Posted 8:49 PM by Floyd

One of the pleasures of life is serendipity -- discovering something by accident, often on the way to an entirely different destination. Serendipity occurs in blogging. When I blog I often do research on the web, and when doing so often find something completely unexpected.

Yesterday I wrote a nasty letter to the Mercury News about Michael Moore. The Merc article reported that Moore had footage of Charlton Heston saying that "mixed ethnicity" was a factor behind America's high murder rate.

I wanted to find out more about what Heston said, so I Googled "Michael Moore" "Charlton Heston". One of the results was at a site called bushwatch.com. (Note that watching an entertainer connotes approval and interest, but watching a political figure implies that he will do something wrong or stupid.) I could tell from the Google snapshot that the page contained anti-Moore statements. "That's weird," I said to myself, "why would a site called BushWatch criticize Michael Moore?"

Here are possible explanations. Place your bets before reading further.

• Bush Watch criticizes Bush from the right.
  
• Bush Watch is left-wing, but criticized Moore because they found his beliefs or person offensibe.
  
• Bush Watch is left-wing, and criticized Moore for petty and vindictive reasons.
  
• Ruff with the king of spades. Cash the queen of spades; if the jack or ten appears on your right, play a spade to the nine. (Oops, that's part of my bridge blog.)
  

The answer is that Bush Watch is a pro-Democrat site of the same tenor and general brilliance as democrats.com. (One headlined article was "Bush's Karen Hughes Leads Nasty, Desperate Republican Campaigns In Texas"; further down we see "Bush And Hitler? We Report, You Decide." If comparing Bush to Hitler is fair game, I want to see what's nasty and desperate!) Bush Watch is violently anti-Green, because they think that the Greens cost Gore the 2000 election, and are drawing off Democrat votes in the 2002 congressional races. (Here is another headline: "A Nov. 5th Call To Arms. Why Greens Should Vote Dem.")

Bush Watch printed excerpts from a New York Times review critical of Bowling for Columbine; then tacked on a nasty attack on Moore's pro-Green activities. (Moore was pilloried for promoting this pledge: "I pledge to never vote again for any Democratic candidate for public office who has voted in favor of George Bush's war in Iraq.")

Panning Moore attracted nasty comments. Here is my favorite:

I have been reading your web site daily for the past year and a half - I thought I could find one Web site to get honest news information. You are now attacking Michael Moore -- which is wrong. I am now second guessing your Web site's agenda. I will now read the BBC and Gardian directly for news that reports the facts. Good-bye.

I plan to use that in the future: "You are now attacking Floyd McWilliams -- which is wrong."