Justin Darr: Goodbye Reality!<br>The Tough Life of a Liberal Blogger

It is difficult to imagine how anyone could not celebrate the first free Iraqi election in over 50 years. Even France, which vehemently opposed the United States' liberation of Iraq, set its differences aside to praise the people of Iraq for their strength and bravery as they take this first step toward true freedom. However, there are people in this world who are not celebrating this great event. No, I am not talking about the usual folks we know oppose freedom not just in Iraq, but across the globe, such as North Korea's Kim Jung Il, Osama Bin Laden, and a few Nazis hiding in Argentina, but others who will attack the successful Iraqi election with the same hostility, distortion, and hatred for the truth as the tyrants above. And, they are as close as your computer. I am talking about the Internet's Liberal Bloggers.

Most Internet leftists are still seeking therapy helping them cope with President Bush's reelection victory, so another Bush Administration triumph, particularly one in association with the hated Iraq War, is all they need to free them from their already tenuous grasp on sanity. As of Sunday afternoon on January 30, 2005, the insanity had already reached a fever pitch.

The reactions of liberal bloggers can be grouped into four categories. The first is the "Let's Talk About Something Else Posse." For example, "Black Eyed Sunday", ignored the election completely and chose to center their daily post around promoting the commemoration of the second anniversary of the Iraq War with a "global protest" calling for Bush's impeachment. One what grounds? Who knows, probably for the "high crime" of President Bush disagreeing with them.

The second, or the "Let's Pretend It Didn't Happen Faction," are a group who broke with the traditional liberal habit of talking endlessly about anything so long as it can be twisted into a childish penis reference about Vice President Cheney, and said nothing. As of mid Sunday afternoon, bloggers such as Josh Micha Marshall, Stephen Bainbridge, Stephen Green, Crooked Timber, and liberal blogger giant, Atrios, had said nothing. Yes, nothing at all about anything. Can you believe it? The birth of democracy in Iraq has actually managed to make a liberal stop talking! This is indeed a historic day. In all fairness, these bloggers will surely weigh in on the Iraqi Election at a later date. Perhaps it was unfair of me to look into their sites on Sunday afternoon when so many liberals are just beginning emerge from the drug induced haze of their traditional weekend medicinal marijuana benders.

The third group is by far the largest. They are "The Conspiracy Theorists." This is the same group who gained notoriety by advancing the claim that Karl Rove used stolen alien technology from Area 51 to make it rain on Democratic areas of Ohio on Election Day in an attempt to disenfranchise voters through adverse weather. Moveleft.com led the charge with the tried and true "Bush will not count the votes properly." Just what Iraq needs, hanging chads. Rather than offering any proof to back up their claim, Moveleft.com challenges its readers to e-mail them with any evidence that the votes will be counted properly. Who knows, maybe two or three people will respond and Moveleft will have its web traffic double for the day. Bushwatch.com asserts that all claims of election success are lies spread by Republicans because there are no "unbiased observers" on the ground in Iraq. I guess this is a subtle admission that CBS and CNN are the prejudiced left-wing rags we suspect them to be. Legitgov.org claims nobody actually voted in the Iraq election and all reports to the contrary are propaganda. I'll just leave that one alone. Buzzflash really goes over the edge with their headline "The 'Great Game' of War for Oil Under the Propaganda Flag of 'Spreading Democracy' Continues." And, I thought I wrote bad titles! Lastly, in a unique twist, Talkleft posted an article by journalist Chris Allbritton claiming the election successes where actually the result of a terrorist conspiracy, "Our sources in the insurgency say the election will make no difference to them, so why expend the energy?" Yeah, right.

The last group is the "Just Being Nasty for the Sake of Being Nasty Alliance." DailyKOS says the Iraqi election was not actually an election but "a PR stunt" and a chance for the media to gather "pretty pictures." Democraticunderground.com stays true to their optimistic liberal ideals with the headline, "Who's Paying for All This Freedom?" That is an easy one, the same people who support the largely unemployable, still living at home in the basement readers of The Democratic Underground; their parents. And, MyDD writes "Fundamentalists of the World Unite" and laments the fall of Saddam Hussein's benevolent "secular" government. It is not that MyDD likes Saddam, its is just that they hate God more.

These are tough times to be a liberal blogger. In light of the rejection of the left's domestic polices and beliefs by the American electorate, and now the failure of their "Surrender at Any Cost" foreign polices, you might be inclined to believe the liberal bloggers many begin to fade away. But not so. So long as there facts to twist, lies to spread, and profanity laced personal attacks to hurl, liberal bloggers will continue to run away from reality for years to come.

� 2005 Justin Darr