RADAMISTO

TURNOUT IN FLORIDA DISAPPOINTING

2012-02-01T02:49:00.000-07:00

According to the Florida Dept. of State, the 2012 turnout for the GOP primary was only 1,669,462. In 2008, it was 1,926,830. Based on these 2 numbers, I'd say the GOP base isn't thrilled with the candidates.

CLASS WARFARE WITHIN THE GOP?

2012-02-01T02:01:00.001-07:00

In the last 2 days, I've heard Fats Limbaugh and John Gibson talk about a divide in the GOP primary voters between (roughly) white-collar Romney supporters and blue-collar Gingrich supporters.

Some Baggers, like Judson Phillips, have lined up behind Newt, but it's not clear to me that the Baggers are still a force in the GOP, mostly because of the failure of Michele Bachmann's campaign and the inadequate fund raising by Sarah Palin's own PAC.

If the GOP loses some blue-collar support, then perhaps Kansas will return to "normal".

THE PAST REALLY IS PRESENT THIS TIME

2012-01-30T20:47:00.001-07:00

Back during the mean times of HilaryCare, Newt and the Heritage Foundation did support an individual mandate. I find attacks based on positions held over a decade ago suspect so I didn't mention this before now because it turns out Newt still supported an individual mandate in 2009!!!

So, the leading Not-Romney has about the same position on health care as Pres. Obama. For a liberal, does it get any better than this?

THIS ISN'T AN OUTRAGE BUT SHOULD BE DISCUSSED

2012-01-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

(h/t The Dish)

There's some fuss about a term I sometimes use, "Israel-Firster," and Glenn Greenwald has dived into this "issue."

In doing so, he found a pretty interesting piece of information about Newt's Sugar Daddy, Sheldon Adelson:

In a talk to an Israeli group in July, 2010, Adelson said he wished he had served in the Israeli Army rather than the U.S. military—and that he hoped his young son would come back to Israel and “be a sniper for the IDF,” a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. (YouTube video of speech)
“I am not Israeli. The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform. It was an American uniform, although my wife was in the IDF and one of my daughters was in the IDF ... our two little boys, one of whom will be bar mitzvahed tomorrow, hopefully he’ll come back-- his hobby is shooting -- and he’ll come back and be a sniper for the IDF,” Adelson said at the event.
“All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart,” he said toward the end of his talk.

"WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS" HAS A NEW INTERPRETATION

2012-01-30T18:32:00.001-07:00

When applied to conservatives, it means "Stupid within Stupid" and Palin's remarks about Newt (below) are a good example. First of all, doing something just to piss someone else off is a bit childish. Second, there are plenty of real conservatives who think Newt is a piece of shit. Third, liberals would be delighted to have Newt win the nomination.

PINK FLOYD & SARAH PALIN???

2012-01-30T17:56:00.002-07:00

For those of us who are Floydies, that coupling alone is jarring but that's what popped into my mind when I heard about Caribou Barbie endorsing Newt Gingrich:

Here's former political person Sarah Palin continuing her weird quest to endorse Newt Gingrich without really endorsing him, telling weekend Fox News muppet Jeanine Pirro that Republicans should vote for Newt Gingrich now to "rage against the machine" and "annoy a liberal."

Goodness, really: "Vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal. Vote Newt."

(For those unfamliar with Pink Floyd, the song "Welcome to the Machine" is from their 1975 album, Wish You Were Here. The song is a condemnation of the crass commercialism of the music industry.)

This endorsement upset Glenda Beck who is convinced that Newt is another Republican Progressive.

NEWT IS A REALLY LOUSY HISTORIAN

2012-01-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

David Weigel reports that he said this at one of Glenda Beck's favorite places in Florida, The Villages:

"How many of you remember that moment in 1968 when America put a man on the moon?"

We first landed a man on the Moon in 1969, not 1968.

DOES NEWT THINK HE CAN GRAB SOME OF FETUS BOY'S SUPPORTERS?

2012-01-29T17:57:00.002-07:00

In addition to promising to ban ALL embryonic stem cell research, Newt indicates that he will take a very hard look at in vitro fertilization:

Gingrich vows to ban embryonic stem-cell research, questions in vitro practices
By Karen Tumulty, Sunday, January 29, 4:19 PM
WaPo

Speaking at a Baptist church in Winter Park on Saturday, the former speaker received a standing ovation when he declared that embryonic stem-cell research amounts to “the use of science to desensitize society over the killing of babies.”

And in a news conference Sunday, he said he would ban all embryonic stem-cell research, including that done on discarded embryos created by in vitro fertilization.

Gingrich added that he would also create a commission to study the ethics of in vitro fertilization, which has involved the creation of hundreds of thousands of excess embryos stored or discarded by fertility clinics.

“I believe life begins at conception, and the question I was raising was what happens to embryos in fertility clinics, and I would favor a commission to look seriously at the ethics of how we manage fertility clinics,” Gingrich said at a news conference outside another Baptist church here. “If you have in vitro fertilization, you are creating life; therefore, we should look seriously at what the rules should be for clinics that are doing that, because they are creating life.”

I WONDER WHY DRUDGE SUPPORTS MITTENS?

2012-01-29T17:39:00.003-07:00

Drudge hasn't endorsed Mittens but he's more than willing to headline dirt about Newt. From the NYT:

A team of some of the most fearsome researchers in the business, led by Mr. Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, spent days dispensing negative information about Mr. Gingrich, much of it finding its way to the influential Drudge Report, which often serves as a guide for conservative talk radio and television assignment editors and to which Mr. Rhoades has close ties.

The effort hit a peak by Thursday, when the site was virtually taken over by headlines assailing Mr. Gingrich, whose advisers said they eventually gave up on trying to persuade the Drudge staff to spare them, acknowledging, in the words of one aide, that “very little can be done.”

WHY IS IT EVEN CLOSE?

2012-01-29T15:01:00.002-07:00

The movement conservatives are so extreme that I wonder how long before they turn into a fringe novelty movement. Here are just two examples: Neal Boortz has been running a promo for his show in which he states that Pres. Obama is "vermin" and Bagger favorite Allen West wants liberals to "get the hell out of the United States of America."

Both these guys sound more like crazies on a public bus than responsible adults.

THE DECLINE OF AMERICA

2012-01-29T14:45:00.004-07:00

It's not because Caribou Barbie is given time on FAUX News because FAUX is a bad joke; it is because gasbag Donald Trump was given time on Face the Nation and it's not April 1st;

WILL NEWT HELP REDUCE THE INFLUENCE OF GASBAG RADIO?

2012-01-28T19:50:00.001-07:00

Despite endorsement or semi-endorsements from Sarah Palin, Herman Cain and Fred Thompson, I don't think Newt will last much beyond Florida. That would show the real-world limits of the influence of Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin and may affect their ratings.

I AM SO LOVING THIS!

2012-01-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

I would vote for Newt in the AZ primary if I could because he's helping to smash movement conservatism:

“Gingrich's clashes against the establishment are classic Alinsky,” writes Philip Klein, senior editorial writer for the conservative Washington Examiner.

“GOP nomination fights are often described as battles between Rockefeller Republicans and Goldwater Republicans,” writes Klein. “In 2012, Gingrich has brought us the Alinsky Republican.”

