Treason Online - Anything for Fame or Money

JESUS WEPT - BY GARRY WILLS

2010-04-02T06:28:00.000-04:00

How Nixon Used the Media, Billy Graham, and the Good Lord to Rap with Students at Tennessee U

Garry Wills
Jesus Wept

America, student radicals claim, is all a war zone—with one exception. The war, they say, is over on the campus and the students have won it. The enemy may not enter this liberated territory. As if to prove this point, administration spokesmen gave their commencement speeches last year at garrison colleges (West Point, Annapolis, Air Force Academy) But then Nixon, in a brilliant strike seemed to destroy the thesis and went to a large university late May; was enthusiastically received; left a happy glow behind him. One had to admire his nerve and calculation, timing and choice of place, his orchestration of all circumstance to optimum effect. In fact the more one knows about that blitzkrieg of improbable tranquility the more awesome it becomes, This was perhaps our greatest “non event" not the kind Daniel Boorstin analyzed, the contrived TV "happening," but a real non-event one that did not happen. The campus did not invite Nixon, did receive him, did not enjoy peace hen he left it. Fact was everywhere at variance with appearance. And because it did not happen, the campus is still liberated territory.
What, then, did happen? It is so hard to see, so fast the hands make the shells fly, hiding the pea. Like all slick con games, it looked simple, but wasn't. The first trick, no mean one was to get Billy Graham onto campus, Crusade and all; then to have the Crusade invite Nixon, and pretend he was invited by the campus: then keep the campus from the crusade, while claiming that Nixon's reception by the Crusade was really acclaim from the campus (Now where's the pea?) and voila student resentment would vanish.
It was touchy work, each step of it. First the campus had to be large and representative yet relatively safe. The University of Tennessee was fine, the Knoxville campus just fine. Tennessee, that Republican ear of the state, what Kevin
Phillips calls "the hill vote" so crabbed and parochial it fought it’s own neighbors in the Civil War (East Tennessee did not join the Confederacy till 1954), the land of Alvin York and "The Vols" (Volunteers), so called because, when there is dying to be done, they are always first to get in line.
Though Knoxville is the largest campus in the South, it does not house a statewide university. Four other campuses in the state system serve places like Nashville and Memphis. Those who came to Knoxville were always either East Tennessee or they got East-Tennessee-ized very rapidly. Football players, of course, were sought everywhere, but they soon learned to join the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (some of them would guard Nixon's platform on the twenty-yard line). Football, fundamentalism, and fraternities controlled the campus. Clean living meant confiscating Playboy and killing the other team's quarterback. There was no town-gown tension. Every Saturday Knoxville emptied into the stadium. Stores and streets were splashed with the team colors (orange and white); and the region proudly calls itself Big Orange Country. Campus leaders without the giveaway i-for-e of "East Tinnissee" were unthinkable. Fraternity leaders, inducted into a super-fraternal secret society, the "Scarabbeans," graduated from college into the First Baptist Church as the ruling elite of Knoxville.
The people of the city always felt this was their school. Local kids, at the Saturday game, grew up with a single ambition—to sit in a fraternity bloc marked out, in the stadium, by its own banners and cheers and cheerleaders. The town recaptured its youth at these games, reliving early escapades—fraternity indiscretions winked at here, where bootleggers and Baptists, in alliance, prevent sale of liquor by the drink. Maintaining the fiction of "private clubs" and the omnipresent brown bag (to keep booze decent), Big Orange Christians confess their sin of drinking even as they commit it. So Billy was bound to come, and to this stadium. The First Baptist city fathers wanted him.
The football field was already sacred consecrated by a stirring liturgy (invariably bringing tears to alumni, adopted alumni, projected alumni, and pretend alumni, everybody – all Knoxville first the band and Tennessee Waltz and the prettiest drum majorettes imaginable, trained up all their lives to this orange explosion of loveliness; then the hush of The Star-Spangled Banner, and finally the whole town turned to one throat as the team came, one by one, announced, up the stem of a giant T formed by the band, then peeled off, alternating, along the arms of the T, poured onto the field and into local history, a dynasty, a succession of names remembered as, in other places, kids recite the list of Presidents). Other teams had coveted this field, its rubbery artificial turf— pro teams offering cash to play on it. But the temple was not profaned. Only Billy would be worthy of it, hold services as awesome as those of The Vols, decanted out of their T, in a sacrifice to local gods. Yet, getting Billy was not easy. The impresario was Ralph Frost, long a power on the campus, now reduced to "Manager of University Concerts." He came to the university years ago, to run Y.M.C.A. affairs; for a long time he arranged fundamentalist religion courses, given for credit, with their climax in a week-long convocation of religious renewal and academic revivalism. Out of his "Y" office, Frost booked the best entertainment and edification, bands and singers and gospel choirs and preachers, celebrities, Ralph greeting stars, stars shining down on him in his office from publicity glossies, some stars greeting Billy, Billy greeting Ralph.
But in time the faculty thought better of these state-school revivals, and used legal objections to introduce a scholarly Department of Religious Studies—which left Frost with nothing to arrange, anymore, but concerts. Nothing, that is, till Billy, his best booking coup.
He had to go off-campus, and he went where the power was, to First Baptist's leading businessmen. A party of them, six in all, including the First Baptist pastor, came to the university's president, Dr."Andy" Holt (so known to all, and idolized by Knoxville's solid citizens, of whom he is the solidest), with a request to lease the stadium for Billy's coming. Holt and his underlings said yes, and charged the Crusade a mere $20,000 for ten days ($2,000 per day-and-night in the giant modern horseshoe, capacity 65,000-a fine rebuff to football teams that bid huge sums for a single afternoon in the place).-
Two justifications are offered for this transaction. The first one, stressed increasingly as Dr. Holt disclaimed responsibility for what ensued, was that an outside group —the Graham Crusade—had rented a facility from the university. The school had nothing to do with what happened in that facility during the period of lease. Separation of Church and State, y'know. A straight cash deal. It was all Billy's show, not the university's.
This explanation skids over several things. The ridiculously low rent, the fact that President Holt had signed Ralph Frost's petition asking Billy to come, and Holt not only attended the Crusade, but led an offertory prayer soliciting funds for the Graham organization. Whatever the legal fiction, the administration was aiding and sponsoring a religious crusade and doing so with casual disregard for the students interests The stadium contains in its semicircular outer rim two dormitories and officials had in effect rented out these dorms for ten nights during final exams.
So the Crusade came, with all its hoopla, like a circus pitching its tent on the campus. Two student rock festivals were canceled so they would not disturb the Crusade. Other student gatherings were frowned on, discouraged, threatened. The night was filled with super-amplified Billy sermons. Buses lined the campus streets as crowds ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 came and went, each day, on a campus of 23,000 students. It was all extraneous to campus life, goes Dr. Holt's defense—and, as if to back that up, Graham refused invitations from faculty and students to meet "in a more academic setting" than the stadium. The Department of Religious Studies, for instance, asked to speak with him, and was told Dr. Graham was too intensely caught up in a Crusade to make other appointments during its course. Yet as soon as Billy arrived, local papers blossomed out in pictures of him playing golf with Andy Holt and the pastor of First Baptist. The city power structure, not the students, had invited him, and Billy observed the priorities.
The second line of defense is offered by Chancellor Charles Weaver, technically the custodian of this campus. President Holt is in charge of the whole state system, with chancellors under him to care for the major campuses—though Holt's home and power base, in every sense, is Knoxville. Ralph Frost knew what he was doing when he took his businessman-panel to Holt's office; Weaver was summoned there to rubber-stamp the deal.
Yet Weaver claims it was all done on his authority, and was an educational affair, properly sponsored by the university. "As a matter of fact, frankly, I would not turn down any speaker here, so long as an authorized campus group requested his presence." What group asked for Graham? "The Fellowship of Christian Athletes." Frost, after securing his businessmen and First Baptists, sought ecumenical cover for his operation, suggesting that various groups cosponsor the Crusade—including the Knoxville County Fellowship of Christian Athletes. But no one, not Frost, not Weaver, not Coach McDonald (Assistant Athletic Director for the Knoxville campus and Secretary-Treasurer of the County Fellowship of Christian Athletes) could give me the name of a single student who requested Graham's presence or took part in negotiations to bring him into Knoxville—though all three men still claim this elusive student and his fellows were official hosts for the Crusade.
"Graham came as a result of our open speaker policy. As you may know," Weaver winked at me, "I, frankly, got burned on the subject of that policy, and now I’m the firmest believer in it
Two years ago when Weaver took the fist post of Chancellor His first act of any importance was to refuse Dick Gregory permission to speak on campus. He was just continuing the former policy. Shortly before, President Holt had banned Adam Clayton Powell Jr. with this avuncular comment: "He preaches hate, and I want you children to hear nothing but love." But by this time, students were restive. A group of them sued the university and named Weaver in the suit, and won a court order for the open speaker policy.
