Apparently, things were fine -- and the Joe Kleins were perfectly content -- when they were getting viciously attacked and mauled every day by Rush Limbaugh and the right. But matters became intolerable once left-wing bloggers started criticizing the press. That is when things just went too far.

Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that left-wing bloggers tend to have that pesky reality thing behind them.

Being argued with is ALWAYS more annoying when you're wrong.

Is about people who obstinately miss the point with their willful ignorance, then today's first troll presents us with a fine proof of Glenn's point, and in record time I might add.

The question is, "Should journalists be considered participants in a fact-based occupation like scientists, or should they be considered participants in a leadership-driven, consensus formation occupation like government?"

Of course the correct answer to this question is obvious.

Unless, of course, you are a practicing journalist in today's environment.

There's an AP story out today that's headlined Poll: Congress, Bush share low approval

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4795858.html

If you read the story carefully and are well informed anyway, then you can figure out that while Bush's low approval is due to his insistence on continuing the Iraq war, Congress's low approval is due to their failure to stop it.

I predict that by 5:00 PM pacific time this poll will be cited as evidence that the public is actually behind the surge strategy and the Democrats are losers for opposing him.

I just copied this straight off the WaPo homepage:

Richard Perle | Sloppy analysis and imprecision with evidence created a credibility gap that continues to damage our foreign policy.

Which of course assumes that we have better natures to which the appeals can be directed. This in itself is a percentage game. As the Stanford prison experiment showed, the availability of our better natures can be environmentally contingent.

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Which, needless to say, is why the RWA strategy is to ramp up fear at every opportunity. Unfortunately for us, the MSM happens to know that fear sells and that trivial gossip comes in a close second.

One of the conventional wisdoms that we fight against on a regular basis, is the idea that we have to be religious in order to be moral. I prefer to think of the issue this way. Who's going to be more reverent to life, someone who thinks it was whipped up instantly by an omnipotent being or someone who recognizes that it is a rare and marvelous confluence of natural processes.

feel marginalized enough without the know-it-alls around here piling on. Even Birmingham Alabama has an alternative weekly for cripes sake.

I hate to say it, but your commiting the same sin that allows people to make sweeping statements about "Islamofascists" You're treating the south as if it were a monolithic entity as opposed to a mass of individuals who arrange into groups in various ways in different contexts. While the bigotry that, to you, seems to define "the south" exists, its hardly confined to the region. All one has to do is travel 60 miles south of Chicago to encounter the same mindset. The actual battle has a lot more to do with urban vs rural points of view. By accidents of history these also correspond with the North/South split.

I think that's really beneath you.

You're right. I apologize.

You will find pockets of prejudice, racism, cultural backwardness and worse in many parts of the country. This discussion is about the South, not about those other parts of the country.

I disagree. We need to combat racism and cultural backwardness WHEREVER it appears. After all Iowa and Pennsylvania are the current fronts on the anti-science education battleground. And as I said before. There ARE progressives who live in the South. We should continue to cultivate them as allies.

Whether the troll has ever set foot in New Orleans.

Because his ignorance apparently knows no bounds.

for never refering to shooter242 as a scumbag until tonight.

to take pleasure in the various investigations that ARE taking place, it's easy to lose sight of the ones that still are NOT occurring. But of course at the end of the day, thay are all tied together.

Lets try this one on for size.

Q: Why should we be worried that the administration is using data-mining techniques to gather information on all Americans if they're using the technique to look for terrorists.

A: The administration has been systematically using its hiring power coupled with a little noticed provision in the Patriot act to pack the DOJ with people who demonstrate a willingness to use law enforcement powers to target political opponents.

One needn't believe in mysticism to note that everything's connected.

Knowing how lazy, incompetent and/or corrupt many local police departments are here, giving them this kind of unchecked power is frightening and gives me the willies

By what magical process do we assume that the same adjectives don't apply to Federal officials?

Luckily, our heroes at the NSA aren't quite as stupid as their defenders here.

It does, however, come down to a question of trust. If Bush represents all that is good and pure in America, then of course everything he does to protect us is hunky dory. If, on the other hand, he is an amoral sociopath, with no regard for human life and a distrssing tendency to ignore the consequences of his own actions and decisions, well.....