On the other side, we have this preposterous claim:

Mark Levin: Gingrich Is Strong Conservative

Friday, 27 Jan 2012 11:25 AM

By Dan Weil
NEWSMAX

THE END OF CONSERVATISM IN AMERICA?

2012-01-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Since 2001, I've been used to a generally monolithic conservative ideology and I think that may be collapsing, in part due to Newt Gingrich & Ron Paul. Paul provides a sensible alternative to neo-con foreign policy which is appealing to enough conservatives to reveal a serious fissure in the movement. Gingrich (and Perry) has done America a real favor by going after Mittens for his vulture capitalist career. This issue is not whether Gingrich's attacks are well-founded but how he has enlarged the acceptable conservative discourse about capitalism.

This has put many conservative propagandists like Rush Limbaugh in a bind because they have had to both defend Newt and attack him simultaneously.

Just as telling is the reaction to Newt's claim to be a "Reagan conservative." It doesn't matter that he's wrong but it does matter that major conservative outlets like the NRO debunk his claim. Jeffery Lord has tried to defend Newt on this issue and unwittingly reminds us that the Raygun Mythology is bunk:

In other words, Newt was picking up on a concern, prominent in the day and voiced by no less than Reagan's then ex-UN Ambassador Kirkpatrick, not to mention prominent Reagan supporters Will and Kristol and the late-Mondale aide turned conservative Krauthammer, that Reagan's anti-Communist policies could be stronger if better institutionalized and not tied as much to the Reagan persona.

This is an another admission, like the earlier one by NRO's Ponnuru, that conservatives were far from being united in their support of St. Ronnie. Because Raygun is the conservatives' version of FDR, this can only harm the movement.

HARD TIMES FOR THE NEWT

2012-01-27T01:19:00.002-07:00

First, he seems to have gotten most of the Establishment Wingnuts against him and that's no small feat for a former GOP Speaker of the House. Second, he tried to smack around Wolf Blitzer but Wolf came out the winner.

I'd say that Gingrich is doing something right if he's got wackos like Ann Coulter fighting him.

BERNIE MCGUIRK IS A RIGHTWING ASSHOLE

2012-01-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

He's the racist pig on The Imus Show and today I heard him lie about the Brewer/Obama airport interaction. McGuirk falsely claimed that Pres. Obama pointed his finger at Gov. Brewer when in fact it was the other way around:

Brewer defends finger pointing at Obama
By Adele Hampton - 01/26/12 11:04 AM ET
THE HILL

Photographers also captured a picture of Brewer pointing her finger at Obama's chest — a photo that has become a rallying cry for opponents of the president who are looking for a conservative politician to take him on.

Here's a pic:

I DON'T THINK "UNSTABLE" IS THE CORRECT WORD

2012-01-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

I won't go into enough details to make the person I'm talking about identifiable out of a concern for his privacy. I will say that my adviser when I was in graduate school was noted for his creativity and that really meant he had a LOT of ideas. Obviously, most of them didn't work out, mostly because he had been spoiled when he was a graduate student by having too many assistants, so he never developed an "output editor." I think Neut is the same kind of thinker, so Mittens is wrong to call him "unstable."

On the other hand, this characteristic makes Neut unsuitable to hold an executive position.

LINUX (UBUNTU) PART II

2012-01-26T19:12:00.002-07:00

Neither of the two Windows drivers I downloaded were for the version of the wireless card I have. The good news is that I did manage to get the Ethernet connection to work.

RETURN OF THE GILDED AGE?

2012-01-25T20:18:00.002-07:00

The conservative billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife have recently given $10 million to Neut's SuperPAC and that permitted Neut to do well in South Carolina and beyond. Foster Friess, another billionaire, has played the same role for Fetus Boy Santorum.

I am a little worried that two families can have so much effect on our national politics.

MAYBE THIS WILL HELP SPREAD THE WORD

2012-01-25T18:44:00.002-07:00

A long time ago I made some posts about Adam Smith favoring a progressive income tax and a basic welfare state. I also posted the same info on several comment threads but it never caught on.

Now that The Dish has also done so, maybe the truth about Smith will finally hit the mainstream.

THE WACKO PARTY IS ENTERTAINING

2012-01-25T18:24:00.003-07:00

On the face of it, Neut's Moon idea isn't as krazy as the Fetus Food bill but it is MUCH more expensive:

Newt pledges moon base by second term

By ALEXANDER BURNS |
1/25/12 5:32 PM EST
Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants To Outlaw Use Of Human Fetuses In Production Of Food
By Adam Peck on Jan 24, 2012 at 7:40 pm

Perhaps Bret Stephens put it best in the WSJ:

A primary ballot for Mr. Gingrich is a vote for an entertaining election, not a Republican in the White House.

MY UBUNTU (LINUX) ADVENTURE

2012-01-25T17:46:00.001-07:00

Last night I installed Ubuntu on my laptop and deliberately erased the former OSs only to find that I did not have the driver for the Wireless card. :-(

The install program also didn't figure I would need the 2 programs (packages) necessary to install the driver. I did find & install the packages and I have 2 versions of the driver, so I will try again later this week.

THE ROARIN' OUGHTS

2012-01-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

(h/t The Dish)

James Surowiecki explains why private equity firms can be harmful to the economy:

In the past decade, though, that calculus changed. Having already piled companies high with debt in order to buy them, many private-equity funds had their companies borrow even more, and then used that money to pay themselves huge “special dividends.” This allowed them to recoup their initial investment while keeping the same ownership stake. Before 2000, big special dividends were not that common. But between 2003 and 2007 private-equity funds took more than seventy billion dollars out of their companies. These dividends created no economic value—they just redistributed money from the company to the private-equity investors.

THE FLORIDA GONG SHOW

2012-01-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

7:05 MST
Neut claims that when he was Speaker, there were 4 consecutive balanced budgets and that directly contradicts the wingnut claim that there were no balanced budgets when Clinton was President.

Let's see if any of the radio gasbags comment on this claim.

8:00 MST
Santorum blamed the recession on the oil price spike in the summer of 2008. Wasn't that caused by speculators?

8:20 MST
Several seem to want to give NASA a lot more money but I thought they were opposed to Big Government Programs?

AND THIS IS MUCH WORSE...

2012-01-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

The massacre at Haditha has gone largely unpunished.

Marine pleads guilty, ending final Haditha trial
By Mary Slosson

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:13pm EST

(Reuters) - The U.S. Marine sergeant accused of leading a massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha pleaded guilty on Monday to dereliction of duty, ending the final prosecution stemming from a 2005 incident that brought international condemnation of U.S. troops.

He faces a maximum sentence of three months of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for three months and a reduction in rank when he is sentenced on Tuesday, a Camp Pendleton spokesman said.

Six of the eight Marines originally accused in the case had their charges dismissed by military judges, and a seventh was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

THIS INFURIATED ME

2012-01-23T18:12:00.003-07:00

Some rightwing asshole in Arkansas killed a Democratic Party campaign manager's family pet and spray-painted "LIBERAL" on the dead animals fur:

My parents got a kitten for me when I was a little kid and I still remember the time when I was crying and Bitsy came over and rubbed up against me to cheer me up. It worked.

