Conservatives
mikethemadbiologist | June 21, 2011You might have heard that last weekend, Netroots Nation, a progressive organization, had its annual convention. Oddly, Right Online, a conservative organization, also its annual meeting--in the same hotel. So two Netroots Nation attendees decided to go undercover. Needless to say, comedy ensues. Here's a taste:
I give Elon a once over. He could not be dressed more inappropriately for a giant Republican-o-rama. I think some sort of effort was made with a buttoned up black cardigan over a clean white t-shirt but still, having done some reconnaissance work walking around the public areas of…
mikethemadbiologist | June 8, 2011Conservative commentator Dennis Prager has a nice little bigot eruption, brought to us by Thers at Whiskey Fire:
It is hard to imagine a more demeaning statement about black America than labeling demands that all voters show a photo ID anti-black.
This is easily demonstrated. Imagine if some Democratic politician had announced that demanding a photo ID at the voting booth was an attempt to keep Jewish Americans from voting. No one would understand what the person was talking about. But why not? Jews vote almost as lopsidedly Democrat as do blacks. So why weren't Jews included in liberal…
mikethemadbiologist | June 7, 2011By now, you might have heard that politicovangelist possible presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been burbling inanities about Paul Revere, including this doozy:
He [Revere] who warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms, by ringing those bells, and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.
She then doubled down on her idiocy. Amanda Marcotte puts this into context:
But I think it helps to understand that, for right-wing populists, this thing we call "…
mikethemadbiologist | May 31, 2011There's been a lot of discussion about the report released by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) alleging waste and fraud by the National Science Foundation (NSF), including posts by Dr. O, Steve Silberman, Namnezia, NeuroDojo, The Prodigal Academic, and Stephanie Pappas. The first thing to realize about Tom Coburn is that he's a full-blown wackaloon--in 2004, Coburn was warning us about the looming lesbian threat:
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Republican Senate candidate in Oklahoma warns of "rampant" lesbianism in some schools in the state in a tape released Monday by his Democratic opponent.
The remark…
mikethemadbiologist | May 29, 2011This is disgusting:
Following up on their threat, Catholic Charities of Rockford, IL, have voluntarily ended all their adoption and foster care services rather than comply with the civil unions law that will take effect next week. In doing so, the organization terminated $7.5 million in state contracts, fired 58 workers, and likely displaced 350 foster children.
Despite claims of religious freedom, this is what it's really about:
But the decision had nothing to do with the children (who will do just fine with same-sex families) and nothing to do with religious liberty. It was a blatant choice…
mikethemadbiologist | May 21, 2011Earlier this week, Republican presidential hopeful Governor Tim Pawlenty uttered something, that if it had been said by a Democrat, would have led to accusations of elitism, snootiness, and disdain for 'real' Americans. Faced with the question of why he decided to run for president, Pawlenty responded (italics mine):
I try again, saying I am curious about when he first imagined himself worthy of the history books, ready to send soldiers to their deaths and endure the national stage's harsh toll. "I don't know," he replies. "I wish I had a good answer for you on that." Pawlenty says it is not…
mikethemadbiologist | May 18, 2011So batshitloonitarian libertarian Ron Paul, who isn't a racist, but just happens to adopt civil rights positions completely identical to those held by racists, has a slight problem. As Brad DeLong notes, he does believe in a very active role for government--but only on behalf of certain people (italics original; boldface mine):
When you own a hotel and bar Black people what happens is that if Black people comes in and sleep in the beds you call the police--functionaries of the state--and they then take the Black people away and charge them with trespass. When you own a bus and require Black…
mikethemadbiologist | May 11, 2011...that's pretty good, even if you're not a wackaloon Chartalist like the Mad Biologist. Andrew Samwick writes:
The right reasoning is that with aggregate demand lower by hundreds of billions of dollars a year, there are unemployed and underemployed workers and underutilized capital whose services could be purchased on the cheap. If we have projects that add long-term value, this is the right time to be undertaking them. Plenty of those projects are to repair and maintain our seriously degraded infrastructure. Others are to make the upgrades necessary to plan for a future with different…
mikethemadbiologist | April 14, 2011A while ago, I made the following observation in "A Nation of Deluded Dependents" about how many who receive government assistance don't even realize (or perhaps admit) that it's government assistance:
This seems a case of willful ignorance by definition. Government aid is for lazy slackers, for 'welfare queens', and, in some people's minds, for those people. Decent, hard-working people don't receive government aid, even when they do. In other words, any program that helps middle-class people, people like themselves, is, by definition, not aid, because government aid is inherently…
mikethemadbiologist | April 13, 2011Hopefully, I'll suffer the same lack of consequences. Regarding Planned Parenthood, Republican Senator John Kyl recently uttered this factually disabled statement:
...Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) defended Republicans' willingness to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood by falsely claiming that abortion is "well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does." In reality, just three percent of its work is related to abortion. This afternoon, CNN brought on Planned Parenthood's Judy Tabar to discuss his comment. During the interview, CNN anchor TJ Holmes relayed a statement…
mikethemadbiologist | April 10, 2011David Plouffe, Obama's spokesman, responds to critics of Obama's capitulation to the Republicans:
"I would ask Robert Reich and others to actually consume the details of this," Mr. Plouffe said in an interview on Saturday. "There are some in our country who simply believe spending cuts are not required to help the economy. The president has made it very clear that we cannot stay on this fiscal trajectory."
