John Lennon asked but I don't know how he made out.
I received Bob Tyrrell's After The Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery (Thomas Nelson, 2010). I will report on this next week. I accept Bob's distortions of liberalism as necessary for his worldview but I expected to read a more honest appraisal of the George W. Bush Administration, which was stocked with more movement conservatives than any other administration in history. As Ronald Reagan said, "Personnel is policy."Somehow that doesn't make a difference in terms of how Bob sees the validity of "conservative ideas". He expects the revival of conservatism to come from the same think-tanks and a greater self-consciousness that conservatism is a movement and should not be strictly be confused with a political party. So far his litany of policy prescriptions reads like an old-worn manual of things that simply do not address the severe crises facing the country.
His analysis of the Obama Administration as "collectivist" simply doesn't mirror reality and his selective appraisal of Obama's foreign policy doesn't hold water. So far, I have not read any reservations about the performance and actions and morality of our private sector, which should inform any re-thinking of so-called conservative positions. Also, I have problems with his view that Obama is trying to over-regulate the economy, when we have not had any enforced regulation in over 10 years. Bob actually speaks well of the Mount Vernon Declaration, which I have written about, lamenting that there was no one under 65 in the whole bunch.
I was hoping for a recognition that the last Administration expanded the size and power of executive branch greater than at any time in our history, including during FDR. Also, I would like a conservative or Republican to admit that they took a surplus and ran it into a $12 trillion deficit. That is coveniently missing in the analysis, while Obama is criticized as the most profilgate President of our time. While Bob praises the greatest boom in job creation after 1980, he neglects to say how the economy has not grown any jobs since 2007. Luckily, this month it did produce some jobs but half of which are temporary.
Also in the mail came Bob Altemeyer The Authoritarians ( 2006), which is available free on-line at www.theauthoritarians.com . This is not what I had expected but it is rich in examining the attitudes of the evangelical movement, which detailed references to internal criticisms of the movement by evangelical theologians themselves. The findings of a rigid authoritarian mindset doesn't fit with the calls for the conservative resurgence mentioned above.
Not to beat up on Bob today but he says conservative ideas are supported by the majority of Americans. The Quinnipiac poll shows that 60% of both parties support raising income taxes over $250,000 to tame the deficit. 70% support making people who earn $1 million pay more taxes. 80% are against raising taxes on people earning less than $250,000 and these 80% are opposed to cutting Medicare and Social Security. Bob's policy perscriptions call for cuts in both programs.
A Washington Post poll on the anger in the country show that 94% of the angry crowd are white and 73% are conservative. One respondent affectionately mentioned the 1950s and how he grew up with Ozzie& Harriet, but he added something that I think is telling," No one was trying to get rich then." My hunch is that there has been a delayed reaction to the devastation wrought on the nation by the last Administration. Much of the conservative noisechamber has tried and to some degree has been successful in diverting attention away from this fact. Perhaps they will succeed in its entirety but if not, then there will be another political price to pay for the Republicans.
The FBI is investigating a series of threats against IRS offices. As I wrote last week concerning my monitoring militia broadcasts, the militia movement, this time in the name of Guardians of the Free Republics, has sent letters to 30 sitting Governors demanding they leave office within three days or they will be removed. The group claims to want "to restore America" by peacefully dismantling parts of the government. The threats were made both to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, signifying a bipartisan victim list. The FBI associates the letter with "sovereign citizens", the Christian identity movement, who believe they are free from all duties of a U.S. citizen, like paying taxes or needing a government license to drive. Scott Roeder, the man sentenced yesterday for killing Dr. Tiller, is a member of this group and was arrested in the 1990s for driving with a car filled with explosives.
Chip Berlet posted on www.talk2action.org an article entitled "Armed Militias, the Antichrist, and Obama", which outlines how millennialism has been mainstreamed and how the Christian Identity, Patriot amd militia movements have used this to popularize xenophobia,authoritarianism and scapegoating. Chip Berlet has spent a career documenting the militia movement and now ,after years of freelancing, regularly appears on television to discuss the phenomenon and its threats.
