It's not that Ann Coulter's recent comments on Gitmo lacked some legitimacy, but taxing to note a typical Coulter pattern of developing some logic rendered ineffective through verbosity and convoluted thought. Even conservative analysts give her some credit, but then she goes off the deep end successfully stymieing any gained rational thought. Perhaps, this is why her most common writing technique is a shotgun approach spiced up a bit with invectives, sensationalized and then lost logic by the last sentence. For example, it would be easier if problems were simply the workings of a single group, but we know this isn't so. Her tiring attempt to blame all societal ills on liberals is matched only on equally infinite blame of Bill Clinton for inclusive morality problems since the Monica affair. It is not only an affront to intellectuality, but certainly not indicative of the fine academic institutions she graduated from, Cornell University and the University of Michigan. Secondly, the continued information distortion and blatant abuse of academic validation, i.e. her book notes, only emanates from her undying admiration for the late Senator Joseph McCarthy who perfected these techniques in his writings and speeches. Neither his nor Coulter's words can stand up to fact checking nor academic scrutiny; and one has to struggle to get beyond the ill-defined crafting to understand her real intent: selling more books. The best example is to simply let Ann Coulter prove she is her own worst enemy:
Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now.
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.
[Town Hall, September 14, 2001, www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter, This Is War, Sept. 12, 2001, from her syndicated column We Should Invade their countries, September 13, 2001 Her later excuse was she wasn't speaking of all Muslims, just some, but not all the time, but only some of the time: Coulter says her line about "convert them to Christianity" has been misconstrued and was aimed at those celebrating the attacks. "I wasn't talking about Muslims generally," she says. "I was talking about the crazed homicidal maniacs dancing in the streets." [The Washington Post, October 2, 2001]
However, excerpts from Coulter's Book, How to talk to a Liberal(If You Must), indicate it wasn't a word play or joke as some argue. Two days after 9/11/2001, Coulter wrote of invading Muslim countries, killing their leaders and forced conversion to Christianity. Hardly Christian, much less American in values or accepted behavior. In fact, Coulter's statements were considered so outrageous even the conservative National Review fired her while conservatives condemned her comments. However, after many attempts to rationalize her statements, Coulter wrote this in the above cited book:
"I am often asked if I still think we should invade their [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity. The answer is: Now more than ever!"
Further, Ann offers way to improve air travel safety in the same book:
* April 28: On racial profiling and air travel:
"Like many of you, I carefully reviewed the lawsuits against the airlines in order to determine which airlines had engaged in the most egregious discrimination, so I could fly only that airline. But oddly, rather than bragging about the charges, the airlines heatedly denied discriminating against Middle Eastern passengers. What a wasted marketing opportunity! Imagine the great slogans the airlines could use:
"More Civil-Rights Lawsuits Brought by Arabs Than Any Other Airline!"
"The Friendly Skies -- Unless You're an Arab"
"You Are Now Free to Move About the Cabin -- Not So Fast, Mohammed!"
A week later, she detailed a five-point plan guided by an "all-new standard for airline safety procedures:.procedures that [actually] make the airplane safer" of which point 3 proposed requiring "passports to fly domestically". "Passports can be forged", she continued, "but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males". Point 4 observed, "All 19 hijackers in last week's attack appear to have been aliens.... [Legally,] Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave." From her syndicated column, Where's Janet Reno When We Need Her? September 20, 2001
"Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave....We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males." Her syndicated column two weeks after 9/11, 2001 http://terryturtletuthpaste.tripod.com/Quotes
"Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed)." - from her column at www.townhall.com, March 4, 2004.
"The Times was rushing to assure its readers that 'prominent Islamic scholars and theologians in the West say unequivocally that nothing in Islam countenances the Sept. 11 actions.' (That's if you set aside Muhammad's many specific instructions to kill nonbelievers whenever possible)" From her book, How to Talk to a Liberal(If You Must), 2004.
