Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | August 28, 2007...and why most scientists oppose the Bush administration. In a post about hurricane Katrina, Rick Perlstein writes (bold original, italics mine):
I recently had an instructive moment with a colleague here at Campaign for America's Future. We've been discussing a series of texts for a redesign of the site meant to introduce the various themes of The Big Con. In one box, he'd placed various consequences of conservative government. In another, he'd placed descriptions various fundamentals of conservative philosophy. He'd placed "cronyism" in the first box. I gently corrected him, moving it to…
mikethemadbiologist | August 27, 2007Yes, I'm kidding. But there's a new poll which should make every Republican political operative and politician terrified. From Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm:
4. Do you favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months? (Republicans Only)
Yes 51%
No 39%
Undecided 10%
Not beginning a withdrawal in six months if Iraq becomes more stable, a brigade of magical unicorns shows up, and so forth. Iowa Republicans want us out in six months. Gone. Outta (t)here. I'm not sure that we can even do that logistically, without spiking most of our heavy…
mikethemadbiologist | August 23, 2007Maha does a great job of getting at the underlying issues in the Bush adminstration's opposition to expanding the S-CHIP children's health insurance program:
The most legitimate question that we have to ask, seems to me, is why is there government? In particular, what is representative, republican government good for? Do people really elect representatives to Congress so that their needs can be ignored in favor of special interests? Is the Constitution really all about limiting the power of people to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the…
mikethemadbiologist | August 22, 2007You might have heard of Family Security Matters, a rightwing faith-tank that has been embarrassed by one of their members, Philip Atkinson. He embarased them so thoroughly that FSM has purged all reference to him from its website (more about that, later). So what was the offending passage, given that FSM's stable of commentators is, well, rather unstable? Here's Atkinson, in a column titled "Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy":
When faced with the possible threat that the Iraqis might be amassing terrible weapons that could be used to slay millions of citizens of Western Civilization,…
mikethemadbiologist | August 17, 2007Maha responds to my previous post about pseudoconservatives. I don't really have much to add to what she said, but I want to make several additional points and clarifications:
1) I agree with maha that it's difficult to figure out what conservatism is, even for conservatives. In large part, this stems from what she correctly describes as antagonism. Being opposed to something is not the same as philosophical coherency--a point I've made about the 'progressive' movement.
2) I think we also agree that the modern conservatives are running the U.S. into the ground. Increasing income…
mikethemadbiologist | August 16, 2007Maha has an interesting post about whom she calls pseudoconservatives (italics original):
Through most of our lives we've witnessed a right-wing faction take over the Republican Party and, eventually, the government. But if you think of pseudo conservatism as a philosophy -- I personally think it's more of a pathology, but let's pretend -- it's important to understand that it was never a true governing philosophy. It is better understood as an agitating philosophy. Pseudo conservatives are no more capable of responsible governance or building democratic consensus than they can fly. (Or tell…
mikethemadbiologist | August 14, 2007I try to avoid blogging about 'horse race' politics, in no small part because about nineteen percent of voters don't make up their minds until several days before an election. For a long time, I've been privately telling people that Huckabee is a serious candidate that could pose real problems for Democrats: he's very personable and non-threatening, and he's batshit loony (just the way Republicans like 'em!). So I wasn't surprised by his strong showing in the Ames straw poll in Iowa. What did surprise me was the issue that generated his support.
I thought it would be his wingnut…
mikethemadbiologist | August 13, 2007Sometimes in blogging timing is everything. I had this post about Karl Rove all ready to go, and then he goes and resigns on me. Oh well. Anyway, this is a response to an excellent post by Maha about Karl Rove's vaunted political acumen not being so, erm, acumeney. Maha writes:
Another factor: I've thought many times that the Bush White House has a weird inability to respond to unexpected events. Whenever something happens that was not on the schedule -- like 9/11 or the tsunami or Hurricane Katrina or Dick Cheney's hunting "accident" -- they are flummoxed. Often they are slow to…
mikethemadbiologist | August 12, 2007From the back cover of The Wimp Factor is this illustration that explains so much about the rise of the modern conservative movement:
From hatred of gays to blowing the crap out of the wrong country to prove that we're not weak, it is remarkable how much of this stems from male insecurity. Couldn't these wimps have bought a red sports car or had an affair instead?
mikethemadbiologist | August 7, 2007I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but meetings and work blew up on me. But just because the story is old, that doesn't mean the crazy has gone away. Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Boyda of Kansas recounted a conversation she had with a rightwing talk show host:
And finally, I would just like to share a story. When I was speaking back at home with one of a very right wing conservative talk show hosts and after, thank God, after we were off the air, I said something that I assumed he would agree with and I just said 'you know, I'm really worried about these guys and gals, but mainly…
mikethemadbiologist | August 5, 2007Much has been said about the bridge collapse, but R.J. Eskow says it best (italics mine):
It's been said before, but let's say it again: If terrorists had bombed this bridge, or destroyed the levees and flooded New Orleans, life in America would change forever. But since it's only our own governmental neglect -- and conservative greed -- nobody seems to give a damn....
Conservatives want "government so small you can drown it in a bathtub." Or the Mississippi River. Or the Ninth Ward.
Ronald Reagan's quips about taxes and bureaucracy don't seem so funny any more, do they?
The next time some…
mikethemadbiologist | August 1, 2007By way of Amanda, I found this great FAQ about libertarianism. My favorite part where he explains why he debunks libertarianism:
As I told creationists who wondered why I bothered, it's interesting to me to study unusual beliefs for the same reason it's interesting for doctors to study pathologies. You don't have to catch a disease to be able to understand it, fight it, or vaccinate against it.
Heh.
mikethemadbiologist | August 1, 2007The blogosphere is in a wee bit of a tizzy over a Vanity Fair article that hints Giuliani might be having an(other) affair, this time with advisor and motivational speaker, Starr Shephard. Personally, as long as he's not doing it in public, I don't care who Giuliani is or is not screwing, although the whole subject does generate some unappealing mental images. But the motivational guru part is disturbing.
A quick use of the Google found an advertisement placed in the Village Voice by Shephard:
Did You See or read "The Secret"? STARR is here to serve you in order for you to light the flame…
mikethemadbiologist | July 30, 2007I've called those movement conservatives who think that successful policy execution--in peace or war--is about "will", as opposed to, let's say, execution, Peter Pan conservatives. Atrios has a very good explanation of why they believe so strongly in will--their own personal experience:
I've been thinking about about certain Bushies - Bush himself, obviously, and Condi Rice - who seem to honestly believe that "will" and "resolve" are the way one gets things done instead of, you know, actually getting stuff done. I've finally decided that they're basically people have always gotten where they…
mikethemadbiologist | July 30, 2007Romney has been so good for Massachusetts. Imagine what he can do for the country. From the Boston Globe:
On all key labor market measures, the state not only lagged behind the country as a whole, but often ranked at or near the bottom of the state distribution. Formal payroll employment in the state in 2006 was still 16,000 or 0.5 percent below its average level in 2002, the year immediately prior to the start of the Romney administration. Massachusetts ranked third lowest on this key job generation measure and would have ranked second lowest if Hurricane Katrina had not devastated the…
mikethemadbiologist | July 22, 2007
(from here)
The Kansas Republican Party has a loyalty oath that its candidates have to sign. And it's not to country, but to the Republican Party:
I, _______________, promise never to abandon my present Republican Party affiliation for the purpose of political gain. The Republican Party, both nationally and domestically, was founded on sound and principled ideals, that include but are not limited to, personal liberty, individual freedom, responsive and citizen-based Government, life-affirming values, economic growth, strong and cutting edge military, low taxes and a mutual respect for…
mikethemadbiologist | July 19, 2007
Why can't you be nice to me?*
Look, I realize that Rick Perlstein's phrase 'E. coli conservatism' is a catchy way to describe the continuing breakdown of the national infrastructure. But that phrase bugs the crap out of me (pun intended).
I've noted before that most E. coli are harmless commensals--overwhlemingly, they do not cause disease. If they did, we would be sick all the time. Except immediately after certain kinds of antibiotic therapy, humans always have high concentrations of E. coli (around 1,000,000,000 per gram of poop, give or take a zero). Some cause disease, but there are…
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2007First, driftglass points out an obvious--although previously unnoticed--problem with the neocon claims that there's is no civil war in Iraq:
So if there is a Civil War, then we should leave, because there is no way for us to referee such a thing.
But if there is no Civil War, and therefore no looming threat of massive, pitched and Civil-War-like bloodshed if we leave, then the Iraqis have obviously "Stood up".
And it is time for us to stand down and go h
ome.
Read the whole thing. Then John Aravosis reminds us that the failures of this war are not Democratic ones, but Republican, when he…
mikethemadbiologist | July 16, 2007Over the weekend, there was a lot of discussion of those ridiculous conservative faithtank graphs that were rerun in the Wall Street Journal. Several of my fellow ScienceBloglings have debunked the analysis that claims these data support the Laffer curve, although my favorite criticism is by Brad DeLong who points out that to prove something the editorial writers like (the Laffer curve), the Wall Street Journal editors use the the Norwegian data, and to weaken something they don't (increased corporate taxes lead to increased tax revenue), they remove the same data.
Is there any question how…
mikethemadbiologist | July 15, 2007Actually, that's not quite accurate. I'll let this picture explain why:
(Ricardo Thomas/The Detroit News)
I should have written Republican candidate, since Rep. Tom Tancredo was the only Republican presidential candidate to show up. And Ken Mehlman wonders why the Republicans aren't doing better among black voters...
Update: Amanda has more.