Under attack, Pandagon has been down all day. But you can see here (and re-posted here) what scum of the Earth resides on the political Right in this country. This is a good time to read this again. And please find time to read all ten parts of this series on eliminationism in America. Sensing a long-term, if not permanent loss, the wounded beast of the Right is lashing at everything in sight and they are not shy to use physical force if needed.
Also on the topic, three must-read posts by Liza Sabater: Hell hath no fury like a feminist scorned, Aldon Hynes: In praise of Icarus, and Kagro X on DailyKos: Getting separated from the herd.
Two important and thoughtful posts by Chris Bowers on MyDD: Politics and the Inhuman and Why Attacks Against Bloggers Fail
Interesting discussion in the comments on this post on DailyKos: Has anyone seen Pandagon?, on Ezra's blog: Competence Matters and on Pharyngula: Edwards for President!. In all three cases, the comments are much more informative than the original posts.
Dave MB: Amanda Marcotte's Departure.
And if you haven't already done so, you can read my takes on the initial response by the Edwards campaign - On Edwards, Bloggers, and Religion, and on Amanda's resignation - Amanda now free to expose the Donohue creature
Also today, Shakespeare's Sister posted her Announcement:
I regret to say that I have also resigned from the Edwards campaign. In spite of what was widely reported, I was not hired as a blogger, but a part-time technical advisor, which is the role I am vacating.
I would like to make very clear that the campaign did not push me out, nor was my resignation the back-end of some arrangement made last week. This was a decision I made, with the campaign's reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was inevitably making me a liability to the campaign, and making me increasingly uncomfortable with my and my family's level of exposure.
I understand that there will be progressive bloggers who feel I am making the wrong decision, and I offer my sincerest apologies to them. One of the hardest parts of this decision was feeling as though I'm letting down my peers, who have been so supportive.
There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O'Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation.
This is a win for no one.
[bold mine]
First reactions are by Benny on MyDD: Shakes Decides to Be Shakes and Sinister Rae on DailyKos: Shakespeare's Sister Resigns From Edwards Campaign.
Also:
Majikthise: Blogger Marcotte resigns from the Edwards campaign and Edwards' netroots coordinator Melissa McEwan resigns
Donna Bogatin: John Edwards: Be my MySpace pal!
Matt Browner Hamlin: More Potential Catholic League IRS Problems
Ed Cone: Talking about religion
This guy will run for Congress next time here in NC - Marshall Adame: Why America needs John Edwards as our next President
Phoenix Woman: Sow The Wind, Reap The Whirlwind
- Log in to post comments
As someone who gets, on average, a death threat a week via email (thus, anonymity) I abhor the messages that shakes and Amanda are receiving.
Sorry to hear your fan club is smaller but no nicer than Amanda's, DT.
Who is encouraging these harmful sentiments? Did we just start letting in people who have no self restraint and no clue of the differences between reaction, threat and persuasion? Or were they always here and something is enabling them or even protecting them from the usual consequences that come to people who threaten harm? [AFAIK, its not really legal or free speech to threaten anyone with violence, whatever the claimed or assumed motive. ]
In Amanda's case, for years she tilts against the bigotry as she sees it, and the bigots confirm her perception by the way they write back. Installing her in any role with the implied approval of a presidential campaign's staff memeber would get really get their goat I suppose. The comment traffic on her blog needs a little explaining. I can at least surmise why hundreds of christians who express violent ill wishes while mere dozens of Christians weigh in denouncing the hate while still pointing out their disagreements [and sometimes agreement]with Amanda: its a self selecting sample not representative of Christianity's demographics but just the christianity of her readership. Maybe "good" Christians just don't read there. Jude's complete silence on this whole business is a really interesting example of the self selection...a kind of "if you can't say something nice, don't..." at work perhaps. That silence is how tolerant people deal with what they see as willful and hopeless wrongheadedness, just step around it if you can. That would be a good Christian thing to do. An in Iddybud's case it would have been tempting to say something I am sure because she has been in Edwards Bloggers bunch from way back. She once compiled a list of Women Bloggers that simply omitted Amanda. That is effective and respectable opposition to what Jude may consider unacceptable viewpoint and it offends no standards I know of.
But something is wrong with the picture: most of the hate mail and threats seen in comments [since excised or lost, I suspect..when P'gon went down yesterday around noon there were nearly 500 comments to the post and this morning it was back up with around 250 when I checked] did not appear to be from regular readers...and she DOES have some very frequent commenters from across the political spectrum but not that many politically conservative [you probably noted that]. So maybe this traffic is Donahue's goon squad and not people who have read much of what they are ready to kill over.
What is seriously wrong with the picture is that any thinking person would threaten death and rape in the name of protecting their faith in the prince of peace...its insanely self-contradicting. But, there it all is on the record. Right alongside Amanda's record. Bussed in mob of christian hit men vs blunt feminist writer extremely sensitive to bullshit but not, to my knowledge, advocating nor offering to perform any violent acts [we may have to disagree about about abortion as violence...another time]. What effect would you expect this situation to have on my regard for religion? Will the real Christianity please stand up and say something?
Oh, those are definitely hit-and-run visitors from such oases of niceness and pretty language like MIchelle Malkin's blog, etc. Pandagon always had its small share of conservative commenters (and not all of them trolls by all means), but this is obviously a wave of imported goons.
And it is liberal Christians who need to step up. Obviously, my word is meaningless to the Rightwing machine, but theirs carries some weight.
Sorry for the delay. Most of my death threats are from feminists, actually.