Hallelujah

"Hallelujah" is a Leonard Cohen song, but the best version is by Jeff Buckley. It was used to great effect in the West Wing episode where C.J. Cregg's FBI guard was shot dead in a market robbery. It's also an exclaimation of great joy, as used here.

There are 2 reasons some bloggers have so much more import in the blogworld:

1. They got there first
2. They are just simply really good

There are some we've lost, as well. The incomparable mediawhoresonline.com & counterspin.com to name a few.

But some return to our everlasting joy. Like the mighty billmon.

He took a hiatus last year, but most of us hoped that since the site was still up, he might come back. And he has, with a vengeance.

He has a unique voice, strong, angry, confrontational, but smart, very, very smart. And no one does comparison/contrast better than he. Some examples:

From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth . . . So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

George W. Bush
Second Inaugural Speech
January 20, 2005

Officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and other nonmilitary personnel fall outside the bounds of a 2002 directive issued by President George W. Bush that pledged the humane treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody, Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel, said in a document.

In written responses to questions posed by senators as part of their consideration of his nomination to be attorney general, Gonzales also said a separate congressional ban on cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment had "a limited reach" and did not aply in all cases to "aliens overseas."

New York Times
Gonzales excludes CIA from rules on prisoners
January 20, 2005

and this:

President Bush plans to reactivate his reelection campaign's network of donors and activists to build pressure on lawmakers to allow workers to invest part of their Social Security taxes in the stock market . . . The campaign will use Bush's campaign-honed techniques of mass repetition, never deviating from the script and using the politics of fear to build support — contending that a Social Security financial crisis is imminent when even Republican figures show it is decades away.

Washington Post
Social Security Push to Tap the GOP Faithful
January 14, 2005

The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas . . . only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of the crowd.

Adolph Hitler
Mein Kampf
1925

Good stuff. Do him the honor of reading and responding, hopefully he'll stick around and provide more of his fine commentary.