Watch the game without sound, listen to the debate? Or watch the debate without sound, listen to the game?
Watch the game without sound, listen to the game.
Have a stupid cold and will be required to be an actual person most of the day tomorrow starting about 7 AM. So I am sedating myself heavily and going upstairs to bed before the debate. I'm counting on you guys to do good.
This is the debate where they'll finally talk about climate change, right?
My annual craving for candy corn arrived late this year, but it has hit hard.
When does this damn thing actually start? I went to TPM and CNN, and they were all "w00t, live blog!" but the streaming is all "within the debate hall!" Nowhere did they post the actual start time, as you might hope a news organization to do.
This is one of the few times I prefer to watch Fox during a political event.
Jeez. Not even CSPAN. What would it cost you people to provide informational captions?
However "patch.com" hooked me up. 9-10:30 Eastern. Available via streaming on CSPAN (and some others I'm sure).
This is the debate where they'll finally talk about climate change, right?
Mr. President, Governor Romney: Do you agree with those scientists that claim that that climate change caused by burning fossil fuels poses a threat to the US, or those that argue that 'global warming' is just a bogus theory used as an excuse by left wing scientists to destroy the American economy.
Oh, the fucking baseball is on tonight as well. Thank God George Will ruined baseball forever and there is no need to watch. But I guess I want the team from the city named for a foreigner to win.
The people calling in on C-Span are freaking me out.
Why am I even watching this? I know fuck all about foreign policy.
Why am I even watching this?
To witness the crushing of your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
And crazy C-Span-calling motherfuckers are flat-out crazy motherfuckers for sure.
Oh good! I was already feeling glum for a bunch of little whiny reasons (fighty child, alleged vacation day spent entirely on grading a lot of kind of crummy student papers, realized I had a nice big package of new clothes for me and Jane sent to an old address). A presidential debate will be JUST THE THING to fix me up.
15 I still remember a caller from over 10 years ago on Washington Journa,l or whatever that morning show is called, who sounded like she was 90 years old and said that Hilary Clinton was a registered lesbian in Arkansas. I remember thinking at that time that somewhere, in these vast United States of ours, an Alzheimer's ward was missing a patient.
No one cares about your stupid foosball, Stanski.
17: Detroit v Chicago??? It's a proxy war!!!
"Lynn University: Wold Performing Arts Center," according to CSPAN. Is Wold a place?
"The school first opened in 1962 as Marymount College, a women's junior college" ... "In 1974, the name of the school was formally changed to the College of Boca Raton" ... and "officially became Lynn University in 1991." (wikipedia)
That kind of rapid name-changing is just crazy.
Crap, my computer clock is five minutes fast. No wonder nothing interesting is happening yet.
24: Yeah, but at least none of the names are just two or three letters long.
Anyone know who this dude is that's sitting with the FL? He's a real close talker.
Here's my prediction:
ROMNEY: Mr. President, when you met with Benjamin Netanyahu, you failed to fellate him to completion.
OBAMA: I did too fellate him. We can go to the tape.
ROMNEY: Well maybe you did, but you wiped his creamy gobbets off your chin. That sends a signal to Iran -- a green light to invade Israel. As president, my foreign policy will be to proudly wear Netanyahu's critical ally-gravy on my chin, my nose, wherever.
More interesting factoids about Lynn University!
On July 1, 2006, Kevin M. Ross succeeded his father as president of the university. Donald E. Ross retired after 35 years in office. According to the chronicle of Higher Education,[4], he received a total compensation of $5,738,422 in his final year of service, the highest of any university president in the United States.
The people calling in on C-Span are freaking me out.
I love them. They are awesome. You can't know what's going on in the country without listening to them. (And even then, they watch CSPAN and call in, so you know they're an off-beat bunch already.)
For the last five minutes, CSPAN has been eerily silent, with an unmoving Bob Schieffer on screen, as the tinny voices of cable-news talking-heads echo faintly through the auditorium.
But about Trump's promised October Surprise??? What about that???
This is the debate where they'll finally talk about climate change, right?
Only in a roundabout, "what will you do to accelerate it as quickly as possible" sort of way.
Oy. Now Obama is doing that "I will stare at you as you speak" thing to Romney.
"a great deal of HOPE that there would be a CHANGE"
Romney: "We can't kill our way out of this mess."
