The Big Con: Back with a vengeance

Last week I took a break from blogging. This week I'll try to catch up on some of the things I missed. Forthwith, some quick and dirty links.

• Every since the tragic bridge collapse in August in Minneapolis, I've been building the case [1] that this was a predictable consequence of Republican governor Tim Pawlenty signing Grover Norquist's pledge to never raise taxes, no matter what—culminating in his veto of a $14.6 billion highway bill. [2] Here's another smoking gun in the case. [3]

• I'll be writing more this week about the role of conservative ideology in the apocalyptic wildfires in California. For now, a sickening indication about how the conservative mania for privatization is beginning to create two Americas: one that is protected from fires, and one that is not. When Michael Moore was promoting SiCKO [4], he would ask why people accept a privatized healthcare system when they'd never accept a privatized firefighting system. Well, Michael spoke too soon. If you're rich enough to afford the right insurance, yes, you get private corporate firefighters. [5]

• Yet more momentum in the inexorable march of the liberal media: the Philadelphia Inquirer hires Rick Santorum as a columnist. [6] Asks David Sirota, "how can a newspaper like the Philadelphia Inquirer complain about losing readership when, in a major Democratic city, it is providing news analysis from a right-wing Republican who was soundly rejected by voters, who isn't even originally from Philadelphia, and who actually decided to move out of Pennsylvania while representing the state in the U.S. Senate?"

• Islamofascist Awareness Week, or as the able gang at Talking Points Memo dubbed it [7], David Horowitz Awareness Week, came and went on the nation's college campuses. Although, as per Horowitz's usual mendacious modus operandi, it came and went on far fewer campuses than his publicity materials advertised [8]. Loyal readers will recall how this humble blog caught Horowitz in a lie regarding the California Highway Patrol. [9] I missed, however, his response [10] that "Perlstein has won this little battle, removing a useful video from the pitiful arsenal of America’s defenses. Americans can return to their slumbers and wait for the next attack to wake them up." Read the whole thing, [10] and learn why, if Islamofascist Awareness Week has failed, it will have all been my fault.

• Some of you may have seen the story on the NASA air safety report whose results are being withheld out of fear of upsetting air travelers. [11] It found that "safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized." NASA ordered the contractor to purge all the data from their computers. In addition to representing a horrifying indication of the moral ruin conservative political culture has made of America's traditions of open and accountable government, it also tracks another Big Con theme. Remember the American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card I'm always gabbing about? Aviation is one of the categories. [12] America gets a D-plus. Report the civil engineers: "In the mid-1980s, the FAA estimated that it would take 10 years and $12 billion to modernize the nation's air traffic control systems. Twenty years and $35 billion later, the task is not complete..."

• You might think, from all of the above, that conservatism was in trouble. You might think its reputation as a responsible governing force in tatters. You might think, in short, that it was in desperate need of new intellectual blood. For their part, conservatives disagree. [13]