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- Seems George Soros is dumping millions into an "Institute for New Economic Thinking" that will "take back the economics profession from the champions of free-market zealotry who have dominated it for decades." That ought to keep the economic right wing busy for a while. It's worth repeating that it's precisely because the once-dominant free-market fundamentalists are so ideologically rigid that these sort of corrective efforts have to be launched in the first place.
- Speaking of conspiracies, this editorial in The Wall Street Journal about the world government being established by the U.N. (not so much) has it all. Ironically, the best substantive criticism one can make of the U.N. -- that it has consistently failed in its charter mission to prevent wars -- completely undermines the right's unsubstantiated critique that the international organization wields more power than it actually has.
- The latest effort by conservatives to circle the wagons around Fox News is to point out the Obama administration's "hypocrisy" for failing to shut out MSNBC because it is the left-wing equivalent of Fox. One assumes the existence of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Ed Schultz are the evidence here, but what of the other personalities on MSNBC? Isn't there a rough "balance" going on at the "liberal" cable news channel that is utterly absent in Fox's approach to the news, despite their slogans?
- The notion that the political moment is ripe for another Reagan-esque upstart is about more than the selective mythologization of the 40th president. It might be true that the limited government pitch might have some purchase with the electorate in the current environment, but that doesn't solve the problem of the messenger delivering that pitch. Even if you find a talented Republican to warn the world about the dangers of socialism, it will still be a Republican giving that message, and unlike in Reagan's time, Republicans are currently loathed by a public which believes that Republicans are responsible for the recession.
- Remainders: Obama's legacy will be the codification of a two-track legal system to accommodate "unprivileged enemy belligerents"; ideological preferences in the electorate have been stable for 35 years and counting; clearly, having women in the work force has had a deleterious effect on our culture; a reminder that conservative Republicans can't, won't govern; Jon Kyl has no problem with letting the unemployed suffer; Barack Obama is the epicenter of everything that is wrong in the world; and the prehistory of “liberal fascism.”
--Mori Dinauer
