USA Today Dumps Ann Coulter

July 27, 2004 10:34 AM

USA Today Dumps Ann Coulter
Citing editorial differences, USA Today dropped Ann Coulter's column before it even began in the paper.

The disputed column on www.anncoulter.com begins "Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston" and devolves rapidly into a bitter little snark against Democrats. I wonder why USA Today had a problem with it?

It ends with "I'd say I love all these Democrats in Boston so much I want them to go home, but I don't. I want Americans to get a good long look at the French Party and keep the 7-11 challenge in mind."
posted by fenriq (139 comments total)

Her 7-11 challenge is her idea of proving that Democrats aren't even bright enough to run a 7-11 for 8 hours without being robbed or blowing the place up. To which I would ask, do you think Bush or Cheney or Rummy would fare any better? Bush would fall asleep at the register, Cheney would shoot anyone who walked in the door after telling them to "Go F**k themselves" and Rummy would just glare them into a puddle of flesh on the ground.

Didn't think it was appropriate to post that part in the FPP.
posted by fenriq at 10:35 AM on July 27, 2004

Just have to wait and see if they continue with plans to have Michael Moore cover the Republican convention; I'm sure he'll be much more sane.

But regardless of whether it puts them in a bind elsewhere, I'm glad they showed the sense to not run this.
posted by obfusciatrist at 10:38 AM on July 27, 2004

Let this mark the high water point of such hate speech in recent American history.
posted by troutfishing at 10:38 AM on July 27, 2004

*groan* What did they expect? Maybe she hoped to get canned, in the hope that people would start talking about her like they did back in her "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity" salad days.

I used to get up a good head of indignant steam reading her columns, before I realized they weren't worth the energy.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:39 AM on July 27, 2004

shes just as bad as michael moore -- buncha fucking hacks
posted by Satapher at 10:41 AM on July 27, 2004

Taking cheap shots at Ann Coulter (or other fanatics, left wing or right) -- be my guest. Taking cheap shots at Bush & co. -- well, remember who still runs this country at least until November. People who support Bush obviously won't appreciate cheap shots, and people against him need to take him seriously if they hope to win the election.
posted by caveday at 10:44 AM on July 27, 2004

Kerry had to apologize for Whoopi Goldberg and Margaret Cho was dropped from the billing in Boston.
Will Ahnold ever apologize to the California Dems, will Bush ever apologize for Cheney and Ann Coulter? Will FOX News ever drop her from the lineup?
Or more importantly will the media harp at BushCo and the FAUX News until they also relent?
No? I didn't think so.
And these are the same people who called the Dem fund raiser a "hate fest" over and over and over on their favorite media channels and through their favorite talking heads, err, stenographers.
Damn French loving liberal media! Denying a bony-assed SS her rightful place!
I always think of David Brock when he said she lived on chardonnay and cigarettes looking at her ugly self.
posted by nofundy at 10:46 AM on July 27, 2004

What I find incredibly irritating is the press harping on Teresa Heinz-Kerry for her "Shove it" comment to a wanker journalist who was being a prick and they give a pass to Dick Cheney for telling Leahy to "Fuck himself" on the floor of the Senate.

The double standard is appalling.
posted by fenriq at 10:49 AM on July 27, 2004

There's absolutely no way Michael Moore ever comes close to the venom and slander of Coulter. A very poor comparison satapher.

Where are the cheap shots at Bush caveday? Unless you consider the truth to now be cheap. Seems to me BushCo lies are what is cheap and plentiful.
posted by nofundy at 10:52 AM on July 27, 2004

its going to turn out she's on meth or crack. and it will all make sense... untill then, i will file this away into my head-scratcher file. wtf is wrong with this women?

"HAHA liberal girls have small bewbies!"
penis jokes for women... mature.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 10:52 AM on July 27, 2004

sure shes more of a bitch -- but the premise is the same -- manipulation
posted by Satapher at 10:55 AM on July 27, 2004

Does it seem to anyone else like she never really wanted the USA Today gig? She certainly didn't shy away from the publicity it might have afforded her, sure, but judging from the article's tone it sounded like she knew her days as a writer there would be numbered so she shot the moon at the first opportunity. In any case, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Denying a bony-assed SS her rightful place!
I always think of David Brock when he said she lived on chardonnay and cigarettes looking at her ugly self.

I love how when folks criticize Michael Moore's weight, it's called totally irrelevant, but when it comes to Ann Coulter: OMFG what a skeleton she is!! Eat a sandwich! ROFLMAO
posted by dhoyt at 10:55 AM on July 27, 2004

That 7-11 challenge is interesting, because it has been my opinion that anyone who has read a goddam newspaper in the past 4 years couldn't possibly vote for Bush. Look at what he has done with foreign policy, the economy, the environment, our civil liberties... I could go on for hours.

There was an online poll in an MSNBC article asking who people would vote for for President, and Kerry led by like 9 percentage points. I smiled, because it was polling people that were *gasp* reading the news! (I understand online polls aren't near accurate, but it was enough to draw a smile from my face.)
posted by banished at 10:57 AM on July 27, 2004

Maybe she hoped to get canned, in the hope that people would start talking about her...

Well remember what Wilde said: "The only thing worse than being talked about, is being a totally batshit psuedopundit with all the charisma and style of a rabid pitbull. Oh, and not being talked about sucks, too."
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:58 AM on July 27, 2004

Million Dollar Idea for a Reality TV Show:
Make Michael Moore and Ann Coulter switch diets for a week.
©2004 Wendell Wittler, Fahrenheit 350 for 45 Minutes Until a Golden Brown Productions.
posted by wendell at 11:04 AM on July 27, 2004

Not even close, Satapher. Comparing Moore to Coulter is like comparing a guy who runs his lawn mower at 6:00 am to one who drives a dumptruck full of flaming manure through your living room window.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:14 AM on July 27, 2004

Cheap shot = imagining how Bush and friends would run a 7-11. Only serves to inflame the debate, IMHO, and it's beside the point. Obviously there is a huge difference in scale and complexity between a 7-11 and the presidency -- but I fail to see why knowing the intricacies of donuts, coffee and slurpies should be a requirement for running the country.

In case anyone cares, I am not a Bush supporter, nor ever have been.
posted by caveday at 11:15 AM on July 27, 2004

Hasn't someone shot Ann Coulter yet?

Well, why not? I mean, I know my birthday is coming up, but y'all don't have to wait that long, honest.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:16 AM on July 27, 2004

Ann, if you're reading this, I hereby withdraw my offer. You're just too fucking psycho.

