A Serious 'Julia' Tirade On The Way

I've been seeing more and more of this lately, but what I read this morning has just sent me completely over the edge. In an attempt to somehow discredit a group of bloggers, a radio host for KTLK blasted the website Dump Michele Bachmann, which is primarily geared toward the hopeful defeat of the republican congresswoman. In his little rampage, Jason Lewis targeted Eric Black of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and labeled him a 'tool' of the DMB organization.

Normally, I wouldn't be surprised or upset about the remarks of a conservative, but take a look at what he had to say...

It's a website run by a bunch of angry lesbians and radical pacifists...A
radical, lesbian, militant organization...pathetic left wing scribes...a
conglomeration of radical, marxist leftist and gays and radical gays and
lesbians."

This is just a snippet of what was said, but the level of fear mongering in his language combined with the increase in this sort of...hell, I'm gonna call it what it is...hate speech has started to get out of hand. Just in this brief excerpt, homosexuals are, again, painted as a group to fear...a bunch of lunatics who will inevitably be responsible for the downfall of democracy as we know it. Once again, and like many of his conservative colleagues, Lewis shows his ignorance by opening his mouth without bothering to research the target of his verbal barrage first. Eva, of DMB, sets the record straight in a response to Lewis:

There is one other lesbian contributor (Lavenderblue) besides me. Otherwise
the demographics are a number of straight men, and some gay men. 3 of the four
gay people who write for Dump Bachmann are Republican or independent (and the
Independents had been Republican in the recent past, but left the party because
it had become the party of Bachmannistas).
...Jason (and Bachmann) know very
well I've been active with Log Cabin Republicans. In fact, Lewis had me on his
show as a guest in that role.

Fox News should really take notes on the demographics here, but I digress.

It's one thing to openly disagree with what someone says or believes...that sort of dialogue is, honestly, the most important element of free speech. It becomes a different thing entirely, however, when your disagreement is replaced with with empty name-calling and fear mongering. I will come up with or borrow some disparaging names for some of the conservatives I write about, but I won't open my mouth unless I can back up what I write.

More and more conservatives have adopted this tactic lately, and I'm angered to no end by it. So, here's my two cents...

Conservatives: Disagree with us all you want. Engage us in
intelligent debate...please! But stop this pattern of pointing out what
you think is wrong, picking a group or an individual to blame for it and telling
your fellow Americans to be afraid of it (them). It's sophomoric and
despicable. If you can't back up what you're alleging...please do us all a
favor and shut the fuck up!