First off, thanks to Pach for the kind & generous welcome. (Though I do seem to have lost the -ites from my nic in a tragic HTML accident about a year ago.) I shall endeavor to consistently write for FDL very serious, thoughtful, blog posts that have never been made in such detail or with such care. Or something.

Second off, Watertiger comes back from the Antipodes this week, returning once more to the, uh, Propodes. I’d been planning on using this space today to present extracts from my epic poem, “The Wingnuttiad,” a verse tour in heroic couplets through the Fever Swamps of the Right Wankosphere. But I’ll hold off on that for now, giving you but a taste:

Then list! the wail from far Wisconsin
Of how it would be overtly part’san
To dare to think that Sam Alito
Were any worse than, say, Mansquito.

This of course refers to the always reliably loopy Ann Althouse, whom we shall no doubt be mocking soon. Which raises the question, why snark? Why the constant mockery? Well, the point is that snark is a necessary tool, because so much of what’s wrong with America nowadays is that powerful crazy people are doing crazy things, to the relentless applause of crazy sycophants. Here’s for instance Bill Curry pointing out the obvious about Holy Joe Lieberman:

The most important bipartisan movement in a generation is taking shape on Capitol Hill. But ironically, Joe Lieberman isn’t part of it. Instead, he joins Bush in attacking the “defeatists.” Yes, we’ve come to that phase of a war when disgraced leaders blame the outcome on those brave enough to oppose them. Sadly, Lieberman shows signs of giving in to the temptation.

Yup. The country is finally becoming united in a bipartisan fashion: against the war. And here’s Mr. Bipartisanship himself… demanding escalation. (Via the Powder-Blue Devil.)

Or take this stuff, which I noted the other day. The Prime Minister of Iraq now says the country can get on fine without us.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave “any time they want” though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training.

The Iraqi Parliament said they want us out.

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist
Shia group that sponsored the petition.

The Iraqi people don’t want us to stay.

A new WPO poll of the Iraqi public finds that seven in ten Iraqis want U.S.-led forces to commit to withdraw within a year. An overwhelming majority believes that the U.S. military presence in Iraq is provoking more conflict than it is preventing and there is growing confidence in the Iraqi army. If the United States made a commitment to withdraw, a majority believes that this would strengthen the Iraqi government. Support for attacks on U.S.-led forces has grown to a majority position—now six in ten. Support appears to be related to a widespread perception, held by all ethnic groups, that the U.S. government plans to have permanent military bases in Iraq.

But we’re not leaving Iraq.

We’re not done building a democracy there.

It’s a shite state of affairs. Pointing out the absurdity is necessary, so we can recall even if only distantly, just what “normal” is, or should be.

Plus, wingnuts are just plain funny. Or can be. On this, see:

*The Kenosha Kid on the painfully weird and unfunny Mallard Fillmore;

*Attaturk on the new Cheney hagiography;

*Roy on Wingnut Aesthetic Theory;

*GottaLaff on thought crimes.

*Tom Hilton on Teh Nuge;

*Gavin on Noonan! The Musical.