THE MERGER IS COMPLETE: WELCOME TO THE NEW AND IMPROVED COALITION

Welcome to the new and improved Coalition. As many of you already know we have merged with our sister blog, LeftWingRising. The decision to close LWR was not an easy one, but when we realized that we were often duplicating articles, we came to the conclusion that the time had come to bring all our talent and resources under the same umbrella at The Coalition for a Republican Free America.

This of course calls for a series of introductions. Afterall, you might want to know who we are and how we’re all related to one another, and we can assure you that the relationships around here are…well, a tad complicated.

Where do we begin?

In a strange way it begins with Brandon. Or does it begin with Jeff? Or did it begin with Brandon and Jeff and Sam? Or does it begin with Chris and Brandon?

Sighhhhhhh.

Several months ago, one of our team members, Advocate 1, began to correspond with a a bright, young woman named Samantha. After a few months, Advocate 1 introduced Brandon to Politics.com . Through Samantha, Brandon began to correspond with Chris, who invited Brandon to join a blog called The Young Liberals. One of the first things he did upon reactivating Coalition was to bring on Advocate1 and our friends from The Young Liberals, namely Samantha and Chris. Are you still with us? Good! Around the same time Brandon started a blog called Republican-Free America, which he ignored for some time while he concentrated on The Young Liberals. In the meantime, Brandon’s friend, Daniel, began a gay rights blog called Rights Now, which wasn’t exactly going anywhere either. A few months after that Kyle began a blog which he called LeftWingRising, the above-mentioned blog which we are in the process of closing out. During that time our friends and relatives from the area began to join in on the fun, and the end result is the “interesting” crew that you see listed in our contributors’ column.

After awhile it began to dawn on three of the blog founders (Brandon, Kyle, and Daniel) that they might cut back on repetition if they were to pool their resources on COALITION. So, that’s the basic history.

So, now you’re probably asking yourselves, “Who is who?” Well, friends and neighbors, that’s easy. This is basically a political blog run by friends, relatives and step-relatives. Brandon, Kyle, and Brian are half brothers by the same mother, although they do not half a common father. Kyle and Daniel are half brothers, sharing the same natural father, although Daniel is not related to Brian and Brandon. That doesn’t make a difference though, since we love him like family anyhow. Isn’t this easy? Why, of course it is! Enlightenment (Trevor) is Brandon’s natural father, Rachel is Trevor’s wife (Brandon’s step mother), and Abraham is Rachel’s Uncle in her late father’s side (Please note that her late father does not write for this blog!)
Karen is Kyle’s wife; Kelli is Karen’s cousin and Brandon’s fiancé, while CJ is Daniel’s boyfriend. (And you thought this would be simple!) Advocate1 is a best friend to both, Trevor and Brandon. Chris, and Samantha are our close friends from Baltimore and Pittsburgh (respectively) and Katie is a friend who Advocate 1 met through the library where he writes, sketches, and helps out from time to time.

Most of us, live in the Southeastern Corner of Wisconsin where we live within anywhere from a 10 minute to an hour's drive from one another. All in all it’s a fine place to live—despite the Republican riff-raff which contaminates the rural areas between Chicago and Milwaukee, but that aside, we enjoy making life difficult for the local GOPIgs and their Fundamentalist lap dogs.

Soooooo, that’s who we are. What are we about? The hyphen and the newly revised mission statement say it all: “We strive for an honorable America free of Republican greed, arrogance, rapacity, and ineptitude. If you still believe in American core values such as justice, equality, and freedom of conscience then this is the site for you.”

So, we hope that former LeftWingRising readers will stay with their favorite writers here on Coalition Sometimes you will find them in solo efforts. On other occasions you will find them working together on joint projects, such as our recent examination of the Bush Administration and the Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism. In any event, we hope you enjoy what we’re doing here.

Yours Truly,

Brandon
Kyle