Socialist dictatorship sounds like a damn good plan to me.

Instead of denying that powerful Democrats are socialist and strongly implying that socialism is an ipso facto bad thing, can we please acknowledge the following FACT:

On November 4, 2008, the American people, by an 8-point margin, elected as president a man the top news organization in the country had spent months condemning as a socialist.

The American people were given a clear, well-publicized choice between a warmongering capitalist pig and a big-government socialist, and they voted overwhelmingly for the big-government socialist.

How about we start celebrating that fact, instead of apologizing for it?

The right's apoplexy is badly misplaced. Again.

It is indeed. Much farther south than medical definitions would indicate.

I wonder if anyone in the Obama government will sport a mustache. Hitler had a mustache - so you know how Jonah Goldberg logic would proceed!

The right's apoplexy is badly misplaced. Again.

That seems to be all they have left,er, remaining, now that sanity has returned to government. I guess their base needs its daily dose of hatred.

I find it bizarre that "socialist" and assorted other Red Scare tropes are still thought by wingers to resonate. Um, 1991 anyone?

Townhall ran a similar item, arguing that some [sic] in the "environmentalist movement " are "merely fronts for the some collectivist, totalitarian, statist impulses that have reared their ugly heads throughout the 20th century with such devastating results for so many."

Damnit, they're onto us! Run, everyone, run! The jig is up!

The headline from the conservative Washington Times yesterday was certainly attention getting: "Obama climate czar has socialist ties."

Being a Czar is the extreme antithesis of being a Socialist. Does anybody else think the title is really, really mind numbing?

I don't know that many Republicans under 60. Serious question: does all this red-baiting resonate with anyone who wasn't alive during the Eisenhower administration? Jonah Goldberg doesn't count, because he was born an old goat.

I actually heard Glenn Beck frothing about this Washington Times article on the radio yesterday (sadly, right-wing radio is my only option in Atlanta). After accusing anybody who cares about global warming of being socialists, he went on to accuse us of being fascists. Clearly, Beck doesn't even know what the words mean.

Why, you'd think that someone had threatened to nuke* Townhall's site into oblivion, and anthrax** the Beckster back into the Stone Age.

*Townhall is famous for advocating the use of nuclear weapons against our enemies; **Glen Beck still denies the anthrax attacks.

After accusing anybody who cares about global warming of being socialists, he went on to accuse us of being fascists. Clearly, Beck doesn't even know what the words mean.

I really enjoyed the coverage of McCain-Palin rallies. The kind of people who'd come out in the middle of the day to hear Blinky and Winky speak were the kind of people who'd pass the time in line by screaming that nearby Obama signholders were fascists AND socialists AND radical Muslims.

More and more these days Rightwing commentators such as Glenn Beck are sounding like Jack in Lord of the Flies - manipulative beasts who claim to have everyone's best interest in mind while plotting the hunt of innocent others! -Kevo

(sadly, right-wing radio is my only option in Atlanta).
CJ @ 4:28 PM

Rubbish and poppycock, CJ. Try tuning in WABE, 90.1 on your FM dial. It's an NPR affiliate, with lots and lots of "counter-Beckish" programming....

Yellow Dog: "The American people ...voted overwhelmingly for the big-government socialist. How about we start celebrating that fact, instead of apologizing for it?"

Because Obama is not a big government socialist, and neither are most liberals. That's a right-wing myth.

For so-called conservatives, small-government rhetoric is exactly that. They've demonstrated that they don't believe in it. It's just an election tactic.

On the other hand, for liberals, the question isn't big government vs. small government. The question is when is government appropriate and when isn't it appropriate? The American people voted for pragmatism (i.e. liberalism); they didn't vote for an ideology.

Democratic socialism is only the single most successful political/economic system in the world today.

No wonder Republicans hate it so much.

When environmental organizations are led in part by former heads of state and convene meetings at 10 Downing Street, it sounds pretty mainstream.

The party whose leader is ensconced at 10 Downing Street is, per its constitution, a "democratic socialist" party; it is also a member of the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists. So, clearly, holding meetings at that location reinforces, rather than undermines, the description of a group as "socialist".

Steve Benen wrote: "The right's apoplexy is badly misplaced."

The right's apoplexy is an easily manipulated tool of America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc.

In this case, with regard to global warming, the right's apoplexy is a tool of the fossil fuel corporations who want to maintain their death-grip on US energy policy and the trillions of dollars in profits they can expect to reap from business-as-usual consumption of their products -- profits that will go to other industries, such as wind and solar, if appropriate action is taken to phase out fossil fuels.

ExxonMobil funds the propaganda mills that masquerade as "conservative think tanks", that churn out the pseudo-scientific denialist bunk and pseudo-political bullshit, which is then dumbed down even further by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck for consumption by the weak-minded, ignorant dittoheads of the "right", who then slavishly regurgitate it every time the subject of global warming comes up.

The idea that global warming is a socialist plot to destroy capitalism and impose world government is silly, but it is far from the only silly notion that the corporate propaganda machine peddles to its obedient mental slaves.

For example, did you know that global warming is actually caused by cosmic rays and hundreds of "liberal" climate scientists from all over the world have conspired to hide this fact from the public, in order to get more funding for their "liberal" research?

If Steve W. is under the impression that NPR news is some sort of respite/counter-punch to right-wing radio, then he's sadly mistaken...yet another right-wing myth.

If he thinks that a morning and afternoon mainstream media news programs (one whose coverage routinely pisses liberals off), both of which are played outside my drive time (WABE plays classical music most of the day), are counters to the multiple 24/7 right-wing AM talk stations in Atlanta , then he's also mistaken.

From what I understand, when it comes to talk radio, Atlanta is the rule...not the exception.

CJ, I guess the question then becomes: Why don't you turn talk radio off during your drive time? Why put yourself through that?

In other news: Hitler, not a leftist.

Unless you are Jonah Goldberg.

My listening habits are irrelevant, shortstop. I go to many other information and analysis sources. I stay informed and think things through on my own.

Millions of others, on the other hand, get all their information from talk radio. Corporations censure our airwaves by refusing to play/advertise with fact-based (i.e. liberal) talk radio, regardless of the ratings. Those millions of listeners need/deserve the OPTION of listening to a different, fact-based, point of view. Atlanta drivers don't have such an option.

Well, you can seek to minimize it, but this:

"and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change"

is a common belief on the far left and far green. Obama has no mandate to to this, and it is legitimate to ask what his appointee's position is.

But this would all be too reality-based and sensible, so you just go ahead with your partisan screeching, ass-covering and protection of the powerful.

Red baiting anyone who wants to do anything about the environment is a staple tactic on the right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4UF_Rmlio#t=53m13s

Libertarian Stalinism--It's a very strange movement.

"is a common belief on the far left and far green."

Nope, not even close.

"and it is legitimate to ask what his appointee's position is."

Sure. I've been looking in vain in the sources that have been cited here for someone on the right to do just that. Instead, all I'm finding is silliness like yours.

"But this would all be too reality-based and sensible, so you just go ahead with your partisan screeching, ass-covering and protection of the powerful."

ROFLMAO... Thanks for confirming that you're a mindless partisan drone, incapable of intelligent debate.

who listens to conservatives?

well..

unless you are looking for a punchline..

Of course most global warming activists are leftists. And being leftists, they are also "flat earthers" since they continually claim that " the discussion is over - global warming is a fact". In any rational, modern society the discussion is never "over" - global warming is still open to scientific analysis, but not to leftists. It may be a fact, but that fact has not been scientifically peoven.

Yes, Hitler was a socialist (the National SOCIALIST German Workers Party) and his domestic agenda was absolutely socialist (putting aside the racial aspects).

As for "Red Scare" -yeah, it sure was wrong to be concerned about the Red Threat - we all know how peace loving and pro-democracy the Reds are.

Re: red-baiting, yeah, it's ridiculous. People born after the Berlin Wall fell were old enough to vote in the 2008 election. Somehow I don't think they were too worried about an imminent threat.

And if leading the Commission for a Sustainable World makes Carol Browner a socialist, then belonging to the Committee on the Budget makes Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn and Lindsay Graham socialists too, because Bernie Sanders has been a leader of that group since 2006. Horrors!