The LA Times, and apparently only the LA Times (and at that, only their mobile version) is reporting that Virginia Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, is starting a new conservative political action group, called Liberty Central, Inc.

For your left-wing bias, note how little press this is generating. Odds are, you heard about it only here, first. Even the LA Times story is brief, and incomplete: good luck reading the whole thing.

For your right-wing bias, HuffPo is lauding the serious investigative journalism of the Times for exposing how this is a clear conflict of interest for Justice Thomas, and suggests that the whole point of the recent decision to overturn corporate funding of political groups was conveniently timed to allow a stunt like this.

HuffPo, of course, is wrong on both counts. This poses no conflict of interest for Justice Thomas whatsoever, for we assume that Mrs. Thomas can think for herself, without her husband telling her what to do or say. If he formed a political action committee, odds are this would cloud his thinking. But his wife’s efforts are independent of her spouse. Yes, the Czar would feel the same way if Justice Roberts’s spouse formed a liberal-leaning action committee.

Secondly, the President, Democratic Congress, and most liberal followers fail to realize the enormous favor that the Supreme Court gave them in overturning the funding limitiations. Funding has now become more transparent, and allows their beloved unions to sway a few dozen more elections without the complexities of forming byzantine tax shelters.

There may be a third point on which HuffPo errs: the LA Times piece, such as it was, is a scant summary of the event. Any “investigative journalism” found therein (how secret was it to begin with, when Mrs. Thomas is openly publicizing it?) is purely in the mind of the beholder…a beholder who needs something to oppose?

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.