A story that makes me say; "eff it! This country is too far gone to save"

[maxrandb]

When "effing" Joe the "not a plumber and not even named Joe" the Plumber can raise $172,000 for his "congressional" campaign, this country has lost it's fucking mind.

I don't give a shit anymore. I know the asshat has about as much chance of being elected as Osama Bin Laden, but the absolute level of stupidity on display here makes my hair hurt.

Decent people are busting their asses and barely getting by, but there are enough dumb ass-pickles to provide this guy a 6 figure slush-fund.

Excuse me while I go drink heavily.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/221787-joe-the-plumber-gaining-ground-in-money-race-against-rep-kaptur

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, the congressional candidate known to most Americans as "Joe the Plumber," is gaining ground in the money race against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), the Democrat he will face in November.

Wurzelbacher raised about $172,000 between January and March, and finished the quarter with more than $80,000 in the bank.

[dkf]

1. Hey I am surprised anyone wants to donate to Mitt Romney.

[deutsey]

2. Strike another match, go start a new

It's all over now, Baby Blue

[MinneapolisMatt]

3. I completely agree.

And it's only going to get worse before it gets any better.

[virgogal]

4. Look at it this way---you could be living in Haiti or Zimbabwe or Syria.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. It's sad that's all we can compare it to. nt

[RZM]

18. Or

Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Greece, Burkina Faso, Paraguay, Mozambique, Malaysia, New Guinea, Mongolia, Bhutan, Azerbaijan, etc.

There are a lot of other places where the governments are less free and/or the standards of living are much lower.

You can compare the US to many different countries and life here still comes out looking decent.

All of this because some yahoo is running for Congress? Who cares?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

23. Yes, but we can't compare it to the successful countries of the world -

only to the countries that are in very bad shape.

[RZM]

24. That would be most countries

The world is a difficult place. And even the 'successful' countries have some serious issues.

And none of those successful countries have a diverse population of over 300 million. If you scale it to countries of comparable population/land area size (China, India, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Indonesia) - we're doing fairly well. Scale it down to Finland and Luxembourg and the comparisons pretty much break down.

And among those larger countries, let's not forget that the most successful among them had to be put in line some 67-odd years ago.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

25. That would work if this weren't an advanced, educated, wealthy nation

with alleged freedoms - unfortunately the wealth is concentrated among the top and the middle class and poor are having to bite the bullet. As a wealthy nation, it needs to be compared with wealthy nations, and it cannot be, because the lives of the middle class here don't compare with those of people of other

[kenny blankenship]

21. Or you could look at it another way- pretty soon we will be.

I don't blame anyone for getting out now, while you can.

America's trendline, for the majority of its citizens, is on a one way ticket to third world shithole status. That's the inescapable consequence of "Globalism", and Hope and Change apparently has neither the first fucking clue how to stop that, nor any such intentions.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Should have been around when a washed up B-movie actor won the presidency twice

By landslides.

I knew it was all over about 30 years ago.

Don

[Bigmack]

6. What you said... only more so! nt

[deutsey]

10. I put a sign up in my college dorm window

during the '84 election that I made. On it was a "Reagan/Bush" bumper sticker I found inside a mushroom cloud I drew around it along with this: "Who Needs a Future? Vote Reagan/Bush".

Little did I know...

[maxrandb]

14. Wish I could find it

but I had a document that had a picture of Reagan with the caption "Your President created Bin Laden", then a picture of Obama with the caption "My President killed him!"

[Fumesucker]

12. It's no mere coincidence that Reagan's last gig as an actor was as host of Death Valley Days.. n/t

[Nay]

26. Indeed. That's when I knew it was over. We tried to emigrate to Australia, but they stopped

taking immigrants at the time we were applying. Now, we're too old to go anywhere (although I was able to get Canadian citizenship thru my mom about 5 years ago and could move there tomorrow if I wanted to). I'd love to live in Canada, but I can't make my family want to move. Wish I could. They'd be better off there, but they don't see it that way -- too many relatives here that DIL would miss.

[d_r]

7. breaking out my visual aid

[Daniel537]

9. Its the beauty of America.

One is free to piss away their money in the most stupid shit imaginable.

[Justpat]

11. Just finished reading Charles Pierce's "Idiot America"

He totally agrees with you.

[baldguy]

13. If it helps, most of that came from Super PACs from outside the district.

[maxrandb]

15. I guess in a country where Snookie can make $1.5M per year

I shouldn't be surprised.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

16. Joe the Asshat is following the Palin Principle...

Speak stupid to the low hanging fruit, ask shamelessly for them to send money,
get elected for a lifetime of the best benefits available, write a book and retire
wealthy.

[roamer65]

17. No chance in hell against Kaptur.

She's in a heavily gerrymandered, highly Democratic district.

Mr Plumber should just fake a campaign and pocket the money...which I'm sure he will.

[RZM]

19. Sorry, but this type of headline really irks me

Joe the Plumber is free to run for Congress if he wants. And people are free to donate to him if they want. He's the Republican nominee, so he's going to get some money. That's just how it goes.

When he gets his ass handed to him by Kaptur in November (who, like the overhwelming majority of House members, is pretty much untouchable) will the country be worth saving again?

Are we entering a temporary, 6 and a half month period where the country isn't worth saving just because one dumbass is running for Congress?

[maxrandb]

20. Yes, when the "best" this country has to offer

is Joe the fake plumber, I think we have more problems than 6 months will cure.

You do understand that this is a candidate of a party that has a good chance of controlling Congress and the White House, don't you?

and I don't care that Kaptur will had his ass to him. That doesn't matter. He has a right to run, just like you or I do, but you can't escape the fact that a powerful political party put this joke forward.

[RZM]

22. Who the hell says he is 'the best?'

'The best' doesn't get it done in elections. If so, we would just now be wrapping up John Kerry's second term and looking forward to a bright new star named Barack Obama.

All Joe the Plumber did was win a primary election against an untouchable opponent. A reincarnated Reagan couldn't beat Kaptur.

BTW, you could actually spin Joe's primary victory in the other direction, even from the left. He's not a career politican - he's a normal, average person. He's quite a distance from the Romneys, McConnells, and Boehners of the world (not to mention the Kapturs and Kuciniches).

I actually think it's kind of a good thing that a normal guy is going to be the Republican nominee. While I'm not familiar with his opponents, I'll imagine they were a collection of upper middle class douchebag lawyers. I have no problem with a random dumbass actually getting a shot.

And there's no harm done to boot. He'll lose by a 2-1 margin.