Self Pity

Over at A Small Victory Michele is upset because of all the big media attention going to Wonkette. The best part is the commenters falling all over themselves to say that they've never heard of Wonkette, but they love Michele.

Turning the comments thread of a serious issue blog into an AOL chatroom for hard up men is one reason that the blogosphere isn't taken as seriously as it could be.

And yes, someone managed to shoehorn Iraq into the comments too.

Batting .500

Professor Bainbridge get this one exactly right.

Unfortunately he gets this one exactly wrong.

Apparently he sees Moltisanti as a "Two Americas" kind of guy. Apparently he also can't sleep because the clown's going to eat him.

I got a Need for Speed

High Speed Internet is finally working. Now with comcast email account. Blogging should be a lot more frequent now.

This is What I'm Talking About

Don't turn into Charles Johnson, Professor. You know damn well that this was a.) an aberration that has been denounced by plenty of people on the left, and b). An act that is equally as despicable as many things done by the overzealous right. You're a smart guy. Behave like it.

Just Knock It Off

Everybody.

Look, Kos Fucked up. He made a post that was poorly conceived, poorly written, and not well thought out. He compounded it by giving a Capazzola-esque half-explanation, and then decided to hide behind the persecution complex/haha! I'm getting hits cop out. He's also a blogger, and part of the reason that we are bloggers, not George Will or Paul Krugman is that we post half finished thoughts, rants and screeds when we feel like it. Sometimes we lose our temper, sometimes we post something that we slep on and looks foolish. Sometimes, we let emotions get the better of us. Unfortunately, these words will all exist in the ether, regardless of how badly we want to hide them, take them back or spin them.

That being said, I have no problem with anyone Mocking him, attacking him, challenging him, ridiculing him, delinking him, boycotting him, and so on. As I said, he fucked up, he deserves to reap what he sowed.

I'd really like to see the folks on the right who are going nuclear on him stop with the smug, self important "Denounce Kos, or you are Kos" horse shit. If you want to sit around a coffee shop and read Mayakovsky, then please do, but don't wave it around like you just found the piece of the puzzle that proves that the left is entirely composed of Saddam sympathizers.

We don't ask Kevin Drum or Jesse Taylor to write a loyalty oath before each post. Similarly, we shouldn't ask
John Cole, who I really respected once, but am now losing faith in, or Glenn Reynolds to start every post with, "David Duke sucks, but..."

Let me explain this one time for the cheap seats: Both sides Have Extremists. Quit Making The Discourse Worse. Otherwise You're No Better Than These Assholes.

And if you don't feel shame in being associated with these people, then you're part of the problem. The rest of you need to read Oxblog and Spinsanity and The Volokh Conspiracy (sans Bernstein, who's just really really boring).

Really. This isn't even a comprehensive list of Asshats, nor bloggers that need a swift kick. This is just a plea for everyone to go to bed wake up, then take a deep breath, then post.

Let the Good Times Roll

Kevin Drum and Mark Kleiman are both on fire of late. Just start at the top and keep reading until you can't read any more.

Why We Fight

Via the commenters at Calpund^H^H^H^Political Animal I found a link to a pretty damning report on the influence of the religious right outside of the Boobygate/Creationism sphere.

This article ties a lot of things up in a tidy little bow, and as much as I'd like my own personal biases to be right, I have to think that this is almost too damn convenient. I've seen most of this information before, as far as Straussian thought, and the desires of Robertson and the religious right. I've just never seen them thrown together like this. At first glance, it seems to really make sense, and I'm sure that there is some truth behind all of this.

I'm just sort of thinking that the truth is akin to the truthful part of Bill Clinton killing Vince Foster, i.e. Bill Clinton knew Vince Foster, Bill Clinton was ambitious, Vince Foster died, thus Vince Foster was killed because of Clinton's ambition.

It didn't follow then, and I'm not sure that it follows now. I think that there's some danger in taking this article at face value. I'll accept the characterizations of the evangelists (I remember Fundamentally Oral Bill), and I can even allow the characterization of Justice Scalia, but I cant see the Wolfowitzes and Perles of the world lining up behind this mode of thinking, neocon/Straussian or not.

My reasoning, such as it is, it's fairly simplistic. Even adopting Machiavellian model, you are talking about Jewish people putting themselves in complete league with the enemy. Yes I realize that people align themselves with the enemy of my enemy all the time. In situations like this however, where you have idealist neocons putting themselves in league with the Left Behind crowd, it's like a fireman giving gasoline cans to a pyro who swears that he doesn't feel like lighting fires. Right now, at least.

Of course, if this is all factually correct, I have a bit of egg on my face. If not, there is still a very real movement to destroy America as we know it. The right likes to frame this behind secular humanism and International ANSWER and such witticisms as the phrase "(c)rap music", but in truth there's a massive force from the right that would have us living in a theocracy no less harsh than those in the middle east, it's just couched behind Jesus, who we all understand and who roughly 90% of us believe in, rather than Mohammed, who we fear and don't understand for a multitude of reasons.