"So you see," Weaver expanded complacently, "the courts made it necessary for us to accept Billy Graham. We had no choice in the matter." But Graham was not a lone speaker come to address some student group—he was part of an operation conducted by hundreds of men, working in closest conjunction with the city political structure and police department, bringing in crowds that dwarfed the student body, soliciting and receiving large sums of money, preempting facilities and student affairs, distracting the whole campus on the eve of exams. How can you treat him as just another speaker? "Well, when Kunstler was here recently, outsiders were free to come and listen to him, too." (Kunstler, much on Weaver's mind, came up again and again, haunting our conversation. All Knoxville had choked with rage at his appearance. A local politician won favor by saying he should be executed.) What about the fund-raising aspects of this "educational" event? "Freedom of speech! Kunstler could say anything he wanted—from advocating violence, to praising marijuana, to asking for money."
But the open speaker policy stems from the university's academic function, and the Graham Crusade was called a religious service by Knoxville police. "Well, if the campus Catholic Center wanted to call in a priest as speaker, we would have to let him speak under our open speaker policy." And if the Pope came to hold Mass every day for ten days in the stadium, while collecting large sums for Catholic missions, would you let him? "Well, frankly, if the Catholic Center asked us, we would have to." As an academic duty? "Yes! In fact, to tell the truth"—he continually lets one in on secrets—"it was the educational value of the Crusade that made me especially glad to bring it onto our campus. People at a university tend to exist in an ivory tower; they forget the many different types that make up :he outside world. What the students saw, rolling in here by the busload, was the real America." A new, an iron note had entered his voice. Now students were not being taught by one speaker, whose presence they had requested; they were being impressed by thousands of "good American" types they ignore or do not know about (and therefore could not request as "speakers" or supplementary teachers). "It was a cross section of America you know." Yet it was only that kind of American who goes to Graham crusades, a type these students see about them in the Knoxville community. The point of Weaver's Agnew outburst was not that kids do not see good Americans - but that they do not—not out here, on the Big Orange campus—heed them enough, grasp their number and importance, fear them adequately. These buses rode, with their silent majority of bitter kid-hating Christians, as the Klan once rode, to impress men with reserves of force to be summoned at need. A lesson was being taught. The experience was educational.
Yet the point of the open speaker program, as it touches on education, is that the university is responsible for allowing or not allowing speakers to address students—so responsible that it could be sued when, for instance, Dick Gregory was banned. President Holt, nonetheless, claims the university had no responsibility in the Graham affair—an outside activity performed on land leased away from the school. "Well, I don't know about that. All I know is that the open-door policy is here, and Graham's appearance was the big spike that nailed that door open." Yet Graham's appearance was not controversial with the surrounding community—not an extreme instance, proving how far the mandate stretches—as, say, William Kunstler's appearance was. Why wasn't it Kunstler who nailed the door open? "Yes, but don't you seel Now I can say, to anyone in Knoxville who objects to a Kunstler, or whoever, that he appears because of the same policy that let Billy come onto the campus. And who can object to the policy thenl" He smiled beatiflcally, like one who just found the philosopher's stone, That was how Billy came— making it possible for Nixon to come. The President had been invited, by Andy Holt, to appear on the very day when he did show up (May 28, a Thursday), as part of the school's 175th anniversary. But Nixon, invited onto a campus, has tended to be busy and regretful, even when the campus is full of Volunteers, of Southern football lemmings and military suicides. Now, however, Dr. Holt's golf partner, Billy Graham, could call his friend the President on in, with the assurance that 100,000 avid Crusaders, psychic bodyguards in this harsh academic terrain, would emanate warmth all around him in the stadium like a living protective shell.
And Knoxville police, looking about for applicable laws, had found one to protect him from "political" dissent. Tennessee statute TCA 39-1204 forbids anyone to disrupt a religious service. That would allow cops to take away political placards, ban any political shouts (even those for Nixon), expel all who indulged in politics during "the service" so much for outside agitators. For inside ones, the police had another inhibitor. After a disturbance on January 15 of this year, police had identified and arrested some of those present, with the help of photographs; now they would ostentatiously shuffle those same photos while taking new ones, pointing (pointedly) at known campus radicals; promising, by that simple act. more arrests of the January 15 sort. Just to make sure that the nonpolitical nature of the meeting was understood, the campaign manager for Republican senatorial candidate Bill Brock, on the night before Nixon's appearance, talked with a Nixon advance man, Dick Andrews, and told Y.A.F. people not to bring their placards to the stadium—instead to line the motorcade route with them.
Would the plan work? Secret Service men, after careful soundings, decided that it would. After all, this was Big Orange Country. The school belonged to the community, which belonged to the First Baptist Church, which was heart and soul (if only he would have them) devoted to Billy, who is servitor and celebrator of any President (of power), but especially of his friend and fellow addict of success-religiosity, Richard Nixon. Town, gown, bank, church, and Crusade were of one mind. Even the Mayor of Knoxville addressed the Crusade, sang in its choir, and acted as counselor to those coming out of the stands, after Billy's sermon, to make their decision for Christ on the rubber turf. He also issued a proclamation to all city employees, telling them to renew their commitment to God. The police chief's daughter told the Crusade why she was an American. A high-school graduating class held its baccalaureate service at the Crusade, in its gowns and mortarboards. If this was not Nixon country, then what is?
But what of the university's own students? Would they join this universal hymn of praise to God and Nixon? The question hardly crossed local people's minds. The U.T. product was well-known—the perfect fraternity man, the perfect sorority girl. Call them Ken and Barbie— they were mainly wardrobe. "The first thing we did to a pledge," one senior remembered for me, "was grab his shirt by the collar and look at his label. London Fog coats, Gant shirts, Canterbury belts, Haggar slacks, a red carnation on one's blazer, three-piece suits— that's what we looked for."
It made a pretty package, whether male or female. Barbie, for instance; Tricia Nixon corn-fed to pleasanter roundnesses—a Tricia with a body, as it were; and with the same fixed smile, the lidless doll-gaze, to proclaim unassuming dutifulness. Barbie is pretty, glib, obedient, glowing—every Big Orange footballer's patriotic wet-dream.
Or Barry—Barry Bozeman. His father, a local politician, was the university's head of student activities as an undergraduate; his mother was editor of the school paper and a Torehbearer (one of the all-round top-seven seniors). Barry had not missed a single home game since he was six years old; he had acted in the university's theatre for children. Easily, with no effort, he became president of his freshman class (in which capacity he led a demonstration in favor of the Vietnam war), president of his fraternity (Phi Sigma Kappa). Pinned for a while to the Phi Sig National Moonlight Girl, he returned to his high-school sweetheart, the storybook ending. Another perfect product, Ken-Barry matching Barbie-Sue, ready to be set up like a trophy in some cushioned Knoxville office. But what happens when Perfection displays a crack or a flaw? Terrible things in Knoxville and that’s what happened with Barry, last fall, while he was working as a booking agent for a rock band, he began to let his hair grow. All his father's friends noticed, and whispered, and his father noticed their whispers. Which led to an ultimatum by Christmas—cut his hair or get out of the house. Barry got out; got arrested with twenty-one others in the January 15 campus disturbance; joined a March Against Repression led by Jerry Rubin, in Nashville; ran—and ran strong— as a radical for Student President this spring. Something bad was happening on campus.
So Barry, once the rah-iest of rah-boys, was there, with two hundred others, on the day before Nixon came, plotting ways to show student disapproval of his coming. It was a small group but influential, containing most of the active politicians on campus. Even the new Student President, a conservative, was there—John Smith. The Student Government Association used to belong to the fraternities, but changes had been taking place across the last four years. John Smith, Barry's Phi Sig brother, barely squeaked in when the school's Left vote split between the "radical" (Barry) and a "liberal" candidate. Smith had Y.A.F. people on his ticket, but he knew the temper of the school was still set by his predecessor, an immensely popular, darkly skeptical young man— and a black. Jimmie Baxter was the first black Student President of any major white Southern university (bad things were happening on campus). Baxter, in his customary Levi's, "shades," and Afro, helped shape this meeting's decision to dis-invite Nixon. A telegram was drafted, and John Smith agreed to send it.
Then Mr. Smith became most elusive. While the meeting had been in progress, three of his friends were on phones to White House aides, asking that "Johnny" be allowed to see the President. The response was heartening—they were already answering questions suggestive of "security" clearance for Smith. In this area, his credentials were very good, very conservative —except for the damn telegram.
He decided to sit on it. And when he heard that night about uncomplimentary telegrams sent to the White House by students, singly or in groups, he feared that Baxter or others might send something in the Student Government's name, even send the telegram drafted for his signature; so, without telling anyone but his three friends, he sent his own telegram at one-thirty Thursday morning (the day of the visit) welcoming Nixon in the name of the student body. At the very last, the eleventh hour, things had all fallen into place for the President; even the campus had joined the chorus of universal praise.
