Monday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said, Special Twofer the Price of One Recession Edition

Because retailers like Jos. A. Bank are offering buy one get one free sales lately, we figured we'd join the Economic Despair Party by having not one but TWO honorees. So for the same amount of time it takes to honor one blogger, today we honor two.

First honoree: John Cole, who is almost ready to become the fourth for a bridge game among the Great Curmudgeons of Blogtopia -- (™ Skippy) Driftglass, Ornery Bastard, and PhysioProf -- for pricking the "lofty" balloon of so-called theoretical conservatism.

Money quote:

I am so sick and tired of these “esoteric” discussions about the flawless, formless, and timeless beauty of conservatism. It is utter nonsense. We got unchecked “conservatism” the past eight years, and instead of water, it felt more like urine, as they pissed all over us. Conservatism brought us an expanded surveillance state, intervention into a man’s marriage, unchecked budgets, war of aggression, torture, a rejection and mockery of both science and the rule of law, the unchecked executive branch, and on and on and on. The conservative standard bearers are now Sarah Palin and Eric Cantor and Rush Limbaugh and Joe the Plumber.

After getting hammered in two national elections, the rehabilitation of conservatism takes the form of these flowery paeans about the timeless wisdom of an ideology that is the “negation of ideology.” What a load of gibberish. At what point will these clowns realize that they sound like the Soviet apologists in the late 80’s and 90’s who wanted to tell us that communism didn’t fail, it just wasn’t properly implemented?

Second honoree: DCap, with a post I wish I'd written, but now I don't have to because he already did.

There's no real money quote here, because it all could have spilled right out of my head (except that I still watch Olbermann and Rachel Maddow because they help remind me of reality amidst the fantasy world of wingnuts and the media figures who love them). But here's a sample:

While Washington tries to play a combination of Monopoly and Mystery Date to fix this mess - the country we all know continues to fall deeper into a black hole. Everyone sees it - but it is the 800 lb elephant in the room. Tent cities are springing up - Tent cities! It seems that the only thing our "leaders" know how to do is throw money at a problem - but there never is a plan. It really appears that Congress is more concerned about keeping the status quo in the class pecking order, than trying to improve the lot of the average American.

I am not averse to spending money - but where is the f***ing plan. And even if we can manage to turn this ship around before it hits the iceberg - is it really worth it if we do not examine ourselves as a society - SO IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.