UPDATE: This story also made Yahoo News.

WHY STEVE JOBS?

2012-01-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

Fats Limbaugh has spoken well of Jobs over the past few months and because Fats is not a techie, I wondered if he might be doing so because he approves of some of Jobs' political opinions. It turns out that Jobs was strongly against teachers unions and so is Fats. Fats also likes the fact that Apple uses FOXCONN as a manufacturer:

They have 230,000 employees in one factory. They work six days a week, 12 hours a day. They earn the equivalent of 17 US dollars a day, and they are plum jobs in China. ... The one thing that is not mentioned in this whole story is unions. Of course there aren't any in China. ... It just can't happen, not the way things are currently structured in America. These circumstances I described: 60,000 living at the factory, within a block? Not gonna happen here. Hence jobs Americans won't do anymore.

Here's a little more about the labor practices at FOXCONN:

Foxconn chairman compares his workforce to ‘animals’

By Hana Stewart-Smith | January 20, 2012, 3:43am PST
ZDNet

Summary: In an ill-worded statement, the chairman of Foxconn’s parent company compared his workforce to ‘animals’ and sought management advice from the director of Taipei Zoo.

“Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,” said Terry Gou, chairman of Taiwan’s Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn.

I guess Fats wants Americans to work 12-hour days, live in dorms, and make less than $1.50 an hour.

BILLY CUNNINGHAM IS A MORON

2012-01-22T21:36:00.001-07:00

He thinks Fetus Boy Santorum has a good chance of beating Pres. Obama

I KNOW ALL POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS HAVE A FEW FLAWS BUT...

2012-01-22T14:47:00.001-07:00

I just can't understand why Mittens keeps on telling people that he's an ordinary Joe instead of a multi-millionaire. Raw Story has a few of his whoppers:

In June, he told a group of unemployed people in Florida that he was “also unemployed.”
Returning to Florida in September, the candidate claimed that he was part of the middle class.
Romney told a group of workers at a steel plant in November that federal employees made more than he did.
He has also said that he knows “what it’s like to worry whether you’re going to get fired.”

NEWT LASHES OUT AT EVERYONE

2012-01-22T13:46:00.001-07:00

Gingrich must think that more rubes will vote for him if he attacks the media and that makes some sense because wingers have been complaining about liberal media bias for over 40 years. On the other hand, attacking the bozos on FOX & Friends may turn out to be a huge blunder. Even super-hack Neil Cavuto thinks Newt is out of line.

THE LIMITED EFFECTIVENESS OF CRANK RADIO

2012-01-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

Glenn "Glenda" Beck and Mark "Foamer" Levin have both said they support Rick Santorum but that hasn't done anything for Ricky in South Carolina. Glenda's strong opposition to Newt also doesn't seem to have had an effect in SC.

THE WAY WE WERE

2012-01-21T15:52:00.001-07:00

At one time in the supposed century of the Free Market Fairy, Don Quixote was considered inappropriate reading for women. This is from Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, a biography by Justin Kaplan, page 93:

"It pains me to think of your reading that book just as it stands. I have thought of it with regret time and again. If you haven't finished it, Livy, don't do it. You are as pure as snow, and I would have you always so—untainted, untouched even by the impure thoughts of others." "It is no reading matter for girls. I had quite forgotten the many coarse and in themselves nauseating passages when I sent it to you. No doubt it achieves its aim in a remarkable manner, yet even this is somewhat remote from my princess." Both passages are about Don Quixote.
The first is Samuel Clemens writing to Livy in March 1869; the second is another eminent Victorian, Sigmund Freud, writing to his fiancee, Martha Bernays, in August 1883.

AND THEY CALL RON PAUL AN EXTREMIST

2012-01-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

Newt Gingrich has been endorsed by the Freepers' CINC, Jim Robinson. If you are unfamiliar with the Freepers, Tommy T. at First Draft has taken on the nasty task of diving into that cesspool and reporting on it's denizens,.

CAPITALISM TAKES ANOTHER HIT

2012-01-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

(h/t David Weigel)

Ricky "Fetus Boy" Santorum took a swipe at Capitalism during last night's debate:

SANTORUM: Well, on the first question, I believe in capitalism, too. I believe in capitalism for everybody. Not necessarily high finance, but capitalism that works for the working men and women of this country who are out there paddling alone in America right now, who have an unemployment rate 2.5 times those who are college educated and feel that no party cares about them.

CNN's Live Blog missed this but like Weigel, The Hill caught it.

GREAT AP HEADLINE

2012-01-19T17:38:00.001-07:00

No comment needed...

WE'RE WINNING!

2012-01-19T17:02:00.002-07:00

That's the conclusion I draw based on listening to Hannity on his radio show today. He's on the defensive because of Mittens' Cayman Island accounts and the revelations from Newt's 2nd wife, Marianne. Hannity even went all the way back to the Clinton era to dredge up muck about Democrats.

SPEAKING OF THE FUSS ABOUT "DUMB"

2012-01-18T19:29:00.001-07:00

Wingnut bloggers were upset that Andrew Sullivan described them as being "dumb" and today, Laura Ingraham called Rick "Goodhair" Perry ignorant:

Rick Perry should drop out of this race. . . . And I like Rick Perry, I thought he was pretty cool in the last debate, except for that little problem with calling Turkey an Islamic terrorist regime. I mean, God bless him but he’s not put in the time to kind of know anything about foreign policy and you can’t be president if you don’t know anything about foreign policy.

MITTEN$

2012-01-18T19:08:00.002-07:00

As Willard gets closer to winning the GOP nomination, he's making more mistakes. He said he made some money from making speeches, but "not very much." Last year, he made $360,000 giving speeches, which alone would put him in the top 1%.

Some of his investments are in located in the Cayman Islands. a notorious tax haven:

Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.

IS THE GOP GETTING A CLUE, FINALLY?

2012-01-18T18:19:00.001-07:00

First, David Brooks has what I would call an epiphany:

I sometimes wonder if the Republican Party has become the receding roar of white America as it pines for a way of life that will never return. (h/t Atrios)

then, Sacrilege in the Temple:

Fox News Panelist On Newt Gingrich: ‘He’s A Rich, Old, Fat White Guy’

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

2012-01-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

Some time ago I saw a voter analysis which showed that Bachmann, Santorum and Perry were basically appealing the same set of GOP Fundie voters. Even today, the Fundie vote is divided in South Carolina (see here and here) but the GOP should count its blessings because a Fundie-approved nominee would have meant a replay of 1964.

MARK "FOAMER" LEVIN AFRAID OF BOOK REVIEWERS

2012-01-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

I noted before that Amazon did not include any reviews of Levin's last book and the same is true for his newest piece of garbage, Ameritopia.

MITTEN$

2012-01-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

Willard Mittens Romney admits that his Federal tax rate is maybe 15% which is less than the rate most middle class Americans pay. I guess this helps explain why the banksters are in love with him:

Big banks have picked their candidate, and it's Romney
By Andrew Dunn | Charlotte Observer
Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2012

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The country's biggest banks are overwhelmingly supporting Mitt Romney's bid for the Republican presidential nomination, an analysis of federal campaign contributions shows.