Next day, Jimmie Baxter was mad. He sent his own telegram, as this year's Student President (just out of office one week), telling Nixon he was not welcome. Then he sought out Smith, next year's President (just installed), with a demand: if Smith went to see Nixon, he must take Baxter (Baxter could have made it stick before any student gathering). Smith said yes-I agreed to meet him that afternoon to arrange things but failed to show up.
What further protests would work in this Bible-tipsy town where Nixon's appearance was protected as some kind of religious epiphany? Several hundred people—faculty and students—gathered that afternoon, defying an informal ban on public meetings, to discuss the matter. They agreed on a religious protest, their only signs quotes from Scripture ("Thou Shalt Not Kill"), their only gesture the V-for-peace, their only action a silent filing down onto the field to kneel in prayer for the war dead.
The stadium was packed by late afternoon. A first glimpse (between two buildings) of its great upper tier made it seem like a patch of sky suddenly marbled, a bright mosaic catching the sun's late rays. Before Nixon arrived, the place was overcrowded and its gates sealed. People squabbled with impassive cops at each break in the fence. Maintenance men hung a closed-circuit TV out one window and collected a small mob. Some scrambled up the campus's famous Hill, a Civil War redoubt, and sat on the school colophon (T superimposed on U) poured in cement across the slope—a gift from Barry's fraternity when he was president.
Meanwhile, Barry was inside, with a group of protesters who arrived together and were sealed off in one section by police. They could not get out, nor others in. Some who came to protest were kept out of the stadium with other late arrivers; others had to sit in small groups scattered through the audience. A few had smuggled in large sheets of paper—cardboard and placards were taken at the gates—that said "Thou Shalt Not Kill," and the main group of kids stood out in this starched Sunday-school crowd by their ragged locks and beggars' clothes.
When a first arrest was made— a boy with long hair (Gary Thompson?) dragged on to the field, then marched down all its length by the police— the Sunday-school crowd went wild with applause. The religious service was on. This made it religious. Preachers and policemen chase, assist, become each other here. Workers in the Graham organization, beefy Southwest minister-types, prowled the aisles with plainclothesmen, and looked like them; they are brothers, alter egos, Doppelgangers. Billy himself is just God's friendliest cop, preaching "Jesus must convict the sinner, or he would be a liar, he would lose his holiness"— as Barry lost his, by growing long hair.
The kids forgot all their plans to be sedate in this Colosseum of religious hatred. "Outside slime!" one Grant Wood granny shrilled across two sections of the stadium, shaking the black prayer book or Bible in her hand. Police worked their way all around the "hippie"
group, and bunched in front of them on the football sidelines - Vols, twitchy for action; one rubbed his pistol butt lovingly as he watched the kids, meditative masturbation. A photographer for the school paper had gone in among the demonstrators to snap pictures. When he tried to get out of that section a State Trooper stopped him then since the boy argued with him he threw the gate open, braced himself in a half-squat, spred his arms wide open like a Japanese wrestler’s, un-crotched his Jockey shorts with a deeper squat and jiggle and said, "All right, come on, you bastard." A Secret Service man glided up to him, whispered, "Cool it," and closed the gate. The trooper looked about, rage baffled of a target; saw me writing what had happened, and took a taurine swerve in my direction. I backpedaled ingloriously into the stadium's locker room, where press tables had been set up.
There were about two hundred young people shouting slogans against Nixon. Some of these held the paper signs. Others held signs but did not shout. Still others, dressed "straight," simply stood with the protesting faction—some faculty members among them. There were roughly a thousand dissidents scattered about—one percent of the crowd inside or at the stadium, a number easily ignored. (The TV camera taping the whole "service" never swung in their direction; it was a private crew, hired by Graham; its tape was leased to commercial stations later that night.) But the crowd did not want to ignore these kids. It faced toward the main patch of them, shouted back, pointed out the sinners in their temple with righteous attention and anger—and goaded the kids to new indignities. This was undoubtedly the first Graham Crusade where hundreds of people chanted, in angry replication, "Bullshit! Bullshit!"—seized, it is true, by a surge of mere anger, but also by a clear new realization, with Billy and everybody up there, of this region's whole interconnected-ness of bullshit and religiosity.
There was a roar when a black minister prayed for our beloved President. As Graham introduced Nixon with a roll call of other Presidents who had made unpopular (but correct) decisions, The protesters chanted, "Politics! Politics!" Then Nixon. He rose, at this non-political religious service, from a platform studded with Republican candidates and officeholders. Democrats like Senator Albert Gore (who happened to be in Knoxville that night) were not invited, on the excuse that this was an East Tennessee Crusade. Yet Dan Kuykendall, from farther west than Gore himself, was present and prominent. All the state's Republicans seemed to have got religion at the same time, "Tex" Ritter, to his credit, refused an invitation, saying he did not mix his politics and religion. Nixon's "four years warming the bench" line was inevitable, here on the football field. But he added, "Even if we are on the twenty-yard line, we are going to be over that goal line before we are through"—and the kids went into their football chant: "Push'm back, Push'm back, Wa-a-ay back!" At times he could not go on ("if I could have your attention for just a moment"), not so much because of the two hundred shouters; because of the large crowd shouting back at the small crowd. Nixon looking uncomfortable made the best of it –“I’m just glad that there seems to be a rather solid majority on one side rather than the other side tonight.”
The pitch was to youth so Nixon used what he as been told was his surefire youth issue one his youngest white house aide Christopher DeMuth worked up for him pollution. “I want the air to be clean and it will be clean." (Kids take up the Jerry Rubin cry, "Do it! Do it!")
Most of the crowd's emotion, heated up before Nixon arrived, was sheer hostility bounced off the kids. But he will settle for that, thank the crowd on-camera for its "warm reception," and trust that the cheers and jeers, mingled, would all sound like hosannas on TV. And they did.
Most of the "longhairs" left when Nixon finished. Only a few stayed for Graham's fervorino, then tried to get onto the field when he issued his call. They were stopped by police, semi-frisked, stripped once more of their signs (those who smuggled them in, or improvised them inside), asked questions, turned back—though some made it through and talked with "counselors" about the war. Some were arrested.
The national press contingent was gone by this time, racing for its plane to San Clemente. It knew nothing of the Crusade's slick operation on the campus, what a faculty member would later call "the rape of this university." Some of the Graham press people told newsmen that tonight's audience of 100,000 was made up of students— eighty percent of it under twenty-five years of age—and contained most of The University of Tennessee student body (both statements false). More important, Graham had welcomed Nixon not to the Crusade but "to the campus of The University of Tennessee. ... In a day of student unrest, here on the campus of one of the largest universities in America." And Nixon had not thanked the Crusade for his invitation, but said, "It is a great privilege to be on the campus of the largest university in the South." The news angle was obvious—even after Cambodia and Kent State and Jackson State, the President could be well-received by college students.
And to cap it all, along came Smith, the Student President. He rode to Air Force One in the same car with Bebe Rebozo (who muttered, darkly, of the demonstrators. "There's only one way to handle them") and H. R. Haldeman's wife. Mrs. Haldeman asked Smith how the university's three-day strike after Kent State had been kept peaceful—he did not answer, what was the truth, that his black predecessor, Jimmie Baxter, kept the lid on, growling at students that they were outgunned by the cops.
On the plane, Nixon asked Smith what troubles the youth of today. Two things, he was answered—they think the war unconstitutional, and they need a higher goal than the merely material things. Smith had just heard both Nixon and Graham say, on the platform, that youth needs a higher goal than the merely material things. This is how the President discovers what is troubling youth. Smith, off the plane photographed, interviewed, sighed with relief that the President does understand and care for the youth. I talked, the day after, with Smith. Short, with a vacant fraternity face, his eyes bleared, he was suffering a political hangover after his bender of publicity. Did he think yesterday's Crusade a religious service or a political meeting? "Political." Was the aim to convince the nation that students would still welcome Nixon? "Yes." Is that a misconception? “Yes” Didn’t you help create that misconception with your telegram of welcomyou’re your praise for Nixon? "Well, I do believe he understands our problems." What about the telegram? I think most of the students here would welcome a chance to see the President." Even under these phony auspices? "Probably." Do you consider that an informed or an informed preference? "Uninformed I suppose." Yet you cater to it? "Well, I just wanted to size up the President for myself. I don't opinions about people I have not met." You satisfied your curiosity: "Look, didn't I get a chance speak out against the war?" About it’s unconstitutionality? "Yes." Don’t you think kids would still oppose the war as immoral even if it was legal? "Sure, but I could denounce the war the same way radicals do and never get a chance to see President. It is a question of sounding off before 23,000 students or giving my views on the war to millions of television viewers." bleared eyes had lit up, last night fuming once more into his brain, an intoxicant. I left with a strong impression I could not, at first, define -- but eventually it came to me, I had been talking to a twenty-year old Nixon.