Frank Schaeffer posted on www.huffingtonpost.com April 1st his take on "The Evangelical 'Mainstream' Insanity Behind the Michigan 'End Times' Militia" . Knowing of what he speaks, Frank refers to the influence of the "Christian Reconstructionist" Movement and the Left Behind series in shaping this type of extremism. Frank believes this type of thinking influences the tea party movement and its encouragement that the government of the United States is illegitimate.
Rand Paul, Ron's son who is the Tea Party Choice running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Kentucky,held a campiagn rally surrounded by camo-clad militia members sportingautomatic weapons. The militia members claimed to be "the real homeland security" force not the "feds" and promised they would kill Democratic politicians. Bloggers noted that this might be Rand's "Macaca" moment. I disagree I think the political landscape has changed sufficiently that we will see more politicians embrace the militia movement.
Michael Steele's sexytime party has been supplanted by a parallel organization led by three former RNC chairpeople with the addition of Karl Rove, which aims to siphon off the big donor money that has fled Steele.
Peggy Noonan defended the Pope today, while the new hotlines to report sexual abuse in Europe are receiving 4,000 calls per hour. The Vatican's exorcist now says the Devil is in the media.
Roger Clemens wants to tell you his "pipes are working fine". Thanks for sharing.
The President received a thunderous welcome in the whitest state in the union, Maine. Hecarried Maine with about 70% of the vote last time. Conservatives are complaining that he "targeted Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck" in his recent CBS interview. All he said was that they don't represent the majority of the country.
Believe it or not Republicans said that they improved the health bill by getting rid of the "death panels".
That's All, folks.
Showing posts with label Bob Tyrrell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Tyrrell. Show all posts
Friday, April 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
No One ever expects the Spanish Inquisition, not even Glenn Beck
Morning--Glenn Beck tells his listeners to confront priests and pastors about the "social gospel" since this is a code word Communism and Nazism. Then they should leave the church. Early afternoon, news of this is posted on Huffington Post. By late afternoon the Office of the Inquisition arrives in the form of Jesuit James Martin, the cultural editor of America magazine. Martin blasts Beck in an op-ed on Huffington Post titled "Glenn Beck tells Jesus-Drop Dead". Martin then lectures Catholics that Beck is asking them to leave the Mother Church and he recites a litany of papal encyclicals starting with Pope Leo in the mid-19th century that articulate the social gospel and its centrality to Catholic teaching. And for non-Catholic Christians he recalls the teachings of Jesus about helping the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged. I would take this as a less than coded message to Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly to stay away from Beck for the sake of their eternal well-being. You don't want to make Jesuits your enemy and their appearance on such matters indicates Mr. Beck has caught the attention of the Cathoic Church. Next I expect the appearance of Max Von Sydow as the Exorcist. Don't think the Catholic Church is going to drop this now that they have officially taken a shot at Glenn Beck. This may be entertainment for Beck but this is serious stuff to the church hierarchy.
The last public appearance of a Jesuit in writing was the editor of America writing in the Washington Post defending Nortre Dame giving Barack Obama an honorary doctorate, pointing out that the Catholic Church recognizes that Obama's social and economic policies were closely aligned with the Vatican's teachings and that there was room to have a dialogue about abortion. You'll remember the fuss of people like Alan Keyes with his SpongeBob Square Pants stroller with a doll, which was supposed to represent a dead fetus.
Good news, Rush Limbaugh has declared he will be moving out of the country if the healthcare bill passes. He has put his departure date at 5 years--contract obligations and all. He will be moving to Costa Rica, which has universal healthcare. Rush previously benefited from Hawaii's universal health care system. This seems to be a conservative trait lately. Sarah Palin telling Canadians her family used to cross the border for health care. Too bad we can't have it here.
If you want to get a sense of why and how the Bush Administration sent me around the bend, just watch the Liz Cheney-Bill Kristol cartoon show for Keep America Scared. Yesterday,Bill Kristol brushed off criticism of the Al Qaeda 7--now 9--ad saying that only "establishment lawyers will object. After all lawyers don't liked to be criticized." By afternoon, people like Ted Olson and Ken Starr not only gave out little sound-bites but produced a letter signed by dozens of lawyers and Bush Administration officials blasting the attacks on the DOJ lawyers. When Ken Starr appears and is allowed to appear on the Keith Olberman show, you know something serious has happened. Starr pointed out that the lawyers defending the detainees were serving the justice system and that in future terrorist cases there will be the need for a vigorous defense. After all he said the Department of Justice was not called the Department of Law Enforcement for nothing. And, of course, he mentioned John Adams defense of British soldiers accused of committing massacres in Boston. Starr also pointed out that the American military called some of these people up on weekends to ask for their help.
By the time this all winds down, I am sure we will surpass Joe McCarthy's numbers of those accused of having "jihadist" leanings in the Justice Department. But the more I watch this I recall the genuine incompetence of the Bush people. A war presidency, where the only one in the loop with war experience was Don Rumsfeld. Colin Powell was kept out of the loop even though he had been the head of the Joint Chief of Staff. Dick Cheney, who had been pushed aside during decision-making times during the Gulf War, assumed pivotal control. Virtually all the lawyers involved knew nothing about war, terrorism, national security law and I would argue the constitution itself. The top leaders only appointed ideologues beneath them and not people with any competence. So you get the lunacy of a Monica Goodling at DOJ. All the military lawyers, FBI interrogators and permanent CIA personnel were cast aside for the whole debate on torture. Amateur psychologists were hired to develop the torture program with absolutely no empirical proof that these techniques would produce any actionable intelligence, while plunging the country into a period of committing war crimes. As we learned yesterday Liz Cheney acted to deflect State Department personnel from developing a broad coalition government in Iraq.
Dick Cheney used to say, "We're a Superpower so we make our own reality." Well, you have to know how to manage that reality. Hiring a freelance journalist at the Pentagon to review the case against Saddam Hussein and linking him to Al Qaeda and 9/11. That reality didn't last too long. Dissolving the entire Iraq army because Paul Wolfowitz said they were all Nazis, that was brilliant. I generally don't like the State Department but I don't consider it the enemy. I think they have recovered somewhat from the days of Alger Hiss. But remember you had Marc Thiessen, former aide to Jesse Helms, as presidential speechwriter and Helms called State "the Kremlin on the Potomac". Marc , who also has no experience in war, terrorism, law or democracy, is now the expert on how torture saved the country. Believe me, if there is a next time it will be worse.
Bill Kristol is the father of big government conservatism as readers of the Weekly Standard, which called for a coalition of social conservatives, economic conservatives and neo-conservatives molding public policy to their ideological ends. Bill has not an ounce of political sense when it comes to domestic politics as witnessed by his embrace of Sarah Palin and his calls for war against Iran. Ideology first, last and foremost. If conservatives want power as we have witnessed for the past ten years, they will also need to develop competence because policy isn't just about diktats from the nomenklatura.
I expect to see some new assaults on neoconservatives by traditional conservatives. Bob Tyrrell, the editor-in-chief of the American Spectator, is about to publish his book on the future of conservative entitled After The Hangover. He is supposed to call for the return of Goldwater-Reagan principles and jettisoning the neoconservatives. Personally, I believe their day is done and over with. Bob was always puzzled by the behavior of the Bush White House. Privately, he thought it could be attributed to W being a recovering alcoholic. That's a warm endorsement.
In recent months we have seen conservatives throw the following under the bus--lawyers, scientists and teachers. Next will be doctors if the AMA again supportsObama's plan to reform Healthcare. It's a dangerous war against expertise.
The last public appearance of a Jesuit in writing was the editor of America writing in the Washington Post defending Nortre Dame giving Barack Obama an honorary doctorate, pointing out that the Catholic Church recognizes that Obama's social and economic policies were closely aligned with the Vatican's teachings and that there was room to have a dialogue about abortion. You'll remember the fuss of people like Alan Keyes with his SpongeBob Square Pants stroller with a doll, which was supposed to represent a dead fetus.
