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Center for Lack of Progress

Submitted by Conn Carroll on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 11:07

I've been a subscriber to the Progress Report for... well longer than I remember (since 2005 at least). Produced by the Center for American Progress, the Progress Reports is the anchor email product for CAP's main blog Think Progress.

With Obama now in the White House the Progress Report has lost most of its edge and relevance with its favorite target (Pres. Bush) out of office. It used to be that I could always predict exactly what was going to be in TPR just by looking at the title. But with Obama in power, that is simply no longer the case. Take today's Progress Report titled Growing Frustration Over Lack Of Progress.

I really had no idea what it was going to be about. Obama's lack of progress on health care? On same-sex marriage? On stopping the rising oceans? On Afghanistan? On Iran? On jobs? There were so many possibilities.

Turns out it was on Israel/Palestine.

I'm sure the world's newest Nobel laureate will solve that one soon too.

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Give an example

Submitted by lgm on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 06:45.

This post sets a new standard for low energy blogging.  Whining about another blogger already is low energy.  But whining without even taking issue?  Is there something in the CAP post on Israel/Palestine you object to?  What is it?  Or do you simply object to a liberal bothering to post on this subject when there are so many other things he/she could/should be posting on? 

But this post is consistent with conservative blogger standards for truthieness (sp??).  I scroll down past the post you link to and find criticism of Obama on a number of other issues, including TARP, and health care.

stereotype?

Submitted by chemjeff on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 09:56.

Igm, do you believe that conservative bloggers are less truthful than liberal bloggers?

yes

Submitted by lgm on Thu, 10/15/2009 - 21:25.

Yes, I do.  And more thoughtful, honest, honorable, and interesting.  I put TPM, Yglesias, and Ezra Klein in this category.  Secondary liberals like Delong are often closed minded and polemical, but not approaching the level even of the best conservative blogs I've seen.

Which conservative blogs do you think are particularly truthful?

conservative blogs

Submitted by chemjeff on Fri, 10/16/2009 - 14:10.

So do you think, then, that we conservatives are just filthy liars or what?  So how is your claim, that conservative bloggers are just categorically less honest, not a stereotype?  If you really believe we are all just liars, why do you choose to hang out among such a pack of reprobates?

Qualities like "thoughtful" and "interesting" are in the eye of the beholder, of course, but let's look at just the first sentence of one of Ezra Klein's recent columns:

In the hallowed tradition of the tobacco and energy industries, the health insurance industry has commissioned a report (pdf) projecting doom and despair for those who seek to reform its business practices.

So right here in the very first sentence, Klein is sliming the health insurance industry by declaring them guilty by association with the eeeeeeeeevil tobacco industry and energy industry (i.e., Enron).  Furthermore, he vastly understates the intentions of those who are in favor of ObamaCare - a great many of them do not wish merely to "reform its business practices", but to put them out of business altogether; no doubt he is one of them, if he is a good little progressive and favors single-payer health insurance.  That is the ultimate goal of the "public option", after all.  Later in the article he then goes on to claim that because the tobacco industry and the health insurance industry commissioned the same firm to write their reports, that therefore the report should not be believed.  This is, shall we say, "logically challenged".  Now it may be that the report itself is full of lies, I don't know.  But Klein's approach to attacking the report is neither truthful nor honorable.  I will give bloggers like Klein and Yglesias credit for more cleverly hiding their outright liberal biases than your typical conservative blogger; they tend to lull the reader into believing that they are reading thoughtful analysis rather than a bias-laden opinion piece.  In other words, it takes more work to discern the bias in these liberal pieces, but the bias is there nonetheless.  Which is perhaps why people like you find Klein more "trustworthy", because the bias is not leaping off the page at you.

Some conservative bloggers that I find to give particularly insightful commentary are the folks at The Corner and Powerline.  For the most part, they present cogent, clear and rational arguments, and don't devolve into screechy namecalling.  These are just a couple that I visit regularly.  I'm not by any means an expert on the entire right side of the blogosphere, I'm sure others can share good righty blogs that they enjoy.

