We are all socialists now

Not that weren’t already, of course, but poll results like this amuse me, because they often fly in the face of the mainstream media’s consensus.

New progressive coalition to challenge Dems who are more conservative than their districts

It appears the ruffians take this democracy stuff seriously.  I can only imagine how annoyed this is going to make elites:

It is a concept bound — indeed, designed — to ruffle the feathers of powerful figures in Washington, in part because the names behind it are now institutions themselves. With $500,000 currently in the bank, Accountability Now will be aided, in varying forms, by groups such as MoveOn, SEIU, Color of Change, Democracy for America, 21st Century Democrats and BlogPAC. FireDogLake’s Jane Hamsher and Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald will serve in advisory roles, while Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos will conduct polling, with analytical help from 538.com‘s Nate Silver.

Also, look that name-dropping in that paragraph.  Wow.

h/t Atrios.

Given Nate Silver’s participation, I wonder how to reconcile this with David Sirota’s take on something Silver said recently.

Describing the modern Republican movement

Digby:

They are now officially a sub-culture and it’s hard to get a majority when you literally speak a different language than most people.

Atrios:

I’ve written before that I think part of the problem that conservatives/Republicans face is that their mythology has become a bit too complex for mere mortals (people who don’t listen to Limbaugh and read The Corner obsessively) to comprehend. They reference rogues’ gallery of enemies and various “bad things” that most people have never heard of. Simply trying to navigate through the various wingnutty minefields while throwing out the appropriate red meat has become difficult to do, and the result is incomprehensible to most of the country.

Yup.  This is not a judgment on the correctness of that particular subculture, though; it’s an observation about subcultures and their relationship to electoral politics.

Though of course I also think the subculture in question here is bat**** insane.

Simple Wikipedia

Found because of XKCD, actually.

But cool.

The Pure Awesomeness of the Corvallis Second Floor Librarians

They have a blog, and it is good.

Prompted by this post.

Tom Geoghegan on Public Affairs

Geoghegan doesn’t say anything more than what would have been considered mildly liberal forty years ago, but check out how many Republican talking points the moderator throws at him.  It’s like the moderator isn’t listening to anything Geoghegan says, but just tries to fit Geoghegan’s statements into some sort of preconceived narrative.

Why, it’s almost like the ‘journalist’ is doing the job of the opposing party.  But that would never happen, would it?

[LCSD] Rumors, Rumors

I heard a rumor this evening: Anyone know anything about Mary Bowman visiting the high school in the last couple of days?  I’ve heard a little, but would love to hear more.

Please leave anything you know in the comments or email me at rhetoricalwasteland@gmail.com (Mary, that includes you, if you’re still interested in contacting me!)

Thanks, everybody.