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Amanda Marcotte, blogger of Pandagon, has resigned from her position at the John Edwards campaign, after the campaign had chosen to retain her despite attacks from William Donohue and the Catholic League over her past "anti-Catholic" views as expressed on the blog.
A mainstream news account is here.
I was a little upset, and disappointed in Ms. Marcotte, when I heard the news, as I felt this was just going to give the lunatic Donohue something to cry over as a "victory." And it will. I valued standing up to a psychotic, jumped-up, bigoted, fringe-element leader like Donohue (who very VERY definitely, by any statistical/polling data there is, DOES NOT represent the views of most Catholics in the USA) much more than I cared about any damage to the Edwards campaign - I'm not exactly fond of Edwards, or any of the potential Democratic nominees for that matter (except maybe Bill Richardson, but he has his own personal problems); I'm registered Independent, and will probably wind up pulling the lever in 2008 for whatever Democratic nominee is also registered under the Working Families party in New York.
But it's apparent that Ms. Marcotte's presence paralyzes not only the campaign but the blog as well -- Pandagon has been hit with so much hate mail from "Christians" the site has shut down, and if you follow that link to the site, you'll very likely get a temp page hosted elsewhere explaining the shut down and providing a lovely set of examples of the fine Christian sentiments they've been receiving (if you can bear hate speech, enjoy yourself, for the rest of you, in summary the messages are generally along the lines of, as Ms. Marcotte puts it accurately: "You have a pottymouth, you stupid cunt!"). I can't be upset or disappointed in Ms. Marcotte not wanting to spend one moment more of her life on the receiving end of the spittle of morons at both the campaign and the blog -- I'm sure she can take the attack, but it is a massive waste of time and effort to have to constantly wipe the spit off.
I don't necessarily agree with everything Ms. Marcotte says or has said at Pandagon, though I've been an occasional to regular reader for some time, but that's really beside the point here - this is the beginnings of an organized effort from the Right to separate the Left (or more precisely maybe, vaguely-more-left-leaning Democrats) from the netroots support that has been becoming more and more effective in organizing and getting out information on its behalf. In the case of the Catholic League, there are also not-so-subtle sexist overtones in Donohue's attack - he has been referring unpleasantly to the need to "silence these women" (the other woman being Melissa McEwen, of Shakespeare's Sister, who continues to work for Edwards). Marcotte is pro-choice, pro-sex education, pro-birth control, and anti-patriarchy, and she's not polite about it (nor do I feel does she have any reason to be) -- one can see how this viewpoint winds up conflicting with Catholicism. Donahue's attack is slimy, uses a great deal of misinformation or misleading information, and in its bigotry, is un-American.
It is also, it appears, a violation of federal tax law. Which is where things could get . . . interesting for Mr. Donohue. With some help.
The Catholic League, Donohue's organization, which funds and supports these attacks, is a 501(c)3 corporation. While 501(c)3 organizations "may take positions on public policy issues, including issues that divide candidates in an election for public office" (IRS FS-2006-17), they MAY NOT indulge in "issue advocacy that functions as political campaign intervention." Think this counts?
Here is IRS Form 3949 A, Information Referral, with instructions on how to fill it out and where to mail it.
Damn. Between the time I wrote all this and when I went back to proofread and check all the links, the following link (which used to lead to a template for filling out the above form, with all pertinent information) has been disabled, and seems to not be cached in any search engine, which makes this all a bunch more difficult. Well, all the info you need is out there, or enough in this post to lead you to where to go. I'll leave the next paragraph (and link) up in case the original page comes back sometime soon. The IRS Fact Sheet listed above can be found HERE; the actual section of the tax code violated is HERE. The Catholic League's address, needed for the form, is 450 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10123.
[Here is AN EXAMPLE, courtesy of Auguste at Pandagon, of what information could be filled out on an IRS Form 3949 A before one dropped it in the mail. I won't be getting to the post office today, but tomorrow, I'm there with my version of this.]
Civics can be FUN sometimes, folks! Doesn't it do your heart some good to try and use the IRS for good?
A mainstream news account is here.
I was a little upset, and disappointed in Ms. Marcotte, when I heard the news, as I felt this was just going to give the lunatic Donohue something to cry over as a "victory." And it will. I valued standing up to a psychotic, jumped-up, bigoted, fringe-element leader like Donohue (who very VERY definitely, by any statistical/polling data there is, DOES NOT represent the views of most Catholics in the USA) much more than I cared about any damage to the Edwards campaign - I'm not exactly fond of Edwards, or any of the potential Democratic nominees for that matter (except maybe Bill Richardson, but he has his own personal problems); I'm registered Independent, and will probably wind up pulling the lever in 2008 for whatever Democratic nominee is also registered under the Working Families party in New York.
But it's apparent that Ms. Marcotte's presence paralyzes not only the campaign but the blog as well -- Pandagon has been hit with so much hate mail from "Christians" the site has shut down, and if you follow that link to the site, you'll very likely get a temp page hosted elsewhere explaining the shut down and providing a lovely set of examples of the fine Christian sentiments they've been receiving (if you can bear hate speech, enjoy yourself, for the rest of you, in summary the messages are generally along the lines of, as Ms. Marcotte puts it accurately: "You have a pottymouth, you stupid cunt!"). I can't be upset or disappointed in Ms. Marcotte not wanting to spend one moment more of her life on the receiving end of the spittle of morons at both the campaign and the blog -- I'm sure she can take the attack, but it is a massive waste of time and effort to have to constantly wipe the spit off.
I don't necessarily agree with everything Ms. Marcotte says or has said at Pandagon, though I've been an occasional to regular reader for some time, but that's really beside the point here - this is the beginnings of an organized effort from the Right to separate the Left (or more precisely maybe, vaguely-more-left-leaning Democrats) from the netroots support that has been becoming more and more effective in organizing and getting out information on its behalf. In the case of the Catholic League, there are also not-so-subtle sexist overtones in Donohue's attack - he has been referring unpleasantly to the need to "silence these women" (the other woman being Melissa McEwen, of Shakespeare's Sister, who continues to work for Edwards). Marcotte is pro-choice, pro-sex education, pro-birth control, and anti-patriarchy, and she's not polite about it (nor do I feel does she have any reason to be) -- one can see how this viewpoint winds up conflicting with Catholicism. Donahue's attack is slimy, uses a great deal of misinformation or misleading information, and in its bigotry, is un-American.
It is also, it appears, a violation of federal tax law. Which is where things could get . . . interesting for Mr. Donohue. With some help.
The Catholic League, Donohue's organization, which funds and supports these attacks, is a 501(c)3 corporation. While 501(c)3 organizations "may take positions on public policy issues, including issues that divide candidates in an election for public office" (IRS FS-2006-17), they MAY NOT indulge in "issue advocacy that functions as political campaign intervention." Think this counts?
Here is IRS Form 3949 A, Information Referral, with instructions on how to fill it out and where to mail it.
Damn. Between the time I wrote all this and when I went back to proofread and check all the links, the following link (which used to lead to a template for filling out the above form, with all pertinent information) has been disabled, and seems to not be cached in any search engine, which makes this all a bunch more difficult. Well, all the info you need is out there, or enough in this post to lead you to where to go. I'll leave the next paragraph (and link) up in case the original page comes back sometime soon. The IRS Fact Sheet listed above can be found HERE; the actual section of the tax code violated is HERE. The Catholic League's address, needed for the form, is 450 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10123.
[Here is AN EXAMPLE, courtesy of Auguste at Pandagon, of what information could be filled out on an IRS Form 3949 A before one dropped it in the mail. I won't be getting to the post office today, but tomorrow, I'm there with my version of this.]
Civics can be FUN sometimes, folks! Doesn't it do your heart some good to try and use the IRS for good?
