Conservatives
The American two-party system is fracturing, as both sides are struggling with immense war debt, a crippled manufacturing base, and a Federal Reserve that is devaluating the currency in order to prop up financial institutions that gambled trillions and lost; their bets became our losses as they were “covered by the house”. Progressives have been decrying the centrist wishy-washiness of so many Democrats for years, and there was an outspoken expectation that once the Democrats were in power, new, more liberal parties could emerge to challenge the old-guard Democrats to veer left or be shown the door. The surprise is that the right beat them to it (and here's why that's fine...)
By Dave Lindorff
I don’t normally bother commenting on the writings of columnists like David Brooks, but today I can’t help myself.
Brooks earlier this week wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times elaborating on a blog on the site Marginal Revolution,
in which that site’s two economists speculated on what would happen if
a solar event instantly sterilized everyone, male and female, on the
side of the earth that was facing the sun at that moment, and if that
side happened to include both the US and Europe.
| Date |
Name |
Rightwing activities |
Violent act |
Rightwing response |
| 6/10/09 |
James von Brunn |
wrote anti-Semitic books and blogs |
Opened fire inside Holocaust Museum in DC, killing |
Limbaugh, Beck, Goldberg call him a leftwinger |
| 5/31/09 |
Scott Roeder |
Operation Rescue |
murdered Dr. George Tiller inside church |
O'Reilly denies calling him Dr. Killer, insists he had "blood on his hands" |
 U.S. Holocaust Museum guard Stephen Tyrone Johns became the latest victim of rightwing violence when he was shot and killed today by white supremacist James Wenneker von Brunn.
Johns' murder follows Kansas ob-gyn Dr. George Tiller and Pittsburgh cops Eric Kelly, Paul Schiullo, and Stephen Mayhle, all victims of rightwing hate.
When will the most prominent rightwing voices - politicians and talk show hosts - firmly denounce rightwing violence and hatred?
By Dave Lindorff
I don’t know at this point whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a good choice for Supreme Court Justice or a bad one.
She certainly is a lousy judge for writers and other creative
people, having ruled (and been overruled by an appellate court and
then, when that reversal was upheld, by the US Supreme Court in a case
called New York Times Inc. v. Tasini) that the Times and periodical
publishers could reprint, without any additional compensation, any
freelance works they contracted on the basis that they had a general
copyright on each entire issue they publish.
A popular lament among Conservatives is the so-called "decline of conservative values." In fact, Dr. Jo-Renee Formicola, a professor of mine at Seton Hall University, a self-proclaimed "flaming conservative," referred to Obama's election as a "referendum on conservatism." Hate to burst their bubble, but this shift to the left has been going on for quite some time. In fact, it's been happening since 1776.
Arlen Specter's switch is the first sign of a real and lasting division between "moderate" Republicans and the conservative movement that elected them and gave them power for a generation.
These "moderate" Republicans are not liberals. Most call themselves "conservatives." Their ranks include Specter, Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their spokesmen include David Brooks, David Frum, Daniel Larison, and Michael Smerconish.
Last night, Laura Ingraham told FOX:
If McCain loses, if Republicans lose seats across the board, this is a rejection of Republicans who don't follow traditional conservative principles. It's not a rejection of conservatism, or Reagan, or small government.
... I think Republicans are going to have to do some soul-searching, but not on conservative principles -- on how they governed.
Dave Neiwert replies:
how they governed was precisely according to conservative principles!
The Big Shitpile is a direct product of conservative principles enacted in governance -- namely, the Panglossian belief that deregulation of business, and the financial sector, was an unrelievedly good thing.
Atrios is shocked at the absurdity Of CNBC:
The entire financial system is practically collapsing and they're lamenting the possibility of more regulation... People who prattle on about "the free market" are usually too stupid to have a clue how complicated and pervasive the "rules" had to be to to get a well-functioning modern market system: sophisticated concepts of contracts and enforcement, property rights, legal entities, proper accounting, bankruptcy, limited liability, etc... etc..., did not descend from the heavens but were, in fact, created.
So why do conservatives want to make all these crucial rules, regulations, and laws disappear? What would our financial system look like without them?
In the last 23 months 10 Republican perverts have been exposed: Richard Curtis ®WA, Larry Craig ®ID, Bob Allen ®FL, Mark Foley ®FL, Michael A. Flory ®MI, Glen Murphy ®IN, John D.R. Atchison ®FL, Dennis Gallagher ®NY, Randall Tobias ® DC, David Vitter ® LA.
This rogues gallery accounts for at least 7 cases of infidelity, 6 cases of homosexual sex, 5 cases of prostitution/solicitation, 3 cases of rape/sexual assault, 2 cases of pedophilia, and 10 cases of hypocrisy.
The Republican party is the party of "Family Values," if your idea of a family is the Manson Family.
mike kohr
|
