Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject: Kim....you'll just LOVE this person
How is this person not fired yet? These are all controversies from one person.
Controversies and criticism
While she is in constant demand on the US lecture circuit,[5] Coulter's polemics - she has described herself as a "polemicist" who likes to "stir up the pot" and doesn't "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do"[86] - sometimes start firestorms of controversy, ranging from rowdy uprisings at many of the colleges where she speaks to protracted discussions in the media.
The 9/11 "Jersey Girls"
In Godless, Coulter criticized the four 9/11 widows known as the "Jersey Girls", writing:
These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them. ... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much ... the Democrat ratpack gals endorsed John Kerry for president ... cutting campaign commercials... how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy."[87]
These statements received national attention after an interview on The Today Show, and were widely criticized.[88][89][90][91][dead link][92][93] Coulter refused to apologize, and responded, "I feel sorry for all the widows of 9/11...[but] I do not believe that sanctifies their political message....They have attacked Bush, they have attacked Condoleezza Rice, they're cutting campaign commercials for Kerry. But we can't respond because their husbands died . . . I think it's one of the ugliest things 'the left' has done...this idea that you need some sort of personal authenticity in order to make a political point..."[94][95]
Comments about the New York Times
Coulter has a long-running animosity toward the New York Times. Her book Slander is a criticism of liberals for disparaging conservatives unfairly, giving particular attention to the news media for their role in this, and the Times especially.[96]
In an interview with George Gurley of the New York Observer shortly after the publication of Slander, it was mentioned that Coulter actually had friends and acquaintances who worked for the Times, namely restaurant critic Frank Bruni and correspondent David E. Sanger. Later in the interview, she expressed amusement at her recollections of the Times publishing two photos of George H. W. Bush throwing up at a diplomatic meeting in Japan, then said:
"Is your tape recorder running? Turn it on! I got something to say."
Then she said: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
I told her to be careful.
"Youre right, after 9/11 I shouldnt say that", she said, spotting a cab and grabbing it.[17]
By way of context, during an interview earlier in June 2002 with Katie Couric to promote the same book, Coulter expressed frustration about "constant mischaracterization" through being misquoted. "The idea that someone can go out and find one quote that will suddenly, you know, portray me just dismiss her ideas, read no more, read no further, this person is crazy...is precisely what liberals do all the time".[97]
When asked by John Hawkins, the web manager of a right-wing blog, through a pre-written set of interview questions if she regretted the statement, Coulter replied by saying: "Of course I regret it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.'"[98][99] Lee Salem, the president of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Coulter's column, later defended Coulter by characterizing her comments as satire.[100]
The subject came up again when she appeared on the Fox News program Hannity & Colmes. Alan Colmes mentioned Salem's claim, and said to her that remarks like saying "Timothy McVeigh should have bombed The New York Times building" were "laughable happy satires, right?" then said that Coulter was "actually a liberal who is doing this to mock and parody the way conservatives think." She replied, "Well, it's not working very well if that were my goal. No, I think the Timothy McVeigh line was merely prescient after The New York Times has leaped beyond beyond nonsense straight into treason, last week". She was referring to a Times report that revealed classified information about an anti-terrorism program of the U.S. government involving surveillance of international financial transactions of persons suspected of having Al-Qaida links. Colmes continued in this sarcastic vein when he responded, calling her remarks "great humor", and that it "belongs on Saturday Night Live. It belongs on The Daily Show."[101][102]
Comments on Islam, Arabs, and terrorism
On September 14, 2001, three days after the 9-11 attacks (in which her friend Barbara Olson had been killed) she wrote in her column:
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.[103]
Responding to this comment, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations remarked in the Chicago Sun Times that before Sept 11, Coulter "would have faced swift repudiation from her colleagues", but "now it's accepted as legitimate commentary."[104]
David Horowitz, however, saw Coulter's words as irony:
I began running Coulter columns on Frontpagemag.com shortly after she came up with her most infamous line, which urged America to put jihadists to the sword and convert them to Christianity. Liberals were horrified; I was not. I thought to myself, this is a perfect send-up of what our Islamo-fascist enemies believe that as infidels we should be put to the sword and converted to Islam. I regarded Coulters phillipic (sic) as a Swiftian commentary on liberal illusions of multi-cultural outreach to people who want to rip out our hearts.[105]