Best wishes,

Crash
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:18 AM on July 27, 2004

EB, it's hardly necessary or even called for to shoot her, and it's not particularly funny to suggest it.

It's blatantly obvious that the thing she's most terrified of is being ignored. And she knows very well that if she ever tones it down, that's precisely what will happen; she'll be ignored and forgotten. Because when you take away the obscenely venomous spewing, she's got nothing. And she knows it.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:23 AM on July 27, 2004

Why not link to the column, which is pure verbal adrenalin, jet fuel, and rock-and-effing-roll. Take that job and shove it, USA Today, you airport lobby rag! Coulter rides again!

Put The Speakers In A Cage - Ann Coulter

[NSFGM] = Not Safe For Girlie Men.
posted by hama7 at 11:25 AM on July 27, 2004

There really isn't a liberal counterpart to Ann Coulter. Not since GG Allin died, anyway.
posted by jpoulos at 11:25 AM on July 27, 2004

I got through about half of the non-stop bile spew of a column before I threw in the towel. Seems to me like she was damaged in her past in some way, a dark childhood or something.
posted by wsg at 11:26 AM on July 27, 2004

caveday, the reason its in the thread is because its what Coulter accuses the Democrats of being unable to do. And you are right, being able to run a 7-11 has nothing to do with being able to run the country so why would Coulter be using it to fan the divisive flames?

And what's run with turning the tables and saying that none of her heroes could do what she says the Dems can't do either?

On preview: hama7, I'd try and discuss it with you but you're obviously off your meds again and beyond any rational thought. Coulter is a boil on the ass of humanity, she lives for reaction, she needs the attention or she'll just wither away and get blown out to sea.
posted by fenriq at 11:29 AM on July 27, 2004

I know we should all be beyond Ann Coulter by now, but it still boggles my mind that a reasonably intelligent/educated (JD, UofM law school) can make an such ass of herself time and again so shamelessly and in so public a fashion. It's a good thing that she still has some money left to keep herself bathed as well as having a roof over her head, because if she were left to her own devices to rant about "liberal treason" on streetcorners, the authorities would be left with no choice but to put her away.
posted by psmealey at 11:31 AM on July 27, 2004

The rumor I've heard (and it may be just that, a rumor) is that Coulter refused to let editors touch her column at all. The E&P article linked in the FPP says:

"It was just differences over editing of a fairly ordinary kind," said USA Today Editorial Page Editor Brian Gallagher. "We had some different conceptions of what the column should be, we tried to work them out and when we couldn't, we decided the best course of action was for us to go our own ways."

The plan to have Coulter take shots at the DNC got off to a delayed start after editors held her first column, slated for Monday morning's print edition, asking that she make changes to it before it ran.

"Ms. Coulter filed a column for today's paper and our editors made some suggestions and asked her to consider them," USA Today spokesman Steve Anderson said early Monday. "But by that point it was late in the day (Sunday) and there was no rush to get it in the paper, so we decided to hold it for a day." Anderson would not discuss the content of the column.

It sounds as if the decision had nothing to do with the content of Ann Coulter's column as much as her refusal to go along with standard newspaper editing. (I mean, if you're gonna hire Ann Coulter, you already know what her style's like. Her views were a surprise to no one, I'm assuming.)
posted by Vidiot at 11:35 AM on July 27, 2004

George, I wasn't trying to be funny—I was trying to be helpful. I thought someone just needed a little encouragement. Sheesh.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:36 AM on July 27, 2004

Coulter is very useful because she is an American right-winger who, for a change, is very sincere about freely expressing her darker thoughts.

so she is usually my goto example when non-USian friends ask me about what American right-wingers think -- there she is with the jingoism, the blind love for authoritarian solutions, the shaky knowledge of not-very-hard-to-grasp issues (like American history), the hate for diversity and for civil rights and for modernity. the sheer thirst for Muslim blood, in order to avenge 9-11 no matter what, no matter whose innocent blood is finally shed.

so I'm grateful for Coulter -- and for some of our MeFi "conservative" friends, too, of course.

it's nice to see right-wing thought unfiltered, for a change.
posted by matteo at 11:38 AM on July 27, 2004

she lives for reaction, she needs the attention or she'll just wither away and get blown out to sea.

Wishful thinking, and if true, ironic that you'd give her more attention by slapping a post about it on MetaFilter, thereby guaranteeing her even more publicity. Thanks.

Thank God she did get dropped from USA Today so now everybody gets to read this rare gem of distilled pristine brilliance, effulgent radiance, and unabashed dead-on indomitability.

But then, you knew I'd say that.
posted by hama7 at 11:39 AM on July 27, 2004

Gee, I was gonna vote for Kerry, but now that I know every sorority girl in Boston is rolling her eyes at the Convention, I must immediately change my position. Thank god for this brilliant political mind, without whom we would all be lost.
posted by junkbox at 11:45 AM on July 27, 2004

"I probably will grow tired of PredictaFilter, and join the ranks of the fourteen thousand nine hundred ninety-nine who couldn't care less." -hama, from a CoulterFilter thread two years ago.

You tease.

People just won't stop taking your bait, will they? You're excellent at what you do, hama.
posted by Fenriss at 11:52 AM on July 27, 2004

hama7 is a boil on the ass of humanity, he lives for reaction, he needs the attention or he'll just wither away and get blown out to sea.
posted by mr.marx at 11:59 AM on July 27, 2004

*sigh*. Ya' know what would be funny is someone as insane as this twit who can actually write weell, but still not compelled to lie about their true beliefs and intentions in order to stay in the media.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:59 AM on July 27, 2004

It all reads as parody to me. Possible editorial comments from USA Today at http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=4610
posted by armacy at 12:01 PM on July 27, 2004

Ann who?
posted by McBain at 12:01 PM on July 27, 2004

Not since GG Allin died, anyway.

At least someone's still taking a shit in public. I can't get enough of that. It's unlikely she'll ever get a Drive-by Truckers song named after her though.
posted by yerfatma at 12:03 PM on July 27, 2004

USA Today editors deserve Coulter. Judging from this look at the edits requested by USA Today, both parties deserve to be marooned on a desert island together.
posted by twsf at 12:04 PM on July 27, 2004

What a fucking cunt.