Employees at the five largest U.S. banks by assets, including Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., had given Romney about $600,000 through the first three quarters of 2011, according to the most recent filings available from the Federal Election Commission.

The second-largest recipient of bank employee contributions, President Barack Obama, had far less, about $200,000, the analysis showed.

Now, can he also tell us how many jobs he's created with that income?

ANOTHER REAGAN LEGACY

2012-01-17T21:53:00.002-07:00

In addition to giving high-ranking jobs to freakshows like Mark Levin, Ronald Reagan injected a little poison into our political discourse:

Cadillac Queens.
Over a period of about five years, Reagan told the story of the "Chicago welfare queen" who had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards, and collected benefits for "four nonexisting deceased husbands," bilking the government out of "over $150,000." The real welfare recipient to whom Reagan referred was actually convicted for using two different aliases to collect $8,000. Reagan continued to use his version of the story even after the press pointed out the actual facts of the case to him.

This morning on Fats Limbaugh's show, I heard a milder variant from a woman caller:

I was standing in line yesterday at the grocery store. I was looking at the people's carts filled with soda and junk and they whip out an EBT card. My husband works hard every day to buy our milk and eggs and chicken. Why am I buying somebody else's soda?

Atrios found a purer example in the comment section of his local paper:

Oh and we the taxpayers who are paying for Obamacare shouldn't have lesser health insurance than you deadbeats who get it for free. Welfare should be for short-term assistance so people can get on their feet...not a way of life and not a system where people who have BMWs and Mercedes are whipping out Access cards while chatting on their iPhones.

HAYEK, TRADITION & MELVILLE

2012-01-16T21:50:00.001-07:00

F. A. Hayek has argued that we should continue to follow traditions even if we have no idea of their purpose. In Moby Dick, Melville provided an answer to that claptrap when he describes what happens after a dead whale is finally released:

Desecrated as the body is, a vengeful ghost survives and hovers over it to scare. Espied by some timid man-of-war or blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the whale's unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log-shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabout: beware! And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum, because their leader originally leaped there when a stick was held. There's your law of precedents; there's your utility of traditions; there's the story of your obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth, and now not even hovering in the air! There's orthodoxy!

Thus, while in the life the great whale's body may have been a real terror to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world.

Are you a believer in ghosts, my friend? There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them.

COMPARING RAYGUN TO PRES. OBAMA

2012-01-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

The Employed/Population ratio shows that Raygun's lows were worse than Pres. Obama's lows...so far.

Here's the graph for Raygun:

and here's the current graph for Pres. Obama:

WHINING AGAIN ABOUT THE TRUTH

2012-01-16T19:18:00.003-07:00

Andrew Sullivan writes (“Why are Obama’s critics so dumb?”)that both liberal and conservative critics of Pres. Obama aren't too bright and Bagger bloggers get terribly upset because they assume that Sullivan is mostly referring to them. Let's recall that these same bloggers came to the defense of these certifiable dopes: Palin, Perry, Trump, Bachmann and Cain.

Let's also recall the most psychotically stupid conservative post of 2005 and perhaps forever:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE MOTU WORLD

2012-01-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

In short, there just isn't much. The financial wizards at the Federal Reserve were clueless about the Housing Bubble yet not one of them has been fired. (h/t Atrios) Dean Baker put it best:

[A]s noted in the article, many of the people at these Fed meetings are still in top policy making positions. This shows that the U.S. economy still produces good-paying jobs for people without skills.

We all know the accountants forever dirtied themselves in the since 2000 (e.g. Emron, Worldcom, AAA ratings for junk) but the ostensible regulator of these hacks is only now getting some attention:

SEC to put U.S. audit watchdog under microscope
by Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 10, 2012 6:08pm EST

(Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators will question the top U.S. audit watchdog about his budget and policy priorities on Wednesday, in a rare public meeting designed to shed more transparency on the agency that has tightened the screws on the auditing profession over the past year.

The meeting at the Securities and Exchange Commission will be styled like a congressional hearing, with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chairman James Doty on hand to answer questions and make the case for why the SEC should agree to give the PCAOB a budget boost.

I KNOW THIS IS ANOTHER "WAR ON CHRISTMAS" SCAM

2012-01-15T13:49:00.003-07:00

But the child in me can't resist:

JEEBUS NO LIKE TEBOW

FUNDIES VS FUNDIES VS FUNDIES

2012-01-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

The conservative's disarray now includes the Fundies. Some are supporting Fetus Boy Santorum and some are supporting Mittens and some Newton.

THE CONSERVATIVES ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE

2012-01-14T14:30:00.001-07:00

In The One Percent Doctrine, Ron Suskind gave a great desciption of how the criminal Bush regime justified its aggression: If there was even a 1 percent chance that the target was involved in terrorism, an attack was allowed and required.

Roughly same rule seems to apply to other situations, such as:

Unemployment Benefits: Even if only 1% of recipients use the benefits to avoid going back to work, then the whole program should be eliminated.

Romney/Bain Capital: Attacking some of the actions of Bain Capital amounts to attacking Capitalism as a whole.

JOHN 18:36

2012-01-14T13:53:00.002-07:00

The Fundies don't seem to have this verse in their Bibles.

Evangelical leaders back Santorum
By Deborah Charles

COLUMBIA, South Carolina | Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:28pm EST

(Reuters) - Influential evangelical Christian leaders on Saturday endorsed Rick Santorum for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination, in an attempt to strengthen him as the more conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney.

At a weekend meeting at a ranch outside Houston, Texas, the group of 150 conservatives agreed on the third ballot to support the former Pennsylvania senator.

MITTENS IN RETREAT!

2012-01-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Mitt "Willard" Romney has backed off his preposterous Bain Capital jobs claim which should give a little more credence to the attacks by Gingrich and Perry. Steve Benen has the details:

As recently as two weeks ago, Romney had a fairly specific number in mind when it came to the jobs created by his vulture-capitalist firm.
“I’m very happy in my former life; we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”
A few days ago, the total dropped.
“People here in the state know that in the work that I had, we started a number of businesses, invested in many others, and that over all created tens of thousands jobs.”

This morning, the Romney campaign unveiled a new ad, which moved the goal post again. Greg Sargent picked up on the new message:
The ad claims Romney only created “thousands of jobs,” which is the latest shift in his campaign’s claims.
So, over the course of two weeks, Romney has gone from “over 100,000 jobs” to “tens of thousands” to “thousands.”

Wonkette and TPM have also reported this and I hope this story reaches most Americans.

TUSD ETHNIC STUDIES STILL CAUSING A FUSS

2012-01-12T22:09:00.002-07:00

Think Progress has a post by Tanya Somander which I think is unduly supportive of the program based upon my own research:

RADAMISTO: ETHNIC STUDIES STUPIDITY

RADAMISTO: ETHNIC STUDIES STUPIDITY UPDATE

RADAMISTO: I STILL HAVEN'T HEARD FROM DR. AUGUSTINE ...

LIBERALS WRONG TO SUPPORT ETHNIC STUDIES AT TUSD

RADAMISTO: TUSD'S ETHNIC STUDIES PROGRAM

RADAMISTO: THE FINDINGS ON TUSD'S MEXICAN AMERICAN ...