One day after the attacks (before the culprits had been identified and when death toll estimates were higher than they later became) Coulter asserted that only Muslims could have been behind the attacks:
Not all Muslims may be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims -- at least all terrorists capable of assembling a murderous plot against America that leaves 7,000 people dead in under two hours.[106]
Coulter has been highly critical of the U.S. Department of Transportation and especially its then-secretary Norman Mineta. Her many criticisms include their refusal to use racial profiling as a component of airport screening.[107] After a group of Muslims were expelled from a US Airways flight when other passengers expressed worries, sparking a call for Muslims to boycott the airline because of the ejection from a flight of six imams, Coulter observed:
If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.[108]
Coulter also cited the 2002 Senate testimony of FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley, who was acclaimed for condemning her superiors for refusing to authorize a search warrant for 9-11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui when he refused to consent to a search of his computer. They knew that he was a Muslim in flight school who had overstayed his visa, and the French Intelligence Service had confirmed his affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups. Coulter said she agreed that probable cause existed in the case, but that refusing consent, being in flight school and overstaying a visa shouldn't constitute grounds for a search. Citing a poll which found that 98 percent of Muslims between the ages of 20 to 45 said they would not fight for Britain in the war in Afghanistan, and that 48 percent said they would fight for Osama bin Laden,[109] she asserted "any Muslim who has attended a mosque in Europe -- certainly in England, where Moussaoui lived -- has had 'affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups'", so that she parsed Rowley's position as meaning that "'probable cause' existed to search Moussaoui's computer because he was a Muslim who had lived in England." Because "FBI headquarters...refused to engage in racial profiling" they failed to uncover the 9-11 plot, Coulter asserted. "The FBI allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more do liberals want?"[110]
She wrote in another column that she had reviewed the civil rights lawsuits against certain airlines to determine which airlines had subjected Arabs to the most "egregious discrimination" so that she could fly only that airline. She also said that the airline should be bragging instead of denying any of the charges of discrimination brought against them.[111] In an interview with the The Guardian she quipped, "I think airlines ought to start advertising: 'We have the most civil rights lawsuits brought against us by Arabs.'" When the interviewer replied by asking what Muslims would do for travel, she responded, "They could use flying carpets."[5]
One comment that drew criticism from the blogosphere as well as fellow conservatives[112] was made during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2006, where she said, referring to the prospect of a nuclear-equipped Iran, "What if they start having one of these bipolar episodes with nuclear weapons? I think our motto should be, post-9-11: raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences."[113] Coulter had previously written a nearly identical passage in her syndicated column: "...I believe our motto should be after 9/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that's offensive. How about 'camel jockey'? What? Now what'd I say? Boy, you tent merchants sure are touchy. Grow up, would you?"[114]
In October 2007, Coulter made more controversial remarks about Arabs, in this case Iraqis, when she stated, in an interview with the New York Observer
Weve killed about 20,000 of them, of terrorists, of militants, of Al Qaeda members, and theyve gotten a little over 3,000 of ours. That is where the war is being fought, in Iraq, that is where we are fighting Al Qaeda. Sorry we have to use your country, Iraqis, but you let Saddam come to power, ha-ha, and we are going to instill democracy in your country.[115]
In a May, 2007 article looking back at the life of the recently deceased evangelical Reverend Jerry Falwell, Coulter commented on Falwell's statement after the 9/11 attacks that "pagans", abortionists, feminists, and gays and lesbians, among others, helped make the attacks happen. In her article, Coulter stated that she disagreed with Falwell's statement, "because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and 'the Reverend' Barry Lynn."[116]
In October, 2007, Coulter participated in David Horowitz' "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week", remarking in a speech at the University of Southern California, "The fact of Islamo-Fascism is indisputable," she said. "I find it tedious to detail the savagery of the enemy . . . I want to kill them. Why don't Democrats?"[117]
2007 John Edwards controversy
The next year, Coulter drew criticism for statements she made at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference about presidential candidate John Edwards.[118][119] Coulter said:
I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions.[120][121][122]
