Bill Donohue

(Crossposted at Cocking a Snook!)

Pick a frame, any frame. What is a public university all about, really? Higher Education? Bwahahahahah.
And which is really the right frame for news like this to be understood and perhaps acted upon?

Status of the case

UCF announced Wednesday that it had dismissed the complaint Cook filed against the Catholic Campus Ministry, which sponsors a weekly service in the Student Union. Cook had alleged personal abuse, hazing and alcohol-policy violations, claiming he was grabbed and that the sacramental wine offered during the service should not have been allowed. School officials didn't find enough evidence to pursue his complaint.

Furbush said the Senate will have a special hearing to consider Cook's impeachment.

Apparently this story is now so major that Tom Foley wants the Republican National Convention all the way up in Minnesota to pay for extra security muscle to protect any Catholic delegates from -- um, not sure what -- but if you're not a public university or cable news watcher and you don't read the PZ Myers' science blog Pharyngula, maybe you haven't been following this news?

Haven't heard the battle cry, "It's a Frackin' Cracker!" yet?

Okay then, here's the basic plot so far, but check out some links too; this story's got literally onion-like layers, and you may find most of them test your powers of belief:

Proving that he is as incapable of parsing a sentence as he is of extending the "civil rights" to anyone other than the 350,000 members of his organization, Bill Donohue referred to Keith Olbermann as a "smear merchant." (Well, at least he didn't call him a "smear merchant of Venice". And in one of those great ironies that provokes in me that great Australian bit of profanity fuck me dead, Donohue agreed with Bill "Loofah-up-your-hoohaw" O'Reilly that Olbermann was a smear merchant. I fucking kid you not.

From dated today, Donohue says:

O’REILLY IS RIGHT:
OLBERMANN IS A “SMEAR MERCHANT”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded to MSNBC talk-show host Keith Olbermann’s comment last night that Donohue made a bigoted statement when he once said, “Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular.” Here is Donohue’s rejoinder:

“Bill O’Reilly was right when he referred to Keith Olbermann as a ‘notorious smear merchant.’ Here’s why.

Okay. Here comes the part where those proverbial apples get equated with matzoh.

“On July 31, 2006, Olbermann interviewed Tom O’Neil, a Hollywood observer, and in the course of discussing Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic rant, O’Neil wondered aloud whether Mel could come back from this incident: ‘I don’t see how Mel rallies from this, especially in Jewish Hollywood.’ A few seconds later, Olbermann said, ‘And let’s clarify so nobody puts you on that list of folks who said things. When you said Jewish Hollywood, you meant the Jewish community in Hollywood, not Jewish Hollywood.’ O’Neil answered affirmatively.

Amanda has announced her resignation from the Edwards' campaign.

Announcement at Pandagon:

I was hired by the Edwards campaign for the skills and talents I bring to the table, and my willingness to work hard for what’s right. Unfortunately, Bill Donohue and his calvacade of right wing shills don’t respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics (I’m anti-theocracy, for those who were keeping track). Bill Donohue—anti-Semite, right wing lackey whose entire job is to create non-controversies in order to derail liberal politics—has been running a scorched earth campaign to get me fired for my personal beliefs and my writings on this blog.

In fact, he’s made no bones about the fact that his intent is to “silence” me, as if he—a perfect stranger—should have a right to curtail my freedom of speech. Why? Because I’m a woman? Because I’m pro-choice? Because I’m not religious? All of the above, it seems.

Regardless, it was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign. No matter what you think about the campaign, I signed on to be a supporter and a tireless employee for them, and if I can’t do the job I was hired to do because Bill Donohue doesn’t have anything better to do with his time than harass me, then I won’t do it. I resigned my position today and they accepted.

May I say this is the most opportune moment for all bloggers, but most important feminist bloggers, to consider the importance of what's next?

I don't see any other way around it but we are now playing big leagues. The stakes are too high to drop the ball and go back to doing what we know best to do : rant at 'the man', pick blogfights, rally around other people's political interests, rinse and repeat.

We have influence.

We obviously have some power.

We need money to use it like a club.

We need a Feminist BlogPAC.

This is the Catholic patriarch that wants to take down the John Edwards campaign with Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan in tow.

Extra treat? The religious right of America