My Hometown
Looks like my ol' hometown newspaper, the Strib (that would be the Minneapolis Star/Tribune) is under attack by right-sided wingnuts, largely due to their perseverance in writing editorials that call into question the practices of the BushCo administration. Here's the low down from Liberal Oasis and Digby (posted from Digby's Hullabaloo site)

Last week, the Strib not only ran an editorial defending Dick Durbin when Durbin lacked the courage to defend himself, it also ran a lengthy excerpt of Durbin’s speech so readers could examine his words in context and make up their own minds. Since then, the right-wing Hugh Hewitt has launched a campaign encourage people to cancel their subscriptions to the Strib, in hopes of pressuring the paper to end its defense of real American values. And Hewitt’s allies at the blog Powerline are trying to keep up the pressure by directly attacking the top editor. The Strib is one of the very few unabashed big city liberal papers in the country. The idea of Unctuous High and the Highpockets boys intimidating them is somewhat laughable, but everybody has to answer to the man on some level. This is a paper worth supporting --- particularly since the geek squad are after them. Update: A couple of commenters tell me that cancelled subscriptions are unnerving the publisher and that some advertisers are suing because of what they say are false circulation numbers. I suspect that this last is thuggery on the part of the wingnut cabal that is coordinating this effort to get the editorial page director fired for his political beliefs. I would suggest that people start looking around for some "advertisers" to sue all the conservative papers that inflate their advertising numbers. I'd start with the Washington Times. This is a very ugly genie that rightwingers should probably not want to let out of the bottle.

Here's some of that commie/pinko high-falootin' lib'rul hate speech from today's Strib editorial--read it, then ask yourself why these people hate America so much:

On Independence Day the flag represents all of this and more as it flies at home and in public places. It is the most powerful symbol of the liberties Americans cherish. Because of this, it is a symbol that conveys multiple messages. On Independence Day, it broadly conveys love of country. By individual citizens it also will be flown, carried or otherwise displayed to convey more specific, varying messages: to support U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and elsewhere in the world, to support President Bush in his anti-terror efforts, to support the war in Iraq. Such is the power of symbols. They convey messages both broad and specific. That is why the Supreme Court in 1989 recognized Americans' use of the flag as a form of expression -- indeed of speech protected under the U.S. Constitution. Every few years an attempt is made to amend the Constitution to specifically limit uses of the flag for political expression. Last month the House of Representatives approved a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban physical desecration of the U.S. flag. It is meant as a sign of respect for the flag. Yet the Senate should defeat the proposal, as it has in the past, using the same common-sense logic it has employed before. That logic is straightforward: Amending the Constitution to allow the outlawing of flag desecration is, plain and simple, limiting liberty. It is limiting one of the most precious liberties that Americans celebrate on Independence Day -- the freedom to express political opinions. Few would disagree that flag desecration, no matter how one defines desecration, is an act of political expression. The fact that it is offensive makes it no less so. In fact, citizens don't need constitutional protection for inoffensive speech. As former Secretary of State Colin Powell once put it, "The First Amendment exists to insure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous." Today, as Americans ponder liberty and all the individual freedoms we cherish, let us celebrate them, embrace them -- and keep them intact.