This was an allusion to Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington's use of the epithet and his subsequent mandatory "psychological assessment" imposed by ABC executives.[123][124] This comment was widely interpreted as meaning that Coulter had called Edwards a "faggot",[125] but Coulter has argued on a couple of occasions that she didn't actually do so, while simultaneously indicating she would not have been wrong to say it.[126][127]
The audience laughed, but Edwards responded on his website by characterizing Coulter's words as "un-American and indefensible" and asking readers to help him "raise $100,000 in 'Coulter Cash' this week to keep this campaign charging ahead and fight back against the politics of bigotry."[128] Coulter's words also drew condemnation from many prominent Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians, as well as groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).[128][129][130][131] Coulter responded in an e-mail to the New York Times: "Cmon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean."[129] She also posted a response on her website: "I'm so ashamed, I can't stop laughing!"[132]
On March 5, 2007, Coulter appeared on Hannity and Colmes and said, "[f]aggot isn't offensive to gays; it has nothing to do with gays. It's a schoolyard taunt meaning 'wuss'".[70]
In response to this issue, three advertisers (Verizon, Sallie Mae, and Netbank) pulled their advertisements from Coulter's website,[133] and several newspapers dropped Coulter's column.[134][135][136]
Responding to the controversy, Coulter has said:
Just for the record, I've never attempted to revise, or extend, nor have I apologized and the attempts to silence me have made me even more moneyThose newspapers pay me about 25 cents per month, but I picked up a LOT of speechesAttempts to censor me have really backfired.[137][citation needed]
She also said, "I wasn't saying it on TV. I was saying it at a right-wing political convention with 7,000 college Republicans. I didn't put it on TV." The CPAC convention was, in fact, broadcast on C-SPAN. In an interview with Glenn Beck, she said, "Sarah Silverman uses the word, and, oh, liberals don't mind it when she uses it."[138]
This controversy revived an earlier dispute originating from a 2003 column where Coulter disparaged Democratic Presidential candidates who mention family tragedies in their campaign speeches including Edwards, who, she stated, talks frequently about the death of his son Wade in a traffic accident. [6]
In a June 25, 2007 appearance on Good Morning America, Coulter said: "But about the same time, you know, Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack -- so I've learned my lesson: If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."[139]
The next day, on MSNBCs Hardball with Chris Matthews, Coulter received a phone call from Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards wife, asking her to stop the personal attacks and to stick to discussing the issues. Coulter responded, saying that the Edwards campaign was raising money off it and denied "saying anything about him [Edwards], actually, either time". Mrs. Edwards also confronted Coulter for writing that they had a bumper sticker on their car saying "Ask me about my dead son" in reference to the death of their son Wade. Coulter responded by characterizing Edwards' call as an attempt to silence her and by attacking Edwards for his activities as a trial lawyer.[140][141]
Coulter refused to apologize, and explained her response to Mrs. Edwards in a subsequent column: "Edwards is...the trial lawyer who pretended in court to channel the spirit of a handicapped fetus in front of illiterate jurors to scam tens of millions of dollars off of innocent doctors...Apparently every time Edwards began a story about his dead son with 'I've never told anyone this before,' everyone on the campaign could lip-sync the story with him." "If you want points for not using your son's death politically, don't you have to take down all those 'Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident' bumper stickers? Edwards is like a politician who keeps announcing that he will not use his opponent's criminal record for partisan political advantage." "As a commentator, I bring facts like these to the attention of the American people in a lively way."[139]
John Edwards responded by calling her a "she-devil". He immediately added, "I should not have name-called. But the truth is -- forget the names -- people like Ann Coulter, they engage in hateful language."[142]
Exoneration in voting fraud investigation
Beginning in February, 2006, Coulter was investigated for but not charged with voting fraud for registering with the address of her real estate agent and consequently voting in the wrong precinct, a third-degree felony in Florida.[143] In May 2007 Palm Beach County authorities declined to prosecute, citing 'insubstantial evidence' of deliberate wrongdoing. Jim Fitzgerald, an FBI profiler, had told the investigating detective that Coulter had reason to fear a stalker.[144][145] Three months later it was revealed that the Florida Elections Commission had assigned an investigator to further pursue the question.[146] In December 2007, Florida Elections Commission investigators found no probable cause to believe that Coulter willfully violated the law in this matter.[147]
Disenfranchisement of women
TIME Magazine's John Cloud observes that Coulter "likes to shock reporters by wondering aloud whether America might be better off if women lost the right to vote."[4] For example, in a May 2003 interview with The Guardian, Coulter said.[5]
"...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.