BTW, why is no one linking to USA Today's article about it? It includes this sweet gem:

Brian Gallagher, editor of USA TODAY's editorial page, ... said the column had "basic weaknesses in clarity and readability that we found unacceptable."

posted by mkultra at 12:06 PM on July 27, 2004

Seems to me like she was damaged in her past in some way, a dark childhood or something.

ding!
posted by petebest at 12:15 PM on July 27, 2004

Ya' know what would be funny is someone as insane as this twit who can actually write weell, but still not compelled


That was Irony......yes?
posted by dhoyt at 12:18 PM on July 27, 2004

hama7's being sarcastic, right? Right?
posted by casarkos at 12:18 PM on July 27, 2004

For those who would like to tar all of the US right-wing with Coulter's venomous spewage, I think it's only fair to point out that National Review, the main and most respected weekly conservative magazine, banned and denounced Coulter almost three years ago. Editor Jonah Goldberg wrote a really scathing take-down of her (I love the "thin blonde line" bit), listing their reasons for firing her. Some of them (the refusal to let editors actually edit her work, for example) sound like the exact same problems that have cropped up with regards to the USA Today flap:

"What publication on earth would continue a relationship with a writer who would refuse to discuss her work with her editors? What publication would continue to publish a writer who attacked it on TV? What publication would continue to publish a writer who lied about it — on TV and to a Washington Post reporter?...

What's Ann's take on all this? Well, she told the Washington Post yesterday that she loves it, because she's gotten lots of great publicity. That pretty much sums Ann up...

Ann — a self-described "constitutional lawyer" — volunteered on Politically Incorrect that our "censoring" of her column was tantamount to "repealing the First Amendment." Apparently, in Ann's mind, she constitutes the thin blonde line between freedom and tyranny, and so any editorial decision she dislikes must be a travesty...

To be honest, even though there's a lot more that could be said, I have no desire to get any deeper into this because, like with a Fellini movie, the deeper you get, the less sense Ann makes."

Again, the main conservative mouthpiece magazine write all this three years ago. I think it's fair to say that, relatively speaking, Coulter has been more isolated and denounced by the Right than Michael Moore has been by the Left.
posted by Asparagirl at 12:28 PM on July 27, 2004

Good link from armacy. In case there was any lingering doubt, she really has lost it. Here she is referring to herself in the 1st person singular, 1st person plural and the 3rd person singular, all in the same piece.
posted by psmealey at 12:32 PM on July 27, 2004

Tangent: Could someone please explain the term "pie wagon" in the context she's using?
...somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call "women"...
I get the rest of the insults, but that part mystifies me.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 12:32 PM on July 27, 2004

no, dhoyt, I really would enjoy reading creative hatre speech for entertainment, if it's done well. Coulter doesn't quite cut it as a writer, unfortunately.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:34 PM on July 27, 2004

It's unlikely she'll ever get a Drive-by Truckers song named after her though.

That song is awesome.
posted by mr.marx at 12:36 PM on July 27, 2004

relatively speaking, Coulter has been more isolated and denounced by the Right than Michael Moore has been by the Left.

That dog won't hunt, folks. Unless you believe Moore's speaking on bahalf of poor people is on the same plane as "kill them all and convert the rest to christianity" or "my only regret with mcveigh is that he didn't blow up the new york times building"? Do you believe that concern for the less fortunate is the same thing as wishing certain people were dead? If so, go ahead and equate the two of them, otherwise don't make yourself look stupid.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:37 PM on July 27, 2004

Has Ann Coulter ever been in a 7-11? What would she buy there?
posted by fungible at 12:41 PM on July 27, 2004

For those who would like to tar all of the US right-wing with Coulter's venomous spewage

Thanks for this, Asparagirl. And I definitely do not mean to thus tar. I may have missed something, but I think so far most people are saying that Coulter is a liability to the right.

I have to wonder if her intention is to present her views in such a nauseating and extreme manor precisely for the purpose of breaking down any meaningful dialog between the two ends of the political spectrum. Maybe the tactic is meant to keep folks on the left from wanting to even approach people further right, thereby preventing the right's platform from becoming "tainted" with a moderate influence?

Or maybe she's just a narcissist whack job. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that nobody thinks she speaks for all conservatives.
posted by Fenriss at 12:44 PM on July 27, 2004

Ha, I just read in twsf's link that the conservative columnist replacing Coulter in USA Today will be...Jonah Goldberg!

SpaceCoyote-- My analogy is not about the content of their arguments--though I think there is far more malice and distortion to Moore's work than just some "speaking on behalf of poor people" sainthood--but rather with how each of those two extreme figures has been embraced (or not) by the other people within their political groups. I don't recall many left-wing groups or publications outright denouncing Moore in quite the same way. In fact, he sat in the Presidential box at the Democratic National Convention just last night.
posted by Asparagirl at 12:44 PM on July 27, 2004

it's only fair to point out that National Review, the main and most respected weekly conservative magazine,

excuse me, are you talking about the rag that ran the famous line

"The Abu Ghraib "scandal": Good. Kick one for me."

are you a fan of rape rooms for children, too, LikudGirl?
most respected weekly indeed. nice try tho.


I love the "thin blonde line" bit

heh. a good test, really. wouldn't you be offended if somebody checked out your blog, dug up your pic, made a snarky comment re your physical appearance instead of attacking your arguments? because that's exactly what your Goldberg buddy just did. classic right-wing, sexist tactic.
if "the thin blonde line" is funny -- would calling you, say, the "fat dark line" be funny as well? I think it'd be unforgivable, but then, I'm a liberal.
you can destroy Coulter all day long without mentioning her looks.


