A conservative intellectuals job is the rationalization of predatory behavior.

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

Recent examples of "conservative intellectuals" doing their jobs are right-wingers Amity Shlaes and Megan McArdle's economic pseudo-histories that attempt to justify right wing economic predaciousness, "conservative intellectual" economist Greg Mankiw's Enron-accounting/Republican-math nonsense, faux "intellectual" neo-conservative Richard Perle who helped lie US into the Iraq War (and outright lied again by recently saying there is "no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy"), and elitist "conservative intellectual" George Will's bizarre repudiation of the extensive peer reviewed science supporting global warming. The point is always the same for Republican "intellectuals," their jobs as "conservative intellectuals" is the rationalization of predatory behavior.

#Republican-economic-theories-LOOTED-America

Republican economic theories LOOTED the vast majority of Americans, squandered America's surpluses, and ran up trillions in debt.

The vast majority of Americans have been economically hurt by right wing economic theories. Though, while looting the vast majority, right wing economic theories have enriched a tinier and tinier minority of ultra-rich elite. Which was the plan. Shlaes, McArdle, and Mankiw's jobs as "conservative intellectuals" are to justify that predatory behavior. They do so with revisionist histories and Enron accounting tricks that should be forever labeled "Republican math."

The end result of 30 years of Republican voodoo economics has been that CEO's that lose billions now walk away with multi-millions in compensation. Worse, the debts and obligations of some of those corporations "too big to fail" have now fallen on the tax payer even while the CEO's are still paying themselves bonuses. Though now those CEO bonuses are coming out of the taxpayer's pockets.

That's not capitalism, it's a sick form of predatory corporatism that was enabled by Republican / Conservative / Libertarian / Right-Wing economic nonsense. Republican math has become an Orwellian world where the trillions of debt run up by Republican Presidents is "fiscal conservatism" and where "the market" is taxpayers footing the bill for corporate CEO's failed gambles while, perversely, still paying those same failed CEO's bonuses.

The last 30 years of Republican economic con artistry has been the largest "generational theft" in America's history. But that underreports the scale of right-wing theft that's occurred the last 30 years. The Republi-Con theft of America's wealth in just the last eight years is effectively the largest bank heist in human history.

#Right-wing-militarism-made-America-LESS-SAFE

Right wing militarism has left America profoundly LESS SAFE.

Overseas, the thousands of Americans that died in the Iraq War and the uncounted thousands of Iraqis that died as a result of the lies of "conservative intellectuals" like Perle (and Cheney and Feith and myriad other "conservative intellectuals") have received no justice. There's been NO ACCOUNTABILITY for the "conservative intellectuals" that lied US into the Iraq War.

There was NO WMD in Iraq and by any serious accounting the Republican leadership knew there was none from the beginning. Republicans used the disaster of the Afghanistan based 9/11 attacks as an excuse, a pretense, to invade Iraq. The Republican leadership (the majority of whom never served in uniform) have denied any responsibility for lying US into the unnecessary Iraq War. 

Worse, because the Iraq War robbed the resources needed to achieve the objectives in the Afghanistan War, the uncontained right wing extremism that was left to fester in Afghanistan has now infected the neighboring nuclear armed muslim nation of Pakistan.

The right wing has also bizarrely endangered American troops by engaging in the kind or torture that America had previously prosecuted as war crimes. The torture enabled by right wing extremists like Dick Cheney and John Yoo, amongst others in Republican President Bush's administration, has had a double barreled blowback on American troops.

The right wing enabled torture was/is used as a propaganda recruiting tool to radicalize moderates that otherwise would have been friendlies in hostile territories. That has left the inadequate number of American boots on the ground more at risk as it increased the number of hostiles. More sickeningly, the torture enabled by the right wing eviscerates America's claim of a moral high ground should American troops be captured.

You don't torture the enemy because of some liberal/touchy/feely nonsense, you don't torture the enemy so that you can demand that the enemy absolutely NEVER tortures American troops.

