For those of you who aren’t ROFTERS (Readers of First Things) already then you should be. It is a fantastic monthly magazine of conservative thought largely on religious issues and where those intersect with politics. There is a particularly interesting article in this month’s addition, which you can read online here.

The “New Fusionism” as laid out by Joseph Bottum, the editor of First Things (whose abbreviation FT always makes me think of the salmon colored paper the Financial Times, but I digress…) lays out an argument that what is now holding the centre-right coalition together is not a hatred of islamic extremism (witness the paleocons) but rather the love for Western Society and tradition, as particularly expressed through the pro-life and anti-terrorist wings of the movement. I think Mr. Bottum places a little too much pressure on the cohesiveness of this alliance, but our own Gary Livacari is probably the epitome of this new conservative movement. Gary is an avowed neo-con and a solid pro-lifer. While I am both for tracking down and knocking off every terrorist we can find, and very against the killing of babies, I probably fall in the slightly different traditionalist camp that while supportive of the war in Iraq is concerned about our ability to create democratic socities abroad. But again I digress… Anyway the article is well worth a read in laying out the new geography of the post-communist, post-9/11 conservative movement.

UPDATE: From the comment thread a new term worth mulling over Christofascist. Well I am glad that the 80% of Americans that self-identify as Christians will be happy to know they joined up with the fascist cause. Wow…

In one of the classic cases of why Howard Dean and the Kossacks have been a disaster at running the DNC check out this new gem that compares pretty much any center-right person with… The Taliban.

Last night I wrote “How the Islamic crazies are like the Right” to hammer home how fundamentalist Islam has more in common with the radical religious right, the American Taliban, than it does with the American Left.

This is a key point– it was easier for the Right to tie the American Left with our previous boogeyman, the communists, since we technically were nearer to the extreme left than where conservatives.

But today, things look quite different. I started the ball rolling on similarities on that previous post. Here are more similarities, as submitted by readers:

He then goes on listing different “issues” where crazy Islamists meet up with conservatives, such as gay marriage. (Glad to know daily Kos just compared a vast majority of Americans to the Taliban)

You should just check out how ridiculous this is for yourself. It is beyond belief that they can really compare anyone to the Taliban who slaughtered thousands of innocents and perpetrated a reign of terror on their own people. As logn as they keep up this idiocy they are destined to be the minority party. Even liberal americans will find this to be insane.

(I am sorry for the lack of posts recently, I have been on vacation to visit my cousin in Thailand.)

For some reason the Left seems to have forgotten that this story was long ago shot down and seems to think that the recent grand jury investigations have something to do with treason, allow me to burst your bubble.

From the Washington Post, dated Jan. 12th 2005: The Plame Game: Was This a Crime?

It’s time for a timeout on a misguided and mechanical investigation in which there is serious doubt that a crime was even committed. Federal courts have stated that a reporter should not be subpoenaed when the testimony sought is remote from criminal conduct or when there is no compelling “government interest,” i.e., no crime. As two people who drafted and negotiated the scope of the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act, we can tell you: The Novak column and the surrounding facts do not support evidence of criminal conduct.

So the two people who wrote the law don’t think a crime was committed. But it gets better.

When the act was passed, Congress had no intention of prosecuting a reporter who wanted to expose wrongdoing and, in the process, once or twice published the name of a covert agent. Novak is safe from indictment. But Congress also did not intend for government employees to be vulnerable to prosecution for an unintentional or careless spilling of the beans about an undercover identity. A dauntingly high standard was therefore required for the prosecutor to charge the leaker.

This also shows that Rove isn’t even remotely in danger of being charged. The best is yet to come though.

At the threshold, the agent must truly be covert. Her status as undercover must be classified, and she must have been assigned to duty outside the United States currently or in the past five years. This requirement does not mean jetting to Berlin or Taipei for a week’s work. It means permanent assignment in a foreign country. Since Plame had been living in Washington for some time when the July 2003 column was published, and was working at a desk job in Langley (a no-no for a person with a need for cover), there is a serious legal question as to whether she qualifies as “covert.”

She worked at a desk at Langley, she wasn’t a covert operative and the only reason she was described as such is because she worked in the generally sensitive field of weapons proliferation. There is much more to the article than I have posted, but I’ll leave you with this last bit.

If it were known on the Washington cocktail circuit, as has been alleged, that Wilson’s wife is with the agency, a possessor of that gossip would have no reason to believe that information is classified — or that “affirmative measures” were being taken to protect her cover.

Case closed.