Rethuglicans - Republican Mafia

From time to time we have Republican propogandists come by and regurgitate warmed over (not even fresh!) Republican talking points. When the complete falsehood of their claims is pointed out, they almost never respond, simply waiting around for another chance to regurgitate the pre-digested pap Rush Limbaugh or Bill "bomb America" O'Rielly have fed to them.

Our main pet regurgitator has been "MrMe," and his latest is here. Interestingly in that latest rant he seems to be claiming some kind of censorship around here even though we have been approving his comments for months and months despite their complete lack of substance. And, ironically, if he simply signed up he wouldn't need our approval to post, but that task seems to have evaded his abilities. So, instead, if we don't approve his comments fast enough, he claims censorship.

But that point aside, the simple fact is he is typical of a whole group of apologists for the right wing extremists and very little of what he says has a grain of truth. It isn't even traditional Republican conservativism he supports because traditional Republican conservativism didn't include the idea of giving the Federal government the power to push aside all states rights, Constitutional rights and checks and balances on the President to allow the President to run the nation like a dictator. But the current worshippers of the Bush Idol are more than willing to see unprecedented power concentrated in the hands of Bush.

Still basking in the glow of victory in New York City, a victory that was earned by the feminist-loving, GLBT-positive, new labor rising grassroots of New York state, I was going to hop into an article about John Edwards political courage. Instead I woke up to this :

Edwards’s Bloggers Cross the Line, Critic Says - New York Times:

The Catholic League, a conservative religious group, is demanding that Mr. Edwards dismiss the two, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog site and Melissa McEwan, who writes on her blog, Shakespeare’s Sister, for expressing anti-Catholic opinions.

Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is among the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement on Tuesday, “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots.”

Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

The Washington Post has the AP arcile that is the obvious "fair and balanced" source the Grey Lady does not acknowledge using for their article.

John Edwards is not new to the dirty tactics of the extreme Republican right in this country. He had a front-row seat to the Swiftboat Veteran's smear campaign of John Kerry, a campaign so out-of-control that it has become a verb and part of the political lexicon of this country.

What is galling about this particular campaign is that it is being done by bashing two of the most courageouly outspoken feminist bloggers in this country : Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister.

And make no mistake about it : this controversy has nothing to do with my blog sisters. No. This controversy is being created by extremist religious hypocrites like Bill Donohue of the Catholic League because John Edwards scares them with his political courage.

The Donohues of the extreme right go out of their way to push views on choice and homosexuality that are completely against the mainstream views of their base. They do so because it has been effective in the past to scare politicians into wearing their political leashes.

John Edwards hiring of Marcotte and McEwan sends them a strong message of how he will not wear that leash for the sake of political power.

Especially when it so goes against the mainstream.