"Lynn University: Wold Performing Arts Center," according to CSPAN. Is Wold a place?
All I know is it's an occult noise metal band from Saskatchewan. Is Lynn University in Saskatchewan?
Obama references the pro-American marches after attacks in Benghazi. Finally.
Is someone doing a blink-count? They both seem very blinky.
42 - Perhaps it moves between the Cotswolds and the Yorkshire Wolds on alternating years.
Romney's plan: "A path to get the Muslim world to reject extremism on its own."
I'm blinky too, but my roommate roasted a pumpkin and the apartment is saturated with pumpkin smoke.
Romney wants to build civil society and gender equality in the Muslim world?
Bave, why are they debating in your apartment?
O on Romney: "Foreign policy of the 1980s, social policy of the 1950s, and economic policy of 1930s."
51 to 49. I don't think you live in Mali, Bave.
That's the thing. I loaded the C-span website and there they were, I assume in a pumpkin-smoke-free atmosphere.
I like feisty, but O is sounding petulant and making R sound statesmanlike by comparison.
Obama ended well, but he really oughtn't to have had that extra chance to talk--wasted his earlier chance with a wrong-footed attack on Romney.
Now to Syria!
Huh. I thought the "Don't attack me for lying. That's not leadership" seemed pathetic.
Jesus fucking Christ. Let's go Detroit Tigers.
Syria is Iran's route to the sea? Romney, I, uh, don't get that.
60: Thanks for verifying that he said that. I thought I was going crazy.
Only give arms to insurgents who will have responsible parties.
We organize the Friends of Syria charity luncheon. May I put you down for a raffle ticket?
Maybe the Syrian ports are nicer? It's true that the coast in Southern Iran is not very inhabited. Maybe there's not much infrastructure.
Somebody told Romney that, and there's probably a weird rationale.
Will anyone mention "the route to the sea" thing during the debate? That was a full blown gaffe.
Oh, jeez, way to sound like you can just overthrow Assad and replace him with a stooge. That shit has consequences, Mitt.
The people who are most likely to take over Syria if Assad's government falls are Sunni Islamists, right? And Romney wants to arm them?
The Persian Gulf is just a Gulf. The Gulf of Oman too. But the Med, that's a Sea.
68 - It worked great in Afghanistan!
The "route to the sea" thing is probably a garbled reference to the Suez. It's still stupid.
The "route to the sea" thing is probably a garbled reference to the Suez. It's still stupid.
The "route to the sea" thing is probably a garbled reference to the Suez. It's still stupid.
I'm willing to be dictator of Syria if anybody wants.
God, Mitt looks so smarmy when he hears a point he thinks he can jump on.
"The idea of him crushing his people was not something that we could possibly support." :{
Oh, now you're going to take Ahmadinezad's insults seriously? C'mon, Mitt.
How is Obama doing? So far, good debate results have correlated with good baseball results, and bad baseball results with bad debate results. So I'm assuming this debate is incredibly terrible and we've now lost the election.
It's just a touchdown, Halford! The Rams could come back!
What might happen if America were dispensed with?
The country's major port of entry is Bandar-Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz.
However! Freight rail, however, kinda sucks from the depopulated (because hella desert) South to the populated North. That's largely because of sanctions.
14,400 Google Results for: "Romney 'Syria is Iran's route to the sea'"
Heh. Indeed.
Dammit, Obama, this is a foreign policy debate. Stop talking about jobs.
85: They don't actually disagree about much in foreign policy. Much better to talk about domestic.
At least Obama is specifying that Romney's "state" was Massachusetts. It's been bugging me that Romney has been allowed to get away with never mentioning the name of his state.
Yeeorg. I was BORED with the domestic policy squabbling. And here we are.
O maybe just missed a good opportunity to throw "government doesn't create jobs" at R as he talked about how many jobs he's going to create?
I thought his state was gaseous.
Romney is a foreign policy lightweight. By making it domestic, Obama isn't playing to his relative strength.
Also, I'm sick and tired of the same tired topics.
Romney talking about education sounds like a Sunday School teacher talking to 6 year-olds.
But why don't they cut to the chase and whip out their cocks? Bob brought a ruler.
San Francisco 7 St. Louis 0 after 3. Go Giants.
Giants! Dunno what Halford is on about. This is a good game so far.
Minimum differentiation.
