Weekly Jackass Number Fifteen: Oliver Willis

"Like Magnets to Stupid" - no, wait - "Like Stupid to Kryptonite" - oh, whatever; the point is that Oliver Willis has to be one of the more annoying of the admittedly annoying species called 'bloggers'. Willis has all the subtlety of a Daily Kossack coming down off a speed binge, as witnessed in this recent 'narrative':

The pieces are all there, folks, and like Chris says - it's time to pull them together.

1 The Republican party is the party of Washington fatcats and DC insiders.

2. Republican leaders like Tom Delay will break the law in order to prolong their political careers, no matter the consequences.

3. Republicans are trying to privatize social security and cut benefits in order to curry favor with their billion dollar friends, while Democrats remain focused on preserving social security's promise to generation after generation.

4. Democrats have worked with Republicans to approve more judges than Republicans did with President Clinton, yet they're dead set on ramming judges significantly out of America's mainstream down our throats. The judiciary is too important to cede all control to one party.

5. The only solution to this, and other messes now being created and made worse by the Republicans, is to elect Democrats.

Wow, what a coherent, thoughtful argument - I'm convinced, how about you?

Unfortunately, this is the kind of slapdash, off-the-cuff, contentless garbage you find more often than not with Willis.

Willis is obsessed with Brit Humes (for not being deferential enough to FDR, apparently) and Tom Delay, and blogs on little else these days (not that I'm complaining!), showing the typical intellectual breadth of a Kossack in disguise (oh, but of course, there's also the Social Security hysteria). I would show some examples of his analysis, but unfortunately, it appears to be non-existent; Oliver's world is one of quick and dirty insults, innuendo, accusations..but no facts, please, it's getting a little crowded in here.

Willis's biggest claim to fame, not surprisingly, is for being a grade-A jerk. He is obsessed with the race of Michelle Malkin, he is famously inconsistent in applying his own standards to himself (but of course!), he has the truly disgusting liberal habit of tossing out the word 'nazi' at those he disagrees with (in this case, Little Green Footballs, an excellent and famously pro-Israel blog - ouch!), and he puts the 'knee' in knee-jerk apologism for any and all things Left.

Willis gets bonus points for being some sort of editorial or advisory presence to Media Matters for America, the publishers of such 'exposes' as this recent love poem to Hizbullah:

Following a March 8 pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut, Lebanon, organized by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, media figures downplayed the rally's significance in order to suggest that the Lebanese people uniformly oppose Syrian influence in Lebanon and favor Western-style democracy. In fact, the pro-Syrian demonstration was far larger than recent anti-Syrian rallies, and far from demonstrating unity, the rally offered clear evidence that "Lebanon's political and sectarian fault lines have re-emerged," as The New York Times wrote.

So, surely, they issued a correction when the opposition held a far larger rally, right? (You haven't been paying much attention, have you? - By the way, for a true glance at stupidity in action, read the comments to this 'story'). But wait, here's the best part - Media Matters is funded by billionaire lunatic George Soros! Ahh, now it's starting to make sense...

Still, no one is all bad, and we all owe Willis a big show of gratitude for inspiring a whole slew of terribly funny posts at Protein Wisdom...enjoy your day in the sun, Oliver (just don't block it out for the rest of us)...