[148]
Wikinews has related news:
Ann Coulter: Take away women's votes because "women are voting so stupidly"
Again, in an October 2007 interview with the New York Observer, Coulter said:[149]
"If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.
"It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it's the party of women and 'We'll pay for health care and tuition and day care -- and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?'"
Comments about Jews on The Big Idea
During an interview with Donny Deutsch on his CNBC program The Big Idea (8 October 2007), Coulter stated that the United States is a Christian nation and suggested Christians viewed themselves as "perfected Jews".[150] Deutsch, a practicing Jew, told Coulter he found the comments personally offensive and anti-semitic; Coulter replied that she could not understand his reaction.
DEUTSCH: You said -- your exact words were, "Jews need to be perfected." Those are the words out of your mouth.[151]
COULTER: No, I'm saying that's what a Christian is.
DEUTSCH: But that's what you said -- don't you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic --
COULTER: No!
DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You're an educated woman. How do you not see that?
COULTER: That isn't hateful at all.
DEUTSCH: But that's even a scarier thought. OK -
COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don't want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean (Jerry) Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is "Christ died for our sins." We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian(sic) is not offensive at all.
In an interview published in Adweek three days after the interview, Deutsch noted that when he challenged her comments, Coulter appeared "to back off" and "seemed a little upset", adding, "I think she got frightened that maybe she had crossed a line, that this was maybe a faux pas of great proportions. I mean, did it show ignorance? Anti-Semitism? It wasn't just one of those silly things."[152]
Dennis Prager, a conservative talk show host, commented that although, as a practicing Jew, he obviously did not agree with Coulter's theology, her comments were not anti-semitic.[153] He noted that: "There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?"[154] Conservative activist David Horowitz's reaction was similar: "If you don't accompany this belief by burning Jews who refuse to become perfected at the stake why would any Jew have a problem?... Why do some Jews think that Christians should not really believe what they believe while it's okay for Jews to really believe they are God's Chosen People? I don't get it."[155]
In response to Coulter's comments on the show, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns Ann Coulter for her anti-Semitic comment", and that to "espouse the idea that Judaism needs to be replaced with Christianity and that each individual Jew is somehow deficient and needs to be 'perfected,' is rank Christian supersessionism and has been rejected by the Catholic Church and the vast majority of mainstream Christian denominations."[156] The American Jewish Committee issued a statement asserting that "Ms. Coulter's assertion that Jews are somehow religiously imperfect smacks of the most odious anti-Jewish sentiment."[157] The National Jewish Democratic Council, self identified as "the national voice of Jewish Democrats",[158] called on media outlets to stop inviting Coulter as a guest commentator/pundit."[158][157] _________________
Yeah....Ann Coulter is one of those people that 'normal' Christians look at and say "oy vey". She really makes us look bad by identifying with us. Just so everyone knows, that's NOT what Christians are supposed to act like!! It's the looney ones that tend to get on TV the most. _________________ It's just four more miles. Everybody smile!
What a crazy bitch. People like her are EXACTLY the reason why I hate America and Christianity in general.
The media blow shit up like this Christofanatic person to instill fear within the public and get them to "believe" in Christianity more. Sad thing is...
It's actually working.
And she's not fired because she's a conservative fascist. If she was liberal, she'd be branded "commie" so fast, it would make God's head spin.
The Bible is really a guidebook on who to live one's live really, same thing with Quran, Buhhda's teachings, Hinduism "Om", etc. Problem is, with all the different "sections" of Christianity, things tend to become a little...shall we say...
I never even knew of this person befroe. I was just looking it up because some crazy lady at the pizza place was babbling about it and I couldn'gt help but overhear and had to stop myself from laughing. _________________
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She really makes us look bad by identifying with us. Just so everyone knows, that's NOT what Christians are supposed to act like!! It's the looney ones that tend to get on TV the most.
