American politics' Rosetta Stone: Found?

Bill Maher on Realtime Friday night nailed how tiny, loud conservative groups have an outsized impact on American politics.

Maher (watch the NSFW video after the jump) pointed out that polls consistently show that Americans do have far more liberal views than 'Beltway' thinking assumes they do.

Earlier, he pointed out that although the budget put forward by the Republicans and especially that of their Tea Party caucus has media attention, the budget put forward by the House's Progressive caucus has zero attention. And yet the Progressive budget when given the 'blind taste test' treatment has been found to be overwhelmingly favoured by ordinary Americans.

Last week on Up w/ Chris Hayes (video after the jump) a new political science study (PDF) was discussed which shows just how misread America is. The study, discussed on the show with one of its authors on the panel, finds, writes Sal Gentile on the show's Tumblr, ..

.. that politicians tend to overestimate just how conservative their constituents are. Conservative politicians are especially bad at gauging their constituents’ beliefs — they underestimate support among their constituents for policies like universal health care and same-sex marriage by as much as 20 percentage points. 

These findings explain so much about the state of modern American politics. There seems to be such a larger appetite for conservative policies like war and austerity among politicians than among actual voters. In the latest budget fight, for example, politicians on both sides of the aisle have been insisting on the need to cut spending and “entitlements.” But polls show consistently that Americans believe spending cuts are bad for the economy, that they want to reduce the deficit through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts and that they want to preserve funding for cherished social insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security. 

This disconnect between politicians and constituents has, arguably, gotten worse over the past three decades. As shown in the graph above, the share of Americans describing themselves as “conservative” has remained largely unchanged since 1976, even dipping considerably in the 1990s. House Republicans, meanwhile, have become more conservative than ever before,according to the DW-Nominate scale, a system of rating the ideology of lawmakers devised by political scientist Keith Poole. 

The striking divergence between how conservative Congressional Republicans have gotten and how conservative the American people are explains so much about how broken and dysfunctional our politics are.

Watch the Bill Maher (NSFW) and Chris Hayes segments after the jump:

Another way to look at lawnmowing

The great Michael Pollan interviewed by Bill Maher about the new documentary Food Inc.



Here he explains a plant's-eye view in a fantastic TED talk.



"I'm a dupe of the lawns, whose goal in life is to out compete the trees"

"Looking at the world from another species point of view is a cure for the disease of human self-importance"

Incidentally, WTF can't Oxbridge do something like TED online?

Our answer to Maher, Colbert and Stewart?

I just love David Mitchell. Not only is he a brilliant comedian who can do slapstick as well as satire but he's a great writer whose columns never fail to hit the spot. He's smart, witty and not shy of being political. He hosts The Unbelievable Truth on Radio Four expertly. His appearance on Question Time saw him displaying all these talents with no script writer.

I'd vote for him.

I've discovered he has a YouTube channel where he delivers some excellent monologues like this one on TV rudeness:



I've never understood the appeal of shows like Dragon's Den either. I guess I like my wit more on the Gore Vidal level than the Ballantyne.

All his skills make him, IMO, just about the only candidate to do a UK version of the Daily Show or, even better, Real Time with Bill Maher. That is, world class political satire.

Maher just had Gore Vidal on his show and, rare for Vidal, more than held his own with him. Similarly ranty Marcus Brigstock once tried the Daily Show format and failed miserably.

Not so 'secret' killing program

Bill Maher with Bob Woodward. Woodward says 'the surge' wasn't all that: it was some "newly developed techniques" rather than more grunts on the ground that rapidly reduced violence in Iraq.

Woodward said the same to CNN in this under-reported piece: Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward.

The program -- which Woodward compares to the World War II era Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb -- must remain secret for now or it would "get people killed," Woodward said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live.

"It is a wonderful example of American ingenuity solving a problem in war, as we often have," Woodward said.

In "The War Within: Secret White House History 2006-2008," Woodward disclosed the existence of secret operational capabilities developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent leaders.

"If you were a member of al Qaeda or the resistance or some extremist militia, you would be wise to get your rear end out of town," Woodward said. "It is very dangerous."

Maher jokes about 'exploding baskets' and Woodward says 'you're not far off'. But you have to think this is something to do with technology? Analysing communications, locating and targeting, something like that ...

Google Reader clips catch up

• Analysis: Google App Engine alluring, will be hard to escape
  Opening up the 'cloud', Google gets good reviews from those looking under the hood.
• Flickr Video Launches - A Unique Experience
  There's already a backlash from Flickers, and it's only supposed to be a 'moving photo': hence 90 seconds. It's not a YouTube competitor.
• The new web communicator
  Gerry McGovern says too many government websites 'overflow with vanity, pomposity and waffle'.
• Blogging Kills Disproportionately? NYT’s Story Doesn’t Make the Case
  Dan Gilmor: .. because "the data are so breathtakingly shallow", and don't other professions work hard?
  
  
• Timothy Karr: OK Go: The Heat is On an Open Internet
  And it's analogous to "boiling the frog."
• Professor questions the value of e-democracy centre
  Stephen Coleman damns ICELE with faint praise.
• A Widget That Tracks Political Sentiment
  What's being talked about in news and blogs.
• Europe Is Searching For Its Silicon Valley
  London has it's pros but isn't the concept out-of-date?
• Lost BBC coding found
  The author of the 404's finds them again - five years on, no change. I'm shocked.
• Council Logo
  Luke Akehurst plays with that quickly disappeared Progressive Governance Summit 'swastika' logo.
  
  
• Zimbabwe elections
  Kenya Pundit's take. The possible development of a new trend of “civilian coups” in Africa?
  
• Game for a laugh - Anne Diamond on games in the Daily Mail
  Martin Belam looks in depth at another, ridiculous take in the MSM.
• SEO Rapper
  From JackP. Hysterical. Yes, he raps about SEO.
• Social networks - will the government crack down?
  BBC reporter thinks they'll have trouble.
• Bill Maher: The Biofuel Boom
  It's a big mistake.
• Hillary Tries Grassroots Budgeting
  A very interesting new fundraising tool, help rent a van!
  
  
• BBC News redesign: while developers ignore their users, the users fix the site!
  How Firefox/Opera users can fix the bugs themselves.
• Al Gore's RealSimple 'We' Campaign
  The $300m campaign to raise climate change in the election isn't doing web well.
  
• Is Hazel Blears on drugs feeling ok? : Pickled Politics
  Tackling rhetoric and lazy journalism. Where are these 'no-go areas'? And what, exactly, do they do about them?
• U.S. Invasion Has Made Life Worse for Iraqi LGBT Community
  Oh yes it has.
• Coleman connects on Citizenship
  Professor Stephen Coleman stops being negative about blogging and joins in.

Not on Reader - A 'West Wing' Writer Imagines the Showdown at the Democratic National Convention. From New York Magazine. Lawrence O’Donnell Jr writes the script for Four Days in Denver. Wonderful.

Oprah - Root of All Evil?

Lewis Black is a comedian and 'leftie' New Yorker with a regular slot on the Daily Show: one which brings new meaning to 'vituperative'.

Finally he's got his own show, with him as the judge in a format described by the New York Times as a cross between “The People’s Court,” “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher” and Drew Carey’s improvisational “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (only funnier)

The premiere had “Oprah v. the Catholic Church.”

Here's part of the argument that Oprah is 'the root of all evil'.



Other episodes pit “Donald Trump v. Viagra.”, Vice President Dick Cheney against Paris Hilton; “American Idol” against high school; and Kim Jong-il against Tila Tequila, the amorous reality star on MTV.

More video here.

Here's an anti-Google rant from the Daily Show.



And a genius rant at 'American Stages of Grief' from 2004.



Here's some of his stand up - NSFW! - about how America is not the #1 country in the world (and why milk is JUST MILK).



Enjoy.