There’s nothing I hate more than bad puns. Actually, I take that back. One thing I hate more than a bad pun is liberal activist groups – the kind that take important social or political issues and turn them into propaganda and spin.

The organization that comes to mind is MoveOn.org – the group that right wing jackasses like Bill O’Reilly blame for any negative press they get, and usually get away with it. Why do they get away with it? Because MoveOn.org does some pretty jackass-y stuff, too. And a couple of jackasses make for more than just a Democratic convention.

MoveOn.org recently ran an ad in The New York Times titled “General Petreaus or General Betray Us?” accusing Petreaus, a U.S. Army general, of fudging the facts about Iraq. And although the ad raises important questions about the war, its tastelessness has the effect of de-legitimizing its cause. Its purpose is self-defeating.

Frank James of the Baltimore Sun had the following to say about the ad: “The problem for MoveOn.org is that the ad will strike many Americans as extreme and likely turn a lot of people off to its larger message.”

I disagree with James in one respect. The aforementioned isn’t the problem “for” MoveOn.org – it’s the problem with MoveOn.org.

I take issue with liberal activists and all other nut jobs on the left, especially, because I’m a pretty left-leaning individual. So there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing issues I care about – the war in Iraq, health care reform, protections of civil liberties, gay and minority rights – muddled up by a bunch of tactless firebrands. Right-wing zealots amuse me; left-wing zealots leave me red-faced and cringing.

And of course, those are your two options these days: the red team or the blue team. The late Kurt Vonnegut left us with some wisdom on the matter. In his last book, “A Man Without a Country,” he wrote, “Even crazier