"...the party of Beavis and Butthead"

The Jindal Follies
This is just getting rich as can be, and further exposing the crazy base that America at large first began to understand through Palin's rallies.

Limbaugh on Jindal: LIMBAUGH: [T]he people on our side are really making a mistake if they go after Bobby Jindal on the basis of style. Because if you think — people on our side I’m talking to you — those of you who think Jindal was horrible, you think — in fact, I don’t ever want to hear from you ever again. … I’ve spoken to him numerous times, he’s brilliant. He’s the real deal.


Brooks on Jindal: "unfortunate" (h/t Americablog)



Krugman on Jindal: The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

Recovered wingnut John Cole, who knows whereof he speaks, on Operation Leper, Part II

I love the fact that Limbaugh thinks that after years of anti-intellectualism, years of reducing complex policy decisions to “with us or against us” and most recently “Drill, baby, drill” that they now should no longer consider “style” when trying to appeal to the base GOP base.

At any rate, better start scrubbing your websites, Republicans, or pretty soon there will be some Silly Putty in the mail or you will be blacklisted for pointing out that Jindal really and truly sucked last night.

atrios on Jindal: What struck me about Jindal's complaint about spending money monitoring volcanoes was that it was really the best they can come up with. As he was.


Sullivan on If You Thought Jindal Was Awful

You may be a racist, according to Ann Althouse. Or rather:

Why are all these people so confident that they are not manifesting racism?

Maybe because there is not a trace of evidence of any kind that we are. Unless comparing Jindal to Kenneth the Page or Mr Burns taps unknown wells of racist hate in my heart. I mean, seriously.

Hullabaloo's tristero on Jindal: Bobby, We Hardly Know Ye, But We Damn Well Better

I was sickened reading Michael Gerson's clinically insane profile of Jindal that Digby linked to. I'll focus on just one sentence:

Jindal has the ability to overwhelm any topic with facts and thoughtful arguments -- displaying a mastery of detail that encourages confidence.

Oh, really? Confidence? We talking about this Bobby Jindal?

...in an essay Jindal wrote in 1994 for the New Oxford Review, a serious right-wing Catholic journal, Jindal narrated a bizarre story of a personal encounter with a demon, in which he participated in an exorcism with a group of college friends. And not only did they cast out the supernatural spirit that had possessed his friend, Jindal wrote that he believes that their ritual may well have cured her cancer.

Reading the article leaves no doubt that Jindal -- who graduated from Brown University in 1991, was a Rhodes Scholar, and had been accepted at Yale Law School and Harvard Medical School when he wrote the essay -- was completely serious about the encounter. He even said the experience "reaffirmed" his faith.

.... continue reading this excellent piece at the link

Journamalism
The failure of the major newsmedia (not cable teevee) to recognize and/or to actively defend journalistic malpractice is pretty stunning. The George Will/Global Cooling debacle offers a clear case in point. Matt Yglesias unpacks it brilliantly here: The George Will Scandal and the Decline of Great American Newspapers

I’ve heard a number of MSMers suggest to me in recent days that maybe bloggers should stop complaining about how The Washington Post publishes non-true statements about climate change as fact in its pages, and then has its editors and ombudsman claim that these false statements are true, because said complaining is contributing to the deplorable crisis in American newspapering. This strikes me as badly wrong.

...

But The Washington Post, by standing behind the claim that up is down if George Will says that is is, is pissing that brand away. Rather than complaining to me, people who work at, or care about, The Washington Post need to complain to Fred Hiatt and ensure that something gets done.

...

Meanwhile, one of the Post’s main competitors in the world of papers with potential to attract a national audience is The New York Times. So faced with a humiliating abrogation of basic responsibilities by its competitor, does the Times take the opportunity to pour some salt in the wounds? No! Instead, out comes Andrew Revkin with a false equivalence article painting Will with the same brush as Al Gore. Will’s sin is to say that the world is not getting warmer when, in fact, it is. Gore’s sin was to say that warming is happening (it is) and to illustrate the problems with this trend by referring to a chart that Revkin deems unduly alarmist but that Gore found in The New York Times. Hm.

Most of the newspapers in the United States don’t seem to me to have any real future. And this is going to pose some real problems. In particular, I’m not sure where intensive coverage of state and local government is going to come from.....

... It strikes me as very plausible that another could be based on the Times and plausible, though somewhat less likely, that one could be based on the Post. But to reach that promised land you need to take care of these brands not flush them down the toilet to avoid angering conservatives or in pursuit of a cute conceit.

• More from The Wonk Room, including contact information for Revkin and other key NYT personnel. The New York Times Attacks Gore For Trusting The New York Times

Sullivan on Gitmo: Disturbing reports of prison guards, knowing that their opportunity for IRFing, beating, degrading and abusing inmates is coming to an end, are increasing abuses. The Pentagon's self-exoneration on the matter is, of course, ludicrous. I cannot confirm the accounts but I should say I fear the worst. Gitmo was created as a torture lab - and in the end, the guards who are part of that system behave accordingly.


TPM Headline: Minnesota Judges Strike Key Coleman Witness, After Failure To Share Evidence

TPM Headline: Boehner: GOP Policies Are Politically Harder, Dems Offer Free Lunch