On [Fox News Channel's February 7th] Hannity and Colmes, Alan Colmes confronted Ann Coulter with the following statement she made at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference: We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too."
Coulter whined to Colmes, "I didn't know we were talking about this tonight, but now that you've sprung it on me..." but confirmed she made the comment and boasted it was a "huge hit with the audience."
Colmes: "You hate liberals. You despise liberals. This is unbelievable.We should execute them to make liberals scared?"
Coulter: "Right. Right!" Hannity and Colmes, Feb. 10, 2002
"The presumption of innocence only means you don't go right to jail." on ibid, Aug. 24, 2001
"I have to say I'm all for public flogging. One type of criminal that a public humiliation might work particularly well with the juvenile delinquents, a lot of whom consider it a badge of honor to be sent to juvenile detention. And it might not be such a cool thing in the 'hood to be flogged publicly." MSNBC, Mar. 22, 1997
"I think we had enough laws about the turn-of-the-century. We don't need any more." Asked how far back would she go to repeal laws, she replied, "Well, before the New Deal...[The Emancipation Proclamation] would be a good start." Politically Incorrect, 5/7/97
"In the corporeal world, international law is whatever the United States and Great Britain say it is." From Slander, http://politics.abovetopsecret.com/thread100306/pg1."
"If they have the one innocent person who has ever to be put to death this century out of over 7,000, you probably will get a good movie deal out of it." on MSNBC 7/27/97
"Liberals become indignant when you question their patriotism, but simultaneously work overtime to give terrorists a cushion for the next attack and laugh at dumb Americans who love their country and hate the enemy." Her syndicated column, Liberalism and Terrorism, May 26, 2004
Donahue: "I just want to make sure we got this right. Liberals hate America. They hate all religions except Islam. Liberals love Islam, hate all other religions."
Ann Coulter: "Post 9/11."
Donahue: "Well, good for you." The Phil Donahue Show, MSNBC, July 19, 2002
"I really want to hurt him. I want him to feel pain." (Referring to the possibility of running against a Democratic Representative) Quoted in the Hartford Courant, June 25, 1999 NOTE: Ann wanted to run against the Democratic Representative, but the Libertarian Party of Connecticut rejected her as being too divisive.)
"Conservatives believe man was created in God's image, while liberals believe they are gods. All of the behavioral tics of the liberals proceed from their godless belief that they can murder the unborn because they, the liberals, are themselves gods. They try to forcibly create 'equality' through affirmative action and wealth redistribution because they are gods. They flat-out lie, with no higher power to constrain them, because they are gods. They adore pornography and the mechanization of sex because man is just an animal, and they are gods. They revere the UN and not the U.S. because they aren't Americans -- they are gods." http://quotes.worldvillage.com/i/b/Ann_Coulter
"The FBI allowed thousands of Americans [in the WTC] to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more do liberals want?" From her syndicated column, This Whistle-Blower They Like, June 13, 2002
"When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors." address before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Jan. 2002
"The thing I like about Bush is I think he hates liberals." Quoted in the Washington Post, Aug. 1, 2000
"Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now." Slander, p. 6
"If liberals were prevented from ever again calling Republicans dumb, they would be robbed of half their arguments. To be sure, they would still have "racist," "fascist," "homophobe," "ugly," and a few other highly nuanced arguments in the quiver. But the loss of "dumb" would nearly cripple them." ibid, p. 121
"I think there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote." Hannity and Colmes, Aug. 17, 1999
"The swing voters? I like to refer to them as the idiot voters because they don't have set philosophical principles. You're either a liberal or you're a conservative if you have an IQ above a toaster. " Beyond the News, FOX News Channel, June 4, 2000
"Giuliani wants to have a national ambition, and I'm a big fan of his, but he's going to have to become pro-life if he wants to run for president. No one ever believed he was pro-choice anyway - here's a Catholic from Queens," she says, adding, "most Americans understand that Manhattan is the Soviet Union." Quoted in "All Smiles On GOP's Right Wing", CBSNews.com, Sept. 1, 2004
ETHNICITYDonahue: "I just want to make sure we got this right. Liberals hate America. They hate all religions except Islam. Liberals love Islam, hate all other religions."
