The so-claimed party of “free speech” is taking one of their own, Howling Latina, off of blog rolls faster than you can say “Hillary Clinton.”
Typical liberal reaction from the folks at Cobalt 6 and Richmond Democrat — if you don’t like the message…silence the messenger.
If they think talking on cell phones is bad, they seek to ban them.
If they can’t get traction in talk radio, they want a “fairness doctrine.”
If they don’t want to debate the merits of a bill, they shutdown Congress.
If they don’t like what a fellow blogger is saying, they kick ‘em to the curb.
Party of free speech, eh? Maybe for the ACLU, but not for you and me. And apparently not any more for HL.
Update: It appears that Vivian Paige agrees with me (although I do take exception to her assessment of Republicans).
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. 
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There’s also freedom of association, which is what is going on here.
Hillary supporter HL continues to attack Obama long after he’s become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Even Ben at NLS has seen the writing on the wall and hoisted the Obama colors. I doubt Republican blogs would be silent about a Republican blog that habitually attacked McCain.
As for HL, I occassionally read it, but few ever comment there. Therefore, I think it’s much ado about next to nothing.
I agree with Henry about the freedom of association. If i had a blog though, even attacks might not be an issue – but there are limits. You may very well link to a site whose host is a Huckabee supporting Republican. But do you think the conservative blogosphere would continue to link to a site that featured a cartoon of McCain whacking off to an Iraq casualty report – just because the host was a “republican”? Isn’t that free speech?
And by “party”, you mean some individuals online, right? As I noted over at Vivian’s place, I think it’s pretty lame of Lefty Blogs to do it (even if HL’s site looks like it could have been lifted straight from the Free Republic site).
But if you want to talk about actual party efforts at purity, I think you might have an easier target closer to home
Henry Ryto:
I haven’t noticed any VA blogs go after McCain because even though “W” wasn’t my first choice way back in 99′, I got behind him because Al Gore was just way to Liberal to be packing the Supreme Court with people who wouldn’t have voted 5-4 on Keller…. period.
Republicans for the most part are more reasonable people, and go for candidates that still promote our Bill of Rights and Constitution… It’s Democrats like Howling Latina that want to tear apart our Bill of Rights by installing Hugo Chavez (if they could) as el Presidente for life in the United States…
These Liberals would swear it’s an improvement, because Conservative voices would get stifled, private property turned over to the government,etc. all for the benefit of the people?
These people are truly Revolutionaries… and not for the promotion of individual rights and liberties…
I think you have confused freedom of speech with freedom of association.
Mimi is free to continue writing anything she wants. If some of us choose not to associate with her, that is our choice.
Mimi has the right to say anything she likes, but we are in no way obligated to facilitate her bad behavior.
No one has “censored” anyone.
J.C.,
Thanks for the comments. I never used the word “censor”. If you want to make a better comparison, it’s “kicked her to the curb”, “pushed out of the tent”, or “booted off the reservation.”
Jim,
I understand where you’re coming from but Lefty Blogs shouldn’t be forced to carry anyone’s blog that doesn’t fit their own description.
Besides, at the end of the day, there is something to be said about just common decency. I think she stepped over that line with this:
http://howlinglatina.blogspot.com/2008/08/precious-one.html
A cartoon of Obama masturbating to a mirror.
It’s disgusting and shouldn’t be tolerated. She can do whatever she wants with her own blog. No one is stopping her. However Lefty Blogs (and other bloggers) link to other blogs that are well written, have good content or they may just agree with. It’s not anyone’s place to tell someone else who they can or should link to on their own blog.
Sean,
Agree whole-heartedly.
Welcome, all, to the right’s position.
Let’s all remember this when a private citizen or organization wants to do something on their dime on their property.
Thank you.
“Let’s all remember this when a private citizen or organization wants to do something on their dime on their property.”
Why the hell is that so hard to understand?
Spank -
You obviously haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on over the past 7 years if you believe that the current crop of authoritarian Republicans haven’t done serious damage to the Bill of Rights and our individual freedoms as Anericans. Wake up, and turn off the Rush/ Hannity. It’s rotting your mind.