As part of his growing head-to-head battle with the New York Times, Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch has pushed through a major redesign of the paper. Newsweek, which notes the mogul's personal attention to the changes, reports that, "Along with the refocused front page, Murdoch is effectively relaunching the entire A section as a catchall for general news. As of Monday, the second section, Marketplace, becomes home to the Journal's coverage of corporate America, while the third section, Money and Investing, remains the showcase for news of the financial markets and investing. A culture section is under development for a fall debut in the Journal's weekend edition, and Murdoch has added a weekly sports page. The op-ed section, famous for its erudite and influential espousal of conservative ideology, will grow to three pages from two." And those op-ed changes are pretty interesting:

The paper has added Baffler-founder Thomas Frank as a regular columnist. Frank is also the author of What's the Matter With Kansas, the 2004 polemic supposedly responsible for Barack Obama's recent "bitter" comments. Frank addresses the issue in his first column, calling Obama's remarks "tactless," before offering this advice: "If Barack Obama or anyone else really cares to know what I think, I will simplify it all down to this. The landmark political fact of our time is the replacement of our middle-class republic by a plutocracy. If some candidate has a scheme to reverse this trend, they've got my vote, whether they prefer Courvoisier or beer bongs spiked with cough syrup."

"The Journal has often had a liberal column in the past," says the editorial announcing the appointment, "and Mr. Frank can help our readers understand what's on the mind of the American left as it bids to regain control of the federal government." So there you go, Wall Street Journal readers: the American left is focused on beer bongs and plutocracy. Just like you always thought.