Ann Coulter: "Post 9/11."
Donahue: "Well, good for you." The Phil Donahue Show, MSNBC, July 19, 2002
"If you wanted to teach people about the great things about America, a college campus is the last place you’d send them. Even fanatical Muslim terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do." Ann Coulter -- CPAC conference, 2002. http://terryturtletuthpaste.tripod.com/Quotes
"I really want to hurt him. I want him to feel pain." (Referring to the possibility of running against a Democratic Representative) Quoted in the Hartford Courant, June 25, 1999 NOTE: Ann wanted to run against the Democratic Representative, but the Libertarian Party of Connecticut rejected her as being too divisive.)
"Conservatives believe man was created in God's image, while liberals believe they are gods. All of the behavioral tics of the liberals proceed from their godless belief that they can murder the unborn because they, the liberals, are themselves gods. They try to forcibly create 'equality' through affirmative action and wealth redistribution because they are gods. They flat-out lie, with no higher power to constrain them, because they are gods. They adore pornography and the mechanization of sex because man is just an animal, and they are gods. They revere the UN and not the U.S. because they aren't Americans -- they are gods." http://quotes.worldvillage.com/i/b/Ann_Coulter
"The FBI allowed thousands of Americans [in the WTC] to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more do liberals want?" From her syndicated column, This Whistle-Blower They Like, June 13, 2002
"When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors." address before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Jan. 2002
"The thing I like about Bush is I think he hates liberals." Quoted in the Washington Post, Aug. 1, 2000
"Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now." Slander, p. 6
"If liberals were prevented from ever again calling Republicans dumb, they would be robbed of half their arguments. To be sure, they would still have "racist," "fascist," "homophobe," "ugly," and a few other highly nuanced arguments in the quiver. But the loss of "dumb" would nearly cripple them." ibid, p. 121
"I think there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote." Hannity and Colmes, Aug. 17, 1999
"The swing voters? I like to refer to them as the idiot voters because they don't have set philosophical principles. You're either a liberal or you're a conservative if you have an IQ above a toaster. " Beyond the News, FOX News Channel, June 4, 2000
"Giuliani wants to have a national ambition, and I'm a big fan of his, but he's going to have to become pro-life if he wants to run for president. No one ever believed he was pro-choice anyway - here's a Catholic from Queens," she says, adding, "most Americans understand that Manhattan is the Soviet Union." Quoted in "All Smiles On GOP's Right Wing", CBSNews.com, Sept. 1, 2004
"Kwanzaa itself is a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven 'principles'of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life รข€“ economics, work, personality, even litter removal." From her syndicated column, Kwanzaa: A Holiday from the FBI, Dec. 24, 2002
"I think we had enough laws about the turn-of-the-century. We don't need any more." Asked how far back would she go to repeal laws, she replied, "Well, before the New Deal ... [The Emancipation Proclamation] would be a good start." Politically Incorrect, May 7, 1997
"With their infernal racial set-asides, racial quotas, and race norming, liberals share many of the Klan's premises. The Klan sees the world in terms of race and ethnicity. So do liberals! Indeed, liberals and white supremacists are the only people left in America who are neurotically obsessed with race. Conservatives champion a color-blind society." Slander, p. 26 http://terryturtletuthpaste.tripod.com/Quotes.htm
"(Again, talking about the 2002 Academy Awards) "Whenever white liberals are in trouble, they always run to the blacks. Immediately after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, Monica went to a Washington Wizards game where she hoisted some poor unsuspecting black girl onto her lap in full view of the cameras. Bill Clinton dropped the subtlety and dashed off to Africa. After his abomination of a presidency, Jimmy Carter built housing in Harlem." http://terryturtletuthpaste.tripod.com/Quotes.htm
"Apparently, Oscars night was Hollywood's shot at patronizing blacks to generate goodwill -- perhaps as wartime penance for its long-standing hatred of America." -- Ann Coulter's "I Like Black People Too, Julia!" 4/1/02," http://terryturtletuthpaste.tripod.com/Quotes.htm
"The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet -- it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars -- that's the Biblical view." From her syndicated column "Oil Good; Democrats Bad" October 12, 2000
Ann Coulter: I take the biblical idea. God gave us the earth.