Also the lamest bullshit from Romney. so sick of these questions, claims, and counterclaims. Just bored with the rehearsed crapola. Mitt is so full of shit.
OK, now I'm watching. See, this is where Obama should have practiced law for a while. He could have pulled out a copy of Romney's budget from is own website and walked him through it, proving that it's bullshit.
Romney sounds terrible here to me, but what do I know.
At least we now know which side of the Great Navy debate Romney is on (team Crooked Timber ftw!).
The tuition thing really pisses me off. Fees--and I'm not talking about room and board--are much higher at U Mass schools than tuition. A blog tells me that U Mass Lowell's tuition was $1,454 per year. Other fees were $9,000.
What the fucking fuck why is Shearer a Giants fan?
Actually, why am I mad about that, you guys have the scientific racist fan base locked up.
Audience is cracking up at the "We also have fewer bayonets than in 1916" line from Obama.
Okay, Obama destroyed that line of bullshit and linked Romney to a horrible movie.
The "we have ships that go underwater" thing seems riskily condescending/bad-sportish. I hate that I'm worried about these minutiae of image but they seem to matter.
Jesus Christ. Bob Schieffer has now asked the candidates to make a major policy declaration: "Is an attack on Israel an attack on the United States?" Jesus, Schieffer should know what that would mean to say out loud and in public without preparation.
Obama was totally condescending. It was awesome.
"First of all, I want to underscore the same point the President made."
I just can't think that Mitt understands what it is like to work with the asshole leaders around the world.
Also, how the fuck do you indite Ahmadinezad under the Genocide Convention?
108: no joke, that was freaking awful.
Regarding Iranian sanctions: we'll do the things that Obama does, and then be meaner. And then doubling down on the Bushite diplomatic doctrine of "never talk to your opponents."
111: You don't. It was bullshit.
Obama now making exactly these points.
FUCK YES. Perfect regarding American leadership and sanctions.
WTF genocide? Also you know Reagan loving Republicans should shut the fuck up about apartheid.
Apparently holocaust denialism = genocide?
109: it was, to us. We don't matter, because we're not a couple of nattering idiots in states that, by various accidents of history, might actually affect the result, and who somehow are still making up their minds about who to vote for.
good lord romney is such a fucking cunt
Now we're refreshing the old 2004 attack of Obama's being willing to meet with our enemies = weakness.
Dammit. I have the baseball game on and a George "M" Allen ad just came on. Is there no escape?
Romney's vision of leadership is Bush's vision of leadership. STRONG STRONG NEVER BACK DOWN.
nothing governor romney said is true
Obama going for it here.
The only sanctions we do are crippling sanctions, which show strength.
126: Our sanctions are the sanctioniest.
We'll always be four years closer to a nuclear Iran, Mittens.
"America has not dictated to other nations; America has freed other nations from dictatorship!"
Dickwad.
The CNN independents don't like Romney this time.
Yeah, I think Obama is killing it.
130 is so true.
Obama is just taking the piss at this point --- i didn't take donors
(our bombers are on the way? wtf)
Okay, here I agree with Mitt: "Let's not deal in [really stupid-ass] hypotheticals."
Fucking Bob Schieffer. These questions are so stupid.
Hey! Good answer, Mitt! That was a really stupid question.
Maybe only let women moderate the debates from now on?
Romney tells Schiffer to stop with the stupid hypothetical!
140: We must know the relative sizes of other things they have. Bob, the ruler please!
Romney's flag pin appears to have a spot of dirt on it.
Can Bob Schieffer's questions be taken out and shot?
Yeah-Schieffer and Lehrer have both been SO poor.
Is Obama going to start saying Tally-bahn? I hate that.
Could you imagine any of the other available Republican candidates doing even near as well as Romney is doing now? He's getting swatted and looking desperate, but Bachman? Santorum?
When do we get to the part about global warming?
"Nation-building here at home" as a segue is getting a little TIRED, Obama.
Is he really looking desperate? I'm not watching it anymore.
153 Never. But a single kudo for Mittens for bringing up Latin America.
I hate how all the topics of discussion here are just dripping with "serious"-ness. Strength! Bombs! War! Threats! Terror! Jesus christ, grow up, you assholes.
156.--Sure, the moderate Mormon, funded almost entirely by his father, spoke Mandarin during a Republican primary debate, and polled at 1%.
He'd probably do ok debating Obama.
