It Must Be An Election Year.

You can always tell when it's an election year. The politicians are begging for money. The PACs are gearing up their smear ads. Bloggers start foaming at the mouth. And the local right wing media starts to become dismissive of anyone who would disagree with their distorted view of reality.

McIlheran gets that ball rolling when he gets snarky about a NY Times editorial that bemoans that the current administration feels it necessary to cover up yet another one of their poor decisions and scandals. This time it's the torture videos that were "conveniently" destroyed.

McIlheran shows his borderline personality issues with this:

Not that I recommend you actually read the New York Times' editorial -- it took me three tries, another can of Mountain Dew and a stab in the hand with my pen -- but it is a distillation of the general left-wing anomie that will inform much of the upcoming political season.

He then sets up and lashes out at his straw man opponent with this:

The only reason to bring this up, however, is that it neatly encapsulates the utter alienation from our country that the mainstream left feels. Keep this in mind. Keep it in mind when, for the next 10 months, you read story after story about how the economy is the worst ever, the war is an utter failure and laundry just doesn't get as clean as it used to. Keep in mind that the reigning assumption for some large share of the opinionators and news interpreters is, "America sucks."

In other words, don't believe what you hear in the news. The truth would hurt the conservative cause. Personal responsibility does not apply to conservatives and anyone who says so is just so negative.

But to know what really sucks, Mike Mathias has given us, but a few examples.