Democratic Strategist Peter Fenn: Oh, OK.
Coulter: We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees.
Fenn: This is a great idea.
Coulter: God says, "Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours."
Fenn: Terrific. We're Americans, so we should consume as much of the earth's resources...
Coulter: Yes! Yes.
Fenn: ... as fast as we possibly can.
Coulter: As opposed to living like the Indians. Hannity and Colmes, June 22, 2001
"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building." - in a New York Observer interview August 26, 2002.
"Of course I regret [the previous quote]. I should have added 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and the reporters.'" - in a rightwingnews.com interview June 26, 2003.
"The only standard journalists respect is: Will this story promote the left-wing agenda?" How to Talk to a Liberal, 2004.
"People like you caused us to lose the war." (to a disabled Vietnam Veteran Bobby Muller) MSNBC, 10/11/97
"During an interview with FAIR's radio show CounterSpin (8/9/02), Coulter challenged a story about her reported by Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz:
Howard Kurtz made up a quote about a Vietnam vet, which he knows he made up, which has now run twice in the Washington Post, once in Talk magazine, once in People Magazine, once in the Washingtonian. It's something I allegedly said on TV. Why doesn't somebody produce a tape of that?
Coulter was referring to Kurtz's account of a 1997 debate on MSNBC's NewsChat show (10/11/97), when Coulter was a paid MSNBC contributor. According to Kurtz (Washington Post, 10/16/98), "Coulter was debating a disabled Vietnam vet when she snapped: 'People like you caused us to lose that war.' (She says she didn't know the guest, appearing by satellite, was disabled.) That ended her MSNBC career." (My note-hard to believe since Bobbby Muller lost both legs and is wheelchair bound.)That Post report, Coulter told CounterSpin, was "absolute lies.... It's absolutely out of character for me." Extra! asked Kurtz about the charge that he'd fabricated the quote for his report. In an email, Kurtz responded: "The account of Ann Coulter's remarks to the veteran on MSNBC was provided to me by Coulter herself, who told me she liked the piece and never complained about the passage until she was trying to sell books." Kurtz also told Extra! that MSNBC had confirmed that Coulter was let go after making such a comment to a disabled Vietnam veteran.
In the MSNBC NewsChat segment, in which Coulter debated Bobby Muller, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, her exact words to the paralyzed veteran were: "No wonder you guys lost." She was interrupting Muller's point about the role that landmines played in the Vietnam War: "In 90 percent of cases that U.S. soldiers got blown up--Ann, are you listening?--they were our own mines." Muller responded to Coulter's remark with an incredulous "Say that again," while moderator Felicia Taylor sharply rebuked the in-house pundit: "OK, we're not going to get into that conversation. Ann, that was unnecessary! Mr. Muller, please continue...."
Coulter could say that Kurtz did not quote her exact words--though considering that she was the apparent source of his report, which would take some chutzpah. "People like you caused us to lose that war" is a fairly accurate paraphrase of "no wonder you guys lost," so there's no sense in which Kurtz's article is an "absolute lie" that depicts her saying something "absolutely out of character for me." (Coulter responded:) "I never said they didn't." http://www.fair.org/extra/0211/annslanders.html
"February 11: On former Senator Max Cleland (D-GA): "Luckily for Cleland's political career and current pomposity about Bush, he happened to do it [lose an arm and both legs] while in Vietnam." http://mediamatters.org/items/200410040009
"Then there are the 22 million Americans on food stamps. And of course there are the 39 million greedy geezers collecting Social Security. The greatest generation rewarded itself with a pretty big meal." - WorldNetDaily, December 2, 2003.
"[Learning difficulties are a cover for] rich parents with dumb kids...That's why 'Pinch' Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, is alleged to have dyslexia - because he's retarded" The Independent, http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=551959&host=3&dir=81. 16 August, 2004 http://quotes.worldvillage.com/i/b/Ann_Coulter
"I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote. No, they all have to give up their vote, not just, you know, the lady clapping and me. The problem with women voting -- and your Communists will back me up on this -- is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care." Politically Incorrect, Feb. 26, 2001
"I think the other point that no one is making about the abuse photos (Abu Ghraib) is just the disproportionate number of women involved, including a girl general running the entire operation. I mean, this is lesson, you know, number 1,000,047 on why women shouldn't be in the military. In addition to not being able to carry even a medium-sized backpack, women are too vicious." - from Hannity and Colmes, 5 May, 2004 http://quotes.worldvillage.com/i/b/Ann_Coulter
"...a cruise missile is more important than Head Start."Ann Coulter, Nov. 2001 speech rebroadcast by C-Span in Jan. 2002, http://www.mediamatters.org/items/200409240001
"It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950 - except Goldwater in '64 - the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted." http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,956452,0... ) May 17, 2003.
Assessing President George W. Bush's recent gains among female voters, according to some polls, Coulter remarked during an appearance on the September 23 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes: "I'm so pleased with my gender. We're not that bright. http://mediamatters.org/items/200409240001
KING: If then were now, they couldn't make a case against Thomas Jefferson.
DERSHOWITZ: No.
COULTER: He was never president.
(my note: Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800)
KING: One at a time. Alan then Ann.
COULTER: I believe the reason for this is because of the one impeachment of a president, of Alexander Hamilton, was over Hamilton's refusal to enforce an unconstitutional law, so Congress was accusing the president...
DERSHOWITZ: You've got the wrong president, Ann. Ann, you've got the wrong president. It wasn't Alexander Hamilton, it was Andrew Johnson.
http://users.rcn.com/skutsch/anticoulter/larryking98.html
"Coulter started more restrained than usual, though she predictably bashed Hollywood liberals for trying to undermine the historical standing of a president they despised by resorting to trashy revisionism. Perhaps she even had a point. Who could tell what the producers were aiming at? But then she jumped the tracks. She claimed that the movie Patton was made by Holly-libs with "hatred in their hearts" for George S. Patton, the brilliant but erratic World War II general. These filmmakers "intended to make Patton look terrible," she maintained, but because they produced an accurate work, the movie ended up making "Patton look great and people loved him."
Was Patton a left-wing Hollywood conspiracy that backfired? Host Chris Matthews immediately challenged her in his subtle fashion: "You are dead wrong." He pushed her for proof, and she replied, "That is why George C. Scott turned down his Academy Award for playing Patton." Coulter was suggesting that Scott had spurned his Oscar because the filmmakers plan to destroy Patton's image by portraying the general "as negatively as possible" had gone awry.
Matthews wasn't buying. "Who told you that, who told you that?" he shouted. Her Oracle-like response: "It is well known." She added, "Why did you think he turned down the award, Chris? You never looked that up? It never occurred to you?"