156: Oh, well then Ike! He'd be great!
Did he really just say "Obama Bin Laden"? Also "is it time to divorce Pakistan"? What the hell.
I feel like Romney is just getting trounced here.
kudo for Mittens for bringing up Latin America
I was struck by that as well. Didn't say much of anything about it, but still.
Bob Schieffer's commentary this weekend regarding blackberry shame was quite a bit more insightful than his moderation of this debate.
Oh dear. Lapel pin arms race?
I'm not actually watching the debate, but my basic indicator is whether Josh Marshall is gloating or rationalizing, and right now he's gloating, so I figure it must be going OK.
A Republican is going to enable Muslim moderation. The party that freaked the fuck out about a mosque in the financial district.
Like Mittens gives a shit about talks between Palestinians and Israel. We all heard the tape.
Apparently the reason to treat women with respect and dignity is that nations that do so succeed.
It is really hard to half-heartedly listen and do the crossword at the same time.
The foreign policy debate always sucks because American foreign policy is so consistently and bipartisanly shitty. It's the one time things would really be improved by having the Libertarian candidate on the stage.
I thought Mitt started pretty strong, even on defending his experience, and Obama was a little shaky and surprised by some of his lines. And then Obama broke him.
Maybe Mitt Romney usually goes to bed by 9 pm.
Day one, Mitt will declare war on China.
I call embargo on phrase "Day one"
177. Damn I forgot about the Caspian Sea. Baku or bust.
I guess Halford will vote for Romney. Guy seems really into intellectual property rights.
Uh oh he's making the play for my vote again.
Valves! NO COUNTERFEIT VALVES.
Some valves. Oh, great story! Snap!
I'm not watching the debate so I ask from ignorance, but the difference between the Guardian's take and that of you guys/Marshall/Sullivan is stark. What are they seeing?
Wow, fully domesticated this discussion of China.
China so could be our gf if she'd just learn to beehave
Confidential to Obama: explain why a trade war with China is a terrible idea.
What's the Guardian's coverage like?
You're a son of something but it ain't Detroit.
The Guardian live-blog seems to judge this as another sleepy Obama night.
"I would do nothing to hurt the US auto industry."
BLOOMFIELD HILLS AIN'T NO DETROIT.
He doth protest too much. "As if I would EVER want to liquidate the industry"
I want to hear more about how great America is.
204: At universities, no less!
Scary thought: what if China got nuclear weapons.
Sullivan seems to agree that Obama is doing nicely.
14:26 is somewhat shameful for a Tuesday. I blame politicians.
Fucking irritating. Why won't B.S. get them to talk about China?
Mitt Romney met someone in Appleton, Wisconsin.
I watched about 30 seconds. Romney was talking about cars and Detroit.
Mitt laughing at Obama's "way too many tv commercials" line: creeeeeepy.
Honestly, no more closing statements.
Uniformly awful.
213: that wasn't Schieffer?
211: Was it Cousin Larry?
Obama's prepared closing speech is clearly intended to hammer on the domestic-policy themes.
213: that wasn't Schieffer?
I think not.
Heading towards Greece. That's perilously close to Iran's road to the sea!
Hope of the earth! Torch of freedom!
Bidding for the senior citizen vote.
What is this new emphasis of Romney's on "higher take-home pay"? Does that mean reducing withholding? Because I haven't heard anything about how he proposes to get me a raise.
WE ARE THE HOPE OF THE EARTH. Except for the part about destroying the earth.
I definitely picked the right night to perform ritual TiVo maintenance.
224: have you read the pertinent portions of the fucking archives?
224: I picked the right night to update my macports tree.
Weird moment: Romney's clan swarms out, overwhelming Michelle and Barack, who go over and introduce themselves. Romney just wants them to GO AWAY.
Romney sounds terrible here to me, but what do I know.
Nothing they say matters, Halford.
" 'Greatest Generation,' my ass. Are they really considering all the generations? Maybe there are some generations from the Iron Age that could compete. And what makes them so great anyway? Because they were poor and hated Nazis? Who doesn't fucking hate Nazis?!"
Barbara Weston in August: Osage County.
226: That actually sounds less fun than watching the debate.
224, 226: I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
Ari Fleischer says this debate won`t change a thing. I`ve never seen a spinner concede defeat so obviously.
228: Some of what they say could be counterproductive.
230: I dunno, it wasn't bad. The terminal menu bar kept displaying "clang" as things built, which was kind of rhythmic and soothing.
224, 226: We're all adults here, guys. You don't have to use all these coy euphemisms.
I wasn't watching when it was said, but doesn't Romney's "We can't kill our way out of this mess" sound just like what the weak guy in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie would say, right before Arnold says "YES WE CAAAN."
I love baseball's capacity for producing obscure and irrelevant statistical facts. But why aren't they telling us how many pitchers won an all-star game, won a game 7, and threw to first more than 10 times in a two-year period with runners on first and third in the first three innings of a game where no team led by more than 3 runs?
Arg. On FB a nephew said (I paraphrase), I'm voting for Obama but I can't respect all those ignorant blacks who are voting for him just because he is black. It is better if they don't vote than that they cast an "ignorant" vote.
I noted that that community has supported Democrats (recently) for very good reasons. D is a good shorthand for their positions. The majority of them voted for the Dems in 2004 too. And that guy was WHITE.
CBS scores it 53 to 23 in favor of Obama. Talking head calls it a reverse of the first debate.
FWIW Der Spiegel has 'Obama Dominant, Romney in der Defensive'. Their initial take on the second debate was that it was a tie, soon changed to a narrow Obama win.
I declare: that was godawfully boring. I haven't read the thread. I don't mean you all.
Many of the CSPAN call-in people allow as how Romney seemed very presidential, and it's time for a change.
"Romney dagegen hätte vor dem Zugriff zunächst Pakistan um Erlaubnis bitten wollen, um den al-Qaida-Führer dort zu exekutieren. Er jedoch, so Obama, habe niemanden um Erlaubnis gefragt, sondern gehandelt."
Go Obama?
I skipped the debate but am enjoying the Al Jazeera International analysis. They're giving due attention to how similar the basic messages are, but also replayed the Battleship line, which I thought was very well delivered.
CNN scores it 48-40 Obama.
246
CNN scores it 48-40 Obama.
And I score it 9-0 San Francisco.
My own personal low-information voter found the debate very boring, but said that both O and R seemed more intelligent than W, McCain or God help us Palin, which pleased and surprised her.
Let's go Tigers. Until the world series is over, I'm changing my handle to "Roberto Tigre." Never let it be said that I don't know how to win.
I blame Bobby Valentine for everything bad since Nixon died Obama's fair-to-middlin' performance.
"We can't kill our way out of this mess
Romney said that? Seems kind of un-American.
I missed the debate because I was up late working on a last minute/effectively overdue paper for work which I COULD EASILY HAVE DONE THIS WEEKEND IN A MUCH MORE PLEASURABLE AND THOUGHTFUL MANNER THAT WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN ME IN ALL KINDS OF TROUBLE WITH MY BOSS AND MADE ME MISERABLE. Why do I do this to myself?
254.last: Because the president told you to.
Don't ask me, I'm going to be in work hell tomorrow because I spent today arguing about Presidential speeches.
249: Possessive and condescending? You're giving us a run for our money, reprobatewise.
256: Just account for it in six minute increments.
The comments are even conveniently timestamped in your own time zone.
Did they actually disagree with each other on anything or was it just a pose-off? Was Romney smart enough to avoid threatening to invade anybody?
250 As a paleo Tigre I presume you will be subsisting on chopped raw beef soaked in seasoned spicy butter.
Hmmm. That butter does look pretty sweet.
264: Seriously? He's said it so many times that despite the fact that it makes no sense it's obvious he means something by it? What about, if not calling it a lie, calling him profoundly dumb and ignorant of the existence of maps?
Welcome to the world of fact-checking.
My guess is that Romney's language is intended to evoke memories of Great Game-like geopolitical machinations - cf. Russia's Path to the Sea. Russia obviously already had coastlines, but for North Atlantic diplomacy purposes sea access was only relevant if it meant year-round access to western Europe. Iran is a new enemy at a Great Game scale, so we need Great Game language to defeat it.
This doesn't make the Romney references factual or not stupid, or not insane, but I don't think they're meant to be literally correct. As we've discussed in earlier threads, fact-checkers have problems not only with the concept of fact but also with simile, metaphor, analogy, and symbolism. So they're forced by their own narrow fact-checking frameworks into mealy-mouthed bullshit articles where Pinocchio or pants-on-fire declarations are their only goal.
Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.
doesn't Romney's "We can't kill our way out of this mess" sound just like what the weak guy in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie would say, right before Arnold says "YES WE CAAAN."
The world is ready for Arnie to play Bob the Builder.
"HEY, BENNETT. REMEMBER WHEN I TOLD YOU I'D HAVE YOUR EXTENSION AND PATIO FINISHED BY SEPTEMBER AT THE LATEST? I LIED."
40: Romney: "We can't kill our way out of this mess."
"[M]ess" = climate change?
Today's FoxNews agenda:
1) Obama is mean and petty and non-presidential. Our guy is white.
2) Marines *do* use bayonets. And the military still has horses
But I really want to see if they double down on the indict Ahmadinejad = Iran solved! ploy.
I wonder if Romney alerted his neocon FP advisers that they were all going under the bus last night? Probably, "Don't worry, guys, it's just words to fool the goobers."
275.2: Because for all I know we may have more horses and bayonets now than 2016. And that will be very important to find out and discuss.
We use the horses for neigh-tion building.
I do wish Stanley would rein in that punning impulse. I groan whinny writes those things.
Shape of Iran: views differ.
I love the way the factcheck cites a Globe report citing a Jerusalem Post report citing a Torygraph report on the "Iranian army base in Syria" claim.
You're my main man Stanley.
But I refuse to be cheered by you jokers because per Charles Pierce:
Tonight, the existential absurdity of having Willard Romney, a complete creature of the financial elite, at even money* to be elected president of the United States a mere four years after that same elite burned down the world economy and looted what was leftAnd that state of affairs remains.
*And don't be bringing any of that Nate Silver shit. The fact that it is even within shouting distance is a sin.
Pierce called this election for Romney back in the spring. He may be right, but more to the point he's a consistently cynical old pessimist (which is why I love him).
But I refuse to be cheered by you jokers
Wither your sense of humor? I bridle at the implication that you can muzzle us.
283: OK, that does it, everybody out of the pool it's a hard rain that's gonna fall.
281,282:I the most cynical nihilist still call it for Obama, even though Romney has momentum and a slight national lead. 70-30, better than Silver.
a) It's all about Ohio. Enough other states can't switch to make Ohio non-essential to Romney
b) Apparently Obama has the better ground game and GOTV, although turnout is more difficult and necessary for Obama.
c) Kim Ki-Duk won at Venice? "the first South Korean film to win a major international award."
KKD is ok, but not that good, and there have been and are many better in South Korea over the last two decades. This is a shock. Hong Sang-soo my current rave.
I suspect the "route to the sea" thing is related to the "smallest navy since xxxx" line. Together they make it sound like Obama has gutted our ability to fight Iran? Because that would happen on the Mediterranean?
If you learn foreign policy on Civ II, it makes sense. Also, you can totally get away with using nukes so long as you have enough guys ready to clean up the pollution.
Because that would happen on the Mediterranean?
The last time the Iranians fought a significant naval engagement in the Mediterranean was the Battle of Salamis. True, much of the actual fighting was done by Syrians, so maybe that's what he's getting at. But, whatever, it was still two and a half millennia ago.
Deli meats have only become more important since then.
Mitt Romney is in favor of a return to salami battles. Allowing fish in battles is ruining it for everyone.
It's not a region that will have a good reaction to weaponized pork.
Mildly related fact: the first line of the marching song of the French Foreign Legion translates as "Look, here's a sausage".
for all I know we may have more horses and bayonets now than 2016.
The US military almost certainly does have more bayonets now than in 1916. The US army was only 100,000 strong in 1916, it's a lot bigger now, and AFAIK they still get issued bayonets.
It also has more zeppelins now than it did in 1916. Progress!
The only salami I've ever had is all beef.
A Republican is going to enable Muslim moderation.
I read this, for just long enough to smile, as a suggestion that the Republicans were advocating a Muslim moderator for some future debate.
Even if you want to keep kosher, you can still put in some salt and spices with the beef.
295.last: Blimps, not zeppelins. Dirigibles are out of fashion, sadly. We're left with glorified balloons.
We're left with glorified balloons.
You should have paid enough to get somebody reputable.
294: I hadn't expected quite so much discussion of Vietnam in the Foreign Legion sausage song. The spiteful mockery of the Belgians surprises me less, I suppose.
