One of my favorite liberal bloggers, Brendan Nyhan, gets canned because he refused to kiss enough liberal ass in the blogosphere, less than a week after he attacked the use of an urban legend for anti-Bush purposes at Eschaton. Having someone like Nyhan around calling bullshit can be very frustrating, but it's worth it if it forces you to show greater discipline when blogging, and being more attentive to the facts. It's the easiest thing in the world to find something on the internet that proves conclusively whatever preconceived notions you might have are correct. What's hard is double-checking your link to see if it's true. Mau-mauing Nyhan means Atrios and friends never have to challenge their own preconceptions, or take any care in what they post. They can go back to calling other people "wankers" or "liars", and be content in their own version of reality, freed from the constraints of building a reasoned case in support of their ideals. In fact, it's not unlike a certain occupant of the White House.