Good news, Rush Limbaugh has declared he will be moving out of the country if the healthcare bill passes. He has put his departure date at 5 years--contract obligations and all. He will be moving to Costa Rica, which has universal healthcare. Rush previously benefited from Hawaii's universal health care system. This seems to be a conservative trait lately. Sarah Palin telling Canadians her family used to cross the border for health care. Too bad we can't have it here.
If you want to get a sense of why and how the Bush Administration sent me around the bend, just watch the Liz Cheney-Bill Kristol cartoon show for Keep America Scared. Yesterday,Bill Kristol brushed off criticism of the Al Qaeda 7--now 9--ad saying that only "establishment lawyers will object. After all lawyers don't liked to be criticized." By afternoon, people like Ted Olson and Ken Starr not only gave out little sound-bites but produced a letter signed by dozens of lawyers and Bush Administration officials blasting the attacks on the DOJ lawyers. When Ken Starr appears and is allowed to appear on the Keith Olberman show, you know something serious has happened. Starr pointed out that the lawyers defending the detainees were serving the justice system and that in future terrorist cases there will be the need for a vigorous defense. After all he said the Department of Justice was not called the Department of Law Enforcement for nothing. And, of course, he mentioned John Adams defense of British soldiers accused of committing massacres in Boston. Starr also pointed out that the American military called some of these people up on weekends to ask for their help.
By the time this all winds down, I am sure we will surpass Joe McCarthy's numbers of those accused of having "jihadist" leanings in the Justice Department. But the more I watch this I recall the genuine incompetence of the Bush people. A war presidency, where the only one in the loop with war experience was Don Rumsfeld. Colin Powell was kept out of the loop even though he had been the head of the Joint Chief of Staff. Dick Cheney, who had been pushed aside during decision-making times during the Gulf War, assumed pivotal control. Virtually all the lawyers involved knew nothing about war, terrorism, national security law and I would argue the constitution itself. The top leaders only appointed ideologues beneath them and not people with any competence. So you get the lunacy of a Monica Goodling at DOJ. All the military lawyers, FBI interrogators and permanent CIA personnel were cast aside for the whole debate on torture. Amateur psychologists were hired to develop the torture program with absolutely no empirical proof that these techniques would produce any actionable intelligence, while plunging the country into a period of committing war crimes. As we learned yesterday Liz Cheney acted to deflect State Department personnel from developing a broad coalition government in Iraq.
Dick Cheney used to say, "We're a Superpower so we make our own reality." Well, you have to know how to manage that reality. Hiring a freelance journalist at the Pentagon to review the case against Saddam Hussein and linking him to Al Qaeda and 9/11. That reality didn't last too long. Dissolving the entire Iraq army because Paul Wolfowitz said they were all Nazis, that was brilliant. I generally don't like the State Department but I don't consider it the enemy. I think they have recovered somewhat from the days of Alger Hiss. But remember you had Marc Thiessen, former aide to Jesse Helms, as presidential speechwriter and Helms called State "the Kremlin on the Potomac". Marc , who also has no experience in war, terrorism, law or democracy, is now the expert on how torture saved the country. Believe me, if there is a next time it will be worse.
Bill Kristol is the father of big government conservatism as readers of the Weekly Standard, which called for a coalition of social conservatives, economic conservatives and neo-conservatives molding public policy to their ideological ends. Bill has not an ounce of political sense when it comes to domestic politics as witnessed by his embrace of Sarah Palin and his calls for war against Iran. Ideology first, last and foremost. If conservatives want power as we have witnessed for the past ten years, they will also need to develop competence because policy isn't just about diktats from the nomenklatura.
I expect to see some new assaults on neoconservatives by traditional conservatives. Bob Tyrrell, the editor-in-chief of the American Spectator, is about to publish his book on the future of conservative entitled After The Hangover. He is supposed to call for the return of Goldwater-Reagan principles and jettisoning the neoconservatives. Personally, I believe their day is done and over with. Bob was always puzzled by the behavior of the Bush White House. Privately, he thought it could be attributed to W being a recovering alcoholic. That's a warm endorsement.
In recent months we have seen conservatives throw the following under the bus--lawyers, scientists and teachers. Next will be doctors if the AMA again supportsObama's plan to reform Healthcare. It's a dangerous war against expertise.
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