And we thought the endless meta of blogdom was insufferable...

It’s got nothing on the theater of the truly absurd, featuring professional, navel-gazing head-humpers (better known as the news media and its kith and kin, the pundit class).

As a follow on to Va Dare's Live Thread #1

As per va dare: "Please unrec this diary at about 300 comments, link to the previous diaries and someone get ready to put up a new diary thread, ok?"

C-Span 3 link

Whenever I grow world-weary, I revisit legendary figures that keep my spirit engaged and committed to live my own life with inspiration, determination and courage.

Back in September of 2006, I mentioned the story of a lion named Ntchwaidumela (n-twy-du-MAY-la) in a conversation here. Ntchwaidumela’s name translates into English as, “He who greets with fire”. One of my personal favorites here was similarly inspired by the story and encouraged me to write the account of this lion’s life for the community.

I've been thinking about Ntchwaidumela's style a lot lately. Although every prominent member of the pride he became known for reigning with is just as impressive in their own ways, I'm going to concentrate on Ntchwaidumela as just one example of what real heroism through hardship looks like.

We have watched the Democratic leadership in Congress fumble this situation long enough.

We need 218 determined Representatives in Congress to insist on the following:

Religious tests are all the rage, just ask Mitt Romney.

After a weenies and cream social, this coming Sunday, Senator John McCain will presume to propound a brand of sexual morality that he never quite got the hang of, even when he was married.

A tale of co-equal branches of government during time of war.

Our constitution grants the President tremendous power when the country is at war. That’s a fact. Setting aside questions of legality, as it pertains to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush has jealously asserted this power. But he didn’t stop there. He coveted the power of Congress too. And with his effluent signing statements, the aid of a craven, stooge Congress—led by his own party, and the sheer audacity of the executive branch as a whole, he has managed to effectively dispense with the burden of congressional oversight altogether.

I read the news today. Oh boy...

Jerome a Paris points us to the latest faux pas from the Wall Street Journal: WSJ makes fun of DailyKos. The gas tax? Nope. The 'Fuck's

Daniel Henninger writes a prissy little piece for the Wall Street Journal. To be sure, intellectual dishonesty is nothing new for the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages, as Armando and McJoan have had occasion to remind us. Still, I can just see people reading it with furrowed brows, wondering what ever happened to the good ol' USA.

Yesterday, on my regular morning news cruise, I learned from AMERICAblog that Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church intended to protest the Colorado Legislature on Thursday, March 23, 2006. I checked and saw that the Westboro Baptist Church website (Google that one yourself) posted its intention in its, get this, Love Crusades section:

Colorado Taliban masquerading as a Legislature - at 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Mar. 23, at the Statehouse, 200 E. Colfax, Denver and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar at 2300 15th St.

This, I had to see. So my fiance grabbed his trusty camera and off we went.

I stopped by The Huffington Post tonight and noticed a recent featured entry by Paul Rieckhoff.

Here's something you're not likely to hear on the evening news, thank goodness we've got Knight Ridder: There's been an exodus of weapons experts from the US State Department:

A lot of times, the signal to noise ratio between us suffers for want of substantiation. Although that isn't fundamentally a bad thing, it has become a real problem lately. Everything, even the most basic facts seem open to interpretation anymore. But it's always been a problem for people trying to convince mainstream thinkers that alternative explanations for events deserve more in-depth examination. We've come to think of these situations, derisively, as "conspiracy theories". The recent trouble has been compounded by government secrecy and mainstream media's willingness to negligently assist government in creating the mass consciousness it finds most useful.  

Ask any Democrat and they'll begrudgingly acknowledge that our party has a "defense" problem. Most believe that it's because voters are not getting the message that we would be just as strong as Republicans on national defense and stronger still on treating the men and women in our military with dignity and respect. I think those people are wrong. I think voters are getting the message, they just don't trust it. Furthermore, I think I know why.