Did you know there's actually a country where the children of the nation's leaders go and fight when their country goes to war? It's called, "The United Kingdom." Kinda blows your mind....

Melissa McEwan, the "other blogger" in l'Affaire Marcotte, has been getting the bum end of the stick in this whole controversy. Unlike Marcotte, she never posted anything that could conceivably be termed extreme or bigoted against the Catholic Church (a point reiterated by that noted lefty blogger, Patterico), and her role in this matter seems to be that she was just another woman whom Tom Donahue and the other bundists of the far right could bully. Her opinions may have been left-liberal, and she may have taken no prisoners on her blog, but surely that cannot be justification for seeking to blackball her from mainstream political activities.

But the post-resignation articles all seem to lump the two of them together, as if her calling the Pope on the Church's recent history of anti-gay persecution, or decrying what she termed the "Christofascist" element of the GOP, was somehow indistinguishable from a blogpost denigrating the Virgin Mary. Death threats, never justifiable no matter how rancid the commentator (right wing or left), are especially odious when targeted against someone who has done nothing to merit any sort of scorn. It doesn't take a Cal Tech grad to figure out that lumping her and Marcotte together may have less to do with what they had written and everything to do with the fact that they were young, talented, and blunt women.

Ladies and gentlement, the ever-credulous Howard Kurtz....

Fox to Air Fake News Show: How will we tell the difference?

And now, the feel-good hit of Spring 2007:

Mensteala: It's hard to watch this video and not feel sorry the guy, no matter how wealthy or famous he is. Like watching Jerry Lewis, or Adam Sandler, or seeing Whoopi Goldberg host the Oscars....

An interesting take on the problems Mitt Romney will have with the GOP base, which have got nothing to do with his flip-flops on abortion or gay rights.

It's not a blanket slam on Catholic dogma, nor a foul-mouthed tirade clothed in self-righteousness, but this is my effort to forever disqualify myself from working on a Presidential campaign:

Nacht und Nebel: A prof from one of the SEC's finest law schools has a modest proposal to solve the Iranian Problem: Death Squads.

Marcotte Resigns: No surprise there. A campaign blog, or any sort of corporate/institutional blog, has to be bland and inoffensive by its very nature. And she was clearly not that. The only other justification to hire her would be if she had a proven ability to manage and format a weblog, something that Kos has almost patented; obviously, if Pandagon was "losing" half of her controversial posts because its archives were busted, then she's not the person to bring in to set up an entirely new website. Having her "resign" after the heat has died down (while keeping the other blogger, who doesn't appear to be guilty of anything other than being anti-Christianist) allows the Edwards camp to claim they put up the good fight against the Giant Fascist Noise Machine without having to worry about losing Pennsylvania or Ohio the next time their spokeswoman decides to mock the Immaculate Conception.

UPDATE [2/13]: And now the other blogger has resigned. Since there was no recent post on her weblog that would justified any further right wing outrage, the proximity of the two resignations is most curious.

Francis Urquhart Dies: Ian Richardson, the star of the one of the greatest black comedies ever to air on television, "House of Cards" (and two fine sequels), passed away over the weekend. Dame Helen Mirren paid tribute to him last night after accepting her BAFTA honor, calling him her "mentor", and tearfully saying that she doubted she would be where she was today without his help early in her career. He also played the treacherous mole opposite Sir Alec Guinness in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", and starred in both the movie and the original theatrical production of Marat/Sade. But he will always be remembered for the line, "You might well think that. I, of course, could not possibly comment," which F.U. would always repeat whenever he was called upon to give an off-the-record (and invariably false) slur upon the reputation of one of his rivals in the "House of Cards" series.

What a start for the Obama Campaign !! First John Howard, now Cornell West, who thought that the election of George Bush in 2000 would be better for black America than Al Gore. All Barack needs now is to get denounced by Tony Blair, and he'll have poodles in three different countries yelping at his heels. [link via Steve Gilliard, who is very disappointed that Obama is trying to win the Presidency, rather than appeal just to black voters, and that he chose to announce his campaign at the home of that noted racist cracker, Abraham Lincoln]

The Order of the Phoenix: Ralph Fiennes, who when last we met had just ended an eleven-year relationship with a 62-year old woman, has apparently joined the Mile-High Club with a 38-year old Qantas stewardess. [link via HuffPost]

OBAMA !!! What's not to like? He was right from the start on the war, he doesn't employ wackjob bloggers whose opinions would have been more at home in some nineteenth century anti-Fenian salon, and his campaign says this, about the empty suit running Australia:

"If Prime Minister Howard truly believes what he says, perhaps his country should find its way to contribute more than just 1,400 troops so some American troops can come home," he said. "It's easy to talk tough when it's not your country or your troops making the sacrifices."

That was in response to John Howard's assertion that if he was "al Qaeda", he would praying be praying for an Obama victory in the first primaries in March, 2008. Howard faces a new election himself later this year.

This is a journalistic low, even for Howard Kurtz....

I've never been all that impressed with John Edwards. His mediocre campaign in 2004 for the Democratic nomination barely raised a sweat on John Kerry, and his bid for the Vice Presidency provided no benefit whatsoever to the ticket. L'affaire Marcotte can be looked at two ways: he either didn't perform due diligence when he hired her as his campaign blogger, or he knew what he was getting, didn't think statements like this would effect his ability to get out his message, and now must humiliate her and cut her loose.

There is a double standard here, one that I think liberals must insist on: that any platform or ideology based on compassion and concern for those least privileged, the hallmark of progressive politics for more than a century, has to have as its spokesmen people who walk the walk as well as talk the talk. So of course the right is free to have bigots like Michelle "V-Dare" Malkin and William "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity" Donahue as its public face, and John McCain can employ an extremist as his bloggissimo. Modern conservatism doesn't pretend to be compassionate towards human suffering, and so who can begrudge its candidates for playing to that crowd. On the other hand, liberalism without civility is a contradiction in terms.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has a defense of the Edwards bloggissimos, and more questions about some of the hatemongers hired by Republicans to do the same sort of work. What a lot of Marcotte's defenders (I haven't read much of the other blogger to judge one way or another) seem to be missing isn't that she has "made controversial or profane remarks in the past," but that she doesn't seem to have an "indoor voice" to begin with. A politician like Edwards wants to win elections, and if one of his employees has a history of making remarks that offend the religious beliefs of a core constituency of your own party, he must act quickly before the problem metasticizes.

There is an important role for the Marcottes of the world, to roil the waters and shake up the false consensus that restricts our political debate. Some people have to go too far in their rhetoric, if only to show up the mealy-mouthed among us for our complacency, and Pandagon often succeeds in doing precisely that. But if that's the path you want to take, you must also understand that other doors will be closed to you, and that the heavy lifting of actually getting something done will be performed by the policy wonks and the "concern trolls" you routinely mock.

UPDATE [2/8/07]: Not fired, at least for now. The two pretty much had to repudiate everything they had previously written on their blogs as "satirical in nature" for which they are sorry if anyone "was personally offended." In the future, this may neuter other talented bloggers who wish to join campaigns, and people who take their political writing seriously may find the "satirical in nature" language hard to swallow. But the kids stay in the picture. My respect for the courage of John Edwards, if not his political foresight, has just gone way up.

Why has John McCain spent his political career bashing our troops?

Classic music video, from the King of Kool:

Super Bowl LXI: FWIW, the Chicago Bears owner, Virginia McCaskey, is a diehard Repubican, while Colts owner Jim Irsay has largely contributed to Democrats. The teams' stars go the opposite way: Peyton Manning was a Corker man in the last cycle, while Brian Urlacher's one contribution went to a Democratic congressional candidate two years ago. It appears that Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are skinflints when it comes to politics, but Mike Ditka isn't; he has been a reliable GOP donor for years. [h/t via Daily Kos]

CHEWBACCA BUSTED !!!!