299 is sadly accurate.
301: only one mention of Vietnam - Tuyen Quang. Or are there other verses somewhere?
295: and AFAIK they still get issued bayonets.
I think just the Marines get them.
And the military still has horses
Today I ride with special forces on those wily Afghan horses / Dostum's Northern Alliance give their thanks / No matter defeat or victory, in battle it occurs to me / That we may see a swelling in our ranks
But I refuse to be cheered by you jokers because per Charles Pierce:
Roger Ebert expresses similar sentiments
A depression has descended upon me. I look at the blank screen, and those are the words that come into my mind. I do not believe for a second that Mitt Romney will win the election. I do believe that at this moment he is tied, 50-50, in various national polls. Many of my fellow Americans have at least temporarily disappointed me.
...
After reversing himself on the central issues of the campaign, Romney's standing went up in the polls. How? Why? Were the members of the electorate paying absolutely no attention to the campaign? Were they responding only to the general opinion that Romney "won" the debate? Is winning, in the pro football truism, now the only thing?
Au Tonkin, la Légion immortelle/À Tuyen-Quang illustra notre drapeau
Of course this is basically the same place mentioned twice but spelled differently. But it still constitutes quite an elaborate discussion in a song that's otherwise largely made up of "haha the belgians, sausage power sausage power, we are sly, we will die, sausage power"
Oooh, a Le Boudin thread.
The last time I went to France, I was sitting next to a 20 year old American who was off to join the Foreign Legion, which seemed unusually romantic. He didn't speak a word of French. I wonder what happened to him -- I think maybe it costs you your US citizenship?
Tuyen-Quang was one of the two great heroic stands of the Legion, along with that place in Mexico.
Roberto Tigre
By the way, I should thank you for your work yesterday. I don't know how productive that argument was, but I did appreciate the various links.
306: The trope of join-the-French-Foreign-Legion-when-your-gal-throws-you-over was still present enough when I was little for me to be familiar with it. (Why? Merrie Melodies, I guess?) In any event, once in France I walked by a FFL enlistment office (somewhere in the south, maybe Orange?) and it was so very seriously sketch -- on a par with a sell-your-plasma type joint in El Paso.
Tuyen-Quang was one of the two great heroic stands of the Legion, along with that place in Mexico.
Camerone.
And I'd argue the case for Dien Bien Phu as well, to be honest, though the Legion is understandably less keen to remember it.
Yes, all I knew about the FFL until I went hunting for the Boudin song earlier today was Beau Geste run-off.
An Internet search reveals a surprising number of Yahoo Answers from Americans about joining the FFL.
The trope of join-the-French-Foreign-Legion-when-your-gal-throws-you-over was still present enough when I was little for me to be familiar with it.
Likewise, decades later, when I was little.
There's a good book called "Legionnaire" by an UMC Brit called Simon Murray who did just that and ended up in Algeria before and during the Generals' Revolt.
306: The trope of join-the-French-Foreign-Legion-when-your-gal-throws-you-over was still present enough when I was little for me to be familiar with it. (Why? Merrie Melodies, I guess?)
Crock, maybe?
Surely the dirty hive mind can come up with a better caption for this.
She was raised Episcopalian; only converted to marry Mitt.
"This finger is going all the way up Iran's route to the sea."
"This pipeline contains only domestic oil."
"Debate or not, we still have our Monday routine."
"Cowboys are my weakness."
I've just heard that a couple weeks ago. good song.
And I'd argue the case for Dien Bien Phu as well, to be honest, though the Legion is understandably less keen to remember it.
Alamo, Kosovo, Gettysburg... though perhaps people whose chosen identity is "imperialist bastards" rather than "motherland patriots" aren't as keen on memorializing defeats.
Camerone was a defeat for the Foreign Legion, similar to the Alamo except that the Legionnaires were more courageous.
But the Alamo and Camerone were blips in an otherwise glorious trend. DBP was part of the downfall.
Same as the British - we quite like Dunkirk, but that's because we ended up winning.
Well, the war being fought in Camerone was a total loser as well for La France, but the point's taken.
Also DBP didn't produce an awesome prosthetic wooden hand that the Legion could march around with.
Roberto you should totally bring a wooden hand to your next Cinco de Mayo party and see if anyone gets it.
I was just about to mention the wooden hand. Very odd indeed.