C’mon, usual suspects.

[Read more →]

All sorts of goodness, really, to be gleaned from McClellan’s upcoming book:
The president’s real motivation for the war, he said, was to transform the Middle East to ensure an enduring peace in the region. But the White House effort to sell the war as necessary due to the stated threat posed by Saddam Hussein was […]

[Read more →]

In these trying times, movement types try to claim it’s a yawning chasm. Kevin Drum is having none of it:
Nonetheless, now that the Republican Party has been brought low, an awful lot of conservatives are jumping ship, claiming that it really doesn’t represent them at all. But look: when the GOP made common cause with […]

[Read more →]

Kevin Drum, in a smart post on how conservatism now bears a resemblance to liberalism of the late ’70s:
The great liberal wave that lasted from the 30s through the 70s was fundamentally based on three things: middle class wage growth, the construction of a social safety net, and the individual rights revolution. Its other pathologies […]

[Read more →]

 
People sometimes wonder where the bit about ”The Leader” or “Our Leader” or “Teh Leader” comes from. Above is one example.

[Read more →]

Gary Hart goes Godwin right out of the box:
Historians of early 21st century American politics will remark the degree to which radical forces, usually called neoconservatives, perverted language as recommended by the National Socialist Party in 1930s Germany. Continue to demonize liberals, blame them for all social and economic problems, and soon enough no one […]

[Read more →]

Sullivan links to a piece, maybe in part because it mentions him in glowing terms - but also because it makes some points we’re all losing sight of as Hillary chases her white whale:
Considering how much attention mass media has spent on electoral politics it has missed the elephant in the room (pardon the pun): […]

[Read more →]

And I’m tempted to say ignorance is bliss. But I won’t. Or maybe I just did.
In any event:

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.
Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the […]

[Read more →]

I hadn’t called Shawn the drummer for months, and I felt cheesy about it. With the class and the kids and everything else there’s just no time to rock and roll, but my stuff - an amp, microphone, various stands, etc. - were still at his house. So I dropped him an e-mail: Uh, I […]

[Read more →]

In the midst of a piece that sets my teeth on edge because she gets into the “Why doesn’t Obama wear the pin?” business - more on that when I have time to think and write, which won’t be today - Peggy Noonan actually gets around to something that I think is relevant - as […]

[Read more →]

We do know the GOP likes to claim it’s the “party of ideas.” Too bad they wage war on actual thought.

[Read more →]

So I saw the headline in this morning’s Intell and figured the boards would be in full-throated howl about this. Not quite the case yet, but getting there.
And, with the type of howl that might have been expected. How could Manheim Township do this, think of the traffic, etc. Many valid concerns, though this is […]

[Read more →]

Sullivan on right-wing columnist Hugh Hewitt’s free-association conservatism:
It would be helpful if Hewitt were to provide a guide to what he thinks “right” and “left” now are. Hewitt has supported a party that has added $32 trillion to our future unfunded debt in seven years. Is that right or left? Hewitt supports an open-ended project […]

[Read more →]

Love-ly. Glenn Greenwald links to a just ducky post on a conservative blog which, beneath a wonderful Easter poem and picture of the crucified Christ, goes on to air some rather pungent thoughts about Barack Obama’s proposed national discussion on race:
On the other hand, I am sick to death of black people as a group. The truth. […]

[Read more →]

The incredible shrinking GOP:

The balance of party identification in the American electorate now favors the Democratic Party by a decidedly larger margin than in either of the two previous presidential election cycles.
In 5,566 interviews with registered voters conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press during the first two months of […]

[Read more →]

Via Kevin Drum, Rick Perlstein explains why that “Thank you, President Bush” was planted in that Lititz lawn in the first place:
The “Reagan rebound,” he said at this morning’s panel “Bushed: Conservative Failure and the Danger the Legacy Lives On,” “allowed them to define conservative government as a success.” It had, indeed, been a conscious […]

[Read more →]

I’m going to link this with the caveat that you might not be able to get through, for whatever reason the site seems to be periodically down. Nevertheless:
I’m sure it will come as no surprise that an evil lib’rul like me occasionally peruses the Village Voice. Though in this case, I merely happened across a […]

[Read more →]

Getting a chuckle from all the e-mail from conservatives who are outraged, outraged that I would dare point out their “progressivism.” Which brings to mind something else:
Iraq.
The war to “liberate” Iraq was, of course, touted as a moral necessity. We, the United States, had a moral mission to bestow democracy upon the poor, oppressed Arabs. […]

[Read more →]

James Wolcott in a surprisingly reverent piece which nevertheless grasps the state of the movement that Buckley himself can take credit for kick-starting:
Politically, his importance is large and enduring. As Spencer Ackerman correctly reckons at Washington Independent, “No William F. Buckley, no National Review; no National Review, no Goldwater movement; no Goldwater movement, no Ronald […]

[Read more →]

I was curious to see what the right’s response to the McCain story would be; given that movement types like Limbaugh already detested McCain, one of two things could have happened - either the story could have further alienated conservatives from their party’s presumptive nominee, or the story could bridge the gap between McCain and […]

[Read more →]