In response to the Pennsylvania democratic congressman John Murtha's call for a commencement of troop withdrawal from Iraq, the Ohio republican congresswoman Jean Schmidt admonished him on the house floor by saying "Cowards cut and run, marines never do."  Hell of a thing to say to a guy who's 37-years service as a marine was exemplary...

Unsurprisingly her remarks drew sharp criticism and boos.  In response the Democratic National Committee negotiated a deal with Lamar Advertising to place political ads on Ohio billboards castigating Ms. Schmidt for her remarks.  After the contract was signed, Lamar Advertising suddenly changed their mind and informed the DNC that the ads were "too negative" and refused to run them.  Can anyone else smell the backroom wheeling and dealing?

Doubtless the DNC and Lamar Advertising (which apparently pretty much has a monopoly on billboards in Ohio) are now going to slug it out in some fashion.  Business as usual in the U.S. of A.  But then today, on sharply critical atheist blog "God is for Suckers" I found a picture of a LAMAR billboard with the following message:

Not Too Negative, Apparently

Which of course leads me to ask, why is this okay when a sign saying "Shame on you Jean Schmidt!" is not?

But the bigger question is why is it okay to post billboards belittling (or threatening) a minority group when the minority group is atheists?  One commenter on the original article points out that if the word "Atheists" was replaced with "Jews" or "Blacks" or some other minority group, people would be screeching for it to be taken down.  So why is it okay to beat up on atheists?