I DON'T KNOW IF HE'S A NEO-CON

but Niall Ferguson sure writes like one. Ferguson agrees with Irving Kristol about the need for America to become and stay a truly Imperial Power with the responsibility for ordering around the entire world. In this Newsweek essay, he laments that our economic situation may curtail our imperial ambitions.

STUCK IN THE PAST

Like other radio conservatives, Mark Levin is still living in the past. Today, he tried replying to Chris Matthew's question:

MATTHEWS: That`s the bragging point of the Republican Party for the last -- I asked you to name one thing they`ve done for this country in 15 to 20 years.

All Levin could do is tell the usual GOP lies about the greatness of St. Ronnie.

MARK LEVIN GETS EXPLICIT

UPDATE: His remarks start at the 16:10 mark of the audio clip.

Just now, Mark Levin said that to win the war on terror, we need "massive brutality" and said that 50 years ago, the home town of the crotch bomber would have been flattened. Levin is also one of the invited speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference for 2010.

GRANDPA McWAR IS DOING IT WRONG

I've heard one of his radio ads and he's trying to convince us that he cares about the people of Arizona. If he cares so much, why has he NEVER used his influence to earmark Federal money for projects that will help Arizonans?

YEAH, WE KNEW HE WAS A CLOWN AND A TOKEN

But will the "liberal media" swarm over this story?

Steele to GOP critics: "Get a life" or "fire me"
Updated 2:29 p.m.
By Philip Rucker
WaPo

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele lashed out at critics Thursday after some prominent Republicans reportedly questioned his leadership of the party and accused Steele of focusing more on his own image than on rebuilding the GOP.

"I tell them to get a life," Steele told ABC News Radio in an interview Thursday. "I'm looking them in the eye and say, 'I've had enough of it. If you don't want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way.'"

HOW THE "INVISIBLE HAND" MAY WORK

From HuffPo, I found a link to this interesting article about intelligent group behavior based upon extremely simply individual behavior: Swarm Theory. This seems to be a theory of how something like Adam Smith's "invisible hand" can appear to function in various contexts:

Where this intelligence comes from raises a fundamental question in nature: How do the simple actions of individuals add up to the complex behavior of a group? How do hundreds of honeybees make a critical decision about their hive if many of them disagree? What enables a school of herring to coordinate its movements so precisely it can change direction in a flash, like a single, silvery organism?

THE RESPONSE TO THE CROTCH BOMBER

(h/t HuffPo)

National Security Advisor James Jones gave an interview to USA Today and I was impressed by his serious, non-ideological demeanor and this statement:

"We know what happened, we know what didn't happen, and we know how to fix it," Jones, a retired four-star Marine general, said in an interview in his West Wing office. "That should be an encouraging aspect. We don't have to reinvent anything to make sure it doesn't happen again."

I WILL BE SO PISSED IF THEY PULL THIS OFF

(h/t John Amato)

I've noted before that Pres. Obama and the Democrats seemed to have missed the significance of the public's disapproval of large corporations, especially the banksters, because they haven't done much to harness that disapproval to support liberal economic policies. In the meantime, we've seen the rise of the Baggers, inspired in part by how the banksters were coddled. With a little libertarian-inspired hocus-pocus, the GOP could take over the Baggers by cleverly blaming the failures of the banksters on the government, something the radio gasbags have been doing for months and months (see here and here for rebuttals)

There's still a chance that we can get some of the disenchanted back into the fold IF there's serious reform of the financial industry.

HANNITY CAN'T STOP LYING ABOUT 2009

I noted before that Hannity has been claiming that 2009 is one of the coldest years on record and MediaMatters found that he even claimed it is the coldest year on record.

I REMEMBER THE SHOE BOMBER BUT NOT THESE TWO INCIDENTS

So, there are at least 3 terrorist attacks on America during the Bush years AFTER 9-11 and we still don't know who was behind the anthrax attacks. From MediaMatters:

2002 attack against El Al ticket counter at LAX. In July 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet opened fire at an El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, killing two people and wounding four others before being shot dead. A 2004 Justice Department report stated that Hadayet's case had been "officially designated as an act of international terrorism."

2006 UNC SUV attack. In March 2006, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV into an area of campus, striking nine pedestrians. According to reports, Taheri-azar said he acted because he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world." Taheri-azar also reportedly stated in a letter: "I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree."

I WAS GETTING A LITTLE WORRIED ABOUT...

(h/t Atrios)

what seemed to be a rash of retirements by Democratic office holders but it turns out that those reports were just another instance of our "liberal media" running with a GOP meme. Steve Benen corrects the record:

So, to review, Republican retirements outnumber Democratic retirements in the House, in the Senate, and among governors. The preferred Republican/media meme of the day doesn't match up well against reality.

BECK'S KRAZY IS SPREADING

Today, a female caller to Hannity's show came up with a truly Beckian explanation for the sudden retirements of prominent Democratic politicians. In her view, this is all part of a plot by Pres. Obama to install communists like Mark Lloyd and Van Jones in their places. Hannity agreed with her.

MAYBE WE SHOULD TRY RUYKEYSER'S SYSTEM

The late Louis Ruykeyser used to host Wall$treet Week and had panels of analysts on his show to discuss economic issues. I recall that there was a segment which compared the predictions of the analysts to reality and this is something we need in political shows, as some people have noted.

THE EARLY BENEFITS

The wingers are pushing a new meme about the health care reform - the taxes begin on Day One but the benefits don't start until 2014. MediaMatters found two lists of benefits that start before then:

According to a document released by Senate Democrats summarizing the "Immediate Benefits" of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the bill included numerous benefits that would "be available in the first year after enactment" of the bill. Indeed, Washington Post writer Ezra Klein published a list of benefits that the Senate bill would provide "before 2014."

ANOTHER NARRATIVE CONTRADICTION

Conservatives argue that liberals want to make everyone the same by forced redistribution of almost anything, including school grades. One "scenario" I've heard is taking points from "A" students to give to "F" students in order to make sure everyone is happy. You would think that they would recognize that there are in fact "educated classes" but you would be wrong.

In this NYT op-ed, David Brooks contrasts the Baggers with the Educated and Beck & Levin can't stand it:

Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year.

The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting.

The story is the same in foreign affairs. The educated class is internationalist, so isolationist sentiment is now at an all-time high, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The educated class believes in multilateral action, so the number of Americans who believe we should “go our own way” has risen sharply.

A year ago, the Obama supporters were the passionate ones. Now the tea party brigades have all the intensity.

NOW I LIKE THIS MOVE EVEN MORE...

I originally thought that Pelosi and Reid were avoiding a formal conference because the GOP really has nothing constructive to offer. It's also a way to avoid more GOP obstructionism:

January 5, 2010

Obama, House Dems finalize decision to bypass formal health care conference

Posted: January 5th, 2010 10:26 PM ET

From CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh

In order to hold a formal conference, conferees – members of the House and Senate – must be appointed by both bodies, with resolutions passed by both the Senate and the House. Democratic leadership aides argue that getting those resolutions passed could delay and even derail Democratic efforts, because Republicans would be allowed to offer amendments and hold lengthy debates on the resolutions to appoint conferees.

Instead, White House, House and Senate Democratic leaders and their key committee chairmen will informally meet to find compromise between the two health care bills.

WINGNUT VS. WINGNUT

Yesterday in response to a caller, Hannity said Ron Paul was a racist because Paul thinks Israel is illegally occupying Arab territory (it is). I think Paul is popular among the Baggers, so this could hurt Hannity.

Also yesterday. Glenn Beck said that the birthers were nuts and that didn't sit well with the World Nut Daily crowd.

Let's hope for a lot more fracturing in Wingnut World.

BECK'S "BEING THERE" ECONOMICS

The movie Being There was about how a rich man's gardener leapt to the national stage based a series of misunderstandings. People interpret his simple-minded statements as profundities and here's one example:

President "Bobby": Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
[Long pause]
Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
President "Bobby": In the garden.
Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
President "Bobby": Spring and summer.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
President "Bobby": Then fall and winter.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we're upset by the seasons of our economy.
Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
President "Bobby": Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I've heard in a very, very long time.
[Benjamin Rand applauds]
President "Bobby": I admire your good, solid sense. That's precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.

Today Beck expressed one of the cruelest economic thoughts I've heard so far from a wingnut - we should allow another Great Depression, this time without any of the New Deal programs. Beck thinks we have to go through an economic hard "winter" before we can prosper again. Here's the segment from the transcript:

Kondratieff was a guy who was the economic advisor for Stalin. There's something called the Kondratieff Wave in economics and basically it is that, you know, there are seasons to everything. There is the winter season that we're in now and it seems like it will never end. And then you hear green shoots. You've heard those phrases before, green shoots. That comes from the Kondratieff Wave. The advisor of Stalin. Economy said there would be green shoots and that would show that spring would come. And in spring you would think that we were new and we were refreshed and we were revived, and the economy would start to boom again and people would say, oh, my gosh, I've got another idea. And then summer would set in. And summer would go on for a very long time where it would be just good times and people would begin to think that it would never end. But then autumn, and autumn would set in and you would start to see the season change and you would notice that the leaves are starting to turn and you would think, my gosh, the plants are starting to die and the trees are starting to lose their leaves. If you don't understand the cycle, you would do everything you could to bring those plants into a greenhouse. But those plants will go to sleep anyway, and the more you try to stimulate the growth in those trees, the better chance you have of killing the forest. The leaves all fall down and then you hit winter. And in that winter, that is a season of renewal.

RINOS ARE LIKE ALCOHOLICS???

The sub-title of RNC chairman Steele's book seems to directly imply that:

"A 12-STEP PROGRAM FOR DEFEATING THE OBAMA AGENDA."

I'VE WRITTEN THIS BEFORE...

maybe not in these exact words, but Fundies are Fools. Here's a glimpse into the tiny mind of one of them:

Don McLeroy is a balding, paunchy man with a thick broom-handle mustache who lives in a rambling two-story brick home in a suburb near Bryan, Texas. When he greeted me at the door one evening last October, he was clutching a thin paperback with the skeleton of a seahorse on its cover, a primer on natural selection penned by famed evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr.

“The secular humanists may argue that we are a secular nation,” McLeroy said, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis. “But we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principals. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.”

Here's the truth about 10 of those last 20 years:

Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 2, 2010

The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 -- and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.

Here's a graphic representation:

YES, THERE REALLY WERE THE "GOOD OLD DAYS"

It was when the wingnuts were still on the margin in American society and could not pollute the world of ideas. From The Liberal Imagination, page iv, (1950) by Lionel Trilling:

"In the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition. For it is the plain fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation. This does not mean, of course, that there is no impulse to conservatism or to reaction. Such impulses are certainly very strong, perhaps even stronger than most of us know. But the conservative impulse and the reactionary impulse do not, with some isolated and some ecclesiastical exceptions, express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas."

I'M SURE WE'LL HEAR A LOT MORE ABOUT THIS STUDY

One of the skits that air between breaks on conservative radio shows deals with children who are acting out and their parents seem helpless to stop it. A male with a mid-Western cowboy voice demonstrates to the parents how effective spanking is. Guess who first reports a study on the effects of spanking?

Fox News:
Study: Spanked Children May Grow Up to Be Happier, More Successful

THIS SHOULD BE UNNECESSARY BUT...

the wingnuts will say anything to try to discredit Pres. Obama and Cheney is one of those wingnuts. In this case the smear is that Pres. Obama doesn't think we are at war with terrorists and the truth is the exact opposite and has been so for years. This is what Sen. Obama said back on August 1, 2007:

America is at war with terrorists who killed on our soil. (page 9)

(h/t Peter Baker of the NY Times)

ANOTHER TINY CONTRADICTION BY FATS LIMBAUGH

(h/t Kombiz)

Fats Limbaugh doesn't seem to have situational awareness. He not only praised the care he received at a non-profit hospital, he also praised the staff, part of which is composed of nurses who are unionized!

THE BOYS ARE BACK ON THE AIR

Fats won't be back until Wednesday but Hannity & Beck are making up for lost time. Both of them are joining in the wingers' "outrage" over the crotch bomber and both are teasing their listeners with promises of something "big" coming up. It seems that Hannity has decided to follow Beck's lead and get much more politically involved.

WE'RE DOING IT WRONG

(h/t DemFromCT at DKos)

The National Geographic tried to combine 3 important pieces of health care information in a graph: life expectancy, per capita cost and doctor visits per year. As you can see, it's not very intuitive. A commenter at the NG linked to a much clearer display of the information:

NO, IT'S NOT RACIAL PROFILING

Many liberals seem to think calls for profiling Muslims are "racial" but they can't be for the simply reason that "Muslim" refers to religion, not race. A member of any race can be a Muslim. Of course, you can't tell someone is a Muslim just by looking at them, so how exactly are we supposed to give them extra scrutiny?

WHAT WILL THE FUNDIES SAY NOW?

UPDATE: Scientific American has more on this discovery.

Prions don't have DNA or RNA yet they seem to be able to adapt to different cellular environments, according to this BBC report:

'Lifeless' prion proteins are 'capable of evolution'
Page last updated at 00:06 GMT, Friday, 1 January 2010

In the study, published in the journal Science, the scientists transferred prion populations from brain cells to other cells in culture and observed the prions that adapted to the new cellular environment out-competed their brain-adapted counterparts.

When returned to the brain cells, the brain-adapted prions again took over the population.

Charles Weissmann, head of Scripps Florida's department of infectology who led the study, said: "On the face of it, you have exactly the same process of mutation and adaptive change in prions as you see in viruses.

"This means that this pattern of Darwinian evolution appears to be universally active.

"In viruses, mutation is linked to changes in nucleic acid sequence that leads to resistance.

"Now, this adaptability has moved one level down- to prions and protein folding - and it's clear that you do not need nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) for the process of evolution."

BENEN ON THE NOISE MACHINE

Steve Benen observes that "since the failed Christmas-day plot, conservatives haven't quite come up with a coherent line of attack" but that misses the point, I think. Conservatives don't need a coherent attack, all they need is a slogan or two that can be repeated daily until it reaches the mainstream. In addition, the major radio gasbags (Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and Savage) have been on vacation and their fill-ins don't have as much influence.

HAS FRED HIATT RETIRED?

Mr. Hiatt loves to give op-ed space in the WaPo to right-wing hacks from George Will on down to whatever stink-tank expert is available so I was very surprised to read a defense of Pres. Obama's approach to terrorism today, "Soft on terror? Not this president."

WHAT PRES. OBAMA SAID LAST JANUARY

In his inaugural address, he made it clear that we are at war:

Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.

WINGER CONNECTIONS?

I noted below how wingers, who no one sane would confide in, like to claim that they are really plugged in and now Erick at Red State makes the same preposterous claim:

I missed the implications of this up front and I bet you all did too, but I am hearing from members of the American intelligence community and some on the outside closely connected to those on the inside who are raising a huge red flag right now.

CATCHING UP WITH THE BRITS

Since late 2006, the British Foreign Office has encouraged other ministries to drop the "war on terror" phrase because it mostly helps terrorists in their recruiting efforts, so the Obama Administration is just following a good policy and NOT "appeasing" the terrorists as the wingnuts & neo-cons have been claiming.

Pete Hoekstra is one of the GOP's hardcore stooges and he's been one of the more vocal recent critics of how the Obama Administration is dealing with terrorists and he objects to dropping the phrase the Brits found counter-productive. Less than 2 years ago, he had the opposite opinion:

Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, in an interview said the phrase ”war on terror” was the “dumbest term…you could use”. The Michigan lawmaker, who criticises the Bush administration for using an overly aggressive tone, says he has urged Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, not to use the expression.

Atrios notes that Hoekstra is on This Week and you can bet this inconsistency won't be mentioned.

NOT MUCH OF A JOB, REALLY...

(h/t scott at World O' Crap)

A hack at Pajamas Media included this in his resume:

“From 2008-2009, Matt served as research assistant to Charles Krauthammer.”

The obvious interpretation of this is that the hack got a no-show wingnut welfare job to tide him over because Krauthammer is factually mistaken so often. Here are just two examples:

• Krauthammer falsely suggests Senate bill won't reduce deficits after 2019
  December 22, 2009 6:54 am ET filed under Research
• Krauthammer repeats myths about economic recovery package
  February 06, 2009 1:27 pm ET filed under Research

STILL ATTACKING THE ACLU...

curv3ball at The Poor Man Institute catches Michael Goldfarb using a basic wingnut attack:

If he (Abdulmutallab) were treated as an enemy combatant and transferred to military commission system, we could use Army Field Manual techniques without Miranda (not as effective as enhanced techniques, of course, but much better than standard police practice). We could use his non-Mirandized statements against him in military commissions, so long as the statements were not forcibly coerced and were otherwise reliable. Instead, it’s three squares a day, the best legal defense the ACLU can provide, and maybe the chance for parole before the kids he was trying to kill on that plane even make it out of college.

In fact, the ACLU isn't defending Abdulmutallab, a local public defender is:

Lawyer Has Terror-Case Track Record
By AMIR EFRATI
JANUARY 2, 2010
WALL STREET JOURNAL

The lawyer appointed to represent the man accused of attempting to bomb Northwest Flight 253 had prior success helping to defend an alleged terrorist.

Miriam Siefer, the chief public defender in Detroit, also has handled cases involving disturbances on other Northwest flights, including one in which a man pleaded guilty after illegally transporting ammunition and saying he was traveling overseas to kill Osama bin Laden.

A NEW WINGNUT LIE ABOUT LIBERALS

I heard this on the radio yesterday and I didn't think much of it because it was so deeply wrong but I failed to take into account the gullibility of wingers. The idea is that we bought into the preposterous notion that Pres. Obama would by his actions convince the Islamic radicals to stop their attacks. Two POLITICO posters bought into the smear:

ACORN EXTERMINATOR

Member Since: Sep. 12, 2009
Party: N/A

#690
Jan. 1, 2010 - 11:22 PM EST

Poor little Dems...they thought Obama could give a few speeches and some bows and the world would love him. And his little sheeple can't understand why some dude from Nigeria would strap on a crotch bomb and rain on Obama's parade...what was the fellow from Nigeria thinking? The "one" has arrived...did he not receive the memo? LOL The limp-wristed liberals are scared to death over any future terrorist attacks and it's not for the right reasons. These naive punks actually thought the radical Muslims would lay down their arms for the "one"..the man that would bring world peace.


OldeGrump
Member Since: Mar. 22, 2007
Party: Republican



#587
Jan. 1, 2010 - 10:35 PM EST

As well it should.

You all snorted about Bush, ridiculed the colors of the alerts, and claimed your rights were abused by the Patriot Act. Terroism you crowed was just a ploy to frighten the unwashed so that they would vote for Bush. Why your jug-eared leader claimed on the stump, all he had to do was just close Gitmo, be nice to the Middle Easterners, make some speeches apologizing for what a terrible country the US of A is, and they'd sheath their swords, lay down with the lambs, and all would be peace and light.

Ann Coulter may have started this new piece of agit-prop:

I mean, they kept using it as a selling point that Obama would throw Islamic radicals on their hind legs when they look up and they see someone who studies with [sic: studied at] madrassas and they see the “Great Satan” has a president with a brown face and the world is going to love us. [...]

POLITICO FURTHERS GOP AGIT-PROP

In this article, "Democrats' worst nightmare: Terrorism on their watch," Ben Smith and Carol E. Lee promote the all too popular meme that the Democrats are weak on national security, despite acknowledging that this meme is one of the "the clichéd rules of politics."

A RADIO KRAZY CAME BACK EARLY

Last night, Michael Savage returned to his radio show and doesn't seem to have gotten any saner. He blamed former President Jimmy Carter for the killings at Ft. Hood, even though Savage didn't know that the soldiers were killed in a staging area, not a barracks. According to Savage, then-President Carter began the policy of prohibiting soldiers from carrying weapons when off duty.