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POPS3 Myths About Offshore Drilling "Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed "not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita." This myth has been told again and again by the likes ofGov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Mike Huckabee, George Will, and Bill O'Reilly. There were, in fact, major onshore and offshore spills due to the hurricanes."
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POPSCongress Should Be Winding Fannie and Freddie Down receivership and restructure them. This could take place without Congress having to pass a resolution explicitly guaranteeing all $5 trillion of the GSEs’ liabilities. That dreaded scenario would double the size of the public debt and drive the dollar to new lows. This episode demonstrates how stupid and dangerous it is to allow any company to operate under the assumption that it keeps the profits while the taxpayers take the losses. For now, the U.S. has to make clear that it is standing behind Fannie and Freddie and will not allow them to fail. But to prevent an even worse catastrophe in the future, Fannie and Freddie should be broken up or dramatically downsized. It may sound strange for conservatives to back a government takeover of any company, but a takeover aimed at restructuring, downsizing, and eventually reprivatizating the GSEs might be the least bad option if a run on them actually materializes.
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POPSMoyers: Conservatives had their chance and Blew it!
On top of such bungled calamities as Iraq and Katrina… GEORGE W. BUSH: Again I want to thank you all for- and Brownie you're doing a heck of a job. BILL MOYERS: The conservative regime sent spending into the stratosphere…borrowed trillions from the future to pay for their agenda, and rewarded their wealthy base with huge tax cuts. Earmarks and contracts fattened lobbyists on K Street, which Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay honed into a ruthless shakedown machine exploited by conservative movement stars like Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, and Jack Abramoff. JACK ABRAMOFF: Senator, I respectfully invoke the privileges previously stated. SEN. KENT CONRAD: And I'd say to you Mr. Abramoff, shame on you. BILL MOYERS: And after crusading for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, conservatives pushing family values turned out to be their own worst enemies. Some of their foot soldiers in politics and the religious right were outed for adultery, stalking Capitol Hill pages, soliciting sex. Be
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POPSDems stand with Freddy and Fannie during housing scandel IT appears there is not a shady deal Obama's party does not like. They seem to have their fingers in everything that is bad for America, and by inference good for themselves. I guess lining one's own pocket is the goal of government office holders and leading the pack is the Pelosi, Schumer white house. Obama is not stain free in this one either for apparently he was cozy with ACORN in Chicago. I do not know if it is just me but does it seem like all of Obama's major associations are implicated in some sort of nefarious activity? So much for change. Seems like business as usual to this old bird.
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POPSGeorge Bush's Socialist Solution to Fannie & Freddie It's a good thing Bush is a Republican. Otherwise his federal bailout would qualify him as a "red." Like Regan with the savings and loan crisis, lurking in the hearts of "conservatives" is a quasi Bolshevik to rescue them once they've wrecked the economy through permitting rapacious profit-taking and inadequate regulation.
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POPS'If You're Against Torture, You're Not a Conservative' The GOP has long been a party of followers in search of leaders, making it home to authoritarians and police-state types of all stripes -- frightened children in search of daddies, to be blunt. But it seems that under Bush, the Republican Party has moved beyond authoritarianism to unapologetic evil. No wonder they're screwed.
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POPSBush urges expanded drilling of Alaskan wildlife New tech allows boring through bull-walrus midsections. Conservatives rage against saying anything funny about not drilling in ANWR, citing apocalyptic destruction of American values. Urge technology tax credits for development of higher petroleum use. "Americans should be able to bathe themselves in light sweet crude."
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POPSWhite House Loses Secrecy Fight You've got wonder what they're trying to hide. Why should Cheney be embarrassed by visits from "prominent religious conservatives?" Oops! Stupid question -- they're all freakin' crazy. Nice to see sanity and transparency win out for once, though.
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POPSWhy some conservatives are backing Obama How you vote should be governed by your interpretation of what the candidates have to offer. You may be able to think of the good of the country or you may be pressed by the need for food, shelter and clothing (not to mention medical insurance).
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POPSConservatives At Odds With McCain But perhaps more importantly, he has long been an advocate of entitlement reform. He was early an ardent support of personal accounts for Social Security, and has pushed for serious Medicare reform, including means-testing. Almost alone among Republicans, he opposed the disastrous Medicare prescription drug benefit. "On domestic policy, he has shown a disturbing predilection for elevating every personal pet peeve, from steroids in baseball to airplane service quality, to a federal issue. And, he has embraced heavily regulatory environmental policies and compulsory national service. Like George W. Bush, he tends to support federal power over federalism, executive authority over legislative, and generally leans toward the imperial presidency. For believers in individual liberty and limited government, it's a decidedly mixed bag. But, then again, aren't they all?"
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POPSPlatform Fight Ahead for GOP? Jesse Helms may be dead, but his lousy politics live on . There's nothing that Democrats would like better than a big fight over how crazy the GOP platform is going to be. Let the nuts shriek, If the GOP's screwed now, this would hammer a nail in their coffin.
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POPSThe true heart of the conservative movement Of course as tends to be the case with Helms' most repugnantly racist bile, he said that a good ways back in the past. But even at that time, most Americans managed not to be repugnant racists. But not Helms. And unlike a lot of people who did take the white supremacist line in the 1950s and 60s, Helms never apologized and, indeed, never backed down doing things like mounting a filibuster against making Martin Luther King Day into a federal holiday. Remarkably, mainstream American conservatives are eager to tell us that this man is their hero. Even more remarkably, you sometimes hear conservatives talk about reaching out to black voters.
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POPSPolluter appeasement But unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions are by far the greatest preventable threat to Americans' LLPH. Yet the government spends virtually nothing to fight global warming -- certainly no significant amount of new money has been allocated for this major threat (the Clinton administration tried, but the Gingrich Congress reversed that effort, reducing or zeroing out every program aimed at climate mitigation or even adaptation). Indeed, most conservatives, including John McCain, oppose even continuing existing incentives for carbon-mitigating strategies like solar and wind power. Conservatives in Congress seem likely to strongly oppose any major effort at a legislative solution (see "Anti-science conservatives must be stopped").
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POPSMcCain: Pump This! Meanwhile, the centrists McCain spent years impressing with his outraged denunciations of conservatives, Swift Boat Veterans and Christians will be voting for Obama. They think he's cute. The irony is, the only people McCain can count on to vote for him are the very Republicans he despises -- at least those of us who can get drunk enough on Election Day to pull the lever for him. In fact, we should organize parties around the country where Republicans can get drunk so they can vote for McCain. We can pass out clothespins with his name as a reminder and slogan-festooned vomit bags. The East Coast parties can post the number of drinks necessary for the task to help the West Coast parties. For more information, go to getdrunkandvote4mccain.com. This year, moderate Republicans have hit the jackpot. John McCain is the Platonic ideal of a "moderate Republican."
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POPSJesse Helms is Dead at At Age 86 He is low on my list of likable ex-Senators. A cultural conservative to the max. But I do give him credit for putting the kabash on the proposed Reagan-Ford co-presidency proposal. I once met a female former ex-lobbyist who told me "Back in the day Jesse Helms was the biggest ass pincher in Washington." She alleged to be one of his pinchees. I wish I had something good to say about the man, but I don't. I'm sorry for his passing. I suppose the fact that he died on July 4 will play as a "sign" from the Almighty among the cultural conservatives.
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POPSIt's Not Yours, It's God's "It's not yours, it's God's, and you're not going to get it," Copeland says of his financial records. He has launched a website to publicize his crusade and has received support from several leading conservatives, including Paul Weyrich and Kenneth Blackwell. Incredible! And tax free!
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POPSDeficiencies in right-wing patriotism The last example is especially strange -- despairing about the political culture of the South in the 1920's, where disenfranchisement, lynching, and even slavery were routine practices, is a sign of insufficent patriotism? If that doesn't show the deficiencies of the right's style of patriotism, nothing does. Via Matt Yglesias
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POPSObama courts conservatives with new faith program “While I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I went out and did the Lord’s work,” he declared. Oh, GREAT! Another Fairy tale believer in the WH! Sweet Jeebus and Ramona. What a revolting development this is.
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POPSBoth sides of your mouth... Conservatives are experts at speaking out of both sides of their mouths... The latest case in point: They seem outraged at Gen W. Clark's comments about McCain's experience... but I bet many of these folks were the same people that wore "purple band-aids" at the 2004 Republican convention denoting their "contempt" for 2x purple heart winner John Kerry and his Vietnam war record. I guess you only have to respect the service of conservatives.
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