Actually, many people in our country simply think cutting government spending with one of out seven Americans out of work or working too few hours is batshit lunacy. We've been through…
mikethemadbiologist | April 7, 2011According to Florida Republicans, these are freeloading parasites not worthy of your tax dollars (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
We typically think of budgets as boring, dry things, the charge of the green eyeshade brigade. But they are a profound statement of what we think is important, of who we fundamentally are. And Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott's budget proclaims him to be a monster. Republican Gov. Scott has recently ordered massive cuts to group homes for the developmentally disabled:
Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered deep cuts Thursday to programs that serve tens…
mikethemadbiologist | April 2, 2011You might remember the recent assault on Planned Parenthood by the rightwing. Well, I forgot that former congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave also got in on the act:
Former Congresswoman and anti-abortion rights advocate Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) suggested Planned Parenthood covers up sexual assaults against underage girls during the Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines on Saturday.
When asked by another advocate in the audience how to best pressure the Senate into defunding Planned Parenthood, Musgrave recalled watching a recent interview with former star NFL linebacker Lawrence…
mikethemadbiologist | April 2, 2011I guess I'm so inured to wealthy conservatives complaining about how financially hard they have it that Republican Congressman Sean Duffy's complaint about money wasn't what bothered me about this utterance:
At a town hall meeting in Polk County, Wisconsin earlier this year, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) was asked whether he'd vote to cut his $174,000 annual salary. Duffy sort of hedged, and went on to talk about how $174,000 really isn't that much for his family of seven to live on....
Here's what Duffy says about his salary:
I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt…
mikethemadbiologist | March 28, 2011Matthew Yglesias makes a good point about budget negotiations--their intransigence on tax increases means that, at least in the House, the budget is entirely up to the Republicans:
Under these circumstances, there's nothing to negotiate about and nothing presidential leadership can achieve. If Republican leaders don't want to agree to any revenue increases, that's their prerogative, but willingness to compromise on revenue is the sine qua non of a bipartisan deal. Absent that willingness, there neither can nor will be a bipartisan deal so there's nothing for the president to say or do.
The…
mikethemadbiologist | March 24, 2011By way of Roy Edroso, we unfortunately come across this Washington Times gay-hating screed that masquerades as religious-based love. So ordinarily I would give it a pass, except for this idiotic doosy:
And what about the Creator of the Universe? It is God's moral code that has undergirded Western society for more than 3,500 years.
Actually, the Big Fella is probably doing just fine. But it's that 3,500 years that's pretty fucking stupid.
I know my people get around, but until 2,000 years ago, we lived in the Levant, also known as the Middle East. Not the Middle West. East. Christianity…
mikethemadbiologist | March 21, 2011Rightwing wackaloon and Minnesota Congresswoman and possible presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been traveling hither and yon in New Hampshire, which, according to Bachmann, is where the 'shot heard round the world' was fired. For those who don't routinely wallow in the depths of the Republican id, one of Bachmann's signature issues is saving the incandescent light bulb. No, really, I'm not kidding:
She conjured a tea bag from a hidden compartment in her blazer and began waggling it at the crowd.
She waggled it while stumping for her Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, a bill she…
mikethemadbiologist | March 20, 2011If you haven't heard, rightwing slime mongerer James O'Keefe struck again and managed to give National Public Radio (NPR) a black eye, although to a considerable extent, this was a self-inflicted wound. Over at Whiskey Fire, Thers makes a very astute observation (italics mine):
The most bizarre aspect of this wingnut "sting" is its intended "gotcha." What the wingnuts thought they would be able to "prove" is that NPR is a biased socialist left-wing organization that would be thrilled to spread Islamist propaganda for a hefty paycheck.
What got the NPR executives fired was their alleged…
mikethemadbiologist | March 19, 2011Even movie villians aren't this twisted. And, no, I'm not making this up (italics mine):
Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
In testimony to a House taxation…
mikethemadbiologist | March 18, 2011By way of John Sides, we come across this analysis of some data from the General Social Survey:
(the five categories of educational status are, from left to right: didn't graduate from high school, high school graduate, some college, college graduate, post-graduate degree)
While connecting the dots in a line is a little misleading (there's no reason to think that a college graduate is twice as educated as a high school graduate), there are two interesting things here:
1) Conservatives with a lot of education rank the same as liberals with a high school education. If supporters of evolution…