Friday Cat Blogging

Jackson.


Diego.

Diego looks surprisingly smug, considering the hat and all.

Christianist Third Party Possibilities

I agree with Mr. Matthew Yglesias here. It is my half-cocked opinion that pressure groups and special interest groups value their role as kingmakers more than they do as policy influencers (not an actual word, I know). The power (and money) they get from their supporters comes from their ability to get their chosen politicians to heel. Pro-choice cross-dressing serial cheaters/divorcees who win Republican presidential nominations obviously aren't counting on the fundamentalist vote, and if one Republican can win without them, it opens up the floodgates for all Republicans to win without them. Though this would hardly render them powerless in the future, it would prove once and for all that it is not necessary to kowtow to them to win, making them simply one more chattering voice in a crowd of them, instead of the all-important Leviathan they built themselves into over the years. Judging from the grassroots popularity of McCain in 2000, there might be a lot of Republicans who would like to boot the fundy vote if they could. Not that this will help the Republican party for the time being-losing that voting bloc will derail their party for a long time to come.

From another angle, it would seem that Rudy's Clash-of-Civilizations-Crusades nuttery isn't appeasing the Christianists, which would be his best hope of making them happy.

They are the wind beneath our wings

I am only a part time blogger. I'm not in an academic or politically connected field, so most of my day I can only barely keep up with current events. It makes my blog less satisfactory than I would like it to be. I would like to cover, for example, why libertarians and assorted Randroids give me a pain in my ass, or why I think the Straussian imperial project will suck America dry, or how I think the connection between private money, Christian fundamentalist theocracy, and the Republican party form a cancer on our political system. Doing that, however, takes a lot of time and research. I try, sometimes, but I have a hard time justifying to my employers why I am running down loopy documents from the AEI, for example, when I should be, you know, doing my work, which they pay me for. I have a lot of other commitments in my personal life, as well.

This leaves me only able to write, sporadically, about Republican windbaggery, hypocrisy, and assholery. Luckily for me, "movement" conservatives are the gift that keeps on giving, if by "gift" you mean chlamydia. Thus, within the last week or so we have had The Rush Phony Soldier Debacle, Tranny Annie Coulter's desperate wish to repeal the 19th Amendment, and my personal favorite, the smearing of a twelve-year-old boy. Smoove.

So, to recap: a man so cowardly he sent his maid to score his drugs for him in case the deal went bad chooses to disparage actual Iraq vets because they don't mindlessly follow the Dear Leader; right wing bloggers and politicians decide to attack the character of that highest symbol of political power in our world, a middle-school student; and, well, Chix-with-Dix Ann...what can you say? She is her usual asshat. These are amongst the leading voices of the right, lighting the way rhetorically for our great nation.

Movement conservatism is a cesspit.