Standing Alone in a Field of Defeated Principles

It's a light day while I decompress from a long week and get ready for a three day weekend. The problem with most blogs I've tried (and failed) to start in the past was a lack of consistency, so it's not that I'm forcing this post in, but it will be my only one today.

Andrew Sullivan has been off getting hitched lately, and congratulations to him for it. In his stead, he has a crop of guest bloggers keeping his content updated. While I feel the same way about his guests as I do about him (respect their opinions, but don't always agree), his new found ability to rise above the muddy fray of partisan politics and find equal ground between both liberal social ideals and fiscal conservatism was missing these past days....

Until today. Steve Clemons posts this piece regarding the recapturing of the American soul after the demise of neo-conservative principles. While I think it's a bit early to be thinking we're in the clear of that mess of ideology, it's telling that conservatives en masse are now beginning the process of remembering what this whole thing is about in the first place.

Now I could stand up and demand my piece of the large public mea-culpa every righty to some degree owes the country. I'm not going to do that though. In the tradition of opposing battlefield generals treating each other with dignity and respect at the point of surrender, I merely extend my hand in brotherhood as a fellow American, and say: "Welcome back. There's alot of work to be done, so where do we go from here?"

The lack of comedy is comical

Cynicism is a beautiful thing, a language I am well versed in. But when does a cynical person become an apathetic one?

Quick, the Boss is Coming

For the countless time in the last few days, I'm listening to the new Bruce Springsteen single, Radio Nowhere.

I know, I know, being originally from Jersey and a Springsteen fan is a cliche in practice. But aside from my love of his music, I'm always surprised by the way he finds someway to make his talent relevant for the time. From dead town desperation in the 70s, to the recovery of the soul of the country in the 80s, to his own soul in the 90's, and a personal response to a tragic event in the new century, the Boss finds a way to avoid being typecast as himself. While he has a style that remains constant, you don't always find synth-rock Born in the USAs or piano-ditty Thunder Roads. It's not always brilliant, but it's frequently good, and it always has a soul.

In a world where most aging rock stars end up looking like this, or, like this, Bruce is an act, but at least he's not a caricature. In the past five years, he's released three albums (if you missed Devils and Dust, you missed the best Americana album in fifteen years), thrown his weight for the first time behind a national political candidate, and participated in one of the best musical tributes to a legend I've ever seen. What has your favorite artist done lately?

It's not about censorship, it's about responsibility

The indomitable Gina M. sent me this link today from the Wonkette. Far be it from me to argue with the punditry machine who seem to define the online left these days, but one passage in particular caught my eye:

and finally flying to the Gulf Coast — but not New Orleans, where it was so dangerous that volunteer rescue crews were dodging bullets fired by crazed flood survivors and looters — for a photo op

Here's the problem with that simple sentence. Administration faux paus and follies littered the mediascape after Katrina. From Michael Brown's ineptitude to the callous disregard for the situation that our nations highest elected leaders displayed, there is more than enough blame to go around. It's been two years, and there are STILL people who don't know just how badly the residents of New Orleans were represented by those in whom they had placed their trust. Why? Because the media machine that some very smart people on the right have developed know how to invalidate entire arguments by picking on nuggets of untruth in journalism, no matter how innocuous their inclusion may seem.

The crazed looters shooting at rescuers story has been debunked by news outlets on both sides of the divide. To continue to repeat it in an otherwise excellent story provides ammunition to critics who seek to push every leftist article, no matter how true, to the fringe. Now if I had written that here, or if it were on any number of other no-readership blogs, it would be irrelevant. But with the attention that Wonkette receives as a symbol of the new online left, half-truths can become straw men, which take up talking time from real issues.

If we're to cease being called moon bats, we're going to have to keep our arguments down to earth.