Matthews retorted, "Because he said he wasn't going to a meat parade, because he didn't believe in award ceremonies." And Matthews was right. Following the show, I took Coulter's advice and did look it up. I found a 1999 obituary of Scott that noted he had stunned Hollywood in 1971 for being the first person ever to refuse an Academy Award. He had explained his action by slamming such awards as "demeaning" and he had dismissed the Oscar ceremony as a "two-hour meat parade." Coulter had twisted this well-documented episode into yet more proof that liberals--especially those in Hollywood--are conspiratorial traitors." Chris Matthews, Hardball
"One of the most reputable scholars who has studied the McCarthy era in great detail, Ron Radosh, is appalled at the damage Coulter has done to the work he and many others have painstakingly done over the years. "I am furious and upset about her book," he told me last week. "I am reading it - she uses my stuff, Harvey Klehr and John Haynes, Allen Weinstein etc. to distort what we actually say and to make ludicrous and historically incorrect arguments. You might recall my lengthy and negative review in The New Republic a few years ago of Herman's book on McCarthy; well, she is ten times worse than Herman. At least he tried to use bona fide historical methods of research and argument." Now Radosh has endured ostracism and abuse for insisting that many of McCarthy's victims were indeed Communist spies or agents. But he draws the line at Coulter's crude and inflammatory defense of McCarthy. "I think it is important that those who are considered critics of left/liberalism don't stop using our critical faculties when self-proclaimed conservatives start producing crap."
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/main_article.php?artnum=20030705
"[In response to Mike Barnacle] I've been promoting my book today so I haven't read the [Ninth Circuit] decision [declaring the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional]. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding about my coming on this program to talk about my book. But I will guess that the judges who said the pledge of allegiance violates the constitution were appointed by Democrats and not Republicans. I haven't looked at the decision, I haven't heard about the decision. But that's a wild guess I'm going to make.... [Later, responding to Katrina van den Heuvel] Oh, I'm just waiting to see if anyone will take any bets on me on whether the judges who wrote this decision were appointed by a Democrat or a Republican." MSNBC's Hardball, June 27, 2002, NOTE: The decision was rendered by Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, appointed by Richard Nixon, a Republican, in 1971
Coulter's Treason was marketed as "an explosive defense of Joseph McCarthy," and indeed, she finds much to admire in the man: "The myth of 'McCarthyism' is the greatest Orwellian fraud of our times. Liberals are fanatical liars, then as now. The portrayal of Sen. Joe McCarthy as a wild-eyed demagogue destroying innocent lives is sheer liberal hobgoblinism. Liberals weren't hiding under the bed during the McCarthy era. They were systematically undermining the nation's ability to defend itself, while waging a bellicose campaign of lies to blacken McCarthy's name."
Arnold Beichman, a conservative from the conservative Hoover Institute, reviewed Treason in the arch-conservative Washington Times, and wrote that he'd "tried to read Miss Coulter's book and failed. Life is too short to read pages and pages of rant." http://www.nndb.com/people/474/000022408
After I described this exchange to someone who once worked with her, he said, "That's Ann. She lives in her own world and she just makes things up." This interlude concerned a small matter. (Who knew we would be debating one of my favorite movies?) But this minor dustup provided evidence to support a serious charge. As Matthews remarked while wrapping up the segment, "Facts mean nothing to you, Ann." If so, why continue to have her on? David Corn, 11/5/03, Nation Magazine
The same could be asked of Ann Coulter since, as David Corn, stated, "is an illustration of how a certain kind of virulent right-wing politics is based on emotion, not reason. Almost to a one, I found that the most hateful voices on the right were venting their own deep-seated problems and frustrations." David Brock, Washington Post, Feb. 26, 2002
For those who seek to use invectives or name calling towards myself or others in Ann Coulter defense, the following is submitted for you to ponder:
"A central component of liberal hate speech is to make paranoid accusations based on their own neurotic impulses, such as calling Republicans angry, hate-filled, and mean." Her book, Slander, p. 19).
