BloggodomeVille
From North of the 49th, it's Rusty Idols. He's succinct, he's good, and he's not afraid to go where many on the left fear to tread. As an example, he was willing to look critically at the discussion around 'problems' with theTommy Douglas docu-drama as they pertain to the characterization of former Saskatchewan premier James Gardiner:
I get that it never pretended to be a 100% accurate historical record, but we are specifically talking about having a real person (Gardiner) who lived only a few years ago and who's family are still alive, say things he didn't say, drink when he didn't drink, condemn trade unionists in a speech when he wasn't even in office, appear to be anti-immigrant when he wasn't...
I'd be ticked if he was my grandfather.
Cliff, the proprietor of RIdols, then goes on to discuss what he feels should be done to rectify the situation (morally, not legally). Now, you don't have to agree with him on this, but you have to admire his honest feelings on the subject, not to mention his willingness to look at things with a critical eye. These are two qualities, I think, that separate the good stuff in the bloggodome from the junk.
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From South of the 49th we have The Next Hurrah. This isn't actually a new one for me, it's just that I've been too lazy to get it up over on the sidebar. It's a group blog, it's highly political, and most all of which is good, but my favorite correspondent is Emptywheel (who I have even more respect for after hearing her speak on FDL's PlamePanel last week).
Emptywheel is the kind of blogger we all want to be, but never can be because we don't have unlimited time, smarts, and/or imagination. She is probably best known for her complete dissection of the motivations behind the travesties of Judy Miller, but recently she pointed me towards this fantastic piece she wrote a few months back about that wiley wizard of waygone wingnuttism, Michael Ledeen.
Michael Ledeen is regularly haunted by a crazy old ghost. Not just any ghost. He's visited by the longtime head of US Counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton (JJA), conjured up through an old ouija board he bought in New Orleans. Or at least that's what Ledeen contrives in a series of columns.
He first used this device, I think, to give himself cover for exploiting current events to make great paranoid claims. Want to turn the Chandra Levy murder into a case of international espionage? Conjure JJA to tell you that Gary Condit was a double agent--blackmailed into trading intelligence in exchange for silence about his multiple affairs. When Levy threatened to expose her affair, she threatened to ruin the double agent arrangement. Want to use the DC Sniper case to drum up fear about Islamic terrorists? Have JJA explain to you that Mohammed's attacks were done at the behest of an Islamic terrorist group who was actually probing US defenses. Want to exploit the anthrax attacks in your attempts to launch a war against Iraq? Make JJA explain how, contrary to all the evidence, the attacks were obviously a plot of Saddam's.
You see, by the end of his life, JJA was absolutely fricking nuts. He had spent his life hunting double agents--heck, he even was a close friend of Kim Philby. And by the end, he had been seeing double for so long he had by most accounts become certifiably paranoid. By invoking JJA, Ledeen allows himself to posit all manner of wacky plots without damaging his (in some crowds, anyway) considerable credibility.
Character, narrative, drama, action, intrigue, historical perspective, backstory, and downright engaging......To use a stupid sports metaphor that I'm sure she would hate, Emptywheel's blogging is the complete package*.
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*Speaking of which, she has a very provocative piece up right now about who she thinks might be the next smear target(s) of an apparently newly unleashed Karl Rove.
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