There is so much going on, what with the economy, multiple wars, the crisis in Gaza, and the terrible threat posed to America by Rick Warren’s minor speaking role at the inauguration, that it is easy to forget how deeply and utterly screwed we are right now, and that every portion of our government has been infected with the Bush rot:
After 29 years enforcing the civil rights laws at the Department of Justice, in 2002 Richard Ugelow was abruptly transferred from his position as deputy chief of employment litigation to an administrative job in the civil division, which defends the government against, among other things, claims of civil rights violations. Ugelow was just one of many highly experienced justice department lawyers who, beginning in the early years of the Bush administration, were transferred, demoted or otherwise pushed out of their positions at Justice because their aggressive enforcement of federal laws didn’t match the new administration’s conservative ideology.
That’s just one of the many serious problems at the Department of Justice that the incoming Obama administration will have to rectify, say former Justice Department employees, law professors and civil rights advocates. As internal government reports and congressional hearings have documented, the Bush Justice Department over the last eight years expelled or ignored attorneys that it didn’t agree with and replaced them with inexperienced lawyers hired more for their ideology than their qualifications. Many of those promoted and implemented conservative agendas that in some cases turned out to be illegal. Those lawyers who were given career positions can’t simply be pushed out by a new administration, however – and they could make it difficult for Obama to implement a new agenda.
On our plate we currently have a number of disasters, near disasters, and emerging disasters we have to deal with immediately. The hurdles for the incoming administration are mind-numbing, notwithstanding the infighting among the rival factions within the Democratic party, and that is without factoring in the Republican party, who can be counted on to sabotage anything and everything if there is the slightest hint of electoral gain to be had. As an example of the sort of nonsense we will be expected to swallow (on top of the Yoo/Bolton bit in the post below this), just today we learn from Mitch McConnell that the Republicans are fiscal conservatives! Who would have thunk it! When did this happen?
November 4th, at around 11 o’clock, to be exact. We all knew they were going to have to re-write history, to re-invent themselves as fiscal conservatives, we just didn’t realize how clumsy and silly they were going to sound while doing it. I thought they would at least be quiet for a few months, lurk in the shadows, and then re-invent themselves. Instead, they are just pretending that yesterday didn’t happen. Check out Cheri Jacobus on LKL:
JACOBUS: Obviously, I think that — Hamas, dealing with Hamas and what’s going on in Gaza is going to be first on his list whether he wants it to or not. What he wants to do, Larry, is to have this big kind of dog and pony show. They want to have this big stimulus package, this huge spending bill on his desk ready for him to sign the moment he’s inaugurated on the 20th.
And — you know the Republicans don’t want that to happen. We want them hearings. We want to look at what’s in the bill because this could potentially be the largest spending bill ever in the history of the United States.
So I think the Obama folks are going to have to ratchet back sort of what they want to do with the — with the big sort of dog and pony show, the big circus, and get real and — take these priorities the way they need to be taken, rather than…
KING: Cheri, don’t — don’t many Republicans support that stimulus package?
JACOBUS: Well, we don’t know what’s in it. And what we want are hearings. We want to take a look at this because this has such a huge potential for pork, quite frankly. And that’s not something we want to happen. Republicans let that happen before. We’re not going to let it happen again. So we want some time to take a look at it, to make sure that the money…
KING: James?
JACOBUS: … is going to the right places.
CARVILLE: I’m just — I’m flabbergasted by this thought of Republican concern with the fiscal things. There was an article by (INAUDIBLE) who won the Nobel Prize that the Republican administration left a deficit by $10 trillion.
Join the club, James. The next few years are going to be a real PITA.
*** Update ***
And I don’t know how Republicans can even write stuff like this:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.
Pelosi’s rule changes — which may be voted on today — will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”
We can debate whether or not Pelosi should make those rule changes, and whether or not the rules changes are a good idea or not. I can handle that. What I find absurd is the notion that the the House GOP has any desire to work with the Democrats and the incoming administration. A quick reminder of who we are dealing with here:
Pelosi is most likely rewriting the rules so the Republicans can not use them as tools of obstruction. They simply don’t know how to act in good faith. Period.
*** Update #2 ***
What I thought:
According to Republicans aides familiar with the rules package, the change being considered would prevent members of the minority from effectively killing legislation by sending it back to the committee of jurisdiction.
Republicans used this tool repeatedly over the last two years to stymie Democrats on the floor, particularly during an extended debate over domestic oil drilling, when the GOP embarrassed the majority week after week and forced Democrats to suspend the annual spending process by threatening to offer a measure repealing a 27-year ban on offshore oil and gas drilling.
Given that dynamic, GOP leaders expected Democrats to make these changes to limit their ability to engage in these political stunts. Still, Boehner and his colleagues insist in their letter that Democrats are already failing to deliver on “the kind of openness and transparency that President-elect Obama promised.”
Petulant brats.
Dreggas
All that talk about a dog and pony show…project much?
Atlliberal
Like the ones pushed out during the Bush administration? Really?
This is one of those situations where we need leadership with spines.
DougJ
Does it really matter? Her silence on the Rick Warren issue shows that she’s simply Tom DeLay lite. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss….
4tehlulz
>>Pelosi’s rule changes—which may be voted on today—will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”
I’m sure the Republicans are truly sad about this, given Newt’s dedication to fairness and all.
Singularity
Hyperbole much? Because Nancy Pelosi has not publicly attacked the incoming President of the United States over his decision to invite Rick Warren to speak for two minutes at the inauguration, she is the near-equivalent of the most divisive and corrupt majority leader the House has had in 50 years? Get a sense of perspective.
The Other Steve
I never knew Gingrich was behind the Fairness Doctrine.
John Cole
Impressive angling, DougJ. A bite on your first cast. I suppose I deserve a little credit for baiting the hook.
New folks here- I may or may not intentionally throw obnoxious shit into posts just to tweak the readers. DougJ may or may not be a troll.
demimondian
@John Cole: I always allow anyone I suspect to be a troll at least two nibbles before I hop on him.
Besides, "DeLay light" was a great line.
mapaghimagsik
If Bush would have been smarter, he would have disabled all these perks he’s been using before he leaves office.
Obama I think should use those perks to straighten things out, Gordian Knot. style, and *then* close the door behind him on his way out.
But If these rules didn’t keep the Democrats from derailing the Republican agenda, why do we need to change them?
Leadership with spines, indeed.
JGabriel
Pelosi should just tell any House Republicans who complain, "Fine. Then we’ll go back to the rules imposed on Democrats by the GOP for the 2005-2006 session. Is that what you really want? Because I’m more than happy to go there."
.
cleek
i like how the party of rugged individualist cowboys is whining like a bunch of 3 year-olds. again.
demimondian
Actually, there’s a really good article on Politico on this. (Yeah, I know: Drudge light? Don’t worry, they buried the lede.)
Key passage, buried at the end of the article:
Derogatory term "stunts" in original, BTW.
MNPundit
You may find it absurd but Obama does not. Let’s see how he feels a few months into it.
Dave
I just read all this crap coming from the GOP and it makes me embarrassed that I used to be a Republican back in the day. The utter lack of a coherent political ideology beyond "Let’s fuck it up for the Democrats regardless of the cost" is simply astounding.
Zifnab
It’s six of one, half a dozen of another. Rewriting the rules to prevent obstructionism doesn’t make Pelosi’s move any more or less draconian that if she was rewriting them so she could railroad through legislation without oversight. It amounts to much the same – Republicans don’t get to sandbag legislation in committees for eternity.
It would be wonderful if we had a responsible opposition party capable of measuring legislation on merits rather than a pack of spoiled brats just itching to cry wolf or throw a wrench in the mix. I really don’t trust Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi to ferry legislation through Congress that is free of corruption and graft. I’m not above suspecting that a few hundred thousand – maybe a few million, maybe a few billion – in stimulus won’t end up in a Congressman’s fridge. But Republicans aren’t the folks willing or able to combat that kind of graft.
So what do we do? This two party system has us all by the balls. We just have to assume that the new Democrats will be less a pack of moochers and assholes than the old Republicans when handling a far more tempting prize. Fuck us.
Giggles
Yes. Yes she is. I weep for our country.
J.D. Rhoades
If the Republicans have such a problem with who makes the rules, maybe they should try winning more elections.
J.D. Rhoades
The NYT, 12/23/2006:
And this is how the GOP responded:
In other words, they said from the beginning that they going to take the olive branch and beat Dems upside the head with it by loading up bills with a lot of amendments on wedge issues.
You just can’t be nice to some people.
Laura W
I caught King "Live" (never seems appropriate to follow his name with that word) last night and let me tell you…that Cheri has a 10 trillion $$$ smile. Frozen. Never lets it relax. Sewn on, I suspect.
That frightens me terribly about people.
TenguPhule
Sticks with sharp pieces of metalat the end jabbed into them work better then Carrots.
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
{chortle}
TenguPhule
But they can be reassigned to duties that keep them from doing any harm, like Presidental Dog Ball Washer.
priscianus jr
In this transition period what I see is that the Republicans are running a scorched-earth policy. They are literally trying to do as much damage as possible so as to make Obama’s job even more difficult when he takes over. That being said, I would like to remind all fellow Balloon Juicers that what they are doing it is rear-guard action. We did win in November, and with a pretty decisive mandate. The great majority of people, even (according to polls) a significant percentage who did not vote for Obama, are optimistic. I think Obama and his team are politically savvy enough to know how to go with that. No question Justice is a mess. But after January 20th, Holder will be running it, not Munkasy.
Face
They were talking about TARP, here, right? They didn’t want such an enormity just passed in a matter of days with almost no oversight, correct?
What? They weren’t?
The Mother of All Hypocrisy.
iluvsummr
From the Beeb, some actual five- & six-year-olds act on what matters most to them. The sad part is their actions seem more mature and make more sense to me than those of the GOP’s members. I guess the Republicans think the US is a nation of amnesiacs.
Brick Oven Bill
Re: “Bush Rot”
Transparency International produces an annual ’Corruption Perception Index’, which ranks countries by fair and open dealing in government affairs. I support fair and open dealing in government affairs. Denmark is #1 and Somalia is #180.
The power structure does not support fair and open dealing in government affairs, as they are the beneficiaries of the spoils of our system of government.
You will notice that the relatively non-corrupt governments have high IQ populations. The very corrupt governments have low IQ populations. Suggesting that a functioning democracy requires intelligence and the ability to reflect among the electorate.
This is why the agents of the power structure, otherwise known as our elected officials, support unrestricted immigration and universal suffrage. Their model is Central America. Which is not a bad place, by the way, if you have money.
Face
@iluvsummr: Great story. However, if the same thing happened in the US, you’d better believe the parents would be arrested for child neglect ("allowing" them to escape and walk a mile without supervision), the parents would have been given the (free?) tour of the police station’s lockup, and then the parents would have sued the tram operator for who-knows-what claiming it-never-matters-in-lawsuits-involving-kids and winning $146 million dollars in emotional distress, thereby bankrupting the whole public-transport line.
The Moar You Know
I don’t give two shits about anything with the word "bipartisan" in it. If Pelosi is writing them out of the process it will be the first thing she has done that I support wholeheartedly.
Fuck the Republicans. They lost. They ruined the country. Let them hold hearing in the basement for a change.
gex
Interesting to see you mock those who are annoyed by the Rick Warren pick to go on and complain about someone in the Justice Department being moved off of civil rights law enforcement work.
ksmiami
sorry – been out of touch awhile, but in response…
"Elections have consequences…" – muthafkers
The Moar You Know
@J.D. Rhoades: Pure win. I’ll be using this for the next four years.
Thank you.
cleek
in other news, Obama has just nominated Leon Panetta to run the CIA.
i can’t wait to see what the shrieking retards will come up with in order to justify their outrage over this.
4tehlulz
lolwut:
Panetta to Be Named C.I.A. Director
DAMN YOU CLEEK! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
It’s an obtuse way of showing spine, okay, it’s very passive aggressive but at this point, I don’t care. If Pelosi can screw House Repups, finally, I’m all for it.
demimondian
@cleek: Give me a few minutes.
The Moar You Know
@cleek: This is quite interesting. Apparently Obama tried, and failed, to find anyone in the intelligence world who didn’t support domestic wiretapping – so he got Leon.
This speaks volumes, regardless of his vote on FISA, about his real commitment to the rule of law.
KCinDC
I missed the announcement that Rick Warren was going to be working in the Justice Department.
liberal
@Brick Oven Bill:
Uh, I think issues of cause and effect here are a little more complicated than you think they are.
The Other Steve
Weird. I thought they had Tony Perkins lined up for that job.
The Other Steve
I love Brick Oven Bill!
Fwiffo
There are some strong early entries for Wank of the Year, 2009. Andrew Keen thinks broadband will inevitably turn us all into Nazis because it will let the unwashed masses have their own opinions about things. Or something.
The Other Steve
I just realized. Larry Johnson!
Why isn’t he being made head of the CIA!?
cleek
no, he died in 1992.
i love his enthusiasm for pie!
gex
@KCinDC: Must just be me that sees a relationship between the anti-gay-marriage folks and civil rights.
The Other Steve
Is he any relation to the Keen shoes?
Maybe he’s trying to get the jack boot contract.
Libby Spencer
I don’t know what appalls me more. That the GOPers can so blantantly switch their entire stance on checks and balances to the exact opposite of the way they ruled or that there are going to be a lot of deadenders who will defend them for deliberately trying to turn us into a third world country just so they can blame the Dems for the mess they caused.
All I can say, is screw bi-partisan consensus. It’s a sucker’s game.
AhabTRuler
Seconded!
The Moar You Know
@Brick Oven Bill: Your trolling is powerful. However, you need to patch the holes in your narrative better. Moar supporting evidence, know what I mean?
For example: The inquisitive poster, on reading this, would follow the link and notice there is no correlation cited between national origin and IQ.
You need to at least find a published work that has a breakdown of average IQ by nation. Otherwise some asshole is going to come along and notice that you don’t have it, and then you’re going to have to find one, admit that you pulled the statement out of your ass, or ignore anyone who asks for it.
flavortext
@Libby Spencer:
It’s as if the Republican party read The Mask of Sanity and thought that between Villager idiocy and public amnesia, psychopathy would make an effective political strategy. I only hope they’re wrong about voters’ forgetfulness.
4tehlulz
@The Moar You Know: BoB needs to link to Andrew Sullivan’s seminal writings on IQ, if u no wut i meen.
Shinobi
OT: UAW bosses didn’t get the memo, the only acceptable sport to play on the clock is Golf. (And you should really use the corporate jet for those beer runs, just for efficiency’s sake.)
The Moar You Know
@4tehlulz: Or he could just link to Goatse, since that’s where he got his figures from. But Sully would be a good start for him. Who knows? He might get in touch with his savage inner queer.
Johnny Pez
Fixed.
Brick Oven Bill
Denmark 98, Somalia 68. Have fun.
There also seems to be a correlation with peaceful religions.
Ash Can
Actually, on the most fundamental level, I don’t really care what the Republicans or their deadender apologists say. After all, we’ve known their idiotic shtick by heart since the days of Reagan (everything having to do with Democrats is bad; say government is bad and then get elected and prove it). What I really care about is whether, this time around at long last, the public in general reacts by pointing and laughing at them, the news media react by throwing horse apples at them, and Congressional Dems blow them off completely. This, obviously, is a pipe-dream scenario. Nevertheless, since Republicans abandoned the role of responsible political entity a long time ago, it’s about damned time they were treated accordingly.
r€nato
I’m going to judge the Democrats’ first 100 days in Congress and the White House, by the amount of time the Republicans spend on the fainting couch. The more often, the better for us and the country.
Grover Norquist was right. When it comes to Republicans at least, bipartisanship is date rape.
I don’t expect that will stop the hysterics over Rick Warren, though.
r€nato
advice for whiny Republicans:
1) We had an accountability moment in November. You lost.
2) Obama’s popular vote mandate was over 3 times that of Bush’s in 2004’s ‘accountability moment’.
3) Shut the fuck up and be grateful that the mess Bush left behind is going to probably make it nearly impossible that he’ll get the war crimes trial he rightly deserves.
4) Shut the fuck up and remember that Bush was not impeached, or next time we’ll pay you back for that Clinton impeachment bullshit.
5) Just shut the fuck up.
6) Country first, assholes.
I’m all for ending the extreme partisanship… but not before the GOP bullies get their faces ground into the dirt for a good long time so that they learn their fucking lesson.
It’s the only way to deal with a bully.
Zuzu's Petals
Well as the article pointed out, Obama will be able to appoint new division heads, which should help. In addition, he gets to appoint new US Attorneys in each district, also a help.
Note to Atlliberal: there is a difference between at-will appointments and civil service positions. As outrageous as the Gonzales US Attorney firings were, those were at-will positions.
JL
Thursday, Obama is suppose to address the nation with his economic stimulus plan. Somehow, I expect the rethugs to tow the line or be responsible for the coming economic disaster.
Zuzu's Petals
@liberal:
I’ve also read the theory that the warmer the climate, the more corrupt the government.
Some corrolaries:
The skimpier the clothing, the more corrupt the government.
The more palm trees per acre, the more corrupt the government.
Duke of Earl
@Brick Oven Bill:
Hmm… What I notice is that the non-corrupt governments tend to be socialist in nature while the corrupt ones are laissez faire capitalist taken to an extreme measure.
demimondian
@Zuzu’s Petals: Actually, it’s all about "sunshine" — the longer the longest day of the year, the less corrupt the government.
Zuzu's Petals
@demimondian:
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Svensker
There also seems to be a correlation with peaceful religions.
The real correlation seems to be with highly secular populations. Don’t you agree Bill? Or is it Bob? But, you know what? I don’t really care what your name is. You know why? Because I am sick to fucking death of little junior nazis who act all USA! USA! and who are murdering war-mongering torturing lying pieces of shit. I don’t want to be polite to them any more. And I don’t want to cut them any slack. I’m trying real hard to be a Quaker, so I’m required to respect all human life and try to see "that of God in every being", but that doesn’t mean that people who act like pieces of shit aren’t going to get told that they are acting like pieces of shit. Dear Bill, you are acting like a piece of shit. Stop it.
flavortext
@Brick Oven Bill:
That’s what you call evidence? If the average IQ in North Korea is 105 I’ll eat my pants. They don’t have enough food to keep themselves from dying of starvation, much less the proper nutrition that is required in order to develop normal brain function. Nice try, but your premise is ass-backwards in the first place in part because of what I just said.
JL
@Svensker: Wow! Maybe we should send you to Washington, then we would get a jobs program passed.
JR
"I don’t expect that will stop the hysterics over Rick Warren, though."
You know what will help the Dems stay united and able to move forward? Not treating people that have slightly different priorities and ideas (and possibly know something you don’t) with sneering disdain and sarcasm.
If someone, say, wants to launch a WAR and you don’t, that is a political difference worth standing up and screaming at each other over. But if someone wants to stop FISA as a priority and someone else protests a right-wing icon speaking at the Inauguration–that is called a difference of opinion between allies and requires respectful disagreement.
It may be a fine line after the Con years, but I watched Dkos destroy its own comity and credibility by scapegoating Nader and going down the road of ripping each other apart over GroupThink idiotica. Is there any political site so large and vocal and more powerless than Dkos?
The collateral damage of silly internecine snark-wars may be the very allies you need to advance YOUR agenda.
Punchy
It gets worse. Obama just nommy’d a sandwhich and bread company to lead the CIA.
Maybe free soups for the spooks?
sstarr
Except, of course, for Alaska.
Brick Oven Bill
Another factor in government corruption seems to be a history of socialist policies. An interesting example is post-WWII Germany. You can argue that there is little biological difference between Germans living at similar latitudes.
When Germany was split by longitude and political system, the behavior of the two populations began to diverge. The changes persist to this day, with the most independent, and I would suggest happy, Citizens in the western part of the country.
This would explain why Russia and North Korea are much more corrupt than other countries with similar scores. North Korea was able to build an atomic bomb with very little capital. Think of the money that the United States poured in to the Manhattan Project. South Korea makes very good cars and scores #40 out of 180.
So I would blame North Korean hunger on a history of Communism. That system of government rots the human spirit among the population, and benefits only the very rich.
Zuzu's Petals
@sstarr:
Hmm, maybe that’s where the IQ factor comes in …
DougJ
I’m not sure that’s the real issue with Kos. The real issue is that it’s just not a very good blog. The front pagers are mediocre for the most part and there’s a general aversion to real thought there.
I’m not sure all the overreacting about Warren hurts Obama politically or hampers the progressive movement, though. I just think it’s dumb and makes the overreacters look silly.
The Grand Panjandrum
The House isn’t really the problem. They’ve generally been able to get shit done with the current rules. The real problem is the Senate and that pansy motherfucker Harry Reid. When Reid forces the Republicans to actually filibuster instead of capitulating every fucking time they can’t win a cloture vote I’ll believe the Democrats can get ANYTHING done.
Bill Clinton forced Gingrich’s hand in 95 when they closed the government down. Republicans, fairly or unfairly, as the so-called "small government" party are usually seen as the obstructionists. The public has little appetite for this game of footsies. If Reid doesn’t force real filibusters they will only get watered down legislation that will be ineffective and essentially a waste of time and money.
BTW Panetta at CIA is a genius move. But why he would want such a thankless job I have no idea.
DougJ
Let’s not forget what the great Reggie White said, that if you go to any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch. I’ve got to think that requires a 105+ average IQ.
The Moar You Know
@Brick Oven Bill: Oh wow. Sadly for the point you’re trying to make, I did a lot of test design in graduate school (my major was psychology, and essentially all you do in school, after learning theory, is design and execute tests). I don’t think the guy is a liar or anything like that – but what is painfully obvious is that he does not understand the concept of "correlation" or even what an intelligence test is – the example he uses to determine the US IQ is extrapolated from the results of the ASVAB (or its earlier equivalent). While a useful test, this is in no way an "IQ" test. Also absent from his thesis is any methodology – not for his thesis, but for how he normed the "IQ" results to one standard. This alone would send him back to the drawing board.
I could go on. It’s kind of sad, as he obviously put a lot of sweat and thought into this, but this wouldn’t pass muster under any kind of peer review, not even one conducted by a graduate student.
I won’t even get into the fact that he estimates the "National IQ" of 104 out of the 180 nations he cites in his thesis. If over 50% of my data in any study I did in school had been "estimated", I would have been expelled for misconduct.
I could go on for days, picking this apart. It is actually an awesome example of badly conducted science, and I’m glad you posted it.
woody
Twaddle.
I am certain that there is a positive correlation between national wealth and the measurable "IQ" of citizens. Nations suffering national endemic poverty with its attendant miseries will not build schools in which its children can learn to take such tests. There’s an analogical condition in national populations, too: More than half of all variance in between-student scores on standardized tests can be accounted for by one variable: family wealth/economic status; it might be one of those ontogeny/philogeny things…
Tonybrown74
Oh, fer fuck’s sake!
You know, none of us who have been highly critical of Obama’s choice for the invocation at his swearing in, has ever said that there aren’t more pressing issues going on in the world, and some of us may even understand if there is a political calculation at play.
That said, considering the fact that we are still reeling from such a close defeat of equal marriage rights in California (gleefully supported and promoted by that fat fuck of a bigot), is too much to see why we may be a tad upset that the man get such a prominent role in Obama’s inauguration? The gays [lesbians, bi’s, and transgendered] always seem to have to take one for the team to accomplish whatever political agenda may be on the table, and maybe, just maybe, we’re a little sore from the constant ass-fucking!
I know we’re supposed to like it and all, but I don’t know why it’s too much to ask that we get taken out for a nice dinner BEFORE we take a dry cock up the ass!
Jeez [end rant]
Other than that, I agree with the rest of your post.
The Moar You Know
@woody: You’ve made a common mistake here. Most people don’t realize (and we’re all the worse for it) that IQ tests do not measure academic knowledge in any way, shape or form. It’s the same mistake that the author of the thesis that Brick Oven Bill cites made in at least one cited national population.
This, however:
Is quite true for the SAT and other such tests.
Joe Lisboa
Brick Oven Bill is a parody, right?
Alan
I like the video in the first update. The bill that eventually passed needed another $150 billion tacked on to get the conservative party to go along.
Every time I hear those jerks complain about Democratic spending I’m reminded of that.
demimondian
@Joe Lisboa: There’s some debate about that among the commentariat. My solution is to treat it as real, since if it’s spoof, it’s massive win spoof.
The Moar You Know
@DougJ: Amen. The commentariat over there is something to behold, and not in a good way. Uninformed, painfully ignorant and very prone to mouthing plaitudes instead of posting anything with real thought or content. No real discussion or argument is allowed – if one dissents, one is quickly troll-rated off the map.
It’s that last that’s why I love it here – no moderation combined with a well-educated group of commenters and an intolerance for easy answers allows even idiots like Paul L. to post here, and for their assertions to either stand on their own merit, or be shot down. Or just mocked for the idiocy that they are, in Paul’s case.
Frankly I prefer educated opposition, like our Brick Oven Bill, who sometimes makes me work and research opposing points. In spite of the abuse I constantly throw his way, I gotta say that I’d love a few more like him, in all honesty. Keeps us all sharp and on our toes.
John Cole
@Joe Lisboa: I think he is just insane, but real.
liberal
@Brick Oven Bill:
But you’re conflating two issues:
(1) The actual IQ of the population, given environmental factors like starvation, war, etc, and their impact on expressed (say, "phenotypic") IQ, and
(2) The "genotypic" IQ—what would be expressed if the populations of the various nations had parity in child nutrition, education, etc.
If you’re thinking of (2), the table doesn’t measure that. If you’re thinking of (1), then you have the cause-and-effect problem I mentioned.
Furthermore…Denmark @98? That table (which I just visited) is highly suspect: when were the data gathered? IQs have been increasing dramatically worldwide over the past few decades ("Flynn effect"), and the ones in the table look like they’re dated to me.
Aside from the fact that Richard Lynn is a pseudoscientist.
liberal
@DougJ:
Yeah…I like red meat sometimes, but the stuff over there seems pretty boring and uninformative.
purpleOnion
I am so sad that the republicans feel slighted, because the democratic representatives are not willing to lay down and be suckers for them. How could democrats forget the generosity of spirit and cooperation the republicans have shown at every turn over at least the past twenty years? Maybe Obama should set up a special cabinet position with the responsibility of holding republicans’ hands over the next few years so they won’t feel left out and lonely.
liberal
@The Moar You Know:
That’s true, in a literal sense.
But seems highly likely that if you improve prenatal care, child nutrition, economic conditions, and childhood education, you’ll get higher IQs.
You’ve gotta explain the Flynn Effect somehow, after all.
The Moar You Know
@Joe Lisboa: I don’t know. Sometimes he’s pretty good – actually posts with some depth – and then sometimes he’s just peeing his pants in fear of the upcoming New Reign Of The Caliphate. The inconsistency makes me suspect he’s a spoof, some other things lead me to think he’s real.
Wilfred, on the other hand, is a spoof, no question.
liberal
@The Moar You Know:
LOL!
The idea that Brick Oven Bill’s thoughts on any issue are particularly deep or interesting or educated, is laughable.
Look at his reference to "peaceful religions." Obviously he doesn’t know much about the history of Europe.
liberal
@The Moar You Know:
The only strong claim you can make about IQ tests is that they’re built to be statistically consistent with past IQ tests.
Blue Raven
@Zuzu’s Petals:
My gods, proof of how evil palm trees are. I knew it existed somewhere. I just needed a correlation to fake causation!
DougJ
Agreed. All of that said, it’s still miles ahead of Red State or Free Republic.
Culturally, I don’t think that the left is capable of the kind of stupidity you see at Red State or Free Republic, aside from a few one-offs from the PUMAsphere.
bago
Gee, who would have thought that the first copy of a technical product would cost more than the latest?
It’s almost like the poor boy has no understanding of engineering at all.
Copy. You know how that works right?
Seriously.
Here’s another word, Prototype.
Justin
Why was it easy for the Bush administration to demote competent attorneys. But for Obama it will be difficult to do anything.
Meh.
Obama can just do the same thing Bush did, send the incompetent Idealogues to work in Alaska or Wyoming. (Unless of course, they’re from Alaska and Wyoming, then send them to Detroit or Harlem.)
demimondian
@DougJ: I wish I believed that. Look at the lunacy over there about Warren, then the new Sen-nom from Illinois, and now the empty threats to kick Reid out if he seats Coleman.
They sound more and more Powerlinish to me each day.
DougJ
They’ll never get there. It’s not about an occasional outburst of extreme stupidity. It’s not about working oneself into a lather about the selection of the inauguration day invocation speaker. It’s about saying unbelievably stupid things day in, day out. It’s about looking into families’ houses to figure out what kind of countertops they have. It’s about stretching the boundaries of what how stupid human beings can be. Kos isn’t even close to that and it never will be.
Joe Lisboa
Thanks for the feedback, all. I’ll do my part to lower the signal-to-noise ratio by letting ya’ll facilitate the petard-hoisting on IQ metrics, et cetera.
Also: seconding the impression that dailykos (at least, post-election) has turned largely unreadable (for me, at least). There’s some good stuff in there, but it’s largely buried under I/P pissing contests and circular firing-squadery. Which is why, of course, I (usually) lurk here instead. Happy new year to you all.
Oh, and by way of O/T postscript, as a Detroiter I’m pulling for the Stillers. It’s either that or stab my eyes out now that Millen is pulling a return-to-commentator move c/o NBC. As if things weren’t bad enough, right?
demimondian
@Zuzu’s Petals: Nah. It’s not that Alaskans are stupider, on average; instead, they have a higher variance.
Brick Oven Bill
The reason I believe that the IQ data is probably valid is because governments have stopped collecting it. I know from my life experience that some people are smarter than others. It makes sense to me that intelligence is inherited.
4jkb4ia
That six-year limit on committee chairmanships was a good rule. If Pelosi is changing it she is expecting to have control of the House for a while.
demimondian
@Brick Oven Bill: If intelligence is inherited, I suggest that you might want to seek an immediate vasectomy.
Duke of Earl
@Brick Oven Bill:
If there weren’t a heritable component to intelligence then evolution could never have selected for more intelligent beings.
That being said, heritability is not the entire story IMO, there are just so many different factors involved beyond genetics, including but not limited to conditions in the womb, nutrition, training and opportunity to learn, etc etc.. I’ve met enough people who are pretty bright but utterly hate to learn anything new to come to the conclusion that personality and attitude toward learning have a lot to do with how well you’ll score on an IQ test. Some people avoid mental effort as strenuously as others avoid physical effort. The best natural athlete in the world won’t do all that well if he never trains.
It’s my understanding that devising a culturally neutral intelligence test is an exceedingly difficult chore. Ask ghetto kids what a deuce and a quarter is and they’ll all tell you it’s a Buick, ask the same question in suburbia and you’ll probably get a blank stare.
TenguPhule
Then obviously you need to find out which fucking insane dipshit fathered you and file a complaint.
bago
Yeah. I always knew that I had a hypotenuse in my genes, and that those bastards who wrote things down in egypt were cribbing from my sperm.
Zuzu's Petals
@Blue Raven:
Well it does account for Florida, but as pointed out above, not for Alaska …
Neo
What has been clear from the last election is that most of the American public don’t realize that the Congress has been in Democratic hands.
I would recommend that the House Republicans leave one member behind to call for a "quorum call" while the remainder just leave town.
The sight of Speaker Pelosi moving for a "Call of the House" to direct the Sargent-at-Arms to return the missing members will rightly show that the next two years are the Democrats to mangle.
Neo
Having "experienced justice department lawyers" .. "pushed out of their positions at Justice because their aggressive enforcement of federal laws didn’t match the new administration’s" progressive ideology when these lawyers replaced other lawyers "beginning in the early years of the Bush administration, were transferred, demoted or otherwise pushed out of their positions at Justice because their aggressive enforcement of federal laws didn’t match the new administration’s conservative ideology".
The irony is so thick that you can walk on it.
.. or is it just simply partisan politics ? .. at DOJ .. never.
Shark
The GOP will live to thank Pelosi for this. Because the rules the Dems want to live by now will be oh so useful for us once the GOP recaptures (it will happen at some point, maybe sooner, probably later but at some point)
And when that happens, and possibly other rule changes, all of you applauding today please don’t whine about them being used against the Dems.
You won, roll with it! But lost in all the comments like "maybe the GOP should try winning"…..well, just remember how you liked it when you were out of power.
Play it this way now…….keep quiet later please.
We have a deal?