A SILVER LINING FOR THE REST OF US

2012-01-12T20:40:00.001-07:00

The controversies in the GOP nomination race have served not only to give unusual prominence to a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy, they have also increased the acceptable limits of critiques of capitalism and the conservative gasbags have had to adapt to this new reality. Of course, "adapt" here means that Hannity didn't call Rick Perry a Marxist. :-)

NEWT PLAYS THE FEAR CARD

2012-01-12T19:59:00.003-07:00

(h/t The Dish)
This reminds of what Cheney did in 2006.

Gingrich Buys Anti-Romney Ad From National Review
Jan 11 2012, 3:00 PM ET
THE ATLANTIC

The email blast went out to the conservative magazine's email list today, and warns of 1,000 years of darkness if Newt doesn't win.
Dear Conservative:

In 1964, Ronald Reagan told conservatives that this was a time for choosing. Faced with a radical, progressive President who would weaken America abroad and at home, they could either fight to preserve America as the last, best hope on earth, or consign their children to a thousand years of darkness.

This year is another such time for choosing.

STEVE BENEN SHOULD GET PAID

2012-01-12T19:34:00.001-07:00

After all, he came up with the snark making fun of Romney's ability to speak French. Unfortunately, Newt Gingrich is deadly serious:

Newt web ad: Romney and Kerry have 'French Connection'
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS |
1/12/12 7:09 PM EST

A new web ad from Newt Gingrich's campaign, "The French Connection," stresses the similarities between Mitt Romney and John Kerry, tying the two Massachusetts politicians together with the fact that both of them speak French.

"Just like John Kerry, he speaks French, too," the ad's narrator says of Romney, showing an often-circulated clip of Romney speaking about the 2002 Winter Olympics in French.

GOP ACTING LIKE DEMOCRATS

2012-01-12T17:52:00.001-07:00

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
Will Rogers

I am delighted to see that the GOP is bringing up a real issue instead of whining about the EPA. This offers some hope that conservatism in America will turn its back on the Free Market Fairy, especially given remarks like these from a Bagger heroine:

Palin slams Romney’s jobs record: ‘Is there proof?’
By David Edwards
Thursday, January 12, 2012
THE RAW STORY

“I think what Gov. Perry is getting at is that Gov. Romney has claimed to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain and people are wanting to know, is there proof of that claim?” Palin told Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday. “And was it U.S. jobs created for United States citizens?”

“Nobody should be surprised that things about Bain Capital and maybe tax returns not being released yet and maybe some records not being as transparently provided as voters deserve to see right now, don’t be surprised that that’s all coming out today because it would come out as an October surprise had the GOP candidates not brought those out today,” she added.

“It’s kind of like some come-to-Jesus moments for some of these candidates, and that’s healthy.

WHAT NEW HAMPSHIRE CAN TELL US

2012-01-11T21:14:00.002-07:00

(h/t Mediaite)

I would say that there isn't all that much enthusiasm for the GOP candidates. The total votes in the 2008 GOP primary was 241,039 and despite all the huffing & puffing from the talk radio gasbags, the total for 2012 is only 243,098. This is similar to the small difference in Iowa between 2008 and 2012.

THE FREE MARKET DOES NOT APPLY TO AMERICAN CEOS

2012-01-11T19:57:00.003-07:00

(h/t Gary Rivlin)

Back in 2007, I noted two flagrant example of CEOs escaping the consequences of their actions. GMI provides a list of 21 CEOs who left with severance packages worth at least $100 million and here are a couple of the worst:

William D. McGuire

Mr. McGuire’s tenure at UnitedHealth ended when he became embroiled in a stock options backdating scandal. He was asked to leave the company in October 2006, after the IRS and federal prosecutors requested documents detailing his option grants. In December 2007, UnitedHealth released the findings of a Special Litigation Committee which listed repayments required by Mr. McGuire, including:
Dr. McGuire will surrender to the Company (1) all of his right, title and interest in stock options to acquire 9,223,360 shares of Company common stock, including all options unvested as of November 30, 2006; (2) all rights he has under the Company’s Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan, amounting to approximately $91 million;and (3) his rights to approximately $8 million in his Executive Savings Plan Account. Dr. McGuire will relinquish claims to (1) Company-paid health care for himself and his family; (2) participation in any Company life, dental, short-term or long-term disability insurance plans; and (3) a Company-paid office, secretarial and administrative support,and the use of Company aircraft for personal business.
He still walked away with $180.5 million in equity profits and a pension worth almost $103 million.

Thomas E. Freston

Mr. Freston was terminated as CEO of Viacom by media mogul Sumner Redstone in September 2006, just nine months after having assumed the role. Mr. Redstone’s decision was seen as a direct result of News Corp. having won a bidding war to acquire MySpace, an acquisition Mr. Redstone deeply wanted. Mr. Freston exited Viacom with salary, bonus, and deferred compensation totaling just shy of $59 million and with total severance and perquisites of more than $71 million. In addition, he received more than $17 million in pension and deferred compensation earnings as well as nearly $8 million in equity profits.

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH FOAMER LEVIN

2012-01-11T19:36:00.002-07:00

Having been overcome by the fear that a moderate (Romney) will become the nominee, Mark "Foamer" Levin compared today's primary race to 1976 when Ronald Reagan made some impressive gains after initial losses.

This might be relevant if there was an extreme conservative with Reagan's charisma BUT THERE ISN'T. In fact, Reagan himself was nowhere near as extreme as say Santorum on social issues and on fiscal issues, St. Reagan actually raised taxes.

THIS IS FRIGGING GREAT!

2012-01-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

Newt and Goodhair attack Mittens for being a vulture capitalist and Fats Limbaugh comes to Mittens' defense despite saying that Mittens isn't a conservative. Fats doesn't seem to realize that his Free Market Fairy ideology is only held by relatively few people whereas most would agree with Bill Kristol (h/t The Dish):

What's needed is a willingness to put Main Street (at least slightly) ahead of Wall Street, and a reform agenda for capitalism that strengthens it, alongside an even more dramatic reform agenda for government that limits it. Bain Capital shouldn’t be demonized. It may not even deserve to be criticized. But in laying out a way forward, conservatives might remember that Bain Capital isn’t capitalism, that capitalism by itself isn’t freedom, and that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the Gospel of Wealth.

Pew shows that a majority of Americans do think there is class warfare in America but I suspect that neither Fats nor Hannity will tell their audience about this:

YES, WE LIBERALS CAN TALK ABOUT THE ECONOMY

2012-01-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

This graph is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and shows the total number of PRIVATE SECTOR jobs over 2011:

Data extracted on: January 9, 2012 (10:13:16 PM)

Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National)

Series Id:     CES0500000001
Seasonally Adjusted

Super Sector:  Total private

Industry:      Total private

NAICS Code:    -
Data Type:     ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS

IS IT 2004 FOR THE GOP?

2012-01-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

Pew reports that Republican voters are just about as excited about the Presidential candidates as the Democrats were in 2004:

Taegan Goddard thinks Mittens made a dangerous gaffe:

Romney's comment is actually quite similar to John Kerry's, "I voted for it before I voted against it." The context didn't matter and the damage was done.

THIS IS JUST ONE REASON TO FEAR THE FUNDIES

2012-01-09T18:35:00.006-07:00

RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY:

Satan Cheers Graham, Osteen, Starr for Not Telling the Truth About Mormonism
Contact: Bill Keller, bkeller@liveprayer.com, 727-420-7005

ST PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 9, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Bill Keller, the world's leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers worldwide reading the daily devotional he has written every morning for 12 years on the issues of the day from a Biblical worldview, says Satan is cheering Rev. Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, and the former special prosecutor during the Clinton impeachment investigation Kenn Starr for being too gutless to tell the truth about Mormon cult member Mitt Romney.

A LATE XMAS PRESENT

2012-01-09T18:30:00.003-07:00

I love how these bastards are hating on each other:

Michelle Malkin:
The abysmal incompetence of the non-Romneys; Huntsman, Gingrich, Perry all go Occupier; Santorum declines — Sigh. Let me say that again: Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. — If you were unfortunate enough to watch Saturday night's GOP debate in New Hampshire, you saw a pageant of feckless non-Romneys fail …

THEY ARE AFRAID OF THE FUNDIES

2012-01-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

Not liberals, conservatives are afraid and that's why they are running away from Fundie extremism. Oddly, Fats Limbaugh rose to the defense of the GOP by denouncing the contraception question but he slit his own wrists by reminding his listeners about Robert Bork:

RUSH: Was this over the contraception business?

CALLER: Yeah, it was the contraception --

RUSH: We've got that. Let me find it here. Since you brought it up, I've got it here in the sound bite roster.

CALLER: They wouldn't show it. They didn't show the part where the audience rebelled.

RUSH: Yeah, I didn't see the debate. I read about it. My first reaction when I read this was, "What in the hell?" You know, this is what they tried to sink Robert Bork with at his confirmation hearings, the Griswold case in Connecticut about contraception.

Bork thought the states could prohibit the use of contraception even between married couples and just last October, Fetus Boy Santorum said that contraception was a threat to society, so he would support the right of states to ban contraceptives.

THE PARTY FOR THE TOP 1%

2012-01-08T16:50:00.002-07:00

Kevin Drum collected charts showing the income tax plans of 3 active candidates plus the Cainster:

ROMNEY PULLS A PERRY?

2012-01-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

(h/t Steve Benen)

It's hard to believe that Mittens was graduated from Harvard Law in 1975:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hold on a second. Governor, you went to Harvard Law School. You know very well this is based on…

ROMNEY: Has the Supreme Court — has the Supreme Court decided that states do not have the right to provide contraception?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, they have. In 1965, Griswold v. Connecticut.

Mittens should have said "prohibit" instead of "provide" but the whole exchange is odd.

AN EARLIER "INVISIBLE HAND" MENTION

2012-01-08T14:05:00.001-07:00

Before Smith and Mandeville, there was Descartes, who in 1645-46 not only described the Invisible Hand but also provided a causal explanation of why it works. From Alexis de Tocqueville : the first social scientist (2009) by Jon Elster, page 53:

In one letter, Descartes merely affirms the existence of an invisible hand:
[It] is difficult to determine exactly how far reason orders us to interest ourselves in the public; yet that is not something in which one must be very exact; it suffices to satisfy one's conscience, and in doing that, one can grant very much to one's inclination. For God has so established the order of things, and has joined men together in so connected a society, that even if everyone related only to himself and had not charity for others, a man would nevertheless ordinarily not fail to employ himself on the behalf of others in everything that would be in his powers, provided he uses prudence."
Challenged by Elisabeth to explain his argument more fully, Descartes replied as follows:
The reason that makes me believe that those who do nothing save for their own utility, ought also, if they wish to be prudent, work, as do others, for the good of others, and try to please everyone as much as they can, is that one ordinarily sees it occur that those who are deemed obliging and prompt to please also receive a quantity of good deeds from others, even from people who have never been obliged to them; and these things they would not receive did people believe them of another humor; and the pains they take to please other people are not so great as the conveniences that the friendship of those who know them provides. For others expect of us only the deeds we can render without inconvenience to ourselves, nor do we expect more of them; but it often happens that deeds that cost others little profit us very much, and can even save our life. It is true that occasionally one wastes his toil in doing good and that, on the other hand, occasionally one gains in doing evil; but that cannot change the rule of prudence that relates only to things that happen most often. As for me, the maxim I have followed in all the conduct of my life has been to follow only the grand path, and to believe that the principal subtlety [finesse] is never to make use of subtlety.

NEWTON IS DESPERATE

2012-01-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Newt Gingrich turns class warrior in an attempt to fight Mittens but it's a big FAIL. First, Newt said he wasn't rich (he is); second, he blamed Mittens "millionaire friends" for the attack ads; third, billionaire reactionary Sheldon Adelson just gave $5 million to Newt's Super-PAC.

RUSSELL ON HISTORICAL DETERMINISM

2012-01-07T16:43:00.002-07:00

This is a nice smack down of Marx, Spengler, Toynbee and others who thought they had discovered the master pattern of human social development:

History can be viewed in many ways, and many general formulae can be invented which cover enough of the ground to seem adequate if the facts are carefully selected. I suggest, without undue solemnity, the following alternative theory of the causation of the industrial revolution: industrialism is due to modem science, modem science is due to Galileo, Galileo is due to Copernicus, Copernicus is due to the Renaissance, the Renaissance is due to the fall of Constantinople, the fall of Constantinople is due to the migration of the Turks, the migration of the Turks is due to the desiccation of Central Asia. Therefore the fundamental study in searching for historical causes is hydrography.

SOURCE:Freedom and organization, 1814-1914, by Bertrand Russell; London, G. Allen & Unwin ltd. [1945]; p. 230

EMERSON ON SLAVERY

2012-01-07T15:31:00.002-07:00

Some wingnuts still insist that the Civil War was about States's Rights but they are very wrong. This is what the leading American intellectual of the time thought:

For his own part, he was convinced that there could never be peace and a real Union while this devilish slavery, seed of war, was in American soil. "Root it out," he wrote in his journal, "burn it up, pay for the damage, and let us have done with it."

This was his mood when, on May 3, 1851, he addressed the citizens of Concord on the Fugitive Slave Law. In both geography and patriotism, his address was narrowed down almost to Massachusetts. It put the South aside as essentially a separate nation. What it lacked in liberality, it made for in intensity. Infamy was in the air, Emerson warned his fellow townsmen. Who could have believed that a hundred guns would be fired Boston to celebrate the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law? There had been a political betrayal, and Webster was the arch betrayer. "All the drops his blood," Emerson declared, "have eyes that look downward." But again there was a note of wisdom. As for action, the principal thing to do to follow the example of the British in the West Indies and buy the slaves. There must have been by this time a good deal of loose talk about expense of such a move, and estimates were evidently going up by leaps and bounds. But the increasing cost did not daunt Emerson. If it going to be two thousand million dollars, as was now said, it would paid more enthusiastically than any other contribution had ever been, he was confident.

