businesses like it. Does anyone see ANY incentive for them to return to those days? If you do, let me know. I need a shot of optimism right about now, since it’s too early for vodka.

  18. cundgulag – So sorry it didn’t work out – what a bummer. Working for a non-profit at the time (sometime in the ’80’s, saint Reagan is prexy) I was forced to sit through a day-long seminar on how to ‘legally’ get away with paying employees as little as possible. The woman delivering the ‘sermon’ positively drolled with excitement, she was even gleeful, as she listed the various ways to screw people – and get away with it.

    Reagan managed to sow greed into the American psyche and we are reaping its ill-effects in spades.

  19. felicity,
    Yeah, back about 6 years ago, an attorney came to talk at the local branch of my BIG telecommunications company about union prevention, and reasons not to allow one in. I asked him if anyone in his family had been in a union. He said that both parents were members, and also other family members. Now, I wonder who paid for the college and law degrees this worthless scum had to go through to be an anti-union specialist? Any guesses?
    If greed were an energy source, we’d be home free as a nation…

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