What is the real meaning of conservatism?  They want us to just give up on improving society.  In other words, they want us to surrender to the powers that be.

Michelle Malkin published a hit piece on Obama's proposed social renewal plan for America, and how he intends to serve the needs of the least of us here in America. In the process, she revealed herself to be the racist, classist bitch that she is.

John McNicotine is now for the tobacco lobby after years of working against it.  He not only opposes the cigarette taxes he used to support but also opposes FDA regulation of the tobacco industry after years of supporting it.  McNicotine is an ex-smoker and should understand just how addictive nicotine is, and he even acknowledged the exceptionally high death rate for tobacco users when he joked that cigarette exports to Iran were part of his plot to kill Iranian citizens.  For McNicotine to cave in to the tobacco cartel is the ultimate flip-flop:
http://www.boston.com/...

Why has McNicotine caved in to the interests of the tobacco drug cartel?  It couldn't possibly have anything to do with hiring tobacco lobbyist Charlie Black as his senior adviser.  Move along folks.  There's nothing to see here:
http://firedoglake.com/...

Now let's use the traditional Rethug "moral values" and "sanctity of life" frames against McNicotine!  There's more in the flip.

(Editor's note:  Ok, we have a winner! Out of the entries received, I am going with jfromga's pick.  Sorry no prize..hrmm, maybe in the future I should hold a contest? Anyways, congratulations jfromga!)

For anyone whose read my pieces in the past, knows that I hold a certain disdain towards former Reagan White House OMB Associate Director/conservative-libertarian Ayn Rand acolyte Larry Kudlow.  It's nothing personal against the guy, it's his ideas and economic policy objectives that I find fault with.  For the past couple of months, he's been going on about this is the "Goldilocks economy."  Essentially, that we're worrying about nothing because one bad economic indicator is being offset by a good one (mind you, he's often just used productivity as that one).  Well today, despite his claims that all is almost well, we got some news that just proves Larry Kudlow wrong!

Kool kids.  
Hate 'em!

In crowd.
Hate 'em!

Jocks and Singers and Stars!  Oh My!

The "C" listed humans we know as conservatives and especially Fox News 20 %'ers are really having a total meltdown over the fact that the Entertainment Industry not only produces RICH PEOPLE, but RICH PEOPLE that don't typically agree with their konservative RICH PEOPLE agenda.

Bottom line?  The Kool People don't like Konservatives.  
Konservatives are Jealous.  Take away the J-E-A and you end up with "LOUS".  Add an "E" and you get an apt description of the Konservative Kids that we are currently having to endure.

Some people are asking "Who in the hell is Paul Waldman?"  

Mr. Waldman is the Special Projects Director for Media Matters.  For the past week he has been out there refuting and debunking the Corsi book as well as Corsi himself.

He has shown how crazy and pathetic Corsi really is by revealing his lies and previous writings and statements, the people behind the publishing of the book i.e. Mary Matlin, former aide to Dick Cheney, and how it got to be number one on the NYT bestseller's list (the bulk purchase of the book by conservative groups).

Not sure if I'm the first to diary this but...

I just found out about a movie coming out in October called "An American Carol" through This Modern World. A taste after the jump:

With the thoughts you'd be thinkin'
You could be another Lincoln,
If you only had a brain.

The Party of Lincoln, or more accurately the Party with the Same Name as the Party of Lincoln, has run out of ideas.  Yet the conservative movement has built such a machine of think-tanks, pundits, idealogues and comedians that they have successfully shielded themselves from seeing the damage that their policies have caused.  Inside their echo chamber everything is going great, and if it isn't the only answer is to try doing the same thing more.  Conservative are so far out of touch, in fact, that they have resorted arguing against fake liberal proposals, strawmen.  That, evidently, is the only way they can win an argument anymore.

For the past 7.6 years, the Federal judiciary has been proactively packed with conservative jurists.  This past week has been a preview of what we can expect to see from them.

1.)  This one.  (Paraphrase:  Intentionally using a jackhammer outside the church every Sunday may hurt worshippers, but it is not illegal)

2.)  This one.  (Paraphrase:  Public sector trustee responsibility is less than ordinary trustee responsibility)

3.)  This one.(Paraphrase:  Treason is now legal if a government official commits it)

4.)  This one.  (Paraphrase:  Screw those AK fishermen and natives even more)

The struggle against Egalitarianism continues

More and more, Marxism has become confined to the academics of the United States and Western Europe, comfortably ensconced as parasites upon their capitalist economies. But even among academics, there is almost nothing left of the triumphalist Marxism of the 1930s and 40s, with their boasts of the economic efficiency and superiority of socialist central planning. Instead, even the most dedicated Marxists now pay lip service to the necessity of some sort of "market," however restricted by government.

I am 39, I will be 40 on April 21.

Gift line forms to the left... cash donations work best.

I do not know about you, but when I was a kid I thought people over 21 were ancient. People over 30 needed a rocking chair, and 40? Woah... people over 40? Woah. Old age.

Now that I am about 40, I find myself saying

"He's what, 95? That's still young!"

But enough about that. I find myself becoming more like my parents. I do not know if others have/had the same issue. It is nothing new. It is not just me I am sure. But it leads me to a question:

"Are the kids of today different when we were kids?"

<More after the break>

Very funny letter to the editor in this week's issue of the Economist. I'm gonna reprint it below, and you're going to start reading it, and you'll say to yourself--"This isn't funny, this is just--sad, kind of pathetic." And then you will read the last line, and you will "get it," because the address on the letter is kind of "the punchline," you know?

Everyday we are hit with hundreds of thousands of various stimuli that if we had to attend to, we would either get nothing done or we would get so caught up in the molecular that we would fail to see the big picture even assuming we could function at this level of reality.

So we do many things, we habituate to our surroundings, we only notice things that are different then they should be, are out of place.

We develop ways to save time since we do not have time to examine every event in our life--to survive our day.

One of the tools we also use is to form perceptions of events we encounter. Often times these perceptions reflect reality as it is, other times they do not. But for us, these perceptions become reality. It does not matter if in the "real world" they are "real" but for us they are "real" and that is what counts. Why? Since these perceptions impact our behavior and what we do.

<More after the break>

The Governor announced late yesterday that he has exempted a dozen or so State Agencies:  

August 5, 2008
Who's exempt?

The administration told state Controller John Chiang this afternoon which workers are exempt from the minimum wage portion of the executive order.

Here's the list:

California Highway Patrol
Department of Transportation
Agriculture Security and Emergency Response
Veterans Affairs
Department of Developmental Services
Department of Mental Health
Military
Office of Emergency Services
Department of Water Resources
Department of Forestry (CALFIRE)
Department of Parks and Recreation
California Conservation Corps
Office of Spill Prevention
Department of Fish and Game

Thanks to The Sacramento Bee

Me, I work for the Department of Transportation so I'm basically happy, but there is more to consider beyond the fold.

Spreading lies and abuse about their political opponents is standard fare for Conservatives. Now it has backfired on one of them and he faces jail time for a campaign of harassment.

Ian Oakley seems to have spent most of the last two years in his efforts to wear down his opponents. He made numerous silent phone calls to his main opponent, Sal Brinton and arranged for lesbian magazines to be sent to her home. He sent letters to her workplace addressed for "Sal Bitchton". He sent letters about another rival accusing him of being a pedophile, in some letters including the names of supposed victims. At their party headquarters, he damaged shutters and slashed car tires.

Oakley pleaded guilty at his trial on Tuesday and awaits sentence.

I just saw a link on the Drudge report about Nancy Pelosi's new book tanking.  When I clicked the link I was taken to the product page where it appeared to be being spammed by people who hadn't read the book brutally attacking her and giving her 1star. See for yourself here.
http://www.amazon.com/...

A truly bizarre story greeted me as I opened my morning paper. It seems that a man in Indiana was fed up with the liberal bias of Starbucks and other such coffee shops, and decided to open what could best be described as the Fox News of cafes.

I wish I were joking

Two parallel discussions this evening on Larry King Live and Dan Abrams Verdict demonstrate the not inconsiderable lead conservatives continue to hold over progressives when it comes to understanding the basic psychology of political behavior among swing (i.e. movable or non-ideological or low information) voters.  Please follow me over the fold for how this was revealed yet again on this evenings cable pundit yak fest ..