Salon: A Conservative's Guide To Responding To Libya

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Snowflake Snooki Breaks Out Her Abacus

Brain stem to nowhere.

From the LA Times:

Television commentator and half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin trashed the National Endowment for the Arts recently, describing the agency as "frivolous" in a Thursday interview on a Fox News talk show. "NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of frivolous things that government shouldn't be in the business of funding with tax dollars -- those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14-trillion debt that we're going to hand to our kids and our grandkids," Palin told right-wing host Sean Hannity. "Yes, those are the type of things that for more than one reason need to be cut."
Palin did not elaborate on what the other reasons might be for chopping the NEA budget. But the government of every major civilization in world history has also prominently funded the arts.
The comment about the NEA came during a discussion of the ailing U.S. economy. Palin is certainly conversant with frivolous activity, but her grasp of the economy is weak.
Debt reduction would barely be affected by penciling out the small federal arts agency, which currently operates on a $161-million annual budget. Palin's support of a federal subsidy for the notorious "bridge to nowhere" in her state became a campaign issue when she ran for vice president on the 2008 Republican ticket. That local project carried a price tag of $223 million.
"Reality is we have 15 million Americans who are out of work," said Palin. Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry supports 5.7 million jobs and generates $166.2 billion in annual economic activity, according to Americans for the Arts. The NEA is one linchpin in that sizable economy.
In the interview Palin made no statement advocating similar budget cuts to her home state as she recommended for the NEA, which is also in the cross hairs of Washington's Republican leadership. Palin's Alaska gets $1.84 in federal spending for every dollar its citizens pay in federal taxes.

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Zero + Zero = Zero: The Logic Of Tim Pawlenty

News item: Too many ginormous corporations--like Bank of America--pay no taxes. Likely Republican presidential robot Tim Pawlenty still thinks it's too much.

From ThinkProgress:

TP: You think zero is too high with Bank of America paying nothing?

PAWLENTY: We have the highest corporate tax rate, or one of them, in the world...

Conservative Economics 101.

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Donald Trump At CPAC: Arrogant Nimrod Hints At White House Run

From Gawker:

The first day of this year's all-important Conservative Political Action Conference, a summit for top Republican politicians and operatives heading into a presidential election cycle, wasn't dominated by Newt Gingrich or Tim Pawlenty or any other actual Republican politician. It was Donald Trump, the wealthy television clown, who stole the show with the blunt, meandering speech he'd invited himself to deliver at the last minute.
Why was Donald Trump even at this conference for dyed-in-the-wool conservative activists and humorless Ayn Rand cultists? Apparently he's still pretending to consider a run for the Republican presidential nomination, just like he was four months ago. And in his speech today he said he'd reach a decision by June, which gives him another four months to win cheap headlines by pretending to consider a run for president.
His speech, like all good Donald Trump speeches, was a stream-of-consciousness flushing of whatever arrogant quips were swirling through his thick head at the time. Here's a sampler:
"If I run and if I win," he said, "this country will be respected again. I can tell you that."

Jesus Christ, the Republican Party sure does trot out a stable of diseased horses, doesn't it?
Anyway, there's more here, including video of The Donald pissing off conservatives by telling them Ron Paul has "zero" chance of being elected president.
(Spoiler alert--it didn't go over very well...)

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Mind Games

Positively reptilian...

From Salon.com:

A study to be published next year at University College London suggests that conservative brains are structured differently than the brains of other people. The investigation, led by Geraint Rees, focused on 92 individuals in the U.K. -- 90 students and two members of Parliament.

Specifically, the research shows that people with conservative tendencies have a larger amygdala and a smaller anterior cingulate than other people. The amygdala -- typically thought of as the "primitive brain" -- is responsible for reflexive impulses, like fear. The anterior cingulate is thought to be responsible for courage and optimism. This one-two punch could be responsible for many of the anecdotal claims that conservatives "think differently" from others.

Huh. Size does matter. Wrap your mind around more here.

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Same As It Ever Was...

Paul Krugman of the NY Times is scratching his head, too:

When historians look back at 2008-10, what will puzzle them most, I believe, is the strange triumph of failed ideas. Free-market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything — yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever.

How did that happen? How, after runaway banks brought the economy to its knees, did we end up with Ron Paul, who says “I don’t think we need regulators,” about to take over a key House panel overseeing the Fed? How, after the experiences of the Clinton and Bush administrations — the first raised taxes and presided over spectacular job growth; the second cut taxes and presided over anemic growth even before the crisis — did we end up with bipartisan agreement on even more tax cuts?

...To borrow the title of a recent book by the Australian economist John Quiggin on doctrines that the crisis should have killed but didn’t, we’re still — perhaps more than ever — ruled by “zombie economics.” Why?

Helluva question, Paul...

Krugman's piece is here.

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Here's The Least We Could Do

From ABC News:

"I'm looking at the lay of the land now, and ... trying to figure that out, if it's a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it's a good thing," (Sarah) Palin said in an interview scheduled to air in full Dec. 9 on ABC as part of (Barbara) Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People" of 2010.
Asked Walters: "If you ran for president, could you beat Barack Obama?"
"I believe so," Palin said.