"Liberals don't try to win arguments, they seek to destroy their opponents and silence dissident opinions." ibid, p. 91)
"Political debate with liberals is basically impossible in America because liberals are calling names while conservatives are trying to make arguments...It's really all the same lie [that liberals tell], that conservatives are either stupid or scarily weird and therefore you don't have to deal with their ideas." http://users.rcn.com/skutsch/anticoulter/evilstupid.html
Somewhere the late Senator Joe McCarthy is smiling down on Ann Coulter, but he learned as she will also, their content do not reflect American values millions of citizens fought and died for to preserve our way of life and Constitution. She has no defense for using the word "traitor," and is careful of applying individuals with that term, but does so openly on groups knowing the laws of slander. Hate is something this society could do without, but Ann Coulter continues to divide Americans during these troubled years and like those before her, has no defense for her insidious actions. Most of us are progressive in some beliefs while conservative in others; a right inherited by birth. Regardless, my citizenship is 100% United States of America solidified by honorable military service to my nation during time of conflict. Yet, her labeling would smear me with being a "liberal, traitor, etc." simply due to challenging her viewpoint, being a Vietnam Veteran which she has animosity towards, a writer of sorts and a believer in the constitution. Its easier to demean for what she thinks I am, rather than meet me to find what and who I really am. That would not lend support to shock value and sell books. That, my friends, is un-American since the Constitution defines free speech and expression as cornerstones of our republic. There is no doubt this writer would fight for Ann Coulter's right of free speech even if it meant my demise, but it is fairer to ask her to be accountable for what she does say. I already accept the fact her life would not be offered up for my right of free speech since that wouldn't sell books. That is the other cornerstone of our republic-accountability which she absolves herself from. The problem is many want to believe her as a simple problem solver for complexities befalling them rather than choose their own path; it's easier and painless. The most appropriate way to end this is by quoting Mr. Joseph Welch during the defining moment of the Army-McCarthy hearings after Senator McCarthy had attempted to foist a lie and smear an attorney in Mr. Welch's firm who had not labored on this case. McCarthy, however, was upset at the incisive questioning of Roy Cohn, one of his favored employees, and disregarded an agreement between McCarthy, Cohn and Welch which forbade bringing up Welch's attorney if Welch would not reveal Cohn failing his West Point Academy physical and specifics:
Mr. Welch: ...Little did I dream you (McCarthy) would be so reckless and cruel as to do an injury to this lad...It, is I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I will do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.
Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy, page 630-631.
NOTE: McCarthy, however, much like Coulter, would not give up his attack strategy even when wrong and this is what ensued:
Mr. Welch: I meant to do you no personal injury and if I did, I beg your pardon. (to Roy Cohn) Let us not assassinate this lad further. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
ibid, p. 631.
So I humbly ask of Ann Coulter, have you no sense of decency; no decency when you deride honorable disabled war Veterans; have you no sense of decency of those immortal words, "All Men Are Created Equal" as you spew your venom towards people not meeting your racial profiling, but are American Citizens; and lastly, have you no decency towards Senior Citizens, Women and the Disabled in this nation. Most of all. have you no sense of decency towards yourself and this Nation? If there is a shred, even the tiniest morsel, then PLEASE forsake the selling only books syndrome, the utter irresponsibility of distortion and refrain from public comment for a full year. Its the ultimate challenge for you since practicing law would mean pursuit of the truth; concept which you seem to have forsaken in your attempt to give your soul for Wales.
http://mediamatters.org/archives/search.html?topic=Ann%20Coulter
A Systematic Accuracy Check of Ann Coulter's Best-Selling Screed,
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right
http://slannder.homestead.com/
Ann Coulter: The Jargon Vanguard
By Brendan Nyhan July 16, 2001
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20010716.html
http://www.anncoulter.blogspot.com/ Scoobie Davis interview with Ann Coulter
http://suprmchaos.com/bcEnt-Bonus_Xscript.index.html Transcripts of Donahue and Katie Couric Interviews
Coulter getting owned. (Quicktime) http://www.ceruleanink.org/2005/03/15/random-ann-coulter-quotes/
9/21 Bryan: Coulter advocates profiling of Arab "aliens," deportation
http://www.spinsanity.org/post.html?2001_09_16_archive.html
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