Conservative

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.

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.

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?

On Tuesday, just as Republicans were launching their full-scale attack on Moveon for running a newspaper ad, George Bush hosted a White House rally for rightwing groups that issue death threats against Americans, viciously insult generals, and physically assault Gold Star fathers.

Here's the report from rightwing hate central, FreeRepublic.com (h/t Aravosis and Hamsher)

According to news reports, Florida Representative Bob Allen (Republican) was arrested last July 11 for soliciting sex from an undercover black male cop. The reason he gave was his fear of black men...

Now many will quickly ask what rational person would believe such a cockamamy story ?

But hold on, now.. READ THE REST

Ann Coulter, that contemptuous example of "compassionate conservatism," infamous for bashing the 911 widows who "marinate in their exquisite personal agony...I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much" while promoting her misinformed and skewed diatribe "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" struck out twice at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

First, she simultaneously smeared gays and John Edwards with this despicable comment:

"COULTER: Oh, and I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards. But it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word "faggot," so I'm -- so I'm kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards. So I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions."