Buffalo Wings and Toasted Ravioli

Digby quotes a series of media pundits on their attempts to reconcile evolution and intelligent design, then asks:

All of these people are obviously professional GOP whores and have a huge personal interest in trying to thread the wingnut. Some are willing to buck the base straightforwardly, notably Krauthammer, who went to medical school, but as I wrote when I first posted on this, the discomfort and dissonance is palpable among most of these people:

What do you suppose it’s like to be intellectually held hostage by people who you know for a fact are dead wrong on something? It must be excruciating.

I suspect this is the biggest problem with conservatism today.  As Atrios says, you have to buy the whole worldview (or at least be willing to publicly whore for it) in order to truly be part of the movement and that is becoming untenable.

And Glenn Greenwald comments on the mainstream media’s puzzling infatuation with Karl Rove and the whole Republican machine:

Think about this: there are only two instances in the last six years where real investigations occurred in any of the Bush scandals — this U.S. attorneys scandal (because Democrats now have subpoena power) and the Plame case (due to the fluke of two Republican DOJ officials with integrity, James Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald). And in both cases, it was revealed conclusively that top Bush officials — at the highest levels of the government — repeatedly and deliberately lied about what they did. Isn’t that pattern obviously extremely disturbing? And imagine what would be revealed had there been real investigations — journalistic or Congressional — of all the other scandals that ended up dying an inconsequential death due to neglect and suppression.

Beltway media stars really aren’t bothered by any of this in the slightest. It’s how their world works. Initially, they even refused to talk about the story at all, insisting that there was nothing worth seeing here, and were all but forced into writing about it as a result of the tenacious coverage in the blogosphere, led by TPM’s Josh Marshall. Their instinct is to lash out at anyone who suggests real wrongdoing on the part of the Republican political machinery that has ruled their town for so long.

They respect and admire the Republicans who wield power in Washington — media elites particularly love Karl Rove (Mark Halperin to Hugh Hewitt: “we say in the book about Karl Rove, who I respect and enjoy . . . I enjoy his company . . . Maybe he did the things he’s accused of, but to have this guy’s image portrayed and defined by things that are accusations that are unproven, we say in the book is really outrageous”). They admire and love Rove because he is the embodiment of the political power which they worship — and they are angered by the notion that these figures who rule their world, a world which lavishly rewards them, should be accused of real wrongdoing, let alone threatened with subpoenas and prosecution and imprisonment. Fun and playful political tussles are fine, but anything truly disruptive or threatening is despised by them and considered out of bounds.

Go read.

Check This Out! Podcast Episode 064: Jill of Feministe

Thursday, March 22, 2007
Playing time: 31:40

My guest this week is Jill Filipovic, the lead blogger at Feministe.us, and one of the most prominent and articulate voices in the young feminist blogosphere.  Jill is also a second-year student at New York University Law School.  So let’s talk with Jill about feminist blogging and blogging as a law student.

Theme Music: T. Nile, Get Together. (T. Nile’s CD, At My Table, is available from Festival Distribution and through iTunes.)
Blog: http://checkthisoutpodcast.com
Email: jim.milles@gmail.com
Comment line: (716) 989-4422 or Skype “jmilles”
Add your pin to the Frappr Map.

From The Laboratorium:

Overheard …

Financial responsibility and sexual license. I’d vote for a politician who had that as a slogan.

Some great, creative videos from the staff of the Allen County Public Library in Indiana:

From the wonderful Jon Swift’s blog (satirical, in case there was any doubt):

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is now leading the pack of Republican presidential contenders and some conservatives are a little concerned, even though most conservatives are embracing him. Although everyone applauds his heroic conduct on September 11, 2001, some conservatives think he may be too liberal on many social issues and there are questions about his personal life and temperament. Isn’t it unfair, though, to judge a man on how he behaved on 22,930 days of his life instead of the day he was at his best? Besides, Giuliani is not running on these other 22,930 days of his life, he’s running on just this one day, and when Giuliani is President, every day will be 9/11.

More here.

I’m attending the DeLange Conference on Emerging Libraries–an excellent conference with lots of prominent speakers–but I have to share this pet peeve.  The phrase that has been used by two different speakers to describe the environment we’re currently living in: “the brewing perfect storm of opportunity.”  I count three mixed metaphors there.  Blech.