The Big Con
Top Stories
Liberal Elitism? No. Some People Are, Sadly, Stupid
November 16th, 2009
While the concerns of many white, middle-class people are worthy causes and should be addressed by liberals (and are), it is not elitism to treat this roving band of conspiracy nuts for the cretins they are or associate with. This would be akin to President Johnson in 1964 undertaking a federal committee to study the mind control powers of fluoridated water. That would be asinine.
Featured Issues
Tragedy at the Holocaust Museum: Stand Up To Terrorism
June 10th, 2009
You have to go back a long, long way in American history before you come to a place where you find incidents like this happening an average of once every two weeks.This escalating level of violence is adding data points to a potentially emergent pattern that we need to be looking at and preparing for. So far, there are at least five things I'm particularly concerned about.... more »
Paranoia Strikes Deep
Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health care legislation, featuring the kinds of things we've grown accustomed to, including large signs showing piles of bodies at Dachau with the caption "National Socialist Healthcare." It was grotesque — and it was also ominous. The key thing to understand about that rally is that it wasn't a fringe event. It was sponsored by the House Republican leadership — in fact, it was officially billed as a G.O.P. press conference. Senior lawmakers were in attendance, and apparently had no problem with the tone of the proceedings.... more »
How Government Won on Election Day
Here's a story you may have missed because it flies in the face of the dreary conventional wisdom: When advocates of public programs take on the right-wing anti-government crowd directly, the government-haters lose. This is what happened in two statewide referendums last week that got buried under all of the attention paid to the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey... more »
The Case
Why We Call It "The Big Con"
Conservative government during the past few years has failed—even some conservatives acknowledge that. But the problem is not just that conservatism has failed to live up to its promise; it is that conservatism cannot live up to its promisemore »
Conservatism: Flawed By Design
Inherent ideological flaws cripple the ability of conservatives to govern:
The Facts
Senator Dewine's Run for Ohio Attorney General: Return to Scene of Crime
Why would a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives – granted he was most well-known for falling asleep during the Iran-Contra hearings – and U.S. Senator, be seeking the seemingly lesser office of Ohio’s chief law enforcement officer?
Investing In People
Here are some basic facts behind our call for "real investment" in people, assembled from recent government and private studies. We've fallen behind as a nation, but making the right spending choices will yield lasting dividends.more »
The News
Boeing Pays $25 Million To Settle U.S. Probe
August 14th, 2009
Documents Show Rove Took Active Role In Attorney Firings
August 12th, 2009
The Case
The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society
The economic elite have launched an attack on the U.S. public and society is unraveling at an increased rate. You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Let's look at the top 15 statistics that prove we are under attack.more »
Obama in China Highlights Total Failure of Conservative Vision
Bush's tax cuts and "free market/free trade" policies were supposed to turbo-charge America's economy, while the neo-conservative foreign policy was supposed to be a blueprint for extending American hegemony across the globe, indefinitely, with the containment and subordination of China as a key strategic goal. Conveniently, those lofty promises of yesteryear have been entirely forgotten. Otherwise it would have been impossible to cover Obama's recent visit to China without starkly confronting the utter failure of conservative ideology.more »
Latest from our Bloggers
nov
23
2009
3:33 pm
3:33 pm
We'd talked about it earlier in the week, but hadn't really made a definite decision to go. Then, Sunday morning I came downstairs to find this Washington Post story on the computer monitor.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6-year-old Heaven Skyler Wilson dragged herself off the school bus that dropped her in front of her home on a rural road in Jetersville, just south of Richmond. The little girl, who had never had so much as an ear infection in her life, was pale and feverish and complained of an upset stomach.
The next day, Heaven's grandmother, Pat Sparrow, took her to a nearby clinic. Heaven, usually a bright, bubbly girl with blond pigtails, dimples and effusive energy, had a sore throat and a 103-degree temperature. The doctor swabbed her for the flu, and the test was positive.