Republican chickenhawk leaders repeatedly and recklessly put American troops in danger by pushing false intelligence to lie US into the Iraq War, putting too few American troops in Iraq to successful accomplish the mission despite being warned by the military that more troops would be needed, and then the right wing emboldened the enemy with childish taunts like Republican Bush's "bring em on," and with sick, sadistic torture sanctioned at the highest levels of the Republican leadership.

Meanwhile, here in America the right wing's obsession with diverting resources to criminally lethal foreign escapades has left law enforcement needs underfunded here at home.

#Conservative's-science-denials-GAMBLE-earth's-climate

"Conservative's" science denials GAMBLE earth's climate.

There are many people that don't understand empirical science, peer reviewed science, the need for replicability in science, falsifiability, or basic statistics.

But the explicit repudiation of evidence based science by the right wing, especially "conservative intellectuals" like George Will, means Republicans frequently repudiate the extensive evidence that supports our crucial understanding of how our biosphere and earth's climate is being influenced by humanity.

"How old is the planet?" is one of the first questions any "conservative intellectual" should be asked. The question cleaves the right wing in two.

While many Republicans will reply that the age of the earth is about 4.5 billion years old, a surprising number of Republicans, including Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain's Vice President Sarah Palin, say they believe the earth is only 6,000 years old.

In trying to understand how earth's climate and biosphere has changed over time, the belief that the earth is only 6 millennia old (6,000 years old) or as old as 4,500,000 millennia (4,500,000,000 years old) is IMPORTANT. The right-wing's repudiation of the evidence supporting earth science makes Republican's repudiation of the theory of evolution almost trivial by comparison.

When Republican voters are encouraged to vote for leaders who believe the earth is only 6 millennia old, then the perspectives of science is limited to that belief's timeline and not to the extensive evidence supporting the assertion that the earth is 4,500,000 millennia old.

Right wingers denial of science gambles the planet's climate. Using tobacco industry science-denial techniques, the right wing has pushed off responding to global climate change for eight solid years. By many estimates, there are fewer and fewer years left before extreme climate change is irreversible. The consequences of global warming are expected to have disastrous consequences on an epochal scale. The indifference of the right wing to such planet sized gambles, the right wing's repudiation of science, and the right wing's rejection of the solutions advocated to avoid gambling and, by the vast majority of serious scientists measure, likely squandering creations gifts is reprehensible.

Whether it's Republican Enron math, criminally reckless Neo-Con militancy, or the repudiation of peer reviewed science by right wing Exxon/Tobacco corporation funded deniers, right wing intellectuals have systematically justified and rationalized predatory behavior that has hurt Americans, America, and even creation.

A short list of some of the conservative intellectuals doing their job of rationalizing predatory behavior:

Republican's First Rule: Rules Are For Other People

Corporate Media is Enabling Right-Wing Lies.

The incentives have been warped so that corporate conglomerates financially gain when right wing lies are disseminated. It's why right wing liars like George Will are forever given prominent positions on corporate TV shows like Disney/ABC's This Week, and corporations like the Washington Post and Newsweek forever print right wing liars like George Will without corrections. It's George Will's function to lie and the only thing that would threaten his position in the corporate media is if he stopped lying.

While George Will might be dismissed as just another right-wing republican "failing up," the cumulative effect of the right-wing's obscene deceptions have made America and Americans less safe, gambled creations gifts, and grotesquely warped both the markets and financial reality.

That right wing "intellectual" theories have hurt a larger and larger percentage of the American citizenry, and even hurt America as a nation, has become less and less a concern for the ever shrinking handful of international corporations that control the bulk of cable channels, public airwaves, and print media in America. In fact, it's in those mega-corporations financial interest to keep disseminating predatory right wing lies.

The corporate media isn't monolithic, some take serving the public interest more seriously than others and have occasionally been good at airing the diversity of opinions of political and economic thinkers.

But the shrinking number of hands that control a larger and larger swath of American media are increasingly limiting the diversity of opinions aired in America to those of just right wing operatives, right wing opinions that when objectively measured are at best simple falsehoods and at worst are out and out lies.

Ultimately the anti-competitive nature of mega-media-corporations limiting the diversity of the "marketplace of ideas" is not in America's interests. It's anti-competitive, un-democratic, and increasingly predatory.

So instead of taking home $15 million Jeff Immelt only took home $3.3 million after running the company so badly he got bailed out by $138 billion in gubmint money? $3.3 million tax payer dollars are supplementing a corporate titan's failed leadership? Isn't that moral hazard?

The same GE/CNBC that goaded the crash in 2008 through irresponsible reporting?

Apparently right winger Ballabon was sought by CBS. Someone should point out to Viacom/CBS owner Sumner Redstone that the Republican Bush machine isn't around to threaten him with multi-hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for not falling in line anymore.

A growing number of weblogs have been monitoring media bias:

-BAGnews -BloodHound -CountryFair -DailyHowler -FAIR -FoxAttacks -Greenwald -MediaMatters -NewsCorp|se  -NewsHounds.US More MEDIA BLOGS.

Santorum Thinks Islamic a Language.
("Islamic" is NOT a language, it's a religion)

If the journalist for the Daily Nebraskan understood Republican Rick Santorum correctly, in the militant right wing mind of Rick Santorum, America must pick a fight with a billion law abiding Muslims or Western Civilization might be destroyed. And if the country is forced to rely on the cowardice of College Republicans, clearly we're doomed.

It's a perfect encapsulation of how a dangerously ignorant right wing leadership helped lead US into the wrong war. Still, Republican Rick Santorum has the perfect defense to any accusations that he's a liar: he's clearly profoundly ignorant. But ignorance and bigotry isn't an excuse for reckless militancy.

Why does Rupert Murdoch hire racists and bigots and advocates of violence? Does Rupert Murdoch hate America?

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#George-Will's-Law

George Will's Law

George Will's Law: be ignorant (or outright lie) boldly while acting superior.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign responds: "We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined." ... "It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts."

Peer reviewed science says that in the last 30 years the "decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined."

What are the other explanations? Prideful ignorance? Mendacity? Foxification? Republican Math? Is it Palin-ism? Will's Law? Is George Will a "Proud Palinist?" Perhaps George Will is a victim of anti-science syndrome?

More important, if George Will is a victim of anti-science syndrome, out of concern for George Will's health (as a faux credible Republican "intellectual"), shouldn't Disney/ABC's George Stephanopoulos announce that George Will's tragic anti-science syndrome condition makes him incapable of imparting his absurd intellectualizations of the Republican's destructive behavior of perpetually denying science on TV? Isn't Disney/ABC's credibility along with George Stephanopoulos's credibility now damaged by George Will's astounding refutation of empirical science?

It's one thing to be a contrarian obstructionist but now George Will is either just making stuff up, flat out lying, or so profoundly ignorant that he needs a team of fact checkers to clean up after his nonsense.

And why is the WashingtonPost "news" paper denying global climate change? And is Disney/ABC intent on following the Foxification of intellectual discourse in America?

Foxification Foxification is when loud and stupid and lying earn advertising revenue then that's what purported "news" media outlets will offer: loud, stupid lies. Foxification frequently engages in bold faced lies combined with domineering and often abusive behavior to silence opposition voices.

Foxification also frequently uses fear, often for political purposes but occasionally just to keep it's audience's attention. Foxification also often uses sleazy, sensationalist imagery. Foxification exists in television, radio, print media and across the media spectrum (internet, satellite, etc.). A medium can be "foxified" by employing the traits of "foxification." (See: Outfoxed.)

Murdoch's Fox channels revel in loud and stupid lies but television networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN have all experimented in Foxification. Most of the radio dial has been Foxified. Murdoch has Foxified the formerly credible Wall Street Journal newpaper.

Many of the right wing enabling attacks Fox "News" makes have been incredibly offensive and often abusive. Fox is often sleazy, showing imagery that is arguably not safe for work.

Update: Foxification is related to "George Will's Law" and "Republican Math"

Best Republicans: Lincoln & Clinton The best Republican Presidents were Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton (nominally a Democrat). Opinions vary.

