Rick's Cafe Americain

The results of a new poll indicate that most people who support President Bush would not if they knew the truth.

In their defense, it would be easier to accept bad news about Bush if Kerry were less tedious.

Hey, you sound like Karol!  “Kerry is tedious”.  “Rick Blaine is boring”. 

Reality is such a drag!

Oh, now you’re just being silly. Kerry is tedious. Bush has that whole “wingman” thing going for him, which turns him into a good-buddy-blank-canvas to project one’s own beliefs onto.

No matter what Kerry believes it is going to sound like “Do your homework and eat your vegetables.”

Yes, Kerry is tedious and Bush is a tabula rasa.  And yes, my “facts” and “logical conclusions” are more boring than Karol’s hysterical accusations and emotional appeals.

But is the average Republican voter really no better than a petulant pre-adolescent who idolizes his “cool” friend and follows him against the advice of his “boring” parents?

It’s not “do your homework and eat your vegetables,” it’s “If George W. Bush jumped off a bridge . . .?”

[I]s the average Republican voter really no better than a petulant pre-adolescent who idolizes his “cool” friend and follows him against the advice of his “boring” parents?

It’s a theory.

Oh, Ugarte, now you’re being as boring as Rick!

--Karol

Now, now boys—Karol is that rare Bush supporter that knows the truth, but doesn’t care...let’s call them ...Evil.

I don’t know...I saw what she posted about how she described why one should vote for Bush to undecideds.  If she believes that stuff, she falls into the head in the sand camp.  If she doesn’t believe it, then evil is not nearly strong enough of a word.

Apparently Dawn votes for the latter.

I LOVE coming onto this site and finding a whole conversation about me already in progress.  I mean, this is what it’s all about.  Rick, you are boring.  You considered a mundane, uninteresting story about ‘all in’ bracelets, and I quote: hi-freakin’-larious.  Listen, if you’ve got to believe that I’m stupid or ignorant, you can go ahead and do that (though all the things that you quote Bush as against, Kyoto, ICC, CTBT are all things I LOVE that he’s against).  You said it best in one of my comment sections: I could really give a shit what you think.  And, for the record, I never said that Kerry was tedious.  He doesn’t stand for anything and while that’s confusing, it’s been fun to watch.  You, though, remain nearly unreadable.  Other than your co-bloggers, does anyone read this site?

Also, you seem a little obsessed with me.  I mean, I’m great, but even I don’t think I’m that great.

And yeah, Ferrari, I’m worse than evil. Woooooo, be afraid.

Karol,

You’ve obviously spent too much time outside of New York.  Your sarcasm-meter is busted.

First off, the “mundane, uninteresting story” was “hi-freakin’-larious” (sarcasm!) because it was in response to my earlier post about how awful the all-in bracelet idea was.

Second, despite the *sarcastic* headline, the post was not about you.  It was about the survey, and what the results mean about Bush supporters at large.  I hardly thought for a moment that you would be among those who don’t know what Bush stands for.

Rather—and the reason that I bring you up so often on my blog—you fall in the much more fascinating and troubling camp of intelligent people who know there were no WMD’s, who know there was no Saddam-al Qaeda link, and who nonetheless support the Iraq war.  People who should be able to see how horribly Bush has bungled that invasion(right or wrong to begin with) and still insist he is the one you want dealing with Iran/North Korea, etc.  People who complain about being frightened by the lack of security in airports, but continue to say that Bush makes them feel safer.  I’m not obsessed with you, dear, just morbidly fascinated.

You call me boring and unreadable, and say you don’t give a shit what I think, yet you continue to read.  What you haven’t done in a long time, though, is provide any substantive responses to the many, many issues raised in posts on this site and in comments on yours by me and my co-bloggers concerning your boy’s fitness for the office of President.

And yes, other than my co-bloggers, um, you read this site.  And according to my stats tracker, there are about 30 visitors on at any given time during the week, and last week we averaged over 900 visitors per day.  In the five months we’ve been tracking stats on this site, we’ve averaged about 570 visitors per day, with a steady increase in traffic over time.  Although I’m not sure whether those numbers include bots, if they do about half of those visits are probably bots, so conservatively we currently get about 450 human visitors a day at this site.  Plus you.

But I don’t think any of us here writes for “traffic”.  We write for ourselves and—to a lesser extent—for the small communities we belong to (our friends, our co-workers, our fellow poker players/bloggers, etc.).  I also write for the dialogue, and since few people comment on our site, I used to enjoy that from you.  Lately, though, you haven’t been much with the substantive argument.

That hundreds of people including people from all over the world seem interested in what we have to say is merely a bonus.  The fact that our biggest identifiable referrer after Google searches is “sweetadultpics.com” is less so, but probably the inevitable result of Ugarte’s obsessive attempts to turn this into an Ashley Judd fansite.

hey karol, i read the site.

and even if i didn’t, that’s a pretty weak argument.  rick’s traffic has nothing to do with the merits of his arguments.  plenty of people go unappreciated even when they are right

and as rick himself said, you haven’t really made any substantive reponse to the point of this post--the PIPA study.  you might be fine with bush’s positions, but the study suggests that many of your co-supporters would not support him if they knew the truth.  if bush wins it will be because he is misleading people.  that’s not how democracy is supposed to work.

Well, you’re on my blogroll now and I really do read everyone that I put on it.  Previous to that, Dawn Summers will call me and say ‘oooooh did you see what they’re saying about you on Rick Blaine’s site?’ Ugarte manages to be amusing, though, of course, wholly wrong on most things, and if it wasn’t for him there would be no draw to your site at all for me.

Even though I’ve explained a million times, both here and on my site, the reasons I support Bush, you still blah blah blah that you don’t get it. As for appealing to people’s emotions, YOUR BOY is running on a ‘stronger America’.  Doesn’t that imply that Bush’s America is weaker?  Doesn’t that play to people’s fears?  What about his draft bullshit?  Or does it not matter because it’s a Democrat doing it?

Finally, I don’t believe you about your stats, sorry.  Truth Laid Bear has you at about 40 hits a day.  That sounds about right.  It’s not that hits are everything, just that if you were saying anything remotely interesting, you’d have a lot more.  Why not install Sitemeter and then not have to ‘figure out’ your stats?  It’ll be out in the open and everything, like mine.

Karol:  You must chill.

Karol, I’m not interested in getting into a pissing contest with you.  However, if you are interested in knowing how many people are viewing the site at any given time, that information is available at the bottom of the main page ("Guests").

As for TTLB, I have no idea where those numbers come from, since I haven’t had TTLB code or Sitemeter on this site for about 10 months.

Pearatty, I’m all chill, all the time.  I never raise my voice.  I rarely get angry/upset/mad, especially over politics.  And the two features I look for in other people are 1. funny and 2. chill.  Call me crazy to defend myself when obsessed fan Rick calls me stupid/a liar/whatever.  I wouldn’t start with me but since sanctamonious ass Rick can’t help himself, this is the result.

Karol, I am afraid, very afraid.

Karol: “You must chill. You must! “

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha