NOT EVEN ONE, RICKY?

(h/t Andrew Jones at Raw Story)

Like many conservatives (here for example), Rick "Man-on-Dog" Santorum has a bad case of epistemic closure:

Rick Santorum Has Tense Exchange on Gay Rights and Health Care in Iowa
Dec 6, 2011 3:39am
Shushannah Walshe
ABC News

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa – Rick Santorum is usually quite amiable on the trail, but Monday evening at a campaign event at a small Christian college in Sioux Center, he had some tense back-and-forth exchanges with one student and another graduate of the college.

The student said he didn’t “think God appreciates the fact that we have 50 to 100,000 uninsured Americans dying due to a lack of healthcare every year,” citing a 2009 study out of Harvard University.

“Dying?” Santorum answered before going back and forth about the validity of the study.

“The answer is not what can we do to prevent deaths because of a lack of health insurance. There’s — I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance,” Santorum said to a crowd of 100.

“People die in America because people die in America. And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their healthcare. And they don’t go to the emergency room or they don’t go to the doctor when they need to,” he said. “And it’s not the fault of the government for not providing some sort of universal benefit.

SAME OLD SHIT

Conservatives will say or write almost anything to attack their opponents:

Manny Fantis / wusa9.com:

Sidwell Friends School, Sasha and Malia Obama's School, Opts For Asian, including Japanese Food On Pearl Harbor Day  —  Sidwell Friends School's website shows the menu for Wednesday December 7th, 2011, the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, as an Asian food day.

+

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The PJ Tatler, Associated Press, UrbanGrounds and HotAirPundit

CARTER, REAGAN & FATS LIMBAUGH

On November 30, 2011, Fats made this claim:

In a Gallop poll on October 26th in 1980, two weeks before the election, Gallup had it Jimmy Carter 47, Ronald Reagan 39. That election two weeks later ended up in a landslide that was so big that Carter conceded before California closed. The same thing's happening now.

I don't remember the polls at the time but LexisNexis does and Fats is wrong again:

Facts on File World News Digest

October 31, 1980

Poll Standings Tighten

SECTION: PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

LENGTH: 205 words



Most major polls indicated that the presidential contest between President Carter and Ronald Reagan had tightened to the point of a toss-up. [See p. 739F2]

On the eve of the debate, a Gallup Poll found Carter had risen to 45% support among prospective voters to 42% for Reagan.
The findings, released Oct. 27, exactly reversed a Reagan margin over Carter detected early in the month. Independent  candidate John B. Anderson was getting 9% support in the Gallup survey.

Carter was leading in polls published Oct. 26 by Time and Newsweek magazines. The time poll put Carter ahead of Reagan, 42% to 41%. Newsweek's survey gave Carter a 41% to 40% edge.

A New York Times-CBS News Poll available Oct. 23 had Carter ahead 39% to 38% for Reagan.

Reagan was leading Carter in several other surveys -- 45% to 42% in an ABC News-Louis Harris Poll released Oct. 27; 42% to 36% in an Associated Press-NBC News Poll also available Oct. 27.

Reagan was leading most major surveys of electoral vote counts, which also had narrowed in the last month, with Carter coming up, Reagan going down. A week before the election, neither seemed to command a clear majority of electoral votes needed to gain the presidency.

AND PONNURU MAKES SIX...

The NRO's Ramesh Ponnuru also gives Newtie the what-for:

Heartbreak Awaits Republicans Who Love Gingrich: Ramesh Ponnuru
By Ramesh Ponnuru Dec 5, 2011 5:00 PM MT
BLOOMBERG NEWS

After Gingrich lost the budget battles with President Bill Clinton, it took 15 years for any politician to take up the cause of limited-government conservatism that he had discredited.

Although Gingrich isn’t solely responsible for the Republican policy defeats of those years, his erratic behavior, lack of discipline and self-absorption had a lot to do with them.

Gingrich’s fans say that he isn’t the same man he was then; he has “matured” in his 60s. Maybe so. But he’s still erratic: This year he flip-flopped three times on the top issue of the day, the House Republican plan to reform Medicare.

He still has the same need to justify his every petty move by reference to some grand theory.

Gingrich’s energy and creativity are admirable, within limits. But recognizing his own limits is not a Gingrich specialty. Voters are likely to see, as he cannot, that he is temperamentally unsuited for the presidency.

PILING ON NEWT

and who is more deserving?

First of all, Gingrich's ethics problem when he was in the House continued even after he had promised that he would not try to politicize the issue:

Potentially Illegal Gingrich Tape Turned Over To Criminal Investigators
January 13, 1997
CNN
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Jan. 13) -- A potentially illegal recording of a cell phone conversation involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich was handed over to federal criminal investigators tonight, the House ethics committee's chief counsel said.

The conversation, held by Gingrich and other Republicans on Dec. 21, took place the same day the speaker admitted to ethical errors and promised not to organize a defensive strategy with other GOP leaders. Democrats point to the tape as evidence that Gingrich violated his promise. Republicans say it proves Gingrich was not involved in plotting strategy.

Second, Rich Galen, a former Gingrich employee, notes that Newt can generate "a reality-distortion field" that even Newt seems to take for real.

Third, even a wackjob like Rep. Peter King (R-NY) can admit that Gingrich "does not have the capacity to control himself."

Fourth, John "Pantload" Podhoretz remembers the many Gingrich failures, including these two:

We remember how he tarnished his own “Republican revolution” even before it started between the 1994 election and the swearing-in of the new Congress by getting himself a $4.5 million book deal (that would be $6.5 million today) — a PR blunder and possible ethics violation that backfired so badly that he had to forswear his advance.

We remember how that conviction led to perhaps the greatest political blunder of our time — the showdown over the budget in October 1995 that led to the three-week government shutdown and the subsequent GOP cave-in that brought the “Republican revolution” to an end only nine months after it began.

(Laura Ingraham read from Pod's column yesterday)

Finally, Pres.Gingrich would be a foreign policy disaster:

Newt Gingrich told those gathered at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington on Wednesday that if elected president next year, he will tap former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton to be his secretary of state.

"If you will accept it, I will ask John Bolton to be secretary of state," he said to cheers during his remarks in the Ronald Reagan Building.

POLITICO BLEW THIS STORY

In this article, POLITICO reports that:

But now Coburn — who declared a year ago that Gingrich is “the last person I’d vote for for president” and lacks the character to lead the nation — offers a brisk no comment when approached.

However, just this weekend on FAUX News, Coburn slammed Newt:

Tom Coburn takes dim view of Newt Gingrich as president
By Kathleen Hennessey

December 4, 2011, 7:32 a.m
LA TIMES

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn says he “will have difficulty supporting (Gingrich) as president of the United States” based on his experience serving in the House during Gingrich’s years as speaker.

“The thing is there are all type of leaders. Leaders that instill confidence, leaders that are somewhat abrupt and brisk, leaders that have one standard for the people they are leading and different standard for themselves,” Coburn said on Fox News Sunday. “I found his leadership lacking.”

WINGNUTS IN DISARRAY

Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer have attacked the latest Gong Show episode: the Newsmax/Trump "debate" on 12/17. This afternoon, Hannity not only supported the debate, he had The Donald on his radio show.  Ron Paul won't attend but Newt will.

Proof that the Baggers, "constitutional conservatives" or whatever you want to call those freaks are a minority even in the Republican primaries: Last week, Mark "Foamer" Levin announced that if he were to vote now, his choice would be between Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. Here are the latest numbers for these two:

Poll: Gingrich, Romney only "acceptable" candidates to GOP voters
By Brian Montopoli
December 5, 2011 4:13 PM
CBS NEWS

A new poll out from Gallup finds that only Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are considered acceptable presidential candidates by a majority of Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters.

The numbers for Ron Paul, who is polling in third in Iowa, are discouraging. Just 34 percent called Paul an acceptable nominee, while 62 percent called him unacceptable. Rick Santorum tied Paul as the candidate seen by the highest percentage of voters as unacceptable.

Fifty-six percent called Michele Bachmann unacceptable,

IT'S NOW OFFICIAL: OWS WON

Occupy Wall Street has managed to shift the economic discourse in America, as Frank Luntz pointed out, and now Fats Limbaugh has decided to go on a counter-attack. Fats wouldn't do this if Luntz were incorrect.

RADIO TIDBITS

Tucson stuff: KNST has replaced Michael Savage with Andy Dean, who sounds about as bright as Sean Hannity.  Savage remains on KQTH.  Sen. Kyl was on a local weekend show on KQTH and pushed the notion that military spending by the government is good for the economy.  I almost called the station to point out that this contradicts his other claims about the economy.

Bob Brinker (Money Talk) had the author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics on and he defended both the benefits of deficit spending during a downturn and the wisdom of taxing the top 1%. A couple of callers disagreed but they didn't make any real arguments.

Today Mark Levin claimed his show is alone as the 3rd most popular talk show and that means that Glenda and Weiner are behind him.

STATUS UPDATE

I developed what seems to be a minor sinus infection between Saturday & Sunday, so I'm just now getting back to posting.

I GUESS MARX WAS CORRECT ABOUT RELIGION

He famously wrote that religion is "the opium of the people" and in 1834 a Massachusetts state court judge  in one of Abner Kneeland's blasphemy trials seemed to express a similar thought:

SOURCE: "The Blasphemy of Abner Kneeland" by Henry Steele Commager, New England Quarterly, Mar., 1935, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 29-41

THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE BANKSTERS

I was listening to the BBC's World Service a day or so ago and one of the guests specialized in the sociology of finance, a part of sociology I never heard of before. A little googling led me to the Sociology Dept. at the University of Edinburgh which has a section devoted to this topic. There are a number of papers and op-eds about the financial sociology of the Great Recession which look pretty interesting.

MORE LIKE THIS

At moment, Newt is leading Bachmann in Iowa by 19 points, 25 to 6, so I'm not sure why he told the truth about her:

During a brief exchange with reporters, Gingrich was asked about Bachmann's claim that Gingrich's position on illegal immigration amounts to amnesty. Bachmann criticized Gingrich's statement that he would allow illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for 25 years to remain in the country.

What about Bachmann's criticism? "Some people are just factually challenged," Gingrich responded. "It's unfortunate. When I was a teacher I occasionally had a student who couldn't figure out where things were or what things were or what the right date was. When that happens, you feel sorry that they are so factually challenged."

Newt's absurd claims about the food stamp program make his shot at The Eyes ironic.

THANX SEAN!

All normal people knew this but it's great that The Baby Jesus admitted it. (h/t Ellen at News Hounds)

Transcript from LexisNexis¹:

PERINO: Well, that's why I sit back and I look at all of them, and I have a report in a fair and balanced way.

HANNITY: You are not fair and balanced, you are conservative.

PERINO: Well, no, you can be conservative and fair and balanced.

HANNITY: I'm not fair and balance.

¹Fox News Network
November 29, 2011 Tuesday
SHOW: FOX HANNITY 9:13 PM EST
Analysis With Dana Perino, Stuart Varney
BYLINE: Sean Hannity
GUESTS: Dana Perino, Stuart Varney
SECTION: NEWS; International
LENGTH: 1481 words

LED BULBS CAN MAKE ECONOMIC SENSE

(h/t Barry Ritholtz)

When you take into consideration all the factors, LEDs are a smart purchase for companies:

The Math Changes on Bulbs
Modern LEDs, While Expensive, Save Companies on Labor
By KATE LINEBAUGH
NOVEMBER 30, 2011
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Bulbs built around light-emitting diodes—semiconductors that produce bright light when zapped with electricity—last 10 times longer than conventional bulbs, meaning fewer ladders blocking frozen-food aisles or unsightly scaffolds towering in hotel lobbies as workers change blown-out bulbs. With energy savings not yet enough in some cases to cover the higher cost of the new bulbs, it's lower maintenance costs that are getting sales across the finish line.

Here's the accompanying graphic:

THE BAGGERS "WON'T SETTLE" FOR A NORMAL PERSON

I've been listening to and reading about the Gong Show and aside from a few articles about how the Fundies are opposed to Romney because he's a Mormon, I haven't come across anything that points to the deepest issue facing the GOP: the Baggers will only vote for an axtremist. Michele Bachmann has grasped that and that's why she's been pounding on "don't settle" for any non-extermist since late September to today.

She's doing this despite the fact that the Baggers are even unpopular in districts that voted in a Bagger:

Pew: Tea Party seriously not liked, even in Tea Party run congressional districts
By John Aravosis (DC) on 11/30/2011 08:00:00 AM

IT'S NOT ABOUT HELPING "JOB CREATORS"

The GOP simply wants to protect the top 1% and above. From POLITICO:

The Senate shot down dueling proposals on Thursday on extending the current payroll tax cut – ensuring that the critical year-end issue will be punted into next week.

With a 51-49 vote, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward on the payroll tax cut favored by Democrats – legislation that never had a chance because of the GOP’s opposition to the millionaires’ surtax put in place to pay for the tax cut.

The payroll tax cut will HELP small businesses hire people. From Media Matters:

The bill's payroll tax cut would not only boost workers' paychecks by hundreds of dollars or more in 2012 but also cut the taxes of every small business. Employers would receive a tax holiday on fully half of their 2012 Social Security taxes on the first $5 million in payroll. If employers create jobs, they would pay no Social Security taxes on the first $50 million in increased taxable payroll.

WHAT WAR WHORE INGRAHAM DIDN'T TELL HER LISTENERS

She touted Leon Cooperman's whine about Pres. Obama published by the NY Post but never mentioned that Cooperman's economic policy recommendations are decidedly non-conservative:

This economic checklist included--to his credit--an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, free college education for all returning soldiers, a large WPA-styled infrastructure jobs initiative, a 10 percent tax surcharge on all incomes over $500,000 and a 5% VAT tax on everyone.

THIS IS VERY ENCOURAGING

As I listen to Mark "Foamer" Levin rant about liberals, I am reminded that he and the people who believe him are still a minority in America.  My evidence for that assertion is from Frank Luntz, the wizard GOP pollster and word meister, who's found that Occupy Wall Street has caught on with Americans:

How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street
By Chris Moody | The Ticket
YAHOO NEWS

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Republican Governors Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up: How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?

"I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death," said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. "They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."

I think this is the most remarkable point Luntz made:
Yahoo News sat in on the session, and counted 10 do's and don'ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.

1. Don't say 'capitalism.'

"I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."

Other liberals (also here) have picked up on this and I wonder if the radio gasbags will respond tomorrow.

THURSDAY GONG SHOW REPORT

- Mittens even whines about Bret Baier, a FAUX News host.
- The Eyes, Newt and Man-On-Dog all fail to field a full slate in NH.
- The Eyes and Man-On-Dog want Intelligent Design taught in schools.

CONS STILL HUNGUP OVER GUNS

One of the local wingnut radio stations has been running an ad for a local gun nut store that refers to the "news" about more 2nd Amendment restrictions coming in the future and I guess that's targeted to the FAUX News rubes who are in the audience because there isn't anything coming, at least not from Congress.  But that won't stop the gun worshippers from promoting gun ownership for violent purposes.

(1) Fox News Suggests Second Amendment Remedies Be Used Against OWS
December 1, 2011
By Rmuse
On Tuesday’s edition of Fox News’ The Five, one of the members of the panel suggested the occupiers should beware of gun-slinging Americans who oppose the Occupy movement. ... One of the panel members, Greg Gutfeld, was commenting on how awesome it is that Americans have a love-affair with guns and how he likes that it “scares the hell out of visiting Europeans who already think we’re crazy people and they think my god, we’re never invading this country.” He continued that, “plus, it’s a reminder to all you Occupy Wall Streeters that if there is a revolution, the other side is better armed.”

(2) Cyber Monday Special: Buy Guns Before Obama Enslaves And Kills You

November 28, 2011 5:55 pm ET by Matt Gertz

Apparently there are those who find National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre's exhortation that there is a "massive Obama conspiracy" in which President Obama is planning to follow up his re-election by somehow eliminating the Second Amendment just a touch too subtle.

In an ad emailed out to the list of WorldNetDaily this afternoon, the good people at USAAmmo explain that President Obama is "secretly conspiring to strip American Citizens of the right to bear arms"

(3) National Review's Kevin Williamson: If Current Economic Policies Continue, "You're Going To Want To Have A Very Good Gun"
December 01, 2011 4:09 pm ET

From the November 30 edition of Fox Business' Follow the Money with Eric Bolling: