CW: Akhilleus' comment on David Brooks' column is so fine & got so buried among the other comments that I felt obliged to post it here. It is an excellent short-course in American history:

Where to begin?

I am so sick of listening to this pap about the innocence and virtue of conservatism being destroyed by big government Democrats.

Since we're talking history, how about this? First the country that Misters Ryan and Brooks (both Brookses I would wager) weep for, that small government, Don't Tread on Me, stay out of my way America, was a small, largely agrarian nation straddling the Atlantic seaboard. The population was relatively small, though growing, industry was sporadic, and in many areas, slavery was a vital support to a system in which only rich, landed, white men had a say. I realize this is still an enormous pipe dream for many right-wingers, a return to the halcyon days of yore but those days are gone.

This little country grew quickly. By the middle of the 19th century industrialization came hard and fast. The rich got richer and the poor led lives of meager hope and soul-killing desperation. The kind of plutocrats STILL supported wholeheartedly by the likes of Ryan and Brooks did all they could to secure enormous wealth and power on the backs of their less well off, less well connected countrymen and women.

At this juncture, the moral imperative became so great, and the dangers of big business overrunning all in their way prompted many politically minded citizens, including a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, to stand up and use the power of government to try to strike a balance between overweening greed and the needs of average working class Americans.

This, of course, was considered an outrage by Republicans and their wealthy, robber baron cronies. Years later, after the greed of a later generation of robber barons pushed us into a depression, another president, Mr. Roosevelt's cousin, saw fit to use the power of government to strike back at the forces that were destroying the country. FDR is still reviled by the right for taking their candy away and making them play nice.

The fact is that that little nation that could function with a small government, one not concerned with interstate trade, child labor abuses, uncontrolled and dangerous products being sold, unsafe working conditions, the moral blight of slavery, and citizens who would starve and live horrible existences all because they weren't smart enough to be born, like today's Wall Street Masters of the Universe, into wealth and privilege, is long gone. It lasted perhaps a generation or two. The country, as it grew up, developed problems that required solutions only a strong government could provide.

Who, after all, was going to end slavery or prevent unscrupulous business owners from putting young children to work for a pittance? Who? The predecessors of the plutocrats Ryan and Brooks moan about?

Right.

Sorry, Mr. Brooks, yet another imploding right wing fantasy. As for virtue and innocence, I don't believe either of those fine qualities apply to many on the right today. There is, however, virtue in attempting to make life better for the vast majority of Americans. If that means that Ryan and Brooks and their buddies can only have three vacation homes instead of four or five, well, too bad.

Reposted with permission of the author.

Our Miss Brooks Raps the Teachers' Knuckles

David Brooks has "unbounded admiration" for reputed fiscal wunderkind Rep. Paul Ryan & American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks. Pres. Brooks, in case you never heard of him, is the "much-cited author" of stuff, Our Miss Brooks being the much-citer. Columnist Brooks does think perhaps these admirable boys are a tad off in their hurling revulsion for all government, any government.

The Constant Weader remarks:

My admiration for both [Paul Ryan & Arthur Brooks] is unbounded.
-- David Brooks (no relation to Arthur)

There's your first mistake.

... The Democrats' lavish spending.... -- David Brooks

Who started those two crazy foreign wars? Who came up with an extravagant, unworkable prescription drug program? Who cut taxes so this stuff wasn't paid for? Uh, make that Republicans, Republicans & Republicans.

If "tragedy" is by definition self-inflicted, then you got that right. The Republican party is tragic. Unfortunately, the tragedy of the Republican party does not affect only people foolish enough to vote for Republicans. It befalls all of us.

In a complex, modern society, small government just doesn't work. Are you going to have highways stop at the Nebraska border? Oh, oh, & what about the military? Is Kansas going to pay for its own tanks & bombs?

Are you going to let senior citizens fend for themselves? Do you really want people to go on dying because they can't afford health care when simple medication or operations could save them? Are we going to stop feeding hungry children with federally-funded food stamps & school lunch programs? If that's "conservative," it's also mean, stupid & stingy.

Who cares about civil rights? Let's just let the South go on back to being the South. Fly those Stars & Bars, boys, & some of you-all darker-complexioned folks can proceed to the back of the bus. The Americans with Disabilities Act? Who needs it. Way too expensive. Not my problem. Title Nine? Give those girls a jumprope & hula hoop -- and tell 'em to shut up.

If the new conservatives have their way, it won't just be logical federal programs that are cut, but every kind of government service. Rand Paul, running in a state where drug abuse is a severe problem, wants government to get out of the drug counseling business. He thinks churches should handle it. Hallenjuh, Brother! Jesus was no junkie. Sharron Angle thinks states should not honor restraining orders from other states. Welcome to Nevada, stalkers! John McCain sure is anxious to get federal agents down there patrolling the "danged" Arizona-Mexico border, but in ConservoWorld, that will all be up to Arizona. And if Arizona doesn't do a very good job, I guess Utah will have to establish its own border patrol to run along the Arizona-Utah border. What a plan!

Fortunately, in the United States of the Second Amendment we can all arm ourselves & have shoot-em-ups with the neighbors if they get too noisy or don't mow the grass. Because, hey, who needs government monitoring that stuff? And really, let's all burn our own trash in ToxicLand. 

Now, why is it you have "unbounded admiration" for Ryan & Brooks? Is it because the world they have planned for us is a nightmare of lawlessness & anarchy? Or is it because they write your columns for you? C'mon, Miss Brooks. Even you, protected from reality by the latest in rose-colored ConservoSpecs, acknowledged that

... the story Republicans are telling each other, which Ryan and Brooks have reinforced, is an oversimplified version of American history, with dangerous implications.

That's right. These guys are part of a dangerous, anti-American force to be reviled by anyone with a belief in basic societal values. Quit admiring them. And for Pete's sake, quit defending them.

Our Miss Brooks, having followed the economic advice of Rep. Ryan & the AEI, finds herself in financial straits. Fortunately, she comes up with a scheme that involves hillbillies, a minister & a song-&-dance that is just as effective as the song-&-dance routine Ryan & the AEI have been feeding America's modern-day church-going hayseeds:

Segment 2 is here; Segment 3 is here. Things do not work out well for Our Miss Brooks & the other faculty at Madison High, but, hey, who needs teachers anyway? They're just government workers.

The Commentariat -- September 14

CW: I confess. I didn't know the Boner had a "budget plan." He does, and -- no surprise -- it's extremely simple-minded, extremely radical & extremely loopy. Edmund Andrews of the Fiscal Times reports, "House Republican Leader John Boehner’s plan for rolling back nonsecurity government spending to 2008 levels as part of an overall economic strategy would force cuts in many domestic programs far deeper than Republicans and Democrats have been able to agree on in decades.... If the Republicans' proposed domestic spending cuts were spread evenly through all the affected programs, they would require deep cuts in basic services and big projects, according to budget policy experts."

It became very apparent to me shortly after crossing the border that the government and many of my superiors had no idea what they were doing.... We turned up, took away a country's infrastructure and its law and order with absolutely nothing to put in its place. -- Col. Tim Collins, Irish Brigade

The Guardian: Col. Tim Collins, "a prominent veteran of the Iraq war," said "Britain's government and military leaders had 'absolutely no idea' what to do in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.... Tony Blair, and US president, George Bush, had given Saddam Hussein 'an offer he couldn't understand' and even the Iraqi dictator probably did not know what he was required to do to avoid war, said Collins."

Maybe Happiness Is the Best Revenge. David Leonhardt of the New York Times: although black Americans have not made significant economic progress in the past decades, they are -- unlike whites -- much happier with their lives today than were black Americans in the 1970s.

Martin Luther King, Jr., arrives at Memphis Airport April 3, 1968. He was assassinated the next day. CW: many believe the FBI was involved. Photo by Ernest C. Withers.

I had access to Martin Luther King because we grew up together, came up together in the same social setting. He was comfortable with me.... As a photographer, you've got to be trusted by the people that you come in contact with. One thing I had was a level of moral life of honesty and integrity. -- Ernest C. Withers

New York Times: "Ernest C. Withers, one of the most celebrated photographers of the civil rights era ... was a paid F.B.I. informer." AND here's the Memphis Commercial Appeal story, well worth a read.

Almost all of these confessions looked uncannily reliable. I had known that in a couple of these cases, contamination could have occurred. I didn’t expect to see that almost all of them had been contaminated. -- Brandon Garrett

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "In the primaries, Republicans have borne the brunt of the anti-establishment fervor that has swept the country. But come Election Day on Nov. 2, say strategists in both parties, Democrats will probably bear the brunt of that anger." ...

... Update. Charles Mahtesian of Politico on what to watch for in Tuesday's primaries.

Jim Tankersley in the National Journal: "Americans offer tepid support for much of the Republican Party's domestic agenda, including repealing the new healthcare law and extending tax cuts for the wealthy, according to the latest Society for Human Resource Management/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, conducted with the Pew Research Center."

"I Did It." John Schwartz of the New York Times: Prof. Brandon Garrett of the University of Virginia uncovers how non-guilty subjects confess crimes to interrogators.

We did not learn the larger lesson of the 1930s: that when the distribution of income gets too far out of whack, the economy needs to be reorganized so the broad middle class has enough buying power to rejuvenate the economy over the longer term. -- Robert Reich

New York Times graphic.Michael Luo of the New York Times: "Outside groups supporting Republican candidates in House and Senate races across the country have been swamping their Democratic-leaning counterparts on television since early August.... Driving the disparity in the ad wars has been an array of Republican-oriented organizations that are set up so they can accept donations of unlimited size from individuals and corporations without having to disclose them. The situation raises the possibility that a relatively small cadre of deep-pocketed donors, unknown to the general public, is shaping the battle for Congress...."

Bob Herbert reviews some of the bad news in Robert Reich's new book Aftershock on the effects the economy's downturn has on ordinary Americans.

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post: "The number of former workers seeking Social Security disability benefits has spiked with the nation's economic problems.... Policymakers ... suspect the current surge has less to do with any worsening in the health of the workforce than with the poor health of the economy."

Habiba Nosheen of NPR: "Some Jews, Muslims and Christians are abandoning Yahoo and Google and turning to search engines with results that meet their religious standards. Shea Houdmann runs SeekFind, a Colorado Springs-based Christian search engine that only returns results from websites that are consistent with the Bible. He says SeekFind is designed 'to promote what we believe to be biblical truth' and excludes sites that don't meet that standard." CW: my friend Ned writes, "Since the NPR story ran the poor little dears have had to close their SeekFind site. It got broke. Or something. But I'm sure it will make its return if only to, you know, keep satan away from spreading lies to impressionable Christian children about the real world." Here's the audio: