Catholic League: John Edwards must fire his "bloggers" now!

[Bluebear]

Edwards Blogger Strikes Again: They Must Be Fired Now

Contact: Kiera M. McCaffrey, Director of Communications, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, [e-mail]

NEW YORK, Feb. 12 /Catholic Newswire/ -- One of the two women who got John Edwards into hot water by making vulgar anti-Christian comments has struck again. Yesterday, Amanda Marcotte reviewed a movie, "Children of Men," on the blogsite Pandagon.

"The Christian version of the virgin birth is generally interpreted as super-patriarchal," she said, "where god is viewed as so powerful he can impregnate without befouling himself by touching a woman, and women are nothing but vessels."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, commented as follows:

"On February 8, John Edwards addressed the writings of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan saying 'that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor or anything else.' On February 11, Marcotte struck again.

"Anyone who actually believes that the birth of Jesus by the Virgin Mary is 'generally interpreted' as being a sexist exercise obviously lives in an anti-Christian ghetto. The 85 percent of Americans who are Christian do not believe this, and most of the other 15 percent do not either. Only those who think ill of Christianity could write such insulting commentary.

"John Edwards had better fire Marcotte and McEwan immediately. As I said last week on TV, these two foul-mouthed bigots are loose cannons with no particular loyalty to Edwards. I was just proven right."


The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.

http://www.earnedmedia.org/cl0212.htm

[Lex]

1. Bill Donohue, Pres of the Catholic League, apparently thinks

that if enough people believe something, then it's true?

"The 85 percent of Americans who are Christian do not believe this, and most of the other 15 percent do not either."

My response to him is: So?

[rodeodance]

5. he is such a puffy faced puffball.

[Avalux]

8. That guy's an extremist nutcase.

Makes me hate to admit I was ever a Catholic (lapsed now). I don't give a shit what he says and I doubt most mainstream Catholics do either.

[HockeyMom]

9. His attitude,

and people who think like him, are why I left the church, at 16 years old.

Totally obnoxious man.

[maggiegault]

18. 85 Percent of Americans Who Are Christian Don't Believe in Child Molestation, Either

But that didn't keep a priest and a friar at my Catholic school in the Seventies from molesting me.

The Catholic Church is in NO position to sit in judgment on ANYONE.

[Mortos]

23. Donohue doesn't represent Catholics

he represents right wingers. His group, if they are not lying about the number of members, represents 350,000 Catholics out of a population just over 1 billion worldwide including 63 million in the United States alone.

The right wing leader of this tiny little group whose board includes several right wing authors and politicians including D'nesh Disousah who just wrote a piece of crap right wing book calling liberals and democrats traitors, should not be taken seriously (but he has become the defacto go to go in all things anti-Catholic, real or percieved).

Dohohue is not the spokesman for the Catholic church and apparently has no problem going agains the church and the Pope when their belief systems contradict his own (death penalty, war in Iraq).

So he can STFU as far as this ex-Catholic is concerned.

[northofdenali]

27. Any idea if Dohohue is Opus Dei?

He sure sounds like it. THAT is a scary group.

Oh, BTW, Dohohue - go fuck yourself.

[KharmaTrain]

30. So Them Southern Baptists Will Agree With A Catholic??

Or that this asswipe is speaking for Jews or Moslems or Hindis or anyone else who is a member of a faith that believes in god? And of the remaining 15%...I'll bet most of them would need a good delousing after an encounter with Mr. Bunker-Donahue.

This blowhard is going for yet another 15 minutes of fame...justify his bigotted "association" by using faux outrage to get on TV and turn that into money from likeminded bigots. The good thing is the more this excuse for protoplasm opens his pie hole, the more outrageous he gets and makes whomever he attack look sympathetic.

Hopefully the blogosphere and our Democratic candidates will stand tough against this slime attack on Edwards and turn a very critical eye on Mr. Donohue's very offensive statements (being Jewish, he's said plenty I find highly offensive) and associate him with the Repugnican and right wing knuckle draggers for our own political advantage in '08.

[americanstranger]

2. Okay, NOW Edwards should consider firing Marcotte.

Now she's meployed by Edwards, and she really should know better and has no excuse. Her review, and that sentence from it, is bait.

- as

[Lex]

7. Why? Because she said

" . . . the virgin birth is generally interpreted as super-patriarchal." ??

[Clark2008]

15. Yeah - because if she says that, she's pretty damn stupid.

No Catholic believes that the Virgin Birth is super-patriarchal. That's why we hold Mary in such reverence.

He should fire her because she's stupid, imho.

And I'm not defending Donohue - I'm just saying her comment is ridiculous.

[Lex]

17. Her comment is true whether 85% or 95% of Catholics think it's true.

nt

[Clark2008]

37. No - very few think of it that way.

Any woman who has been pregnant knows that she's way more than a "vessel."

Being given the responsibility by God or nature - whichever you choose to follow - or both to be the harbor of life is beautiful, important and awe-inspiring.

I'm pregnant now and I feel like so much more than a recepticle for my husband's sperm.

(That doesn't mean I'm anti-choice, btw. It simply means I'm aware of my responsibilies as a female and one of those can be to give life. It's not, by far, my only responsibility and it's not the choice of everyone).

Most female Christians, particularly Catholics, believe that Mary should be revered because she was both chosen and chose to handle the responsibility of being the mother of the Son of God. We don't consider Mary, in any way, to be merely a "vessel" or whatever clap-trap that woman said.

[americanstranger]

29. No. Because she was put on notice last week.

Here I go, back on to the other side of an issue again. :)

After the whole episode last week, Edwards pretty much put her on notice by saying that this type of thing wouldn't be tolerated by his campaign.

So what does she do? Turns around and say something that she knows is going to get up the nose of the guy who was calling for her head last week.

It's not bad enough that she's poking that oaf donohue with a stick, she's also kinda thumbing her nose at Edwards, too.

I agree with the comment that she seems to be stupid. When your empoyer puts you on notice like Edwards did when he announced she wouldn't be fired last week, you don't turn around and say something else that will bring the entire issue up all over again. IMO.

- as

[Adelante]

12. Is she still working for Edwards?

If I remember correctly, she wasn't going to be blogging at Pandagon once she joined the campaign. Confusing.

[Adelante]

21. I guess she is

She's hawking the Edwards health plan here today.

http://pandagon.net/2007/02/12/edwards-campaign-stuff/

[americanstranger]

33. She should cease writing on Pandagon while working for Edwards.

Now she's a target (and so is Edwards, by extension) all over again.

Not too bright.

-as

[Adelante]

36. Yeah

I'm surprised at this turn of events.

[Quakerfriend]

3. What these bloggers wrote was pathetic BUT, after what the

catholic church has done to ruin Innocent kids lives (Ped priests scandal) is SO, SO much worse. They need to take a bit more action on their own very real problems before squawking about someone else's opinions- and that's all they were.

[maggiegault]

20. I Was Molested By A Catholic Priest and A Friar from 1977 to 1981

In my Catholic school. There was no escape. And when I tried to tell my mother about it, she beat me for telling lies about the priest and the brother.

THAT is how it works in Catholicism. They are in NO position to judge ANYONE.

[Caoimhe]

24. Gosh I'm so sorry that happened to you

Here, have my last heart :pals:

[in_cog_ni_to]

34. Maggie,

I'm so sorry for what you went through. NO CHILD should be subjected to that. I'm so sorry.:hug:

[AndyA]

4. I don't get it. What did she say that was "wrong"?

She's reviewing a movie, for chrissakes!

I think the Catholic League needs to go spend its time in a more constructive manner. Somewhere, I'm sure there's a Father molesting a child... :eyes:

[Lex]

16. Nothing, and besides the virgin birth story *is* super-patriarchal.

Sorry if 85% of Catholics don't think so.

A long time ago 85% probably used to think the Earth was not round either.

[MethuenProgressive]

6. If Edwards has any balls, he'll support them, and not fire them

Big "if"...

[benld74]

10. It was her opinion!

Since when can't people have them? Oh, I forgot its Bush Times.

[americanstranger]

31. She's working for a presidential candidate.

Plenty of bloggers have gone to work for candidates and kept their opinions to themselves while doing so. Even Jesse Taylor, who founded the blog that Marcotte came from, went to work for a candidate and while working for that candidate, kept his 'opinions' to himself.

Marcotte seems to have a tin ear when it comes to working for a political campaign. Maybe she's just not ready for a job like this.

She should - after last week - know much better than this.

-as

[sutz12]

11. So they want her fired for something she wrote on a different site?

Is that right? This wasn't written on Edwards' site, was it?

Anybody know a good real estate agent in that "anti-Christian ghetto?" Sounds like a nice place to live. :)

[Bluebear]

13. "Anti-Christian ghetto" . . .tres dramatique, non? nt

[niyad]

14. did I miss something? I didn't see any foul language there, nor anything that was particularly

insulting, merely an observation.

I, for one, hereby apologize for ever having been catholic (even though I was officially excommunicated!!)

this idiot is proof that some people have wayyyyyyy too much time on their hands.

[niyad]

19. I wasn't aware that edwards needed to take orders from the catholic league of pedophiles and

paranoids.

[Lex]

22. I guess they are experts at what is considered "patriarchal."

How much more clueless can they get?

[madfloridian]

25. Falling for it already.... Donohue threatened to destroy Edwards.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1063

And we are falling for it.

[BurtWorm]

26. Bill Donohue: "I'm pretty good about picking out who queers are and I didn't see any in the movie."

That was Donohue speaking about The Passion of the Christ. Here's another of his gems:

"Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, okay? And I'm not afraid to say it. <...> Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism."

http://www.nndb.com/people/337/000085082/

Who is the foul-mouthed bigot/loose cannon?

[ruggerson]

28. Donohue is one of those rare creatures

whose inside looks remarkably identical to his outside.

[in_cog_ni_to]

32. Donahue wants her fired over a review of a FREAKIN' MOVIE?

That man is deranged. Donahue needs to get a life.

[toddaa]

35. Anti atheist bigotry

She's reviewing a movie from a feminist and atheist standpoint on a blog that has no connection to the Edwards campaign. There's nothing in the review that could even be remotely considered as anti-Catholic bigotry. Sure, you can disagree with her points on the minutiae of theocratic dogma, but by suggesting you want her fired because she has an opinion that is different from yours tells me that the bigot isn't Amanda.

What this is is a concerted effort by the Catholic League to threaten and intimidate atheists from getting involved in the political process.

[Catherine Vincent]

38. This guy still hasn't shut up about the bloggers?

Geeze.