I've just begun reading another master work by Chris Hedges called "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. He was on Thom Hartmann's radio show last week talking about the so-called "Christian right". He called them Christofascists and heretics. We must remember this when speaking of these people. They are not Christians. They are hate mongers and war mongers. Because our government is completely controled by corporatists now, it makes a perfect incubator for the breeding of these "larval fascists".

The Bush administration has continued to feed these growing larvae. Permanent war feeds the "cult of masculinity". War is for men. A weapon makes you viral. Attacking women is seen as just.

But the really big question is why the main stream media aids and abetts this movement. And why did they start with John Edwards?

John Edwards and anyone who joins with him will be smeared over and above any of the other Democratic candidates. In David Korten's book "The Great Turning" he states that "No ruling class in 5000 years has delivered on a promise to eliminate poverty or slavery and its equivalents, because to do so would mean the elimination of elite privilege."

John Edwards speaks of the Two Americas and ending poverty in 30 years.

A system based on dominance demands violence to keep a class division. And this "authoritarianism" as John Dean calls it or the "dominator power of Empire" as Korten calls it must fight violently back at a campaign that is committing the worst sin of all; The sin of nonconformity. The elite fear the rise of people power in all its wild and glorious embrace of the "maybe" and the "possible". This is a campaign of the possible which is the opposite of despair. The elite need despair and its cousin, rage. They fear that the people are finally pushing back.

Our only hope is to link arms like the brothers and sisters did in the Civil Rights marches. Link arms, not bear arms.

- you mean a bunch of emotionally crippled sky-god worshipping freaks were upset when somebody didn't go along with their sky-god crap? Shocked! Shocked, I am!

I fear that the mistake that these two bloggers made was to give up. FIght the fight (or ignore it, as you would a yapping dog or non-existant god). If you were a liability to the Edwards campaign, it is their job to boot you. Or so it seems to me.

Further, I agree with Ms. Marcotte that this will only embolden the right wing noise machine and allow them to recruite new and eager e-soldiers to fight the only battle they can win- the smear campaign.

And yet more. The smear campaign must be destroyed before it destroys us. Since the 80s, whenever I hear anybody talking about entering politics, almost everyone says "Not just no, but HELL no. I wouldn't do that to my family."

The smear campaign has become so common and so expected that nobody even seems to notice it anymore, much less notice that it's driving out all the normal people and filling our leadership pool to the sociopaths (who don't give a damn about their families anyway) and the absolute freaks with something to prove (G. W. Bush).

We have long recognized that political comments generate replies, and the more prominent the commentator, the greater volume and vitriol of the response. Candidates have it worse, of course, which is one reason why I'll never be one; but think of the scars we try to carve on Rush Limbaugh. He can't afford to show soft feelings.

These are organized, funded, and vicious battles. Enter, quite literally, at your own risk, as well as that of your cause and your loved ones. Have your history in order--or well and truly buried--and don't expect to be treated as a non-combatant if you're in there fighting. If you think the opposition is a bunch of scaly bastards who are really out for money and power, then imagine how hard they will fight you for opposing them.

"Uh, care to point out where I made any threats of violence, rape or death? "

You ask this after it's been quoted on her site and here. Congrats Todd - you win the "Biggest Twit in the Room" award.

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I will be the second person on this thread to ask what Amanda posted that was bigotted. The hot sticky commet is clearly a criticism of stupid Church policies and their out right lying. The silence on this matter is telling.

And if the opinion of one blogger so threatens your tender and fragile faith - DON'T READ IT.

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"you mean a bunch of emotionally crippled sky-god worshipping freaks were upset when somebody didn't go along with their sky-god crap? Shocked! Shocked, I am!"

And then spouted a bunch of lies, and threats of rape and violence to show us how filled with xian love they are. Also shocking!

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Be safe, Amanda and Melissa. There are none so quick to rape/beat/kill as religious whackos.

oh this next election is going to be hilarious! The information revolution is in full swing.

Ms. Marcotte's joke is offensive not just to Roman Catholics but to every Christian--and probably, I'm guessing, to Muslims, too, since they also believe in the virginal conception of Jesus. Unless Ms. Marcotte is a very dense person indeed, there is no way she could have imagined any other reaction to the joke. The idea that it wasn't meant to mock anyone's personal faith is utterly absurd. It manages to demean not just one, but two of the most sacred realities in Chrsitianity--the Holy Spirit and the Virginal Conception. What if Ms. Marcotte had said something similarly offensive about homosexuals, or about African-Americans? The result would have been the same. Had the Edwards campaign not thrown her over, they would have been utterly, completely doomed. This is America, and her right to blog away is not in question--but the First Amendment does not entitle one to a job with the Edwards campaign, nor does it make one exempt from criticism. Expecting a major political campaign to tolerate foul blasphemy is ridiculous. Unless Democratic political voices can tame their vocabularies and hatred of religion, they will make it very hard for their party to consolidate the gains of the last election.