POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Discover Magazine a Political Organ

Discover Magazine online has a piece on "The Mainstreaming of Crazy" that rails against the uproar over Obama's school speech. It really mutilates a large number of strawmen:

Perhaps you’ve heard all the uproar about President Obama’s speech today. A group of folks is very concerned about a speech of his today, because he’s talking to schoolkids. And hey, didn’t Hitler talk to kids…?

That’s about as good as their logic gets. I wish I were kidding. Read the transcript of Obama’s speech, and see if you can find the alarming parts where he calls for the formation of Brown Shirts, or the extermination of a group of humans, or the invasion of Poland. I must have missed it . . . .

Well, here's Zombie's retrospective on Bush as Hitler, if you insist on going there, dude. Then, of course, there's the Congressional investigation that was launched after Bush the Elder addressed the schoolkids of America during his tenure.

But rail on.

If I sound angry, then, yeah, I am. I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact.

It’s killing any real debate in this country, where the system of government depends utterly on a well-informed public. When rampant idiocy is presented as reasonable discourse without any rebuttal, then we all suffer.

What we need are government officials not afraid to talk like Barney Frank did to such a voice of lunacy. To reiterate, crackpots have a right to air their diseased notions, just as we have the right to tear those ideas to shred when they do. More than that, the news media have a responsibility to do so.

I'm sure you believe that Barney Frank had no idea a homosexual whorehouse was being run out of his brownstone, either, and that he had nothing to do with the spectacular collapse of Fannie and Freddie.

I'm sure that you believe that Van Jones was the victim of a vicious smear campaign.

But really, that brings me to my point: where's your outrage for the insane calumnies of the Truthers? Talk about mainsteaming the crazy. Do you think that maybe Barack Obama ought to put out something more than Gibbs' "doesn't agree with that"? Do you think, maybe, that it's a little insane not to vet someone who's supposed to be in charge of fostering the "Green Economy"? Aren't those people who are expecting a jobs windfall from "Green Energy" kinda whistling Dixie? You don't think that it has anything to do with the disdain he's shown for other people?

And to think, judging by the URL, that the original title was "The Mainstreaming of EVIL." Stick it.

If Obama really wanted students to take ownership of their education, he'd be advocating expansion of vouchers, but he's too beholden to the teachers unions. And tonight, he goes to bat for the public option that's good enough for the public, but not the Congress. Maybe I shouldn't be insulted . . . but I am.

UPDATE: Camille Paglia gets it.

By foolishly trying to reduce all objections to healthcare reform to the malevolence of obstructionist Republicans, Democrats have managed to destroy the national coalition that elected Obama and that is unlikely to be repaired. If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis. It is theoretically possible that Obama could turn the situation around with a strong speech on healthcare to Congress this week, but after a summer of grisly hemorrhaging, too much damage has been done. At this point, Democrats' main hope for the 2012 presidential election is that Republicans nominate another hopelessly feeble candidate. Given the GOP's facility for shooting itself in the foot, that may well happen.

Obama came into office wanting to politicize the American public. Congratulations.

REUPDATE: Via Dan Riehl, we discover Phil Plait is a professional skeptic. Wow.

REREUPDATE: Stacy's terrific piece on what Classical Liberalism is and isn't.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Blago Speaks

From the very beginning, Blago's security was lodged in what he knew about other very well connected politicians, and what it would mean if he were rolled. It's with exquisite timing that he decided to speak now, when so much of Obama's agenda hangs in the balance and in the wake of the Van Jones fiasco.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Tuesday that statements he made on secret FBI wiretap tapes were taken out of context by prosecutors and that he might try to call senators and a top White House official as witnesses at his racketeering and fraud trial to back his version of events.

Blagojevich told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he might even try to subpoena President Barack Obama as a witness at his trial, but the court is unlikely to compel the president to testify.

It will be interesting to see whether the DoJ attempts to quash Fitzgerald's investigation.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Now were talkin’ ’bout some real health care reform

 

 Instead of poll-driven ’solutions,’ let’s talk about real health-care reform: market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven. As the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon and others have argued, such policies include giving all individuals the same tax benefits received by those who get coverage through their employers; providing Medicare recipients with vouchers that allow them to purchase their own coverage; reforming tort laws to potentially save billions each year in wasteful spending; and changing costly state regulations to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. Rather than another top-down government plan, let’s give Americans control over their own health care."

Well, well, well; imagine Governor Nobody beating his won-ness to the punch, and perhaps stealing just a bit of his thunder tomorrow.  Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!  Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing; it's pretty good, in spite of the fact that she's a, you know, chill-billy...

UPDATE: Sticking with his Trojan Horse fantasy, the WSJ confirms that Obama will endorse the public option plan in tonights speech.  One! there's nothin' wrong with me, Two! there's nothin' worng with me...

UPDATE II:  For all of her irrelevance, Palin seems to be the only Republican called out, by name, in the President's speech talking points that are being circulated by the White House to their Hill allies; according to Politico.

UPDATE III:  Ace skewers Marc Ambinder for being, as Kaus laughingly observes, the only political writer willing to commit the most ludicrous spin from the White House to postings which are supposed to be seriously-intended.

UPDATE IV: Palin responds to the White House talking points singling her out for criticism with a shot across Obama, and the MSM's, bows!

BOO-YAH! BABY

Rocketman

This is Big Trouble

Trouble... Big Trouble

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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The Smegmatists

This morning, Dan Riehl and Stacy McCain react to their invitation to join the cadre of Intellectual Smegmatism against the unwashed masses of Movement Conservatives.

A little background may be in order. Finding that the Democrats are hopelessly divided against themselves over the issue of health care, and reeling from the forced departure of Van Jones, the intellectuals in the party have determined that these activated citizens are really wagging the dog--which would be them, naturally: the foreordained leaders by virtue of their highly developed crania, which even the most rank amateur of phrenology can see. So, it's time for a purge of WND, which has given a voice to "the paranoid style." Nevermind that there really is an Obama Youth League. (I keed!)

So, useful idiots and intellectual panjandrums in their own conceit Rick Moran and Dave Wiegel pen pieces lamenting the death of intellectualism in conservatism, joined by Patrick Ruffini, also at The Next Right, and echoed by Megan McArdle, whereupon these views are instantly recapitulated on The Rachel Maddow Show. Ana Marie Cox is guest hosting, and her guest is Tanenhaus, editor of the NYT Review of Books, whose own book, happily, is about . . . The Death of Conservatism.

He recalls true conservative intellectual William F. Buckley, Jr., who, being dead, is laudable. Buckley famously booted the John Birch Society from the ranks of mainstream conservatism, with his denunciations read into the Congressional Record. Where, Tanenhaus wonders, are the equivalent figures in today's conservative movement?

I'll tell you what. Let's get Cornyn to denounce the Birthers, and Pelosi to denounce the Truthers. Problem is, she can't: they're her base. Mustn't let plebes seize power through such reactionary means as plebescites.

This is a little like the pro-reform doctor who wants opponents of ObamaCare to forego Medicare: sure, just give them back the money they paid into the system, first. But before any of that, let's find out from Obama and Arianna whether it's acceptable to have Truthers in positions of high government trust.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Erm – Speedbump

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Good Science, Police Work Help Milwaukee Cops Arrest Suspect After Only 9 Victims

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Happy News for Dahlhalla

Sad news for single guy twitterers:

Dahlhalla's engagement ring

Nevertheless, you can sample some of the charms of the Interesting Creature, here.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Obamalaission

Obama's drive to combine the best aspects of the Carter Malaise and the Great Depression continues, with the combination of moonshine with Lady GaGa.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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