A Spork in the Drawer

It Must Be "Net roots" Morning

I like EJ Dionne but comparing Markos Moulitsas to Rush Limbaugh is just plain stupid.

Nonetheless, EJ has a point here:

And just as Limbaugh aroused passionate opposition on the left, so has Kos become the object of conservative rage. In the lead-up to Moulitsas's Chicago gathering, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, a right-wing showman who knows a threat when he sees one, has gone after Kos. "There's no question that the most vile stuff imaginable is posted on this hate site and others like it," O'Reilly said Tuesday.

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I'm not in the habit of giving advice to Bill O'Reilly, but there's always a first time: Liberal rage at Rush Limbaugh not only was useless, but it actually strengthened his credibility with the right. (I speak from experience.) Bill, I bet Markos loves what you're doing.

But I think too much is being made of this. Billo is a cheap, comical thug who's audience has one foot in the grave.

Still, I do enjoy falafel. (Start there and scroll down.)

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Better Amend That Stylebook

Kevin's right. The WaPo's usage is just plain strange:

...the "Net roots"...

"The fact is, the Net roots cannot win elections by ourselves [...]"

And just to confuse things further let's throw in a hyphen:

...a former high school teacher who became a Net-roots activist [...]

I know that this isn't the most important thing out there but does the WaPo not employ copy editors?

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Bad Reference

Today, Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg takes on the "netroots" and attempts to deconstruct Jonathan Chait's recent article on such in the New Republic (sub. req.). As usual, life is too short to spend much time on Jonah's maunderings but, nonetheless, this paragraph jumped out at me:

The conservative movement was a response to generations of growing statism at home and abroad. From the Progressive era to the Great Society, government seemed to be expanding in tandem with the threat of communism. The conservative project was first and foremost an intellectual one because, as Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell has written, it takes an ideology to beat an ideology.

Jonah, dear boy, do you really want to cite the man who recently said this?

When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can't help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.

Maybe you do, Jonah, maybe you do.

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