Clintastrophy

It's shameful that media sycophants regurgitate discredited Republican economics nonsense and focus on Republican tantrums, but most of the 'media' are simply tools of their employers, employers that are too often in bed with Republicans. The right wing enabling media's beltway games are disconnected from reality.

Under Democratic President Clinton there was more than just prosperity, he left the country with a surplus that the Republicans promptly squandered. If the Clinton Presidency was a "Clintastrophy" than let's hope that Obama's Presidency is another "Clintastrophy" of eight years of peace and prosperity.

Republican Debtor Party

Digby sums it up: "Conservatism has been stripped of everything but its essence --- cheap thugishness."

Cao-ward Cao-ward (pronounced: coward) a Republican ward who's controlled by the Republican whip.

Economist Blogs -Atrios -Baker -DeLong -Galbraith -Krugman -Reich -Roubini -Stiglitz More Economist Blogs.

Judy Woodruff's Right Wing Bias

And tonight Woodruff claimed that a far right wing Republican choice not to be Democrat Obama's Commerce Secretary is somehow a "major loss"* to Obama's Presidency. In Judy Woodruff's right wing editorializing on PBS NewsHour, when liberals find something to celebrate, it's "a blow" to a Democratic President.

Judy Woodruff in a nutshell: an outcome which delights the left is "major loss" to a Democratic Presidency.

Add up Judy Woodruff's pattern of right wing framing and PBS NewsHour's Judy Woodruff has less "accountability" then the bloggers she's criticized for having "little accountability." While Judy Woodruff's journalistic standards might make her a great co-host with Joe the Plumber on PJTV, it makes her an embarrassment to PBS.

The only bright side is that Judy Woodruff isn't directly shilling for a Republican insurance company like Gwen Ifill on WashingtonWeek.

*Update: Chris Bowers referred to Judy Woodruff's language as saying Obama received 'a blow,' however, Judy Woodruff's opening of February 12th's NewsHour asserted: "President Obama suffered another major loss" because Republican Judd Gregg declined the Commerce Secretary position in Democratic President Obama's Cabinet.

In contrast, in her interview with WashingtonPost's Chris Cilizza, he talks himself down to, "it's a bump in the road." Which puts Judy Woodruff's absurdly dramatic right wing enabling editorializing rhetoric in perspective.

Republicans expect Obama to split the baby and on the economic stimulus Obama did indeed "split the baby." Economists on the left are concerned that the 'centrist' compromise means that the stimulus is too little and weighted towards numerically less stimulative tax cuts as opposed to the more stimulative investments like infrastructure.

Doing the right thing means not splitting the baby. Hopefully Obama will learn sooner than later that when Republican extremists demand that he split the baby he needs to just say NO.

Sirota points out that the flaw in Nate Silver's deference to expert opinion "is the entire concept of "expert opinion." What exactly is "expert opinion?" That term usually refers to the Very Serious People the Establishment and Media Say Are Experts - that is, people like the Wall Street CEOs in front of Congress and people like Larry Summers and Tim Geithner - all who had direct hands in destroying the economy. Silver - incredibly - would have us simply wait for this "expert opinion" to tell us what to do, without any regard for the fact that this "expert opinion" is exactly what got us into the situation we're in." ... "And worse, once these Masters of the Universe hand down their edicts to us, Silver wants us to simply go into battle for their priorities - again, without any questions about who they are serving, what they are doing, and their past record of screwing us over."

The problem with "expert opinion" is that the experts, particularly economic "experts," say opposite things. For the last 30 years the "expert opinion" on economics was Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, and Ronald Reagan. The right wing trio who championed the "voodoo economics" that resulted in trillions of indebtedness and a deregulated market that has the country and possibly the world now spinning on the edge of a second depression.

Meanwhile expert economists like Krugman, Reich, Roubini, Baker, Galbraith, and Mishel who Sirota recommends and who have been consistently right have also been consistently marginalized.

Republican Math "REPUBLICAN MATH:" where the "error" always falls in favor of the person employing the "Republican math" and hurts the person that wasn't quick enough to realize that they were being suckered.

Update: "Republican Math" is synonymous with "Enron Math" and "Enron Accounting." See: Enron news. Also Google: [Karl Rove "the math"].