And Nixon, all the Nixons, won. The reception was warm; his gamble paid off; the con job 1 worked. Though his son-in-law and daughter could not attend their own graduations (at Amherst a Smith) this year, Nixon could still go onto a campus - a Southern campus, admittedly. The Crusade gave him a sheltering presence of 100,0001 hot-gospelers out of the hills, a whole stadium of bodyguards. Still he did it. Results are what count that instant impression carried to San Clemente in the press plane filed that night to hundreds papers. He had made it "over that goal."
And yet, and yet. . . . Just as the Crusade crowd could not ignore that small irritant, those hippie-clothed hecklers, in its midst, so Knoxville could not forgo some act of vengeance on the hippies—though that might disturb the impression that Nixon came wafted peacefully on campus, and left it in tranquility behind him.
Nixon had appeared Thursday. Sunday, Graham folded carnival tent, and left. Students were cramming for exams; nasty rumors were already circulating - of arrests to be made, attempts to get at kids involved earlier protests, of indignation being worked up by local papers and politicians, of "blasphemy" performed at the Crusade and crying to heaven for punishment. On Mayday, the rumors were confirmed; police said they would arrest "about fifty" of the hecklers all those they could identify from photographs. By Tuesday morning, fifty-seven warrants had been sworn out. It was the last day of exams, and rainy. Arrest teams cruised around the campus, two men to a car—campus policeman to identify, city police take in custody. Kids were snatched from church communes and street corners. Two full-time faculty members and two teaching assistants were booked. A dean's office employee called a teaching assistant ("We need update department files") to get 1 address for the cops. President Holt was out of town. Exams went on. The school paper had closed down for the year. Everything seemed to help the police. Attempted protest rallies on that first day got rained out. The arrest cars came and went everywhere in the downpour, kids learned to fear the sucking sound of their tires on the wet street.
That night there was a student meeting. Even a twenty-year-old Nixon had to realize these charges were flimsy, were widely resented on campus—John Smith denounced the arrests as acts of political repression. The community was punishing the campus because it did not join the Crusade, heart and soul, in support of Nixon's policies. Eighty professors met in support of those arrested and intended to join the meeting, to appear onstage waving V-signs for photographers—here, where teachers had always been told, in a thousand subtle ways, to serve Knoxville's city fathers, not their students. The student meeting had disbanded, but the teachers' protest went on.
John Smith, joined by the local chapter of the A.A.U.P., authorized a telephone call to Nixon's campus adviser, Alexander Heard, asking that the President call for an end to the arrests (Secret Service men had opposed them all along). Len Garment responded with a wire from the White House to Knoxville's mayor: Nixon did not consider the protest violent or disruptive, merely rude; he asked the authorities to be temperate, not to arrest students during exams. The mayor ignored the telegram, said it would be discriminatory and unfair to the nine arrested that night if all other hecklers were not arrested and punished. A teaching assistant John Riches appealed to various Congressmen. Allard Lowenstein came down from New York and held a tape recorded hearing. Two of those arrested went to Washington to present a transcript of that hearing to the Justice Department.
Dr. Holt, through it all, was serenely detached. But when he promised to cooperate with authorities in their search, two hundred students signed a confession that they had heckled Nixon, and dared their president to turn them in. He fudged that issue, went back to his stand that the school was not involved. I asked him, if that were the case, why campus police were identifying people. "They just happened to be in the stadium that night—you know, when a President drops by, all local security forces are called on—so they happened to see some hecklers they knew." But it was clear that campus police had not spent much time on their immediate task of keeping the peace Thursday night; they were busily collecting evidence - spotting people, helping photographers—for use in future trials against "campus troublemakers."
I went to ask Chancellor Weaver a question: If Nixon had gone to a Washington church (as he does on occasion) and listened to the sermon (as he does), but then rose to give the very same speech he delivered at the Crusade, who would be considered in bad taste, exploiting a religious service? "That's a good question. I don't know about that. The courts will have to settle it. All I know is that we had to let Graham and Nixon speak, under our open-door policy."
I went to Ed Boling, who will take office in September as Holt's successor. He had worked for Governor Buford Ellington in the state finance department before coming to Knoxville as Vice-President for Development. Everyone knew he was heir apparent, but respectable cover was sought for his appointment—faculty-student "hunt committees" on three state campuses were asked for recommendations. All three rejected Boling for his lack of academic background. Yet the Governor got his way, and Boling was appointed in December. That led to the student protest in which Barry, and twenty-one others, were arrested on January 15. Peter Kami, a Brazilian student organizer (known to the Knoxville community as "Peter Commie"), challenged Boling to a wrestling match for the presidency, since muscle and sheer force seemed the acceptable qualifications. When a crowd gathered on the Hill to hear Kami elaborate his Yippie challenge, police moved in with another of those useful Tennessee statutes—this one against gatherings of more than three where any potential for trouble exists.
Boling, beginning his reign under this shadow, knows who his masters are: "I think it was a religious gathering, and if there is one thing this community will not put up with it is mocking any man's religion." This community is his theme. He is proud, not apologetic, on the question of his academic background. "Academician presidents are naturally on the teacher's side, and they have bent over too far in that direction. Now we need manager-presidents to right the balance, repair the damage done by the other type, and make the university serve the community again. When the faculty comes to me with complaints, I threaten them—well, I don't openly threaten them, I kind of subtly threaten them—by mentioning all the letters I got from the community, during our three-day strike this year, asking why taxpayers should pay teachers who do not teach. And I can tell you this: we have an academic calendar announced for next year, and we will stick to it. I will not even deal with those who want to depart from it."
It was Big Orange Country serving notice on the school. When John Smith called another rally on the Hill, repeating circumstances of the January bust, right-wing students brought union men onto the campus to guard buildings and "prevent vandalism." Even a faculty often cowed by city fathers will not long submit to such open coercion by Knoxville's know-nothings. Students were outraged to hear that the Y.A.F. candidate (Ron Leadbetter?) in the last student election was financed by a local businessman.
This is the prospect, then, for the coming school year. While other students, across the country, campaign for peace candidates, a new president will insist that The University of Tennessee's calendar not be interrupted. John Smith will start his year as Student President having forfeited conservative support by calling the city repressive; yet he is not trusted, either, by the student left. In any trouble, he will not have Jimmie Baxter's moral leverage or radical credentials when trying to"cool it." Meanwhile, Knoxville will have a string of political trials stretching out through the fall, trials of the January 15 twenty-two, trials of the Nixon hecklers. The community will want blood; the administration will profess noninvolvement; the faculty and students, already convinced that the charges (in both cases) are unjust, will harden toward resistance as the local cry for vengeance rises in intensity.
The long-range lesson of Nixon's pyrrhic victory is clear. Even so large and well-oiled a con operation would not work a second time at The University of Tennessee. And if it cannot be made to work here, it will not work anywhere. Furthermore, Nixon left behind him a train of disruptive conditions. Kunstler was opposed, when he came, because he might cause trouble. But he did not. Nixon did. What campus can afford to have the President come if even this campus, while inundated by Graham's Crusaders, could not weather the experience without radicalizing its students?
Those are the lessons of the visit; but Knoxville will refuse to learn them. The city pushes on where even Nixon—or John Smith— would hesitate. It has a growing, quite justified certitude that something has unsettled this hill country's central hearth. Outside forces, alien, professing strange beliefs, have taken their campus away from Big Orangers. And the outsiders are their children.
There will still be Barbies, predictably, sorority Sues, the old product—which Knoxville knows how to humor and honor. But there will also be Barrys, be more of them by this fall, their number increasing all through the foreseeable future—and Knoxville does not know what to make of Barry, or do with him. It must simply, with Ed Boling, not deal with him. It will try to crush the Barrys, thus making their number grow.
And what, meanwhile, does Barry make of his father? "I have given up trying to see him." Why, because you can't make him understand your position? "No, because I might. If I could persuade him, it would destroy him. It would make everything he worked for meaningless. I don't want to see that happen to him."
That sentence tips the balance for Nixon—victory (pyrrhic or otherwise) to defeat. It heralds the end of the hard-hat war on long hair. Age is, by convention, forbearing. It endures youth's indiscretions because it foresees, all along, their term. The high jinks over, serious life begins. But when the elders are too terrified to deal with their own young, unable to imagine any world their garb and locks portend; when, by contrast, the children begin to forgive, confident that time is on their side, not needing to rub in their victory, then that victory is assured. Even here, in "hill vote" territory. In what Nixon, nervous on the twenty-yard line, called "the largest university in the South."

