The Closing of the Conservative Mind

Paul Krugman has an interesting take on how Republicans just can't imagine that the other party actually has the best interest of the populace in mind when it comes to policy:

I think these commentaries are revealing of two things. One is the closing of the conservative mind. I’d like to think that I have a reasonably good understanding of conservative economic doctrine and conservative views on health care; I disagree, but I do know what they have been saying in recent years. Barone and Steele, by contrast, act as if utterly unaware of what people like me, or the president, have been saying and writing: no idea that standard textbook economics says that you should sustain government spending in a recession, no idea that liberals have been trying to get universal health insurance for three generations.

The other thing is the way incomprehension becomes demonization. Because conservatives don’t understand at all what the other side believes, everything becomes a conspiracy theory: Obama must be indulging his grotesque ambition, because who could possibly believe that doing what he did is a good idea?

Paul Krugman - A Strange Madness

Paul Krugman weighs in on what he sees as a strange madness sweeping America.

The point is that whatever is driving all this doesn’t have anything to do with the realities of what I, or, much more important of course, Obama say or do. Obama could have come in proposing to pursue an agenda identical to Bush, and he would still be a socialist/Commie/fascist, with those of us who don’t see it that way lying Nazis ourselves. 

Something is going very wrong in the heads of a substantial number of Americans.

Al Franken's Secret

Paul Krugman points to a column by David Broder, ostensibly calling for bipartisanship, while at the same time calling Al Franken a "loud-mouthed former comedian," which seems on the surface to be an odd first step toward reaching across the aisle.

As Krugman points out, the Senate has long lost the distinction of being a gentlemanly body, and for evidence points to Senator James Inhofe. 'Nuff said.

But Krugman makes a larger case that Franken is actually a huge policy wonk, willing and able to discuss the minutae that most in Congress thinks gets in the way of sound bites that can later be used in campaign spots.

Krugan posits:

So what will Franken do to the level of Senate discourse? He’ll raise it.

Al Franken's Secret , via The Conscience of a Liberal

Wave Goodbye to Arctic Sea Ice

Here's a picture of arctic sea ice in 1979, and in 2007.

Any global warming denial goofballs want to weigh in?

h/t Paul Krugman

Don't Mess with Texas

From Paul Krugman:

Matthew Yglesias notes that Tom DeLay is under the strange misapprehension that Texas is rich thanks to its low taxes and lack of regulation.

Just one minor issue: you really shouldn’t use median income, which can be distorted to the extent that inequality differs across states. You should instead use income per capita. As it happens, the comparison is even more striking.

Texas, with its glorious free market regime and deeply incentive-creating 25 percent rate of health uninsurance, has a per capita income of $37,187; nanny-state New Jersey, with its oppressive taxes and regulation of everything (what it takes to get permission to cut down a dying tree … ), has a per capita income of $49,194.

Hey Paul Krugman

Hey Paul Krugman,
Why aren’t you in the administration?
Is there some kind of politicking that I don’t understand?
I mean, Timothy Geithner is like some little weasel.
Wasn’t he in a position of power
when all this sh*t went down in the first place?

When I listen to you, things seem to make sense
When I listen to him, all I hear is blah, blah, blah.

Hey Paul Krugman,
where the hell are ya, man?
‘Cause we need you on the front lines
not just writing for The New York Times.
I’d feel better if you were calling some shots
instead of writing your blog and probably thinking a lot.

I mean, don’t you have some influence?
Why aren’t you secretary of the Treasury?

For God’s sake, man, you won the Nobel Prize.
Timothy Geithner uses TurboTax.

When I listen to you, things seem to make sense.
When I listen to him, all I hear is blah, blah, blah.

Hey Paul Krugman, where the hell are ya, man?
(Obama Breakdown)

Sing it with me!

When I listen to you, things seem to make sense.
When I listen to him, all I hear is blah, blah, blah.

Hey Paul Krugman, where the hell are ya, man?
Your country needs you now.