It was just something going around, Sparrow said she was told. The doctor told Sparrow to take Heaven home, give her Tylenol and chicken broth, and let her rest.
By the next morning, Heaven couldn't breathe. Sparrow called 911.
...Two weeks later, on Oct. 21, ravaged with double pneumonia and a staph infection that deprived her brain of oxygen, Heaven was disconnected from the respirator. She lived for four minutes.
At 11:18 p.m., Heaven died in the arms of her mother, Sara Wilson. "You never heard such an awful scream from someone who loved her child so much," Sparrow said, her voice shaking.
He was already packing the kids lunches at that point. So I knew that after swimming lessons, we'd be headed to the H1N1 vaccine clinic held this Sunday in Montgomery County. The end of our H1N1 saga — that is, the saga of getting the kids vaccinated — was finally in sight. And, as my husband said when he asked if I saw the article, "You just want to know you've done everything you can to protect your children."
But, until Sunday, there wasn't much we could do.
nov
21
2009
5:44 pm
5:44 pm
Judge David. F. Hamilton was confirmed Thursday in the Senate to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals 59-39, after breaking a conservative filibuster Tuesday and persevering through a painstakingly delayed process. more »
nov
13
2009
3:52 pm
3:52 pm
Michelle Bachman's "Superbowl of Freedom" (or "Bachmannalia") was not the first protest with such attention grabbing signage, but merely the latest. September saw Glenn Beck's 9/12 marchers descend upon Washington. Again, they brought their message-bearing signs and posters.
And their signs made their message and motivation clear. more »
nov
12
2009
3:31 pm
3:31 pm
I've used this quote (attributed to Maya Angelou) before: "When people show you who they really are, believe them." I guess in periods of tremendous change people really reveal who they really are. I'll return to this in more detail post, but the news and debate leading up to and following the passage of health care reform in the House is at least worth a quick roundup, if only because it all comes together in a clear context.
First, let me reiterate that I'll be the first to say that the anger directed at the president, Congress, and the policy changes they're trying to make are not entirely rooted in racism, but have deep roots in the economic consequences of the last few decades for the people in some of the reddest states. That said, it's becoming impossible to ignore that a significant amount is also rooted in the racism and ethnocentrism conservatives have used to divert their constituents' attention — and rage — towards more convevient targets.
more »nov
9
2009
10:04 am
10:04 am
(The sixth in of a series of seven.)
Nothing in Common
If the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words is true, then a couple of images might sum up the debate of over health care reform, and prove representative of the opposing sides.
[Via Preemptive Karma.]
[Via Wikimedia Commons.]
President Obama also defined it during his speech to the joint houses of Congress: that debate over health care reform is really a debate — and a struggle, even — over the moral character of the nation. In other words, it's another part of the process of choosing what kind of country we want to be.
more »nov
5
2009
12:07 pm
12:07 pm
House Republicans have presented a health care reform "plan" that doesn't fix our broken health care system (but might make it worse), and (according to the CBO) doesn't do much to fix the deficit conservatives say t more »
nov
4
2009
1:58 pm
1:58 pm
First, it was Sen. Landerieu's nonsense. Now we get this from Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Enough is enough. When Democrats start parroting Republican talking points, they are showing us who they are. We need to treat accordingly. Especially when their take on health care reform is pretty much the same as the GOP's, in terms of outcome.
oct
26
2009
1:36 pm
1:36 pm
Mike Elk couldn't have been more right in his thinking about what Martin Luther King, Jr. would have thought of the Teabaggers, Birthers, etc. He would have seen that those faces that at first glance seem twisted in anger are really twisted in pain. He would recognize those faces as well as the source of the fear and anger distorting them.
It's not about adopting their politics, compromising our own, or even tolerating their tactics. It's about reclaiming "We" — The same "We" that Dr. King and civil rights workers sang about, and that I remember singing about myself in church, on the occasions when we sang "We Shall Overcome."