Annthrax Axed by USA Today

2004-07-27T09:29:00.000-04:00

“Apparently," said Coulter, "USA Today doesn’t like my ‘tone,’ humor, sarcasm, etc. etc., which raises the intriguing question of why they hired me to write for them in the first place. Perhaps they thought they were getting Catherine Coulter.”

In a sort of package deal, USA Today plans to have Michael Moore offer commentary at the Republican National Convention next month. “My guess is they will ‘get’ his humor” said Coulter. We agree.

Below is the Coulter column, in full, that caused all the ruckus. Coulter says: "Examples of their specific complaints are in ALL CAPS below. (Most of it was nonspecific B.S. about not liking my 'tone' and my column not being 'humorous' or 'coherent')."

USA Today promised us a comment on the Coulter imbroglio, which we will post as soon as we get it.

HUMAN EVENTS has learned that conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg of National Review will be Ann Coulter's replacement for the USA Today convention commentary and has confirmed that Michael Moore will provide liberal commentary during the GOP Convention. (For more on this developing story, click here.)

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Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do. My allies are the ones wearing crosses or American flags. The people sporting shirts emblazoned with the "F-word" are my opponents. Also, as always, the pretty girls and cops are on my side, most of them barely able to conceal their eye-rolling.

USA Today: EYE-ROLLING? AT WHAT?

Democrats are constantly suing and slandering police as violent, fascist racists -- with the exception of Boston's police, who'll be lauded as national heroes right up until the Democrats pack up and leave town on Friday, whereupon they'll revert to their natural state of being fascist, racist pigs.

USA Today: WHAT DEMOCRATS SUE THE POLICE? BUT THEY WON'T ACTUALLY REVERT TO BEING FASCIST PIGS, DON'T YOU MEAN THE DEMS WILL THINK THEY HAVE REVERTED TO BEING FASCIST PIGS?

A speaker at the Democratic National Convention this year, Al Sharpton, accused white police officers of raping and defacing Tawana Brawley in 1987, lunatic charges that eventually led to a defamation lawsuit against Sharpton and even more eventually, to Sharpton paying a jury award to the defamed plaintiff Steve Pagones. So it’s a real mystery why cops wouldn’t like Democrats.

USA Today: IS THAT LAST SENTENCE SARCASTIC? IF SO, YOU SURE LOST ME.

As for the pretty girls, I can only guess that it’s because liberal boys never try to make a move on you without the UN Security Council's approval. Plus, it’s no fun riding around in those dinky little hybrid cars. My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call "women" at the Democratic National Convention.

USA Today: NOT FUNNY, I DON'T GET IT.

Apparently, the nuts at the Democratic National Convention are going to be put in cages outside the convention hall. Sadly, they won't be fighting to the death as is done in WWE caged matches. They're calling this the "protestor's area," although I suppose a better name would be the "truth-free zone".

USA Today: CLARIFY WHICH NUTS (NOTE FROM AC: THAT KILLS THE JOKE OF THE NEXT PARAGRAPH)

I thought this was a great idea until I realized the “nut” category did not include Sharpton, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and Teddy Kennedy -- all featured speakers at the convention. I’d say the actual policy is only untelegenic nuts get the cages, but little Dennis Kucinich is speaking at the Convention, too. So it must be cages for “nuts who have not run for president as serious candidates for the Democratic Party.”

Looking at the line-up of speakers at the Convention, I have developed the 7-11 challenge: I will quit making fun of, for example, Dennis Kucinich, if he can prove he can run a 7-11 properly for 8 hours. We’ll even let him have an hour or so of preparation before we open up. Within 8 hours, the money will be gone, the store will be empty, and he’ll be explaining how three 11-year olds came in and asked for the money and he gave it to them.

USA Today: I DON'T GET IT.

For 20 years, the Democrats wouldn’t let Jimmy Carter within 100 miles of a Convention podium. The fact that Carter is now their most respectable speaker tells you where that party is today. Maybe they just want to remind Americans who got us into this Middle East mess in the first place. We’ve got millions of fanatical Muslims trying to slaughter Americans while shouting “Allah Akbar!” Yeah, let’s turn the nation over to these guys.

With any luck, Gore will uncork his speech comparing Republicans to Nazis. Just a few weeks ago, Gore gave a speech accusing the Bush administration of deploying “digital Brown Shirts” to intimidate journalists and pressure the media into writing good things about Bush -- in case you were wondering where all those glowing articles about Bush were coming from.

The last former government official to slake his thirst so deeply with the kool-aid and become a far-left peacenik was Ramsey Clarke and it took him a few years to really blossom. Clinton must have done some number on Gore. Then again, with his yen for earth tones in a man's wardrobe, maybe Gore's references to "Brown Shirts" was intended as a compliment.

Only one major newspaper -- the Boston Herald -- reported Gore’s “Brown Shirt” comment, though a Bush campaign spokesman's statement quoting the "Brown Shirt" line made it into the very last sentence of a Los Angeles Times article. The New York Times responded with an article criticizing “both” Republicans and Democrats for using Nazi imagery. Democrats call Republicans Nazis, the Republicans quote the Democrats calling Republicans Nazis and “both” are using Nazi imagery. (It’s a cycle of violence!)

The nuts in the cages are virtual Bertrand Russells compared to the official speakers at the Democratic Convention. On the basis of their placards, I gather the caged-nut position is that they love the troops so much, they don’t want them to get hurt defending America from terrorist attack. “Support the troops,” the signs say, “bring them home.”

That’s my new position on all government workers, except the 5% who aren’t useless, which is to say cops, prosecutors, firemen and U.S. servicemen. I love bureaucrats at the National Endowment of the Arts funding crucifixes submerged in urine so much -- I think they should go home. I love public school teachers punishing any mention of God and banning Christmas songs so much -- I think they should go home.

Walking back from the convention site I chatted with a normal Bostonian for several blocks -- who must have identified me through our covert system of signals. He was mostly bemused by the Democrats’ primetime speakers and told me he used to be an independent, but for the last 20 years found himself voting mostly Republican. Then he corrected himself and said he votes for the “American.”

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.

USA Today: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "THE FRENCH PARTY"? I DON'T GET IT.

BILLY GRAHAM: A BIOGRAPHY - ON THE NIXON VISIT

2003-12-05T18:45:00.001-05:00

THIS IS THE SECTION OF THE BILLY GRAHAM BIOGRAPHY INVOLVING THE NIXON VISIT TO THE KNOXVILLE CRUSADE AND THE PROTESTS.

120
BILLY GRAHAM

To the president, the University of Tennessee seemed a relatively safe place to break out of his relative isolation at the White House. This , after all was not a campus known for its political progressivism or notable for its anger at the war in Vietnam. It is true that following the news of Kent State a large contingent of students, along with a number of professors, had boycotted classes and that some 1,500 protesters had marched to the campus field house that housed the ROTC offices It si also true that student had lowered the flag to half staff in honor of the student slain at Kent State.
Nevertheless there had been no extensive violence. Nixon felt generally comfortable in the South, where his popularity remained relatively stable and where his wartime policies were supported in greater numbers than in any other part of the country
For the 5I-year-old Billy Graham. lean and youthful-looking with side-burns and over-the-collar hair, the Knoxville crusade was another chance to echo the themes he had pursued in other recent meetings — that the youth of America, hungering for identity and sense of family, could rally around a revolution for Christ.
The first days of the crusade in Knoxville featured music legends Johnny Cash, Cart Perkins, and the Carter Family. Although a few pro-testers mingled outside the stadium handing OUT antiwar leaflets, those who attended the crusade were treated to what they had come to hear — a rousing evangelical show, capped by the inimitable Billy Graham Sermon.
On May 27, It all changed. The announcement of President Nixon’s VISIT a day before the event was a last minute surprise, even to Graham. The president decided the crusade would be a perfect way for him to connect to the people at a time of devastating national tension. He would become the first sitting President ever to speak at a Billy Graham Crusade. Excited but apprehensive about the President’s appearance, Graham said to a reporter, There will not be anything political— I hope 0 in this visit. :
The announcement that the President would make the University of Tennessee his coming-out event enraged antiwar protesters on campus. And they reacted quickly. Aided by several university professors, student protesters decided to carry signs printed "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and "Peace Now* Knowing that the national media would hone in on the event, the planners decided not to heckle or chant. Fearing that such a demonstration would alienate many from their cause. After all, the crusade was supposed to be a religious event. They decided to join in the throng when Graham called for converts but they would bow their heads and make the two fingered peace sign gesture. It was to be a silent, nonviolent protest.
Susan Nixon, editor of the student newspaper The Daily Beacon, wrote an editorial that began. “Billy Graham’s one-man circus has everthing except an elephant. And now he has one of those.";
The student newspaper announced the planned demonstration and a printed a telegram sent to President Nlxon by organizers that declared. "We are angered by your announced presence on this campus and we are

MIXING POLITICS WITH EVANGELISM 121
outraged that you would capitalize on a religious function, particularly in the South.
May 18, 1970, was unlike any day ever seen at the University of Tennessee. The contrasts were striking, This was a religious gathering Yet, on the stage at the 20-yard line were President Nixon and his wife Pat, Billy Graham, Senator Howard Baker, Congressman John Duncan and Knoxville Mayor Leonard Rogers Among them, only the Reverend and the First Lady held no elected political office.
In the stands were Presidential advisor HR Haldeman, Presidential friend Bebe Rebozo Presidential secretary Rosemary Woods, Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stands, and the Presidents chief foreign policy advisor Henry Kissinger. In the crowd were dozens of protesters, many wearing garments fit for a depiction of Galilee in the time of Christ. Indeed one of the protesters, with a long beard and hair and wearing a white robe with sandals looked as if he were ready to play the lead part. On the field mixing in with the demonstrators were dozens of Knoxville police and members of the secret service from Washington protecting the chief executive from the motley group. Their signs reading THOU SHALT NOT KILL had been confiscated before they had entered the stadium.
As Graham began his introduction of the President, demonstrators chanted "Politics! Politics!"1 When Nixon rose to speak a number of demonstrators began chanting antiwar slogans, only to be drowned out by a roar of pro Nixon boos. When the President began he said that being in the football stadium reminded him of his four years on the bench at Whittier College. Quickly the address began to sound as if the President were running for office Only a few remarks about spirituality invaded his string of political references., His remarks were not as forthright a witness for Christ as I had wished for, Graham later recalled, “but I rationalized that he was extremely tired from carrying many burdens”
Before the actual religious service began, most of the protesters began to file out singing the John Lennon song GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. Some stayed throughout the service and, adhering to the original plan, stood with bowed heads and flashing Peace signs. Photographers milled around the crowd taking pictures of the demonstrators. Police arrested nine and charged the with the crime of disrupting a religious service. A state law that none of the arrested even knew existed.
The following week police made the rounds of the University of Tennessee campus arresting those students and professors whose faces showed up in the photographs. Eventually most of the charges were dismissed when judges agreed with the defendants that Nixon’s speech was not a religious one.
In reporting the University of Tennessee debacle much of the national press was kind neither to President Nixon nor to Graham, asserting that the event mixed politics and religion in dangerous ways. Journalist and author GARRY WILLS, for example, wrote a piece for ESQUIRE MAGAZINE entitled “HOW NIXON USED THE MEDIA, BILLY GRAHAM, AND THE GOOD LORD TO RAP TO THE STUDENTS AT TENNESSEE U”

Talking Ann Coulter Wet Doll Top Seller Over Holiday Weekend; Controversial Doll Causes Uproar

2003-12-01T23:52:00.000-05:00

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Political junkies shaking presents under the Christmas tree this year beware! According to this weekend's sales figures at Talking Presidents, conservative political analyst Ann Coulter may be talking under the wrapping paper. The Ann Coulter Action Figure was the most popular seller at Talking Presidents over the holiday weekend, outselling Presidents Bush (father & son), President Clinton, and Donald Rumsfeld.
Fans and foes of conservative political analyst Ann Coulter have made the action figure an underground phenomenon by talking about the doll on the Internet. Many love the doll and many more hate it. "Just type Ann Coulter doll into any search engine and you'll see how much the liberals hate this doll," said John Warnock, co-owner of Talking Presidents.

