Ann Coulter called Muslims “ragheads” at the CPAC convention on Friday – this is right after she said Islam was a “car burning cult” in her column that is syndicated by Universal Press (the people who bring you “Garfield” and “Cathy”) and is published in many newspapers as legitimate commentary.
Some of the cons who understand that not all of America shares their hatred of Muslims are trying to tepidly rebuke it, but folks like LaShawn Barber proudly wear their bigotry and says that she thinks “it s much ado about nothing” (and you wonder why I have such a low opinion of black conservatives). The fact of the matter is, as the far-right Human Events reports, the base ate it up.
From the get-go Ann had the crowd cheering and was frequently interrupted during by applause. Many of Coulter s talking points came from recent news events — such as the great Danish cartoon caper and President Bush s Supreme Court nominees.
…
When she finished, Coulter was honored with a standing ovation from her fans.
Yes, tell me the modern conservative movement isn’t built on a base of bigotry, and requires it to maintain its majorities — and I’ll sell you this great bridge I’ve got in Brooklyn.
(Lest you think CPAC is a marginally conservative event, Vice President Cheney spoke there last night, as have Sen. Bill Frist and RNC chair Ken Mehlman. Let’s just say that if you’re at a Klan rally… you’re in the Klan.)
>> Max Blumenthal was there
>> US Vice President Dick Cheney attends conference where keynote speaker calls Muslism “ragheads”
>> Ann Coulter Hate Speech Gone Wild at CPAC Speech!
>> Campus Progress is undercover at CPAC
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Never having been to a Klan rally, I can only speculate about this…
But I imagine that other Klan members don’t usually condemn one of their speakers and argue with each other over the use of a slur. (Although it would probably make a good Monty Python skit.)
But you’re correct that it does not speak well for those who applaud Coulter or defend her use of the word. Coulter is pathetic and should be condemned by all. The fact that she is popular among many Republicans definitely adds credibility to those who point to the party in disgust.
Well put, JWG.
Oliver, seriously though, why are you not outraged at the ‘nigger’ comment Byrd made?
Yeah. Ditto.
Whizbang’s comments were hardly a “tepid rebuke.’ Oliver’s not used to any other style of writing than his own, “Bush is a killer”, “Cheney is a traitorous liar”, brand of hyperbole.
Coulter should be condemned by all. But the fact is that she isn’t.
And she’s not just popular among many Republicans, she’s popular among powerful Republicans, the people who shape this nation. Why didn’t Frist refuse to appear at the same convention as Coulter on principle?
But let’s head off the cheap and obvious rebuttal. “Michael Moore!” or “Lewis Farrakhan!” are not equal counterbalances. Coulter is as batshit crazy and provocative as Lyndon LaRouche, and you can’t tell me LaRouche enjoys the same popularity on the left that Coulter enjoys on the right.
JWG finally said something you agree with. Is that why you’re not calling him a Rethug, or telling him he lives in the basement of his “Mommy’s” house. Butter wouldn’t melt in your hypocritical mouths.
Oliver’s trying to smear the whole Republican Party with the words of one person (who, by the way, I think is funny, more often than not, but every once in a while, I find myself looking for adam’s apple, too). It’s not gonna work with me.
Maybe CPAC isn’t a marginally conservative organization — it’s probably the pusher of conservative ideology in the Republican Party nowadays — not the Christian Coalition as so many posters here wrongly believe. But that doesn’t mean the tail wags the dog. All of CPAC doesn’t become a “racist organization” because they didn’t disinvite the “Lenny Bruce of the Republican Party.”
BTW, AmericansForRice was there. Funny you didn’t mention it.
Here’s a little water on the fire of Oliver’s campaign to stamp out bigotry (of the rightist kind, of cuz) in our time: [From the actual column]
Frank_D, do you repudiate Ann Coulter…?
[...] free speech too, liberals prove that one every day. The problem I have, is with a certain Oliver Willis, who is calling Coulter a racist: Ann Coulter cal [...]
[Moore] was prominently featured at the Democratic National Convention.
Really? He gave a prime-time-televised speech? Darn, I missed it. I bet it was good.
(”HE SAT IN JIMMY CARTER’S BOX!!” Yeah, Jay, keep saying that like it means something.)
millions have seen Moore s documentaries which for the most part are nothing more than left wing propaganda films.
Hmm, I guess I also missed those millions of people being forced at gunpoint to watch his “propaganda films”. I really need to pay more attention, huh?
Once again when an extremist in the Republican party says something patently racist she only represents the fringes even though she said it the premiere event for the mainstream conservative movemenr.
Well, it’s people like you and Oliver that claim such statements are indicative of every single person in the Republican party and all conservatives.
But when a lunatic Muslim says something outrageous he s speaking for all of Islam.
According to whom? You’re the one who looked extremely foolish trying to compare Christian extremists with radical Muslims as if the numbers were on par. Don’t get your panties in a wad now.
Sorry.
There is no defense for Ann Coulter.
She isn’t “joking.”