Coulter has been more isolated and denounced by the Right than Michael Moore has been by the Left

ah, again, the wingnut's favorite bogeyman... no matter how hard you try, Moore does not equal Coulter. just doesn't. I know that you're all scared shitless by a liberal who, for once, screams "fuck the PBS' good manners" and uses the same FOXNews/talk radio tactics you guys employ every day. I know he scares you. he's a liberal who just won't play by polite rules. journalistic integrity? well, certainly more than the beloved-by-wingnuts Matt Drudge.
oh, the smell of fear...
posted by matteo at 12:45 PM on July 27, 2004

"Anyway, I think it's safe to say that nobody thinks she speaks for all conservatives"

so she is usually my goto example when non-USian friends ask me about what American right-wingers think -- there she is with the jingoism, the blind love for authoritarian solutions, the shaky knowledge of not-very-hard-to-grasp issues (like American history), the hate for diversity and for civil rights and for modernity. the sheer thirst for Muslim blood, in order to avenge 9-11 no matter what, no matter whose innocent blood is finally shed . . . it's nice to see right-wing thought unfiltered, for a change. -matteo

I think that's what asparagirl may be referring to, Fenriss
posted by Stauf at 12:49 PM on July 27, 2004

In fact, he sat in the Presidential box at the Democratic National Convention just last night.

ah, good LikudGirl, quickly catchin' up with the GOP/Drudge talking point of the day...
let's see:


But, anyway, since drudge is excited that Michael Moore sat in a "presidential box," I'll report that story as far as I know it. The skyboxes are only accessable through a fairly well-guarded separate escalator. The corridor outside the skybox was more mobbed and more chaotic than just about anywhere else in the convention - unsurprisingly everyone's trying to scam their way into there, and it was a bit full. From what I understand, Moore's gang was wondering around trying to find a skybox they were supposed to go to and someone in the Carter box pulled them in. So, this was not a case of "Jimmy Carter invites Moore to his box." I don't think Carter knew he was there until he arrived about an hour or more after he gave his speech.

posted by matteo at 12:50 PM on July 27, 2004

She called it the Spawn of Satan convention! Get it? Because she doesn't like Democrats!

I'm not surprised that the same people who see this unfunny piece of crap and see "a rare gem of distilled pristine brilliance, effulgent radiance, and unabashed dead-on indomitability" also look at Bush and see someone who is doing a great job as president.
posted by turaho at 12:56 PM on July 27, 2004

Well, great minds do think alike, after all:

LikudGirl on MeFi two minutes ago:

"In fact, he sat in the Presidential box at the Democratic National Convention just last night."

Republican Sen Norm Coleman in the AP, 8 minutes ago:

"We had Michael Moore in the presidential box, someone who said Americans are stupid," Coleman said. "Michael Moore sits with President Jimmy Carter in his box. Is that the foreign policy coming out of this convention?"
posted by matteo at 12:56 PM on July 27, 2004

Jesus, matteo, could you lay off just once?
posted by deadcowdan at 1:00 PM on July 27, 2004

I gotta say Coulter is amazing. There are few people in the world I dislike so much and have so much pity for as Ann. I can not stand listening or Reading her, but seriously wonder if she truly believes what she says or is it like WWF wrestling? I suppose this is the point of feminism, in order to not stand in the way of women behave as bad (or as good) as men in a public setting. Which cracks me up, I would consider her as being a feminist (in ways), because of what she does...
posted by edgeways at 1:02 PM on July 27, 2004

Did Michael Moore literally say "Americans are stupid"? Or is this just right-wing hyperbole?
posted by Fenriss at 1:07 PM on July 27, 2004

jpoulos, I'm with you. I miss the clarity of vision and moral activism of GG Allin.
posted by chicobangs at 1:08 PM on July 27, 2004

I suppose this is the point of feminism, in order to not stand in the way of women behave as bad (or as good) as men in a public setting. Which cracks me up, I would consider her as being a feminist (in ways), because of what she does...

Um… what?
posted by Fenriss at 1:10 PM on July 27, 2004

She called it the Spawn of Satan convention! Get it? Because she doesn't like Democrats!

Seriously. That sounds like something a 12 year old n*sync fan would write about on her blog about the backstreet boys.
posted by jpoulos at 1:12 PM on July 27, 2004

Moore does not equal Coulter.

True. In fact, the closest to an inverse-equivalent of Coulter who springs readily to mind and can match her shrill, insulting, bratty psuedopunditry might be....well....YOU, matteo.
posted by dhoyt at 1:18 PM on July 27, 2004

Has Ann Coulter ever been in a 7-11? What would she buy there?

Cigarettes and diet Mountain Dew, of course.

The 7-11 challenge is pretty funny, actually, because I sincerely doubt that she has a clue what it would be like to work in a sebben lebbin. Or work, period, for that matter.
posted by lodurr at 1:20 PM on July 27, 2004

but seriously wonder if she truly believes what she says or is it like WWF wrestling?

I've always compared her to a WWF wrestling cutting a promo. She gives the people what they want--whatever they want.
posted by jpoulos at 1:21 PM on July 27, 2004

I've always thought of Coulter as the Jello Biafra of the Right.
posted by bshort at 1:23 PM on July 27, 2004

The problem is a good many people do take her seriously. My IT guy at work worships her and has her books proudly displayed on his shelf. He'll proudly say that she has 'footnotes' backing up all of her points.

The other problem is that her writing is compared as the right-wing equivalent to people like Michael Moore and Al Franken. That she gets any attention at all is a pathetic reflection of our culture.
posted by batboy at 1:25 PM on July 27, 2004

I don't recall many left-wing groups or publications outright denouncing Moore in quite the same way.

Wasn't Michael Moore fired very publicly from The Nation years ago?
posted by jpoulos at 1:28 PM on July 27, 2004

Or maybe she's just a narcissist whack job.

That's about my take on it.

Anyway, I think it's safe to say that nobody thinks she speaks for all conservatives.

I hope not--there are miles of road in both substance and style between her and a John McCain or a William F. Buckley, to name just two. And speaking as a semi-conservative woman, it galls me to see her get fawned over by the GOP for being (basically) vicious, blonde, and near-anorexic. We have precious few national-level female role models over on this side of the fence as it is; I don't want her held up as some shining example of what a semi-conservative woman can hope to aspire to. Give me a frumpy-but-smart-and-accomplished Margaret Thatcher anyday.

are you a fan of rape rooms for children, too, LikudGirl?

matteo, do you really have to jump all over any comment I make in any thread? This is getting both silly and kinda stalkerish. Besides, your foaming at the mouth is distracting you from the easy-to-find answers to your half-baked questions:

- You link leads to one NR guy's (disgusting) post in their group blog, not a column or editorial, and not a view the magazine seems to share in any offical capacity.
- If you actually wanted to know my take on Abu Ghraib, and weren't just trying to make yet another waaaay-out-of-line comment, you might have seen this MeFi comment about it. You know, the one that actually helped provide some proof that Rumsfeld et al were possibly trying to orchestrate a cover-up and how sickening I found that.
- NR is the most respected and widely-read weekly on right-wing issues in the US, and I listed it as thus to distinguish it from other influential US political publications, like the Weekly Standard or the New Republic or the Nation. Whether or not you agree with NR's opinions is unrelated to its indisputable circulation figures (or its web version's hit count). Or, again, that it banned Coulter three years ago.

you can destroy Coulter all day long without mentioning her looks.

Fair point, but you could say the same about many left-wing writings or books like "Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot" or "Stpud White Men" which also resort to looks/gender/weight-centrism to make money and advance their own political agendas.
posted by Asparagirl at 1:36 PM on July 27, 2004

Moore was fired from Mother Jones, not The Nation.
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:45 PM on July 27, 2004

Is she still dating a Muslim guy?
posted by euphorb at 1:50 PM on July 27, 2004

I don't want her held up as some shining example of what a semi-conservative woman can hope to aspire to


then complain to your fellow right-winger men. I'm sure they're very sensitive about sexism, they'll listen. they're the ones buying her books after all, hundreds of thousands of them.
and please don't mention Thatcher -- she's too old skool, not nearly as right-wing (or in love with budget-busting) as it is required these days in Republican circles. she's no Macmillan, OK, but certainly no Dick Cheney either.

do you really have to jump all over any comment I make in any thread? This is getting both silly and kinda stalkerish

well, you wish I was interested enough in you to take the trouble to "stalk" you. I was commenting in this thread already, and I just can't give you a free pass when you drop several whoppers -- why should I?
Be ready to defend your arguments. or did I hurt your feelings? Allah knows you can be very tough when cheering for the neocon cause du jour. be ready to defend your arguments. at least with me you won't have to worry about "thin blonde line" crap.
and anyway I'd ignore if you were a troll or unintelligent or both. you're clearly neither of these, so I'm not ignoring you. mostly.

your foaming at the mouth

I'm not, not at all, I'm having fun -- I mean, when your opponent says that the National Review is "most respected", you just sense fish in a barrel.

Whether or not you agree with NR's opinions is unrelated to its indisputable circulation figures (or its web version's hit count)
Coulter's Treason sold 600,000 copies. did hama7 buy all of them? he can't possibly be that rich. the American right just loves her, AsparaGirl. live with it. I know you feel uncomfortable with them. that's why there's still hope for you. also, Coulter sells much more than National Review. her brand of Republicanism is winning. Teddy Roosevelt is dead. Tom DeLay owns your asses now.
scary huh? Bull Moose, anybody?

Wasn't Michael Moore fired very publicly from The Nation years ago?

it was Mother Jones
posted by matteo at 1:52 PM on July 27, 2004

"I love bureaucrats at the National Endowment of the Arts funding crucifixes submerged in urine so much -- I think they should go home."

Wow. 1989. Way to stay current and relevent, Annie.
posted by grabbingsand at 1:52 PM on July 27, 2004

If she weren't so filled with hate that her sweat is probably acidic and if she ate a bit and filled out her bird leg arms then she would actually be an attractive woman.

As it is, she's like getting a nicely wrapped box of shit for Christmas. It looks nice under the tree but sucks when you look closer.

My problem with Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and other completely off-their-rocker-and-facts GOP mouthpieces is that people DO listen to them uncritically. They just accept what they have to say without even thinking about it like batboy mentions above.

They're hypocritical, divisive and just plain wrong most of the time. And people just eat it up because they say what the people want to believe and this validates their foregone conclusions.
posted by fenriq at 1:53 PM on July 27, 2004

So nobody's gonna answer Ghostinthemachine? I was wondering the same thing. But I have resolved henceforward that I will always and only refer to Ms. Coulter, if and when she needs refering to, as "pie wagon." I encourage you to join me.
posted by soyjoy at 1:56 PM on July 27, 2004

"do you really have to jump all over any comment I make in any thread?"
when i was in grade school there was one girl in particular i used to tease and torment. Turned out it was because I liked her but didn't quite understand the feelings going on inside my tiny little head. See it for what it is, be flattered and don't take it personal. :)
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 2:06 PM on July 27, 2004

...off-their-rocker-and-facts GOP mouthpieces...

Folks like Rush and Annie and O'Reilly make me nostalgic for Buchanan, McLaughlin and Buckley.

Buchanan might very well hold you in contempt and find you unworthy to share air with Real Americans, but at least he'd understand why he thought that. The current crop of right-wing ur-pundits have about as much capacity for self-examination as a billiard ball.

McLaughlin might shout at you until he's hoarse, but he'd expect the same in return (and would probably be disappointed if he didn't get it).

Buckley would eviscerate you so elegantly that you wouldn't realize your intestines were trailing in the dirt until you slammed them in the car door. You could learn a few things from him, if even just about style.

But someone like Coulter...she really is like opening up the catholic school chess club to the girls who hung out to smoke behind the dumpsters. It turns into a bunch of snotty teenagers with inferiority complexes making up their own rules to guarantee that anyone who actually knows something about the game can't win. It's like a TEGWAR match, without the humor.
posted by lodurr at 2:11 PM on July 27, 2004

So nobody's gonna answer Ghostinthemachine?

it's new to me too. apparently, it's some type of hot rod, or a model of a hot rod. there also was apparently a 1904 Oldsmobile Pie Wagon, but i couldn't find a picture. i suppose it could also be a vehicle for delivering pies ...
posted by mrgrimm at 2:15 PM on July 27, 2004

" Did Michael Moore literally say "Americans are stupid"? Or is this just right-wing hyperbole?"

And then I wonder, if he did say it, whether the problem is that it's untrue, or that it shouldn't be said aloud.

Look at it this way, for example: A majority of people believed, and still believe an operational connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attack which supposedly, if true, justifies an attack on a country which killed three times the number of innocent civilians as 9/11 did.

Calling that *stupid* is, I think, excessively charitable.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 2:16 PM on July 27, 2004

So nobody's gonna answer Ghostinthemachine?

seriously? jeez.

pie is a euphemism for nooky, or more properly, vagina. the insult is an implication that she's little more than a mobile support infrastructure for her cunt.
posted by quonsar at 2:19 PM on July 27, 2004

"Pie Wagon" almost certainly was intended to convey the idea that the Democratic women were not walking bundles of sticks held together by their thinly stretched hides.

I think the delay in response was due to the fact that a phrase like '...somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call "women"...' is not something that a person whose momma raised him right would normally want to dignify with examination.

I guess maybe there's just some kind of general pass for things like that and referring repeatedly to a president's awkward teenage daughter as "the dog-faced girl". ("It's funny because her parents are Bad People!")

Or maybe it's just that all us "liberals" are so "PC" that we don't understand why it's funny to make grade-school jokes about body-odor and big hips, but it's unfair to turn that around on the accuser. Maybe it all translates to "MOM! HE'S COPYING MEEEEE!"