1)"In the past twenty years, one-hundred percent of terrorist attacks against this country have been by Muslim extremists"
2)"There is a one-hundred percent chance that the next terrorist attack will be made by a Muslim extremist, it's no longer a profile, it's a description of the suspect."
3)"Timothy McVeigh, The Unibomber, and Eric Rudolph were muslim extremists"
4)"We should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity"
5)"Joseph McCarthy was the greatest Senator in US History"
6)"Anybody who doesn't agree with me is a traitor"
7)"Paula Jones is poor white trailor trash"
8)"Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots."
9)"Liberals demand that the nation treat enemies like friends and friends like enemies."
10)"..no one is allowed to call liberals unpatriotic. Liberals relentlessly attack their own country, but we canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t call them traitors, which they manifestly are.."
11) "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
12)"The good part of being a Democrat is that you can commit crimes, sell out your base, bomb foreigners, and rape women, and the Democratic faithful will still think you're the greatest."

Within a week of the doll's release, TalkingPresidents.com made the Democratic Underground's top 10 list of Conservative Idiots. "It was great to make the same list as George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Arnold
Schwarzenegger," said Warnock, who was far from offended by the insult. "We are proud to have her doll in our product line. Some people may not like it, but plenty of people do."
Sales of the controversial doll have exceeded the company's expectations. The Ann Coulter action figure is Talking Presidents' biggest seller this season, with the Top Gun George W. Bush, dressed in a flight suit, and the Talking George W. Bush action figure taking second and third.

Ann Coulter beats out Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics

2003-12-01T23:44:00.000-05:00

.
FINALLY A real use for Ice Queen Annthrax

2003/9/4 22:11:44 NewsHax wire -- Beating out a strong challenge from Vancouver and Stockholm, Ann Coulter put on a masterful presentation and was chosen as the host for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics. Citing the consistently cold climate surrounding her, daily snows and perfect ski-jump nose, Ann was immediately hailed by IOC members as a nearly perfect site to host the games.

This will be the first winter games held on someones face, as most of the previous games have taken place in small resort towns. (2002 Salt Lake City, USA - 1998 Nagano, JPN - 1994 Lillehammer, NOR - 1992 Albertville, FRA) (more...)

Ann Coulter has a mean winter temperature of -18C, perfect for ice formation and very conducive to powder, which can be found in copius amounts on Ann's cheekbones, the site of the slalom races and snowboard competitions. Ann is familiar with television and will have no problems adapting to the rigorous demands of being on camera for extended periods of time, say officials. She is also surrounded by ravenous fans who can add the spice of drama and scandal to any event- a perfect way to reach a newly frenzied and easily led generation which is guaranteed to record immense profits, says Olympics media advisor Rupert Murdoch.

This will also be the first game held at sea level on a fan-friendly warm beach, due to Ann's ability to maintain her frigid temperatures at any time, even with the growing heat surrounding her.

The other major difference with the Ann Coulter games is that the opening and closing ceremonies are scheduled to take place indoors at Ann's inaugural signing of her next book, "To Kill A Democrat: A Patriots Primer", This will mark the first time that the opening and closing ceremonies are held indoors at a Barnes & Noble store.

Is Our "Fearless Leader" a Chicken or a Turkey?

2003-11-28T14:03:00.000-05:00

Bush sneaks in and out of Baghdad airport in 2 hours under cover of darkness unlike some Presidents we remember
Since things are slow this weekend I took the time to catch up on reading the League of Liberals. Here is what I found from our illuminating and diverse membership:
Indigo Ocean has finished her first novel and ended a dead end
T-Rex Updates Where are they Now and explains why Republicans are bad for the economy
Our Democratic Veteran tracks the brother's Bush and takes two shots at a. sullivan
A MUST READ AND COPY - Natalie Davis All Facts and Opinions 10 Actions to Stop Bush and a few Dem Candidates are failing her test.
George is always a target rich environment says Dohiyi Mir, even with his stagecraft
The People's Republic of Seabrook has Tom Delay as Turkey of the Year and a nice shot at a Compassionate Conservative
Officially Unofficial covers the aftermath of the Shrubs shrubbery damage and other Orwellian happenings
Turkey and more Turkey is the T-Day offering of WTF is it Now?
Turkey at Pen-Elayne's looks appetizing during the Thanksgiving Day Parade which was not to some bigots.
The Cosmic Iguana covers a different Byrd while mentioning that the turkey has landed
Pharyngula found the Turkey in Iraq insulting but the timing of The Two Towers to be Turkey perfect
Cup O Joe ruminates on the recent L o L chat and reminds us that Repugnicans Hate Soldiers
Hammerdown gives us a few thousand words in pictures
The Happy Furry Puppy has T-day predictions
Concentration Camps and UN Resolutions are on the menu at Anarchy Xero
What can Bush do in IRAQ that Saddam can't asks 18 Minute Gap: answer - Nothing
If Byte Back had tallied the reactions of L o L blogs Ricky would have a very large tally although TPRS would have added to "the Left"
Why North Georgia Dogma is worth note I cannot devine. I make the L o L count about 20 to 2 on the side of "chicken little sneaks in under cover of darkness for photo op = Zero style points or more Mission Accomplished"
Rick's Cafe rates some sites for the King of Blogs and tells us the Marine Girl is back at Across the River
Bush V. the Troops Clareified by Bush Vs the Troops Again Pt II
Failure, babbler, and Blowhard are the 3 Screaming Points
Left is Right has Quotes of the Week and Friday Fun
The Gunther Concept on James Yee
Speedkill says it's serious when they don't tell Fox on the way home
The Poison Kitchen - President's in war zones and a new toy.
The Art of Worldy Wisdom Anonymoses - from Whom God Hid Nothing
Futurballa on Clinton's 21 books and a vote for Damage

The rest will wait until tomorrow

2 Million in Chinese Bonanza for Neil Bush + SEX

2003-11-26T23:19:00.000-05:00

Bush Brother Business Deals Detailed in Divorce

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Neil Bush, younger brother of President Bush, detailed lucrative business deals and admitted to engaging in sex romps with women in Asia in a deposition taken in March as part of his divorce from now ex-wife Sharon Bush.

According to legal documents disclosed on Tuesday, Sharon Bush's lawyers questioned Neil Bush closely about the deals, especially a contract with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a firm backed by Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, that would pay him $2 million in stock over five years.

Marshall Davis Brown, lawyer for Sharon Bush, expressed bewilderment at why Grace would want Bush and at such a high price since he knew little about the semiconductor business.

``You have absolutely no educational background in semiconductors do you?'' asked Brown.

``That's correct,'' Bush, 48, responded in the March 4 deposition, a transcript of which was read by Reuters after the Houston Chronicle first reported on the documents.

``And you have absolutely over the last 10, 15, 20 years not a lot of demonstrable business experience that would bring about a company investing $2 million in you?''

``I personally would object to the assumption that they're investing $2 million in me,'' said Bush, who went on to explain that he knew a lot about business and had been working in Asia for years.

