Jacob Heilbrunn has an article in Foreign Policy about the lack of serious Republicans when it comes to foreign policy these days. With all of the old Republican establishment nearing death, the younger generations are stuck in neo-con mode, trying desperately to relive the Cold War by replacing the Soviet Union with Al Qaeda.

The article begins by pointing out that Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin have both condemned the new START treaty on utterly shallow grounds, preferring fear-mongering to serious analysis. And then it gets to the heart of the problem:

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Hitler! In response to a Canadian school course called Social Justice 12, which teaches the virtues of tolerance and understanding of those who are different than us in terms of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation and so on, James Dobson fires up the Godwin gun:

“Not since Adolf Hitler prepared a generation of German and Austrian youth for war has so grand a strategy been attempted.”

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From Rep. Bob Inglis (R-South Carolina), who was defeated in the primary and is sounding the alarm about the GOP kowtowing to demagogues:

Too many Republican leaders are acquiescing to a poisonous “demagoguery” that threatens the party’s long-term credibility, says a veteran GOP House member who was defeated in South Carolina’s primary last month.

While not naming names, 12-year incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis suggested in interviews with The Associated Press that tea party favorites such as former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and right-wing talk show hosts like Glenn Beck are the culprits.

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Friend of Dispatches Chris Rodda was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Thursday debunking some of the nonsense taught at Glenn Beck’s “university.” Here’s the video.

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On tonight’s Declaring Independence:

Chris Rodda will be on to talk about Glenn Beck’s new campaign of propaganda about the founding fathers and religion.

June Carbone will be on to talk about a new book she has co-authored called Red Families v Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture.

As always, you can listen to the show live from 6-7 pm EST by clicking here.

From David McRaney:

Punditry is a whole industry built on confirmation bias. Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck and Arianna Huffington, Rachel Maddow and Ann Coulter – these people provide fuel for beliefs, they pre-filter the world to match existing world-views. If their filter is like your filter, you love them. If it isn’t, you hate them. Whether or not pundits are telling the truth, or vetting their opinions, or thoroughly researching their topics is all beside the point. You watch them not for information, but for confirmation.

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From Thomas Sowell, who says the BP reimbursement fund is just like Nazism:

“[D]uring the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law “for the relief of the German people.” That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others. If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.”

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Joseph Farah is getting all screechy and clutching his pearls over proposed legislation to license journalists that has no chance whatsoever of even getting a committee vote, much less getting passed.

I swear sometimes I live in a parallel universe – like the characters from “Fringe.”

In another existence somewhere, there’s an America that still makes sense – that comprehends the principles that made this country great and special.

That’s what I think when I read stories like the one about Michigan considering a law to license journalists.

Is this Iran? Is this Cuba? Is this Venezuela or China? Or is this the United States of America where the principle of a free press was first established as an inalienable God-given right?

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I know it’s a shock, but this is from Glenn Beck:

Beck: I told you this summer that we are going to concentrate on restoring history. The history of our nation, the founding, the 20th century, the Depression era, um, and the Civil Rights Movement, which has been co-opted by progressives.

Oh, of course. It was co-opted by progressives. Because it was originally controlled by….conservatives? What the fuck?
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Newt Gingrich, in a meeting with the editorial staff of the Des Moines register, says his new book, which virtually declares Obama to be the second coming of Adolf Hitler, doesn’t mean he thinks Obama is a bad guy:

“I’m not here saying Obama is the bad guy and if he wasn’t there things would be good.”

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From Rush Limbaugh, apparently channeling Glenn Beck:

In an e-mail sent to Zev Chafets, author of the new book “Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One,” Limbaugh admitted, “I know I am a target and I know I will be destroyed eventually. I fear that all I have accomplished and all the wealth I have accumulated will be taken from me, to the cheers of the crowd. I know I am hated and despised by the American Left.”

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Fox News, whose motto seems to be “all the demagoguery that’s fit to air,” reports that a Republican candidate for Congress is demanding that Rep. Xavier Becerra of California explain why she laughed at a dumbass who demanded that they recite the pledge of allegiance prior to a meeting. You have to see the video first:

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