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The Money Jungle by William Saletan is an interesting analysis of some of the pitfalls for the coalition over McCain-Feingold. This was particularly perceptive:

McCain imposes disclosure requirements on interest groups that run ads against candidates close to an election. He portrays these groups as constitutionally protected but insidious. In his worldview, citizens are on one side, and special interests are on the other. McCain’s chief antagonist, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sees it differently. My favorite definition of special interest is a group [that’s] against what I am trying to do, McConnell quipped during Monday’s debate. McConnell offers a kinder term for organizations whose missions he favors: citizens’ groups.

It’s worth pointing out in this context that currently the biggest PAC in American politics is not the National Rifle Association or incumbents’ re-election PACs. It’s EMILY’s List, a PAC focused on electing more women to office. Not exactly my idea of a malignant special interest.

But, on the other hand, this presumes that the only thing that citizens’ groups have to offer is money for campaign contributions or interest ads. This is most of what they do today, but that’s only because money is so powerful in modern campaigning. An organized group of citizens has something besides money behind them: they have votes. And, geeze, isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be about? Part of the point of changing the campaign finance system is to make it so that citizens’ groups no longer compete for the amount of money they can organize, but rather the number of, well, citizens.

This week’s This Modern World is a surprisingly accurate portrayal of The O’Reilly Factor Read the rest of Tom Tomorrow Takes on O’Reilly …

I saw Bulworth on DVD today and highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. In terms of laugh-out-loud moments, Warren Beatty’s speeches and rhythm-impaired raps, are sheer genius. America would be a lot better if all of our politicians went insane from staying up for six days straight every now and again…

Mark Strauss’s article Let’s Ditch Dixie: the case for Northern secession [Slate] is some of the most repulsive anti-Southern bigotry I have seen in a long, long time. It’s quite amazing what kind of virulent parochial, racist, classist tripe Northern liberals are willing to spew as long as the target is Southern whites. Consider this immortal passage:

The South is a gangrenous limb that should have been lopped off decades ago. More people live below the poverty line in the old Confederacy than in the Northeast and Midwest combined. You are three times more likely to be murdered in parts of Dixie than anywhere in New England, despite a feverish devotion to law-and-order that has made eight Southern states home to 90 percent of all recent U.S. executions. The South has the highest infant-mortality rate and the highest incidences of sexually transmitted diseases, while it lags behind the rest of the country in terms of test scores and opportunities for women.

Now try rereading the above with The black race substituted for The South. This horsecrap sounds like it came straight out of a Klan or Aryan Nation speech. He repeatedly uses slurs about fried chicken, NASCAR, and other things that are too white trash for his tea-sipping PBS-watching ass. Way to show your progressive class solidarity, brother.

Look, I am a relatively privileged white male in the South. I am not oppressed, no matter what the thugs in the League of the South may want to claim. But, this is pure hatred. And after this Strauss has the shamelessness to say that cutting off the South will get us a more leftist country. Well, gee, Marky, if the country is going to be full of snide little faux liberal elitists, who sums up the cultural differences between South and North as, and I quote, NASCAR fans against PBS viewers, then I’ll be glad to see you gone.

Letters in response to Battle of the Celebrity Gender Theorists have injected a note of sanity into Salon.com’s on-going love-fest for the antifeminist media creation, Christina Hoff Sommers. The Hear Hear! Award goes to the following letter:

Well, well, what have we here? Salon participating in the media phenomenon of giving prominence to the female anti-feminist who labels gender-based academic pursuits as frivolous and lacking in scientific rigor. How about equal space for a reply?

— Susan Saylor

Salon, of course, responded to this challenge by not providing equal space. Their top article is an Arts & Entertainment piece about radio and their top article in Life is an article about vasectomies.