Note to self: research expatriate job opportunities.

From Gawker: Five Foreign Cities To Move To When The Tea Party Takes Over America

Toronto

Buenos Aires

Stockholm

Vancouver

Paris

H/T: Gawker

Junkyard Dogs

(H/T: Salon.com)

Newt's Inner Child Is On The Case...

"Some Of My Best Friends Are Purple With Green Splotches!"

(Click image to enlarge.)

From "The 45 Dumbest Signs At The 9/12 Tea Party Rally."

Really? Only 45?

See them all here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-45-dumbest-signs-at-the-912-teabagger-rally

Keeping It Unreal

Right-Wing Excess Lives In Texas.

Glenn Beckian history...

From the New York Times:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
The vote was 10 to 5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it.
In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.
“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”
Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”
“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”
“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”
They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)

JackRabbit Café was unable to confirm a rumor that Texas conservatives attempted to place Ronald Reagan at the Last Supper, penning the first draft of the Declaration of Independence while Nancy stared, dreamlike, busily powdering her crazy man's wig.

John McCain To Sarah Palin: Love Me Tender.

Everybody knows John McCain made a huge McStake in '08 when he picked a McIdiot for his running mate. Now the cranky contrarian is being challenged for his Senate seat by Tea Party touchhole J.D. Hayworth, so he's reached out to that same McStake to help save his ancient ass.

So out trotted Sarah Palin, dressed like Elvis in '68, and she prattled on about something or other, John McCain hugged her in his vaguely creepy way, and the rabid righties ate it all up.

Meanwhile, RNC plans to exhume the bones of Ronald Reagan in time for the 2012 presidential campaign are busily being etched on the Mayan calendar, just in time for the end of the world.

Conservative Chronicles.

Republican National Committee: Same Old Song & Dance.

From the New York Times comes further proof that the Republican Party is so far off the deep end that it's scraping bottom:

The battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for — and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on important issues — is probably going to move from the states to the Republican National Committee when it holds its winter meeting this January in Honolulu.

Republican leaders are circulating a resolution listing 10 positions Republican candidates should support to demonstrate that they “espouse conservative principles and public policies” that are in opposition to “Obama’s socialist agenda.” According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement

The proposed resolution was signed by 10 Republican national committee members and was distributed on Monday morning. They are asking for the resolution to be debated when Republicans gather for their winter meeting.

The resolution invokes Ronald Reagan, and noted that Mr. Reagan had said the Republican Party should be devoted to conservative principles but also be open to diverse views. President Reagan believed, the resolution notes, “that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent.”

Hence the provision calling for cutting off Republicans who agree with the party on seven of 10 items. The resolution demands that Republicans support “smaller government, smaller national deficits and lower taxes,” denial of government funding for abortion, and “victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.” It calls on candidates to oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants and repealing of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Invoking Ronald Reagan is still considered a winning formula for the GOP. Why not go really old school, and throw in Herbert Hoover, too?

Dirty Money.

H/T: LobbyBlog/HuffPo.

Crazy Is As Crazy Does.

If conservatives wish to separate themselves from the right-wing dead-enders many claim do not speak for them, and if they wish to be taken seriously and stop being viewed as insane, maybe this list from Karl Frisch of Media Matters would be a good place for them to start:

Top Ten list of "Right-Wingers From Whom Conservatives Should Be Demanding Apologies."

10) Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, for falsely claiming a hate-crimes bill that adds gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans to the list of protected groups would also protect those who commit incest, necrophilia, pedophilia, bestiality, and a host of other perversions.

9) Fox News' Sean Hannity, for hosting "Internet journalist" Andy Martin, who once called a judge a "crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race."

8) Syndicated radio host Neal Boortz, for describing welfare recipients as "human parasitic garbage lining up to get their applications to loot."

7) Fox News conspiracy-theorist-in-chief Glenn Beck, for describing Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court as, "Hey, Hispanic chick lady! You're empathetic. ... You're in!"

6) MSNBC's resident cranky uncle, Pat Buchanan, for saying prior to Sotomayor's selection that he wanted Obama to pick a Supreme Court justice "who has real stature, impresses people" but thinking instead that Obama would pick "a minority, a woman and/or a Hispanic."

5) Syndicated radio host Jim Quinn, for repeatedly calling NOW the "National Organization of Whores."

4) Cincinnati-based radio host Bill Cunningham, for alleging that "Obama wants to gas the Jews."

3) Michael Savage (née Weiner), the third-highest-rated radio host in America, for saying "Obama hates" and "is raping America."

2) Fox News' irrepressible mega-star Bill O'Reilly, for repeatedly quacking that the legalization of gay marriage could lead to folks marrying ducks.

And No. 1, the conservative movement's de facto leader, Rush Limbaugh, for saying of Obama, "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."

Conservatives, that'll get you started. Let us know when you need more names.