And — yes — I do take it personally.
Finish your thought Jay …
“Unlike Coulter, whose influence is limited largely to opinion pieces and speaking engagements, including CPAC, the most important conservative event on the right wing calendar attended by the Vice President of the United States and where Coulter is touted as a featured speaker alongside Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senator George Allen, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Senator Mitch McConnell, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Ken Mehlman, Wayne LaPierre, Bob Novak, Grover Norquist, Congressman Mike Pence – and many more! …”
Do you mean those kind of speaking engagements? Once again when an extremist in the Republican party says something patently racist she only represents the fringes — even though she said it the premiere event for the mainstream conservative movemenr. But when a lunatic Muslim says something outrageous he’s speaking for all of Islam. Jay, can you find me one statement that Coulter has made where she recognizes or acknowledges the existence of mainstream, moderate Islam? She doesn’t believe it exists. They’re all terrorist “ragheads” to her.
BD, you’re right about Michael Moore not being an equal counterbalance to Coulter.
He’s much worse and he’s welcomed and accepted within the Democratic establishment, by Democratic leaders and was prominently featured at the Democratic National Convention. Unlike Coulter, whose influence is limited largely to opinion pieces and speaking engagements, millions have seen Moore’s ‘documentaries’ which for the most part are nothing more than left wing propaganda films. More people know who Michael Moore is than Ann Coulter.
That being said, I’ve had no use for Ann Coulter for the longest time. She’s a very smart person, and I’m at the point where I’m convinced she says crap like this because she knows what kind of response it is going elicit. That’s no excuse. Her remarks should be condemned regardless of the fact that she was referring to terrorist Muslims and not just Muslims.
And Oliver, try being a tad more honest will you? The response from most of the conservative blogosphere has been very negative towards Coulter and hardly ‘tepid.’
Yes, tell me the modern conservative movement isn t built on a base of bigotry, and requires it to maintain its majorities
Please. Sour grapes from a Democratic loser.
“… it doesn t give Ann Coulter, or anyone else, the right to call Muslims ragheads or towelheads (don t rat me out to al Qaeda) in public.”
Yes, yes please only use racist epithets in private, otherwise everyone will find out that we’re really racists. Too late, Frank.
Here’s the CPAc link: http://www.cpac.org/
Coulter is part of the mainstream of the Republican party and the larger conservative movement – I don’t really know how even you can claim otherwise with a straight face Jay (see the Human Events report for how the audience responded, as well as other reports that the line for Coulter’s signature was huge after the speech – tepid rebukes indeed).
I didn’t know it was sour grapes to point out that if the GOP were to repudiate the bigotry at its core, it would lose presidential elections. It’ll be interesting come 2008 if Republicans decide they hate hispanics (Tancredo) or not. If it means not winning a national election for some time when the Democrats repudiate racism, so be it. The power’s not worth the moral decay.
What do you mean, repudiate? Who cares if I repudiate her or not?
I call Muslims “towelheads” in the privacy of my own home, going back to Gulf War I.
Yet I fully appreciate the fact that we owe nearly all of the Renaissance to Islamic scholars, and therefore most of our civilization. And I realize that the Cradle of Civilization, as we call it, was the cradle of their civilization.
But, soon after Islam was founded, it adopted a scheme of conversion by force. It has been theorized by Darcy Ribiero in “The Civilizational Process” that this was because of their technological superiority to the people they chose to convert. This is supported by the fact that they were stopped in the east in Vienna, and in the west in southern Spain (but not in Sicily, for example).
While this seemed to be the end of violence as a tool in conversion, violence is apparently not anathema in Islam. This would explain the great hesitancy on the part of mainstream Muslims to criticize the violence of their brethren. However, it doesn’t give Ann Coulter, or anyone else, the right to call Muslims “ragheads” or “towelheads” (don’t rat me out to al Qaeda) in public.
In her defense, she is too quick to “play the crowd,” and when she gets on a roll, she can get down and dirty. She might even think she is saying the things other people dare not. Maybe she actually is, maybe she isn’t.
“What do you mean, repudiate? Who cares if I repudiate her or not?
I call Muslims towelheads in the privacy of my own home, going back to Gulf War I.”
Frank forgets and uses his inside voice outside and surprise, surprise, Frank turns out to be a racist pig.
Oh please, Jay. It’s patently obvious that Coulter speaks loudly and frequently for the conservative movement. She’s frequently a welcome guest on my local talk radio station, she’s frequenltly on Hannity’s national radio and television shows, she was on the cover of Time magazine, and supposedly she’s a best selling author on top of her regular column and these low key speaking engagements at events attended by the VP of the United States and other major party leaders. Now you want to suggest that she has limited national influence on conservatives or conservative attitudes just like you have to do with Pat Robertson who’s so freaking marginalized in the evangelical community that he owns his own media empire. If that’s marginalized, well damn, man, I’d love to hear what you think qualifies someone as a power player. The Evangelical, born again Christian movement seethes with homophobes and ID reactionaries who’d love to return us all to a pre-Enlightenment state of existence. Their representatives and their ideas are welcomed with open arms by the conservative movement. They even have the president of the United States spewing their idiocy about intelligent design. Now tell me that isn’t influence.
“It s people like you and Oliver that claim such statements are indicative of every single person in the Republican party and all conservatives.”
Again, give it a rest. She was speaking at CPAC!!!!! CPAC and its organizers decided that she speaks for conservatives, that’s why she was there!!!
frameone: I’ll be the judge of whether or not I’m a racist, thank you very much. I haven’t noticed that you have been a reliable judge of anything to date.
Frank forgets and uses his inside voice outside and surprise, surprise, Frank turns out to be a racist pig. I don’t make such errors, frameone. Do you? That stuff usually comes to an end at about age 6.
Incidentally, I saw the comedian on Letterman, and the video clip. I hope your movie reviews possess more creativity.
P.S. I was suckered by Oliver again. He throws the fake grenade, the lefties throw it the righties, and the conservatives try to throw it back.
For a while. Then I realize it’s from Mattel — it’s swell!
Name-calling should end at an early age too. However, it is a rhetorical failing I sometimes indulge in, you dunder-pated ignoramus.
C’mon, Frank_D, all we’re doing on comment-threads is the equivalent of scribbling in a bathroom stall.
The real tragedy in all this is that media do have biases: I confim my prejudices at my news sites; you confirm yours. There’s no “objective” news source that everybody will believe and the reasonably intelligent middle-of-the-road fence sitters get so damned cynical they stay out of fight.
Twenty-four centuries ago, Aristotle wrote: “The people at the extremes push the intermediate man each over to the other, and the brave man is called rash by the coward, cowardly by the rash.”
Name – calling (with or without italics) doesn’t necessarily end at an early age, as posters to Oliver’s blog well know.
Do a quick count on any thread, and and it is obvious that self – proclaimed intellectually superior leftist name – calling outnumbers conservatives’ name calling by a wide margin. [So much for the argument that intellectual superiority equals maturity].
In the area of obscenity and profanity, frameone holds sway. His “word count” in O & P, outnumbers all posters whatever their ideology, on the whole blog.
That’s more sensible than anything I’ve heard here in a long time, but sometimes I look back up the thread, and I see that the subject has changed to whether a person is an idiot or a moron, and then I notice that Oliver hasn’t commented in about twelve hours.
Thanks for making sense.
Mucker;
“……writing on a bathroom stall”
But it has it’s theraputic value. It get’s those demons out and excorcises
the toxins that arise from watching world events and feeling somewhat
helpless and manipulated. Love the Aristotelian synchronisim.
Is “a car-burning cult” a reference to France? Dear me. The banlieu riots were as ‘Islamic’ as the LA riots were ‘Christian’.
According to whom?
According to the litany of radio-gabblers and cablenewsers who bemoan the lack of ‘moderate Muslim leaders’ to condemn the nutjobs, but (curiously) never actually invite those leaders onto their shows.
How come William Donohue or Kate O’Beirne arent asked to apologise for boy-buggering priests every time they appear on TV?
As for Coulter? She’s a troll. I have no idea if she believes the crap she spouts, but she fulfills an important purpose — that is, vocalising the ‘behind-closed-doors’ racism of Frank_D and others too cowardly to say what they really feel.
“Do a quick count on any thread, and and it is obvious that self – proclaimed intellectually superior leftist name – calling outnumbers conservatives name calling by a wide margin.”
This from a guy who just admitted that he has no problem using racial epithets on a regular basis to epxress himself. Fantastic, Frank.
And yes Frank, the inside/outside voice phrase was lifted from that clip. It seemed appropriate and entirely expressive of what connects the President and his slavish followers: A four year old mentality.
I can picture you now shuffling around your living room muttering to yourself about the “towelheads” and the coming Islamic Caliphate in the full creative flower of your racist imagination. Pathetic.
I find it a bit curious that sensitive, tolerant liberals seem to have no problem referring to devout Christians as “christers” and “fundies.”
But Coulter’s “raghead” comment now “proves” beyond a shadow of a doubt that all conservatives are bigots?
Give me a break.
frameone: I’m tired of you calling me a racist (not that would stop the “Archie Bunker of the left”). And if you can picture anyone doing anything, then you have more inagination than I would ever give yoiu credit for.
And it is still true “that self – proclaimed intellectually superior leftist name – calling outnumbers conservatives name calling by a wide margin, no matter who says so, as if whoever says 2 + 2 = 4 matters.
By the way, why did you leave out this part?: In the area of obscenity and profanity, frameone holds sway. His word count in O & P, outnumbers all posters whatever their ideology, on the whole blog. Perhaps because you can’t deny that, no matter who said it, either?
Finally, you know why I’m not a “racist”, you half wit? It’s because the Arabs, and all the other occupants of the Middle East, are not a race. At worst, I’m guilty of using an ethnic slur. You’d think somebody approaching their Ph. D (even if it is in moviegoing) would know that.