Is it a bad thing that stealing money from conservatives continues to be a growth industry?

Is it a bad thing that stealing money from conservatives continues to be a growth industry?

I think we can all agree that being an American conservative means being a gullible idiot. The "movement" is a harmonious symbiosis between parasitic grifters and bloated, intellectually lazy hosts. That has been the state of things since Nixon decided to break the country in two in the hopes that the stupid, racist half would contain more electoral votes. But while the con men who run the conservative movement were once satisfied by collecting votes, and separating the doltish conservative masses from their political donations, they are increasingly fleecing the conservative dullards and racists of actual money. So what, right? Why should I care if Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity want to 1bankrupt a bunch of morons by selling them worthless gold certificates and freeze dried survival food? Certainly, it is hard to feel sorry for these idiots - as the old adage says, "You can't cheat an honest man." And yet, the monetary losses suffered by these gullible idiots are usually fungible across society. Take, for example, Trump University.
Bush did one good thing

Bush did one good thing

Thanks to Bush, there are fewer people around who think America should be the world's Sheriff. We went into Iraq drunk on WWII "greatest generation" nostalgia. (Saving Private Ryan, 1998. A Band of Brothers, 2001) It was America's job to "put a boot in (the world's) ass" according to the 1999 Toby Keith song lyrics. I like to think that we are a little less sure of the virtue of global American belligerence these days.

Sunday Open Thread [8.25.13]

Yesterday was one of the biggest Democratic events of the year -- the Democratic Jamboree at Cape Henlopen State Park. It sounds like the most interesting comments of the event came from Matt Denn:
Gov. Jack Markell was off on vacation and could not attend. Lt. Gov. Matt Denn gave a speech that was particularly critical of the Delaware Republican Party. He noted for the crowd that Republicans hold just one statewide office – Tom Wagner is the elected state auditor – and are in the minority in both houses of the General Assembly. He blamed that partly on policies that he said alienated minority communities and opposition to gay marriage. “The Republican Party seems to be doing its part to make it easy for us to win elections,” Denn said. “I feel guilty being here,” Denn joked. “I’m a proud Democrat. But I’m also a straight white guy. I’m pretty much all the Republicans have left.”
Burn!
Friday Open Thread [8.23.13]

Friday Open Thread [8.23.13]

The Around the Horn will be published tomorrow. I had my physical this morning so I did not have time to go through everything. Bruce Bartlett:
Just as Democrats had depended on the South to maintain their congressional control for generations, Republicans now depend on that region to maintain theirs. This has made the GOP ever more sensitive to issues that especially resonate with Southerners—abortion, gun control, low taxes and a hard line on immigration. In the process, the liberal wing of the Republican Party completely ceased to exist. Just as all conservative Democrats became Republicans, all liberal Republicans became Democrats. Thus for the first time in American history, our two major parties are ideologically uniform—all the conservatives are in one party and all the liberals are in the other. Since the GOP is now vitally dependent on maintaining its position in the South, I believe that the South now controls the Republican Party to a much greater extent than it controls the South. This makes it very hard for a Republican presidential nominee to reach out for moderate and swing voters in the North and West. In effect, the price Republicans pay for holding Congress, by way of the South, is that its presidential nominees become unelectable. Republicans don’t yet believe this, but when they lose again in 2016, at least some will be forced to accept it.
QOTD — The NRA Builds a Database of Millions of Gun Owners, Where’s The Outrage?

QOTD — The NRA Builds a Database of Millions of Gun Owners, Where’s The Outrage?

Buzzfeed has reported on the NRA's efforts to build a database of possibly tens of millions of gun owners from data they were able to obtain from states on gun and hunting permit owners. Interesting, yes? This is the same NRA that manufactures its outrage over the press publishing the publicly available list of people with gun permits. The NRA specifically fundraises off of manufactured fear that the government is creating lists of gun owners in order to seize those guns, or some such. As if the government didn't outgun these gun owners anyway. But here is the NRA specifically building the database it accuses the government of trying to do -- so where *is* all of the conservative outrage on this data collection effort that is being done without the permission of those gun or hunting permit owners?

Thursday Open Thread 8.22.13

At Wonkblog, Sarah Kliff has an ironic revelation: "A new poll finds that young Republicans are more likely to have health coverage through their parents' policy than young Democrats, an option widely expanded under the Affordable Care Act...The poll comes from the Commonwealth Foundation, which has spent two years tracking how adults between the ages of 19 and 25 are reacting to the Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2010, the health care law allowed young adults up to age 26 to stay covered under their parents' health plans...The Commonwealth Foundation estimates that of the 15 million young adults that have insurance coverage through a parent, 7.8 million would not have qualified without this policy."
Trashing Teachers – Another Big GOP Fail

Trashing Teachers – Another Big GOP Fail

In spite of the GOP's ongoing assault on public schools, and public school teachers, a new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll shows that most Americans like their public schools and the teachers who work there.
...parents, especially, are increasingly pleased with their neighborhood schools and more displeased with the rising use of standardized, multiple choice tests to evaluate, and potentially punish, teachers, a new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll suggests.
The GOP's efforts to trash public schools and vilify public school teachers may have had some impact, but, like so much of conservatism, not the anticipated impact.
(Parents are) displeased with the rising use of standardized, multiple choice tests to evaluate, and potentially punish, teachers, a new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll suggests.