ON PREVIEW: Nah, quonsary, I'll stick with the weight reference. I think "slightly fragrant" was supposed to refer to their feminine hygeine. But then again, why would I expect Annie to avoid excess verbiage?
posted by lodurr at 2:21 PM on July 27, 2004

lodurr: The McLaughlin Group still shows every Sunday on PBS here in Dallas. Buchanan is a frequent guest. It's one of the few conservative political shows I can stomach.

As for Coulter: well, it'll be semi-entertaining to watch C-list celebrities cut her up in twenty years when VH-1 is talking about her on "I Love the 'Naughties".
posted by Ufez Jones at 2:22 PM on July 27, 2004

er, the insult is the implication that female democrats are little more than mobile support infrastructure for thier cunts.

any doubt left about her losing it?
posted by quonsar at 2:23 PM on July 27, 2004

Dude. Was that supposed to be a column? It reads like the ranting of a crazed lunatic. Forget that there is little-or-no actual constructive feedback in it, forget that it's mostly just party-line bluster designed to fire up folks on the right.

Forget all that, because it's just plain old shoddy writing. Unclear, rambling, useless, etc.
posted by jeremy at 2:30 PM on July 27, 2004

God what a fatty
posted by Keyser Soze at 2:38 PM on July 27, 2004

Please. Pie wagon.
posted by soyjoy at 2:46 PM on July 27, 2004

Pie Wagon: Well, according to this poorly designed website it means:

"One who has become the poster child for obesity by eating more pastries then one would've thought possible. The kind of person who has no limits and simply can't get enough when it comes to powdered donuts and chocolate cake, and other fattening desserts."
posted by jazon at 2:49 PM on July 27, 2004

I bet she could suck a golf ball through a garden hose if you could find her mouth
posted by Keyser Soze at 2:53 PM on July 27, 2004

I bet there's a portrait of her in an attic somewhere, aging, a little more full figured, less popular, but with a bit more soul... and not addicted to crystal meth.
posted by nath at 2:54 PM on July 27, 2004

this is what she wanted all along--she wrote a column she knew they wouldn't run, and she takes it and runs with it all over, playing her "liberal media is too chickenshit for the truth" angle as well as getting her column read by far more people than would have even seen it otherwise. It's incredibly badly written, as well as offensive--the badly written part is probably unintentional--the offensive part certainly is intended.
posted by amberglow at 3:04 PM on July 27, 2004

Someone ought to beat that self-serving smirk off her face.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:10 PM on July 27, 2004

thin blonde line

Matteo, I think this is a play on Thin Blue Line or Thin Red Line ("There is no retreat from here, men. You must die where you stand"). It's pretty clever if you imagine Ms. Coulter picturing herself and her typing practice as all that protects the 1st Amendment. The "thin" part is no more a reference to body weight than Blue or Red are references to Picts or American Indians.
posted by joaquim at 3:12 PM on July 27, 2004

I want to give her some truth serum and see if she's still the same spew happy fool or whether she would actually cop to just feeding the masses what they want to hear.
posted by fenriq at 3:22 PM on July 27, 2004

Oh, Fenriq, she believes it. In your heart of hearts, you know she does. Without the crutch of believing that the cops love her, that the pretty girls are her allies, and that she's actually a guardian of truth who's being down-trodden by all those pie-eating hippie chicks, she'd probably fall apart.
posted by lodurr at 3:28 PM on July 27, 2004

She might really believe it but I'd hope not. She's better educated than deluding herself so completely.
posted by fenriq at 3:34 PM on July 27, 2004

I've always thought of Coulter as the Jello Biafra of the Right

At least Jello had talent.
posted by adampsyche at 3:36 PM on July 27, 2004

And Jello was quick to criticize Clinton.
posted by Keyser Soze at 3:38 PM on July 27, 2004

After reading the column, I'm unsure if she actually attended the convention at all. I wonder if she pulled a Jason Blair? Anyway, I agree with quonsar's interpetation of 'pie-wagon' I remember this from third grade. (And it was funny then.)
posted by elwoodwiles at 3:39 PM on July 27, 2004

urban dictionary says it means fat chick.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 4:06 PM on July 27, 2004

It's pretty clear to me that Ann Coulter's mentally ill in a way the Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore just aren't. She hates her opponents so convincingly that I actually worry more about her than her targets. Sure it's fun to hate people, but when you seriously begin fixating on bombing newspapers and killing people, you have a pretty serious problem. I admit it, I really DON'T want our SOB of a president to be assassinated, nor do I want Fox News firebombed. The moment I think I do, I'll check myself into a clinic. I think Ann Coulter really does want Democrats and French people dead, and more than that, I think she spends all the time she should be eating fixed on her hatred.

Maybe she just needs a sandwich, but I suspect that she was fired for erratic behavior rather than "editorial differences". I'm perfectly content for her, FOX news, and GW to rot in bowels of some psychiatric hospital.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 4:16 PM on July 27, 2004

I just like saying "Pie Wagon". It doesn't need to make sense.

The Human Events Online version with the comments is priceless.
EYE-ROLLING? AT WHAT?
IS THAT LAST SENTENCE SARCASTIC? IF SO, YOU SURE LOST ME.
NOT FUNNY, I DON'T GET IT.
CLARIFY WHICH NUTS
I DON'T GET IT.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "THE FRENCH PARTY"? I DON'T GET IT.
posted by swell at 4:18 PM on July 27, 2004

I watched the convention on TV last night, and I saw a sea of American flags. And unless I'm mistaken, Bush lost the endorsement of a major police organization to Kerry several months back. So she wasn't there to see the flags on the chests of her allies, nor to feel the warm bosom kinship of her Boston PD buddies...

Anyway, it really doesn't matter. If someone testifies that she spent the whole day over at the Purple Pub drinking cosmopolitans, typing and retyping the column on her laptop, she can just cry out shrilly "Geez, you liberals don't even recognize satire when you see it! Can't you tell I was joking?!"

On Preview: Bill O'Reilly has the same illness. Just look at how rapidly and forcefully he goes off kilter when he's denied...
posted by lodurr at 4:20 PM on July 27, 2004

On the whole 7-11 issue:

As the first mba president, George W. Bush pledged to run the country like an efficient and profitable corporation.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:27 PM on July 27, 2004

i agree with the pie wagon = fat definition. AnnC definitely seems to have some body-image issues. the reference to the "pretty girls" are scary.
posted by mrgrimm at 4:30 PM on July 27, 2004

gesamtunstwerk: Funny you should mention it. I heard that one day she was walking down the street and a passerby shouted "Hey Coulter! Yer nuts!!!". She stopped abruptly and looked down at herself in sudden concern.