SOURCE:The life of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Rusk, Ralph L.;New York, C.Scribner's Sons, 1949.; pp. 366-67

WAS THE CORDRAY APPOINTMENT LEGIT?

2012-01-05T20:59:00.002-07:00

I can't tell myself because I have no legal training but John Elwood at The Volokh Conspiracy thinks Pres. Obama acted within the law.

IT'S NOT JUST THE PRIMARIES...

2012-01-05T18:06:00.001-07:00

the entire conservative movement in America seems to be one giant Gong Show! Consider these casually gathered facts:

- We know that for conservatives, Ronald Reagan is up there with St. Peter, Winston Churchill and Joan of Arc, and his mythic image must be defended no matter what the truth is, especially on taxes. Well, Ricky the Santorum just accused St. Raygun of contributing to the entitlement financial problem!

- A lot of the radio gasbags are turning themselves into pretzels trying to play the insider/outsider game. For example, Laura Ingrham has been claiming the insiders want to help Romney and hurt Santorum despite the fact that she's not only a DC insider, her radio show is broadcast from the frigging Heritage Foundation. Ingraham also has a hard time covering herself in Bagger populism.

- After getting their ass handed to them over the payroll tax cut, the House Baggers are beginning to implode all over the walls.

- CPAC, the biggest gathering of the movement conservatives, hasn't realized that Sarah Plain is long past her sell-by date.

- After getting completely hammered by outside groups as a direct result of the Citizens United decision, Newton Gingrich now thinks it was a bad SC decision.

- Finally, according to Erick The Deep Red, Santorum isn't conservative enough!!!

IT'S THE TURNOUT, STUPID!

2012-01-04T20:33:00.003-07:00

Despite all the agit-prop from FAUX News and the radio gasbags, the turnout in Iowa was barely above the 2008 number and that is bad news for the Baggers.

WILL MARK LEVIN HAVE TO DENOUNCE THE NATIONAL REVIEW?

2012-01-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

(h/t The Dish)

He didn't do so after Jim Manzi smacked down an important part of Liberty and Tyranny but now the National Review accuses Rick Santorum, Levin's only remaining candidate, as a "pro-life statist"!!! The term itself is from another major wingnut, Erick Erickson.

A GREAT QUESTION FOR MITT ROMNEY

2012-01-04T18:12:00.000-07:00

(I think I got this from the Monday Stephanie Miller Show but I'm not sure.)
Mitt Romney's current net worth may be as much as $250 million and in 2006, he earned over $37 million, so a natural question to ask Romney is:

HOW MANY JOBS HAVE YOU PERSONALLY CREATED IN THE LAST FEW YEARS?

After all, Romney is in the group of "job creators" that Fats Limbaugh and other gasbags claim are being attacked by Pres. Obama.

ABSOLUTE CONFIRMATION

2012-01-03T00:09:00.003-07:00

I noted before that GOP pundit Mary Matalin thinks the American people are fed up with wars and tonight I heard the greatest War Whore, Laura Ingraham, admit the same thing. This can only be more bad news for Santorum.

TWO MORE REASONS TO DESPISE SANTORUM

2012-01-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

1) Santorum: 'I'll Die' to Stop Same Sex Marriages
David Neiwert

2) For no reason, Santorum ‘singled out blacks’
January 02, 2012 12:40 PM
By Steve Benen

THE OTHER BIRTHER WACKOS

2012-01-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

The Duggars and Rick Santorum have a morbid fascination with dead fetuses. The Duggars posted pictures of their miscarriage on the Internet, including this one:

Back in 1996, the Santorums did something even stranger:

The childbirth in 1996 was a source of terrible heartbreak — the couple were told by doctors early in the pregnancy that the baby Karen was carrying had a fatal defect and would survive only for a short time outside the womb. According to Karen Santorum’s book, ”Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum,” she later developed a life-threatening intrauterine infection and a fever that reached nearly 105 degrees. She went into labor when she was 20 weeks pregnant. After resisting at first, she allowed doctors to give her the drug Pitocin to speed the birth. Gabriel lived just two hours.

What happened after the death is a kind of snapshot of a cultural divide. Some would find it discomforting, strange, even ghoulish — others brave and deeply spiritual. Rick and Karen Santorum would not let the morgue take the corpse of their newborn; they slept that night in the hospital with their lifeless baby between them. The next day, they took him home. ”Your siblings could not have been more excited about you!” Karen writes in the book, which takes the form of letters to Gabriel, mostly while he is in utero. ”Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness. Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, ‘This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel.’ ”

No wonder Jim Bob Duggar (his real name!) has endorsed Santorum.

ANDREA MITCHELL IS CORRECT ABOUT IOWA

2012-01-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

She laid on some truth about Iowa:

“The rap on Iowa,” she said. “It doesn’t represent the rest of the country… too white, too evangelical, too rural. Still here, politics are personal.”

Here are the relevant facts from the US Census:

The first number is for Iowa, the second is for America as a whole -

White persons, percent, 2010 91.3% 72.4%
Black persons, percent, 2010 2.9% 12.6%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent 5.0% 16.3%

ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE FAIL

2012-01-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

You may recall that back in 2009, the American Seniors Association was supposed to be the conservative alternative to AARP. This didn't work out very well so the wingnuts are trying again with the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). Tonight, Mark Levin said AMAC has a whopping 225,000 members which is close to a rounding error for AARP.

A SMALL VICTORY

2012-01-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

The Daily Beast does not describe Douglas Schoen as a "Democratic" anything.

RADIO TIDBITS

2012-01-01T21:49:00.001-07:00

The Gingrich radio ads on KNST are being paid for by American Solutions for Winning the Future, a group that Gingrich started.

Doc Thompson subbed for Billy Cunningham and slammed Rick Perry and the other GOP whiners for suing Virginia to allow them to appear on the primary ballot. Thompson correctly pointed out that this action doesn't show much respect for states' rights.

"OOPS" IS PREPARED?

2011-12-31T23:34:00.003-07:00

I find this claim in a POLITICO story very hard to believe:

Perry’s communications director Ray Sullivan, one of the Texas loyalists, said in an interview that he did not want to engage in arguments over what he called “tactical decisions,” but he did offer a broad defense of the early organization against the charges that they were running a White House campaign that was better suited for a governor’s race.

“We took the debates and debate preparations very seriously and we had and have a robust earned media operation,” said Sullivan. “That’s because the campaign was made up of experienced professionals who had done multiple presidential campaigns. This has always been a serious, organized, aggressive campaign operation.”

LOCAL RADIO TIDBIT

2011-12-31T17:51:00.001-07:00

There have been a number of radio ads promoting Newt Gingrich on KNST, one of the two major wingnut stations. Arizona's primary is on Feb. 28th and by that time, Newt could be out of the race.

THE FUNDIES ARE SCREWED AGAIN

2011-12-30T01:19:00.001-07:00

The Huckster couldn't get enough support in 2008 and now it looks like Michele "The Eyes" Bachmann (here and here) is going to be toast after Iowa. That leaves the Fundies with Perry, who is still an idiot, and Santorum, who doesn't have enough money. The Fundies won't cotton to Mitt the Mormon, so that leaves Newt, the serial adulterer and pseudo-intellectual.

