I rarely ever read jingoblogs (known to most as “milblogs”), but I took the time to check out an applinked post over at Blackfive, which according to MM is “good advice for Murtha about what to say about Haditha that should be used by every pol in Washington.”

I left the following comment there last night:

Could you clear something up for me?

In the speech, you had Murtha stating, “I didn’t agree with the invasion of Iraq,” yet he voted in support of the force resolution.

Although he changed his mind in a remarkable fashion, I’m sure his vote was a measured one, and that he believed (at the time) that giving the President all options was the best one.

I have yet to receive a simple “thank you” for fact checking their fiction.

David Neiwert:

At last weekend’s [Washington] state GOP Convention, the party adopted a platform including a resolution calling for a measure to deny citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants. It also endorsed a guest-worker program that would require all applicants to return to their home countries first.

Nearly three years ago Michelle wrote a nasty column that closed as such:

Clearly, the custom of granting automatic citizenship at birth to children of tourists and temporary workers such as Hamdi and to countless “anchor babies” delivered by illegal aliens on American soil, undermines the integrity of citizenship – not to mention national security. Originally intended to ensure the citizenship rights of newly freed slaves and their families after the Civil War, the citizenship clause has evolved into a magnet for alien lawbreakers and a shield for terrorist infiltrators and enemy combatants.

If the courts refuse to close the birthright citizenship loopholes, Congress must. Citizenship is too precious to squander on accidental Americans in Name Only.

Anchor babies? Accidental Americans?

And to think that I agree with her that this is the greatest country in the world. What we do not agree on is whether it will survive any challenge short of our own species’ demise. Her career, being based on the politics of fear, smacks of her willingness to accept our country’s vulnerability.

Where Michelle believes that racist, isolationist policies will “save us”, I believe we have nothing to fear but our own ignorance and hatred. If Michelle has her way, our country will be transformed into a nation in which no mother would even want to bring forth life.

In yet another bit of sterling Internet journalism gone totally awry, Michelle has linked to a Guardian article titled:

Gore: Bush is ‘renegade rightwing extremist’

But here’s the actual quote:

“If you have a renegade band of rightwing extremists who get hold of power, the whole thing goes to the right.”

In other words,

Gore: Bush Administration is ‘a renegade band of rightwing extremists’

Sure. A case, even a snarky one like Michelle’s, could be made to counter the Dubya-as-Steve-Sailer claim, but it goes without saying that the administration has behaved like a renegade cabal, e.g. excessive use of signing statements, waging unprovoked wars, domestic spying, which all happen to be inline with extreme rightwing values. Hmmm.

At least Gore doesn’t need to get a novelist’s take on environmental science to feel like an expert.