As anyone who has discussed politics with me for any length of time knows, IANAR! (I Am Not A Republican!). I'm conservative / little-L libertarian, and I agree with much of what Republicans believe and push for, but there's a whole bunch of their platform with which I disagree.

But I am definitely not a Republican, and don't want to be considered a Republican (full disclosure: I joined the local Republican Committee and served as its Treasurer a few years ago in order to help a close friend of mine with his local political aspirations. In fairly short order, I apologized that I couldn't stomach it, and left the Committee. Years later, I also served as a delegate to the local (county) Republican Convention to vote for that same friend). I may have even registered with a few web sites that are actually run by Official Republican-dom. If so, I regret that decision and will probably refrain from doing so in the future.

Why? Just today, I have received three four emails from Official Republican-dom (two three directly from people at the Republican National Committee, plus one from Matt Margolis at BlogsForBush.com urging me to donate to the RNC), all three four of which revolved around President Bush's nomination of Judge Sam Alito to replace Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

I'm not sure how effective any request or protestation that they cease and desist from sending me email would be, but they really need to know they're pissing me off. And if they're generating that reaction from someone who is fundamentally sympathetic to their cause, how many other people may be receiving these emails that may have even stronger, more negative reactions to their unprincipled use of someone's email list?

I don't mind getting local political junk mail based on my previous, brief flirtation with the local Republican Committee. That put my name and address on their lists, officially and completely, so I have to put up with that consequence to my actions. I didn't sign up with the RNC, and they have no more right to send me email than any other spammer.

To paraphrase W.C. Fields, "Go 'way, RNC, ya bother me!"

Update: One minute after posting this, I received yet another email from the RNC. They're gonna get waaaay too deep under my skin really soon.

Update II: The latest email (#5, for those who are keeping track) arrived from the RNC, and I've determined that they just picked up my email address from here on my blog (the only place I use that address). I had to do some experimentation to figure out what address they were using, since it's not listed in their addressee line, and I have multiple addresses pointing to the same account.

Yeah, that's the way to wind the hearts and minds of bloggers: start sending them spam. Idiots.