The Corner and Powerline I will check out. Thank You.

Submitted by barbsright on Fri, 10/16/2009 - 16:29.

Thank you., I will check out those two blogs. As for the health insurance industry---they really are crooked. In fact, the entire financial sector of our economy is nothing but a corrupt casino. Truth is that a lot of what is done in those fields can be replaced by computer programs.That is why the industry is so afraid because a lot of overpaid people are about to lose their jobs. It is the 1970's-1980's all over again, but this time it is in the 'white collar' sectors of the economy. And yes---the 'report' is just the type of thing the tobacco industry would do.

rebuttal

Submitted by lgm on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 08:41.

You as much as admit that Ezra Klein is accurate -- that the insurance industry commissioned a bogus report, as the tobacco and energy industries are wont to do.  Yet Klein pointing this out amounts to "sliming the insurance industry".  Then you speculate that Klien secretly supports a single payer system that would put insurance companies out of business.  That's no secret.  He does so openly in his blog.  Putting insurance companies out of business is no more of a tragedy than putting tobacco companies out of business.

As for Powerline, I visited them just now.  The first two posts were announcements.  The third was global warming denial:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/10/024726.php

Case closed.

liberalism and the heliocentric solar system

Submitted by chemjeff on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 15:10.

Second things first.  In the Powerline blog post that you cited, John quoted a Star Tribune article pointing out the obvious fact that this October has been quite chilly.  How is this dishonest or deceptive?  The article cites the National Weather Service for heaven's sake.  Are they filthy liars too?  The question at hand wasn't whether you disagree with conservatives, but whether they are dishonest.  I find nothing dishonest with the post.  You can disagree with their conclusion, but that is an opinion, not a statement of fact.  Even his last statement, where he says "the globe isn't warming", is actually true; since 1998, average global temperatures have not exceeded their 1998 highs.

About Klein: You fall into the same trap that Klein fell into, that the health insurance industry is as eeeeeeeeevil as the tobacco industry because they used the same firm to commission the report.  This has nothing to do with the legitimacy or lack thereof of the health insurance industry report itself.  Klein discussed at length how the tobacco industry report was so flawed, as a transparent attempt to make the health insurance industry guilty by association.  That is dishonest.  And if Klein's true purpose is to put the health insurance industry out of business, why did he understate the current legislation as merely desiring to "reform" industry practices?  It is dishonest at the very least.

But I am beginning to understand your mindset now.  I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that liberalism to you is not merely a political preference, but a statement of fundamental truth.  That is, in your mind, there can be no legitimate disagreement with the claim that global warming is absolutely real and drastic government action is required to prevent global catastrophe.  Or, that there can be no legitimate disagreement with the claim that the health insurance industry is a blight upon humanity.  In your mind, to argue against such a claim is to argue that the sun revolves around the earth.  Thus it seems that your mind is quite closed to conservative ideas.

So I have to ask again: why is it that you come here?

stick to the data

Submitted by lgm on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 18:09.

About Powerline: the guy used our present cool weather to cast doubt on global warming.  I didn't question his temperature data, which is accurate.  I questioned the fact that a supposedly reasonable person is using small time scale temperature fluctuations to argue against a long term warming trend.

About Klein: he didn't say the health insurance industry is "eeeevil".  He said they commisioned a flawed report.  Flaws in the report have been amply documented -- it took into account all spending increases and ignored all spending cuts to arrive at the conculsion that spending will go up.  Google it.  The analogy is the effect on the industry of relying on such an obviously flawed report.  Klein points out that phony reports damaged the tobacco industry and are likely to damage the insurance industry. 

About my mindset: stick to the data.  You don't know me.  Your claim

in your mind, there can be no legitimate disagreement with the claim that global warming is absolutely real

is close to being true, but not quite.  Legitimate criticism has been offered, for example, by Professor Richard Linzen of MIT.  But his opinion is widely refuted in the climate science community.  Think of him as being like Linus Pauling -- Nobel Prize winning scientist who spent his last 20 years promoting vitamin E.