I guess that explains the adam's apple.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:33 PM on July 27, 2004

that woman is damaged goods...
posted by johnny vagabond at 4:43 PM on July 27, 2004

michael moore will apparently be on the o'reilly show tonight. sounds like fun for the whole family.
(drudge has a transcript, but I don't wanna link to him)
posted by mr.marx at 5:20 PM on July 27, 2004

Michael Moore about his fellow americans: "They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks."

source
posted by spacehug at 5:31 PM on July 27, 2004

with damn near 1/2 the country snuggling up to the BushCo buttcrack, how can you argue the point?
posted by quonsar at 5:53 PM on July 27, 2004

What a hateful cesspool of a thread. Yikes.

"They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks."

So you're disputing this?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:54 PM on July 27, 2004

[Please note: ironic comment to stern.]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:55 PM on July 27, 2004

"The Thin Red Line" reference is interesting. The term refers to the notorious Battle of Balaclava in 1853 where Scottish infantry successfully defended the port against a Russian cavalry charge. The battle is also famous for "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (which was a tactical disaster but not quite as bloody as the poetic propaganda that made it famous.)

What does not get mentioned in most of the official histories, is that an under-supplied and under-fed Turkish force held off the Russians under heavy fire for 4 hours until the British force engaged the Russians. "The Thin Red Line" of Argylls and Sutherlands was not quite so thin, having been reinforced by Turkish survivors of the Russian cannon barrage.

But of course, history is written by the newspapers. The fact that the British commander didn't reach his command post until late in the morning, hours after the start of the attack, is rarely mentioned. The Light Brigade and The Thin Red Line became symbols of honor and courage. The Empire managed to hold fast through sheer tenacity, in spite of the sheer incompetence that made the battle into a disaster.

The Turks were scapegoated for the disaster by both the military and the press. Their role in reinforcing the Scots was forgotten. So from a critical perspective, The Thin Red Line can be described as an example of an empire taking credit for a dubious achievement made necessary by incompetence, and made possible by the invisible little people who bore the brunt of it.

But on another note, I don't know what is more pathetic. Coultier taking pot-shots at women Democrats as unattractive, or the return file at Coltier's body image.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:56 PM on July 27, 2004

hama7 is a boil on the ass of humanity, he lives for reaction, he needs the attention or he'll just wither away and get blown out to sea.

I have a hard time with hama7's political viewpoints myself, but that rhetoric is so close to Coulter's that it's a bit frightening.
posted by weston at 5:56 PM on July 27, 2004

...when VH-1 is talking about her on "I Love the 'Naughties".

Except they'll have to call it "I Love The Dicketies," because Ken Lay stole our zeroes! (God bless you, Grampa Simpson.)

As far as the "pie wagons" thing goes, I don't think anybody ever explained the concept of "glass houses" to ol' Pony Rides.
posted by MrBadExample at 6:03 PM on July 27, 2004

KJS: It seems to me that the military history of the British Empire can be characterized in terms of incompetent command and political leadership, (usually) salvaged by superb field execution on the part of skilled professional soldiers and sailors.

Ring any bells?

It also always seemed to me that when you looked just a tiny bit beyond the bright red uniforms in the history book paintings, you could see the business interests looming. So when empire ultimately became bad for business, empire gave way to commerce. (But, of course, there was that invonenient little empire, first...)
posted by lodurr at 6:12 PM on July 27, 2004

Yo, spacehug, seriously, the Mirror? You do realize that's about as authoratative as the Onion right? Just look at their front page, featuring such groundbreaking journalism as:

"DRUG BUST GIRL: PRINCE EDWARD TOOK MY VIRGINITY"

"SMASH HIT FOR JAY KAY - Drunken Jamiroquai star Jay Kay is hit by a car at posh polo party"

"FARIA'S GUIDE ON HOW TO SNARE YOUR BOSS - FA secretary Faria Alam sent an explicit sex tips guide to girlfriends from her work email account"

"FA IS THE HOME OF REAL SEXY FOOTBALL - Once FA was full of middle-aged men with paunches -now girls outnumber guys and talk is about sex"

In fact, I tried to find the original source of the quote via google and couldn't find anything *not* citing the Mirror as the original source.

You may be interested to know that while I was at the grocer earlier buying a tomato and some mozzarella that I learned that Cameron Diaz swears that Justin Timberlake hasn't cheated on her and the Mars Rover found a tribe of Eskimos living on Mars's surface. I can't imagine why I can't find these stories on Google News.

Get some credibility, man.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:14 PM on July 27, 2004

Except they'll have to call it "I Love The Dicketies," because Ken Lay stole our zeroes! (God bless you, Grampa Simpson.)

Nice, MrBadExample...
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:16 PM on July 27, 2004

Note to self:
Move Ann Coulter up on my "Dead Pool" list to just under Courtney Love.
And not because anybody's going to give EB a birthday gify.
posted by wendell at 7:03 PM on July 27, 2004

I always knew we could out-Coulter Coulter. Has anyone called her an unattractive Spawn of Satan that needs to be caged yet?
posted by DaShiv at 8:00 PM on July 27, 2004

About a year ago, probably more, I went on a couple dates with a woman that had a big production-side role on the McLaughlin Group. Way liberal. Muttered into her drink about booking Chomsky. Said that most of the staff is female. Admired him for never buying the Bush line on Iraq, didn't like watching him age.
posted by NortonDC at 8:08 PM on July 27, 2004

Coulter's really just one more sign of the death of civil (in both senses of the word) discourse in America. No offense guys, I love you folks, but when your political "debate" as to the course the nation should take seriously involves books called things like "Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man" and screaming at one another on national television (i.e. every episode of Crossfire), you're in a bad spot.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 8:39 PM on July 27, 2004

Battle of Balaclava in 1853
It occurred in 1854.

not quite as bloody as the poetic propaganda
Tennyson's references to casualties consist of "not the six hundred" and "all those who were left, left of six hundred". The number of casualties is disputed, but almost everyone puts it in the 35 - 40% range. By contrast, 1 in 4 of the troops participating in the Battle of Antietam -- the bloodiest single day battle in the US Civil War -- were casualties.

Turkish force held off the Russians under heavy fire for 4 hours
The Russian attack began at 6 AM. They took the redoubt on Canrobert Hill by 8 AM and directed their artillery at the other redoubts. At this point, the Tunisians fled. (The force occupying the redoubts was made up of Tunisian camp workers. Technically, they were a Turkish force since they were part of the Ottoman empire, but they weren't strictly Turkish Turks. They weren't trained as soldiers, so hanging on for even 2 hours is remarkable.)

not quite so thin, having been reinforced by Turkish survivors of the Russian cannon barrage
The fighting in the redoubts was more than an artillery duel -- fighting was hand-to-hand and many of the defenders were killed after being taken prisoner. Cossacks were seen chopping off the arms of Tunisians trying to surrender. There were Turkish Turks in Campbell's force -- a battalion of them not previously involved in the battle. However, they were posted to the right of the 93rd with the Tunisians on the left. When Campbell moved the force to the reverse slope to avoid the Russian cannon, the unfortunate Tunisians misunderstood and many fled. Their ordeal wasn't over -- some of them trampled laundry at the 93rd camp and were beaten by an angry washerwoman with a big stick. When the Russian cavalry charged the center of the defense, Campbell formed the 93rd into a line two men deep -- the Thin Red Line.

the British commander didn't reach his command post until late in the morning
Both Lucan and Campbell -- appointed co-commanders of the field by Raglan -- were up and on duty before dawn that day. Raglan, the overall British commander, was on the field at 7 AM.
posted by joaquim at 9:54 PM on July 27, 2004

My problem with Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and other completely off-their-rocker-and-facts GOP mouthpieces is that people DO listen to them uncritically. They just accept what they have to say without even thinking about it

To be fair, the blame for this rests squarely upon those people, not those who rant for fame-and-dollars.
posted by rushmc at 10:40 PM on July 27, 2004

joaquin: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSNAP!

You gunna take that, Kirk?
posted by lazaruslong at 1:01 AM on July 28, 2004

I'm shocked that none of you seem to realise what a truly magnificent character actress the woman who plays Anne is. The way she parodies the right wing like that. Incredible.

She's one of the late, Johnny Speight's, best creations.
posted by Blue Stone at 2:41 AM on July 28, 2004

I hope she implodes in a fevered orgy of methamphetamine turnip smoking.

If she's actually personally convicted about the horrible things she spews forth on I'd give everything I own for a solid 12 hours of debate - err, screeching - just so I could see her head fold in on itself into singularity. That'd be cool. I bet it'd take way less than an hour.

"Halliburton!"

*unintelligeble screeching*

"Uhh, Civilian Casualties in Ira..."

*screeching noises not unlike an entire steel mill being run through God's own crosscut paper shredder.*

"Err, ok, what about Big Business ties to..."

*KAFOOOM*
posted by loquacious at 3:29 AM on July 28, 2004

To be fair, the blame for this rests squarely upon those people, not those who rant for fame-and-dollars.

Bullshit. Those blowhards are given a microphone and a pulpit by wealthy men (Rupert Murdoch, whoever owns ClearChannel, etc.) and are very much propped up as "analysts", "journalists", "commentators", and other official-sounding things. Don't blame the victim- blame those who give these hateful voices legitimacy. And, as always, follow the money.
posted by mkultra at 7:08 AM on July 28, 2004

mkultra, agreed, its the same thing as blaming the readers of the New York Times for not catching that Jayson Blair was a fraud which the editor or publisher did try to do.
posted by fenriq at 7:19 AM on July 28, 2004

Has Ann Coulter ever been in a 7-11? What would she buy there?

Cigs, Peroxide and Ipecac Syrup.
posted by darren at 7:23 AM on July 28, 2004

If she's buying Ipecac, she hasn't been keeping up with MetaFilter.

And quonsar, your pie-wagon definition is entertaining, and I thank you for your patience in elaborating on it, but I think I gotta give more credence to the fat concept - it doesn't seem to require as many links of association.
posted by soyjoy at 7:52 AM on July 28, 2004

O'Reilly says his dad hit him when he was a kid. I suspect far worse things happened to Coulter.

Or a chemical imbalance. Six / Half-dozen.

whoever owns ClearChannel
Lowry Mays is chairman and CEO. Best i could find via clearchannelsucks.org
posted by petebest at 7:53 AM on July 28, 2004

Don't blame the victim- blame those who give these hateful voices legitimacy.

Nonsense. What "legitimacy" do they have? I don't see any. The world is full of ignorant, hateful people spewing one wicked ideology or another...it's up to each of us to develop the tools to distinguish them, whether they are ranting on a streetcorner in rags or on cable tv in a suit. The only way one can be "victimized" by words is if one accepts them uncritically. Pretty much everyone on Metafilter sees these people for what they are, as do millions of others. To imply that most people are simply too stupid to do so is patronizing.

There was a time when simply appearing on television gave one a certain legitimacy, but that time is long since gone.
posted by rushmc at 9:56 AM on July 28, 2004

Coulter's really just one more sign of the death of civil (in both senses of the word) discourse in America.
Political TV talk shows - who pioneered this? Wally George.
posted by thomcatspike at 10:29 AM on July 28, 2004

...it's up to each of us to develop the tools to distinguish them...

And pray, where do we gain the insight to know that we need to do this, hmm?

Or should we simply require that only "smart" people get the chance to vote?
posted by lodurr at 11:17 AM on July 28, 2004

lazaruslong: no kidding, this is the kind of derail I like.
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:29 AM on July 28, 2004

And pray, where do we gain the insight to know that we need to do this, hmm?

Um, pay attention?
posted by rushmc at 4:17 PM on July 28, 2004

Gosh, rushmc: All those folks out there who don't know what you know must be really, really inattentive....

Which is to say: That "you people are stupid for not paying attention" crap was old several millenia before I was born. It doesn't wash. Unless, of course, you don't believe that it's possible for people to be conned....
posted by lodurr at 5:41 AM on July 29, 2004

Sure it is. Easier for lazy people who don't keep in touch with what's going on, though.
posted by rushmc at 3:14 AM on July 31, 2004

hey. um. i did the database and programming stuff for mclaughlin.com. couldn't stand to see it mentioned without saying something. sorry!
posted by glenwood at 2:24 PM on August 1, 2004

norton - what were this woman's initials? working with them on developing their website a few years ago i too found this to be the case...mostly left-leaning women on staff.
posted by glenwood at 2:29 PM on August 1, 2004