THE FINDINGS ON TUSD'S MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

2011-12-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

You can download the judge's findings from Scribd here. Page numbers will refer to the pagination given by Adobe Acrobat, NOT the document itself.

This itself is a problem: The MAS program director, Martin Sean Arce, was uncooperative with the investigation:

55. Deputy Superintendent Menconi requested that MAS Director Arce help
coordinate a focus group interview with the Mexican American Studies community
advisory board, an advocacy group supportive of the District’s MAS program. MAS
Director Arce did not, however, provide such assistance. (page 11)

62. A major concern the Department had with the Cambium audit was that while the
Cambium Report found certain flaws in the curriculum and organizational structure of
the MAS program, it reached conclusions that did not comport with those findings. The
Department was also concerned that the person in charge of the MAS program, MAS
Director Arce, had been requested to meet or speak with the auditors but did not do so. (page 12)

Here are some of the specific findings from page 12:

60. Many of the curriculum units that were produced in response to discovery
requests made by the Department for the instant hearing were not previously produced
to Cambium or to the Department. However, based on what was produced, the auditors found
that three out of the nine total MAS curriculum units “contain an overabundance of controversial
commentary inclusive of political tones of personal activism and bias.”

Ex. A at 34 [CAM 001690].
61. Department Associate Superintendent Hrabluk testified that from reviewing
written curriculum minutes, she can tell whether a lesson is being delivered in a biased
or inappropriate manner. Department Associate Superintendent Hrabluk further
testified that from her review of the MAS materials, the MAS program was in violation of A.R.S. § 15-112.

This is the key finding:

76. Testimonial evidence presented at the hearing, in conjunction with excerpts from
texts, curriculum, assessments, and student work, demonstrates that MAS classes
cause students to develop a sense of racial resentment toward the “white oppressor”
or “dominant” group. The philosophy of “us against them” is a persistent theme that exists
within the MAS program. (page 14)

ANOTHER GLENDA BECK FAIL

2011-12-29T22:44:00.003-07:00

Despite Beck's attempt for the last 3 years to demonize progressivism, it's still more popular with Americans than conservativism. (h/t Josh Dorner at Think Progress)

From a Pew Research study:

OVERDUE CORRECTION

2011-12-28T23:56:00.001-07:00

I have used this quote from Exodus to argue that the Bible does not consider abortion murder but biblical scholar Richard Elliot Friedman pointed out in his new book that the correct translation of that passage is still in doubt.

STEVE BENEN WRITES A KEEPER

2011-12-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

(h/t The Dish)

I added just one word to make this just about perfect:

We’re talking about a French-speaking Mormon vulture capitalist [pig] named Willard, who used to support abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants, and combating climate change. He distanced himself from Reagan, attended Planned Parenthood fundraisers, and helped create the blueprint for the Affordable Care Act. He supported taxpayer-funded abortions and taxpayer-financed medical care for undocumented immigrants.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE WAS CORRECT

2011-12-28T20:32:00.001-07:00

The Mexican American studies program at the Tucson Unified School District is bogus as I had suspected a long time ago. You can read the judge's ruling on Scribd thanx to DA Morales.

WHERE ARE THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVES NOW?

2011-12-28T19:12:00.001-07:00

I never came across any Bagger denunciations of Newt Gingrich over his pledge to ignore Supreme Court decisions so I guess that made it safe for Rick Perry to say he would do the same.

WILL ONE OF THE BAGGER THREE DROP OUT AFTER IOWA?

2011-12-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Perry, Santorum and Bachmann have split up the Fundie vote in Iowa but if you combine the latest two polls for Iowa, this 3-Headed Dog is doing pretty well. CNN/TIME has Perry at 11%, Santorum at 16% and The Eyes at 9%. Summing up, the Dog has 36%. PPP has Perry at 10%, Santorum at 10% and The Eyes at 11%, summing up to 31%.

I realize that not all of these voters are interchangeable but it looks like the Fundies are still a potent force in Iowa. If Bachmann drops out after Iowa, then I expect her fans to go to either Perry or Santorum.

MORE MOTU MALFEASANCE

2011-12-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

The Bank of NY/Mellon has been caught cheating pension plans on currency exchanges and JPMorgan (h/t Atrios) screwing investors in Italy and Alabama. Using the wingnuts "rule" of zero tolerance for mistakes, shouldn't the U.S. shut down these criminal banks?

MORE ON NOCERA'S "THE BIG LIE"

2011-12-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

David Cay Johnston has done a lot of good work looking under the hood of the American financial industry and wrote this last November:

Wendy Edelberg, who was the commission’s executive director, said on Friday that “while you can never predict all panics, the flip side is this crisis was caused by human actions and was avoidable.”

She showed with hard numbers that, contrary to the nonsense being peddled by Wall Street and the politicians it finances, the meltdown was a Wall Street creation.

Edelberg presented charts showing that loan delinquencies “were lower by an order of magnitude” for government-sponsored Fannie and Freddie than for Wall Street’s mortgage-backed securities. Delinquencies at one point were 15 percent for Fannie and Freddie versus 40 percent for Wall Street.

I then began reading The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report and found this about Fannie and Freddie on page xxvi:

We conclude that these two entities contributed to the crisis, but were not a primary
cause. Importantly, GSE mortgage securities essentially maintained their value
throughout the crisis and did not contribute to the significant financial firm losses that were central to the financial crisis.

On page 218, there is a chart that compares mortgage delinquencies made by the GSE's (Fannie and Freddie) to other market segments:

FOR NORMAL FOLKS, THIS HAS BEEN OBVIOUS FOR MONTHS

2011-12-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

(h/t Atrios)

Rich Lowry of the glorious National Review tells a partial truth about The Gong Show

Speaking of discontent with the Republican field, I talked the other day to a pretty prominent conservative officeholder who’s constantly been discussing with people around the country the possibility of a new entrant or a push to draft someone....

It’s hard to argue, though, with the bottom line of this conservative: In an election with enormous consequences for the future of our country, “we don’t have our A team on the field.”

The partial lie is that there is a conservative "A Team."

PICKING ON RON PAUL

2011-12-26T17:08:00.001-07:00

I noticed this Reuters article on Yahoo News:

Paul builds campaign on doomsday scenarios
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON, Iowa | Mon Dec 26, 2011 1:43pm EST

WASHINGTON, Iowa (Reuters) - The man who might win the Republican Party's first presidential nominating contest fears that the United Nations may take control of the U.S. money supply.

Campaigning for the January 3 Iowa caucuses, Ron Paul warns of eroding civil liberties, a Soviet Union-style economic collapse and violence in the streets.

This is no different from the psycho-talk on conservative radio and I'm talking about the biggest gasbags like Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Beck and Savage.

NOW THAT THE HUBBUB HAS DIED DOWN...

2011-12-26T00:01:00.001-07:00

I think it's time for me to write about the late Christopher Hitchens: He was an asshole.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

2011-12-25T22:43:00.003-07:00

Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

This book won the 1997 Pultizer Prize for History and I found a couple of online reviews here and here.

I am only about 1/3rd of the way through but I can say that Rakove does a remarkable job showing how much political compromise was involved in both framing and ratifying the Constitution.,