Quote of the Day

"Then there are China's very real problems. China has 700 billion very poor people. By 2050, it will have 400 million very old people."

Jonah Goldberg

For the record: China has 1,341,950,000 people. The op-ed sections of newspapers print the most factually incorrect bullshit. The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers can save themselves embarrassment by fact-checking their columnists.

Hat tip to GottaLaff.

The Hack Thirty

I actually thought about getting together with the Ropers to compile a list of the worst political columnists. I did a poll on a prior blog and Ann Coulter was the winner. Salon beat me and made the Hack Thirty list.

The Top Ten

Richard Cohen

Mark Halperin

Thomas Friedman

David Broder

Marty Peretz

Marc Thiessen

Jonah Goldberg

Maureen Dowd

Laura Ingraham

Peggy Noonan

Alex Pareene gives a summery to the lowlights to all of the thirty columnists

Jonah Goldberg Defends Fire Department Letting House Burn Down

Only Jonah Goldberg can defend a local fire department in Obion County, Tennessee letting the house of the Cranick family burn down. The fire department literally watched the house burn. The reason being the Cranicks didn't pay a $75 fee to the fire department. At the scene, Gene Cranick offered to pay the fire department. Along with the home four pets were killed.

Goldberg used the words "compassionate conservatives" in describing this insane policy.

Here’s the more important part of the story, letting the house burn — while, I admit sad — will probably save more houses over the long haul. I know that if I opted out of the program before, I would be more likely to opt-in now. No solace to the homeowner, but an important lesson for compassionate conservatives like our own Dan Foster (Zing!). As Edmund Burke said, example is the school of mankind and he will learn from no other.

Young Turks host Cenk Uygur notes that the fire department did not even go into the house to see if it was evacuated. The fire could have spread and harmed more people. As a safety policy what the fire department did was horrible.



National Review contributor Kevin D. Williamson uses the words "full of jerks, freeloaders, and ingrates" to describe the Cranicks. I wonder if Williamson would hold himself to such a high conservative standard that he wouldn't bitch if a fire department let his house burned down. I seriously doubt it.

And, for their trouble, the South Fulton fire department is being treated as though it has done something wrong, rather than having gone out of its way to make services available to people who did not have them before. The world is full of jerks, freeloaders, and ingrates — and the problems they create for themselves are their own. These free-riders have no more right to South Fulton’s firefighting services than people in Muleshoe, Texas, have to those of NYPD detectives.

This is how the conservative movement views the free market. Goldberg and Williamson would defend a local police force making a homeless woman pay a fee to file rape charges. The world the National Review wants Americans to live in doesn't care about anything, but making a buck.

Quote of the Day

"Meanwhile, as a matter of politics, I think this episode demonstrates that this White House is a much more tightly wound outfit than it lets on in public. The rapid-response firing suggests a level of fear over Glenn Beck and Fox that speaks volumes."

National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg, on the White House firing of Shirley Sherrod.

Goldberg's defense of Andrew Breitbart is laughable and not worth responding to. Breitbart has repeatedly pulled stunts with heavily edited videos and his he didn't know dfense is unbelievable.

Goldberg does make a correct observation that the Obama White House is devoid of moral courage. The proper thing to do would have been to investigate the video before making a decision on Sherrod's work status. The White House immediately asked for Sherrod to resign without knowing the facts. The message is the Obama people are willi ng to give up any scalp the Right wants. Van Jones is the perfect example.

Jonah Goldberg Blames the Woman

Jonah Goldberg plays blame the woman. In this case actress Jeri Ryan.

I blame Jerri Ryan and Mike Ditka for all of America's problems. If she only lightened up, her husband would have beat Obama in '04.

Ryan's ex-husband Jack Ryan was to be the Republican nominee for the Illinois 2004 U.S. Senate race. Goldberg somehow believes an untarnished Ryan would succeed where John McCain and Hillary Clinton failed. That is laughable. Only Ryan wasn't untarnished. Jeri Ryan accused him of requesting her to perform public sex acts. Jack Ryan is also accused of taking Jeri to sex clubs in New Orleans, New York City, and Paris.

"It was a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," she said in the court document, adding that her husband "wanted me to have sex with him there, with another couple watching. I refused."

I wasn't a Ryan supporter. I am not comfortable with public figures having their sex lives put under a microscope. Politicians that commit legally questionable behavior, such as Mark Foley, are fair game. The Ryans wanted to keep the divorce records private for both political and personal reasons. Considering how things turned out, I don't blame them.

Jack Ryan knew the divorce records were embarrassing. Illinois Republican Party chair Judy Baar Topinka accused Ryan of misleading her.

During his radio appearances and later at the rally, Ryan denied that he told Topinka prior to the March primary that there was nothing embarrassing to him or the GOP in the documents. Instead, he said on WGN radio: "I remember her asking me whether there was anything in the documents that would preclude me from being a U.S. Senator, and, no, there isn't. So, in my recollection, that was the conversation that I had."

Topinka challenged that explanation.

"It was a two-part question and very clear cut--I don't believe it would be subject to mischaracterization or misunderstanding," Topinka said. "I said, very specifically, twice, so that I would hear it twice, `Is there anything in your divorce document that would be personally embarrassing to you or to the Republican Party?' He said `no' both times."

Jack Ryan ran against then rising star Barack Obama and was less than candid about his divorce records. Jeri Ryan attempted to keep the divorce records sealed and described Jack Ryan as a "friend" during the campaign. This is not a woman bent on destroying her ex-huband's political ambitions. Yet Jonah Goldberg blames Jeri Ryan for Obama's rise to the White House. There is no logic to Goldberg's reasoning. The Corner served as a real time forum for Goldberg to write stupid nonsense. Twitter is Goldberg's The Corner posts on speed.

The Right's Fascism Problem

Michelle Malkin posed for a picture with a man holding a swastika sign. The photo was taken at a Denver, Colorado anti-stimulus package rally. Malkin has made a career out of support of the Japanese internment camps and anti-immigration. Malkin publicly supports the white supremist Minutemen Project.

Glenn Beck, Jonah Goldberg and the sign-carrying Swastika Guy enjoy bringing Neo-Nazism into political discourse. The 2009 version of conservatism is demonizing gays, Hispanics, blacks, Muslims and cutting health care for children.

The last Republican administation illegally wiretapped.

The last Republican administation jailed people without charge.

The last Republican administation paid off Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher for positive media coverage.

The last Republican administation told Americans "with us or against us."

The current Republican brand would terrify the Founding fathers and George Orwell. Fascism is government leaders using fearmongering to impose their will. Ari Fleischer's "with us or against us" was not designed to make Americans feel safer.

A fascist government will make decisions in secrecy. Dick Cheney still hasn't released the names of those that attended his energy commission meetings. The Bush administration kept waterboarding and wiretapping secret. Bush and Cheney issued nondenials when news started leaking out. Bush and Cheney were later forced to admit waterboarding and wiretapping. Claiming the Constitution gave them the authority.

The Fourth amendment states "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." The Eighth amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. America is not fascist. The Bush administration steered America towards a fascist path. Bush was a president that publicly declared he had to aswer to no one. Republicans, such as Goldberg, believe fascists "isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade-school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore." Orwell wrote about the misuse of the word fascism.

In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin

Is Sarah Palin Popular?

"The Reformers who seem to want to destroy Sarah Palin are picking an incredibly self-destructive fight for the simple reason that, as a political matter, Palin is popular and they aren't (How many divisions does David Brooks have?). Rather, they should be fighting to win Palin and Palin supporters to their cause."

Jonah Goldberg

Fellow National Review contributors Kathleen Parker and Christopher Buckley found the Palin pick unacceptable. Parker wrote, "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

As for Goldberg's claim of Palin's popularity, a recent NBC News/">Wall Street Journal poll tells a different story.

Believe Palin is qualified? 55% no, 40% yes

Palin favorables: 38% positive, 47% negative.

Goldberg reads news reports and polls every day. He still refuses to believe that Palin is unpopular. The Goldberg conservatives are the reasons the GOP is in trouble.

Quote of the Day

"The nativist Klu Klux Klan - ironically, often called "American fascists" by liberals tended to despise Mussolini and his American followers (mainly because they were immigrants)."

Jonah Goldberg

The Klu Klux Klan deny the holocaust happened and embrace Adolf Hitler. That's pretty faccist. The Klan do Nazi salutes in the rituals.



Bonus Jonah Goldberg Quote:

"The quintessential liberal fascist isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade-school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore."

Hat tip to Jeff Fecke

Adam Putnam On Alberto Gonzales

Adam Putnam is the latest Republican who refuses to give Alberto Gonzale a vote of confidence.

GOP House Conference Chairman Adam Putnam is one of many who believes that Alberto Gonzales is "rapidly reaching the point where he can't serve the President or leffectively lead the Justice Department." The young conservative Florida member also explains that there is a hangover owing to how Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation was handled that is not helping the AG. "Clearly some of the reluctance on the part of congressional Republicans to go to the mat for [AG] Gonzales is a consequence of having their fingers burned once in the Rumsfeld debacle."

Republicans are getting tired of the White House bullying them to stay on message and politically having their heads handed to them. Many GOPer blame Rumsfeld for losing the midterm elections. That glosses over their own failures. I will grant them that Rummy certainly didn't help their cause.

Congressional Republican don't have the stomach to battle over Gonzales. They have their sites set on 2008. They know Gonzo is someone Democrats can beat them over the heads with.

Bush could care less. He is more concerned with keeping his consigliere. In his mind he his a martyr fighting forces of evil. The problem is the people he is combative with is Americans in both political parties.

Update:

Republican aides told Roll Call they are letting the White House fight their own battles.

For instance, before this week’s talk of subpoenas and resignations, Republican Senators were basking in their victory last week to prevent Democrats from winning a simple majority of support on their proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq.

“We are not throwing ourselves on the grenade for them anymore,” said the leadership staffer. “There’s now an attitude of ‘you created this mess, you’ve got to get yourself out of it.’”

One case in point, Republicans said, was Tuesday’s overwhelming Senate vote to limit the attorney general’s authority to appoint interim U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. The 94-2 vote underscored GOP dissatisfaction not only with the issue itself, but the way in which the White House has tried to manage what’s become a public relations nightmare, several GOP aides said.

“That vote was proof positive that ‘we’re carrying no more of your water,’” said yet another Senate Republican aide, adding: “We just hope they leave without doing any more damage.”

National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg has had enough of Gonzales.