Bush, who inked the Grace deal in August 2002, said he had not yet received any stock from the company, which built a plant in Shanghai that began production in September. He is supposed to consult for the company and be on the board of directors, he said.

He said he joined the Grace board at the request of Winston Wong, a co-founder of the company and the son of Wang Yung-ching, the chairman of Taiwan's largest business group, Formosa Plastics Corp. Bush never mentioned Jiang Mianheng in the deposition.

Wong, he said, also is an investor in his latest venture, Ignite!, an Austin, Texas, educational software firm.

A representative at Grace's U.S. office in California had no comment on the Bush contract.

Brown questioned Bush about numerous other business ventures that paid him well to be a consultant and fundraiser, and, in at least one case, for little work.

Bush said he was co-chairman of Crest Investment Corporation, but worked only an average of three to four hours a week. For that, he received $15,000 every three months.

Bush said he provided Crest ``miscellaneous consulting services.''

``Such as?'' asked Brown.

``Such as answering phone calls when Jamail Daniel, the other co-chairman, called and asked for advice,'' Bush said.

Bush did not return calls to his Ignite! office and his divorce lawyer, Rick Flowers, was not available for comment.

Bush is the third of five children in the family of former President George Bush and wife Barbara.

He was involved in a business controversy in the late 1980s when he was director of Denver, Colorado-based Silverado Savings & Loan, which collapsed at a cost to taxpayers of $1 billion.

He denied any wrongdoing, but was sanctioned by the federal government for his part in the failure.

The Bush divorce, completed in April after 23 years of marriage, was prompted in part by Bush's relationship with another woman. He admitted in the deposition that he previously had sex with several other women while on trips to Thailand and Hong Kong at least five years ago.

The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.

``Mr Bush, you have to admit it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her,'' Brown said.

``It was very unusual,'' Bush said.

Other presidential siblings of the past have generated controversy, among them Billy Carter, who marketed ``Billy Beer'' to cash in on brother Jimmy's presidency, and more recently Roger Clinton, who was accused of trying to broker pardons at the end of President Bill Clinton's administration.

Vote for Damage in the new blog showcase

2003-11-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

Damage: Global Warming Catastrophe - New Evidence

We support Damage in this week's new blog showcase. Read the entry above and while you are there check the archives.

More required reading: The False Hero The Maha blog

At least 17 US Troops have Committed Suicide in Iraq

2003-11-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK Nov 24 Since April, the military says, at least 17 Americans - 15 Army soldiers and two Marines - have taken their own lives in Iraq. The true number is almost certainly higher. At least two dozen non-combat deaths, some of them possible suicides, are under investigation according to an AP review of Army casualty reports.

No one in the military is saying for the record that the suicide rate among forces in Iraq is alarming. But Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top American military commander in Iraq, was concerned enough, according to the Army Surgeon General's office, to have ordered a 12-person mental health assessment team to Iraq to see what more can be done to prevent suicides and to help troops better cope with anxiety and depression.

Army spokesman Martha Rudd said the assessment team returned from Iraq two weeks ago, but that it will take several weeks to come up with recommendations. Until then, she said, no one on the team will have anything to say to the press.

Whether the suicide rate among the troops should be considered high is impossible to say because there is nothing to compare it with, experts say. What would be considered a ``normal'' rate for an all-voluntary military force of men and women on extensive deployments to the Middle East, under constant pressure from guerrillas who use terror tactics?

Rudd said that by the Army's calculations, its suicide rate in Iraq is roughly 12 per 100,000 - well below the civilian suicide rate for US men of 17.5 suicides per 100,000. The comparison is misleading, however.

The civilian rate is an annual figure, and the Iraq figure covers only about seven months. Furthermore, the troops have not yet spent their first holiday season in Iraq - a time when the risk of suicide is traditionally at its highest.

The troops in Iraq include thousands of women, who typically have a lower suicide rate than men. And the Army figure does not include possible suicides among the non-combat deaths yet to be explained.

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From the Left:
South Knox Bubba __ another Mission Accomplished and the must read GOP Bizarro World Politics
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo ___ the CGI President and Culture Clashing with the Facts
Rum in ate This ___ AARP; Just Another Insurance Agency and Another Vain and Vindictive Run
Required Reading from the Ma ha blog The Fog

I Know When Bush Is Lying: His Lips Move

2003-11-24T12:51:00.000-05:00

New Statesman; November 21, 2003 Shortly before the disastrous Bush visit to Britain, Tony Blair was at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. It was an unusual glimpse of a state killer whose effete respectability has gone. His perfunctory nod to "the glorious dead" came from a face bleak with guilt. As William Howard Russell of the Times wrote of another prime minister responsible for the carnage in the Crimea, "He carries himself like one with blood on his hands." Having shown his studied respect to the Queen, whose prerogative allowed him to commit his crime in Iraq, Blair hurried away. "Sneak home and pray you'll never know," wrote Siegfried Sassoon in 1917, "The hell where youth and laughter go."

Blair must know his game is over. Bush's reception in Britain demonstrated that; and the CIA has now announced that the Iraqi resistance is "broad, strong and getting stronger", with numbers estimated at 50,000. "We could lose this situation," says a report to the White House. The goal now is to "plan the endgame".

Their lying has finally become satire. Bush told David Frost that the world really had to change its attitude about Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons because they were "very advanced". My personal favourite is Donald Rumsfeld's assessment. "The message," he said, "is that there are known knowns - there are things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns - that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns . . . things we do not know we don't know. And each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns."

An unprecedented gathering of senior American intelligence officers, diplomats and former Pentagon officials met in Washington the other day to say, in the words of Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and friend of Bush's father: "Now we know that no other president of the United States has ever lied so baldly and so often and so demonstrably . . . The presumption now has to be that he's lying any time that he's saying anything."

And Blair and his foreign secretary dare to suggest that the millions who have rumbled the Bush gang are "fashionably anti-American". An instructive example of their own mendacity was demonstrated recently by Jack Straw. On BBC Radio 4, defending Bush and Washington's doctrine of "preventive war", Straw told the interviewer: "Article 51 [of the United Nations Charter], to which you referred earlier - you said it only allows for self-defence. It actually goes more widely than that because it talks about the right of states to take what is called 'preventive action'."

Straw's every word was false, an invention. Article 51 does not refer to "the right of states to take preventive action" or anything similar. Nowhere in the UN Charter is there any such reference. Article 51 refers only to "the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs" (my emphasis) and goes on to constrain that right further. Moreover, the UN Charter was so framed as to outlaw any state's claimed right to preventive war.

In other words, the Foreign Secretary fabricated a provision of the UN Charter which does not exist, then broadcast it as fact. When Straw does speak the truth, it causes panic. The other day, he admitted that Bush had shut him out of critical talks in Washington with Paul Bremer, the US viceroy in Iraq. Straw said he was "not party to the talks, not a party to his [Bremer's] return visit". The Foreign Office transcript of this leaves out that Straw had complained that "the UK and US [are] literally the occupying powers, and we have to meet those responsibilities". The US disregard for its principal vassal has never been clearer.

Both are now desperate. The Bush regime's panic is reflected in its adoption of Israeli revenge tactics, using F-16 aircraft to drop 500lb bombs on residential areas called "suspect zones". They are also burning crops: another Israeli tactic. The parallels are now Palestine and Vietnam; more Americans have died in Iraq than in the first three years of the Vietnam war.

For Bush and Blair, no recourse to the "bravery" of "our wonderful troops" will work its populist magic now. "My husband died in vain," read the headline in the Independent on Sunday. Lianne Seymour, widow of the commando Ian Seymour, said: "They misled the guys going out there. You can't just do something wrong and hope you find a good reason for it later." The moral logic of her words is shared by the majority of the British people, if not by Blair's diminishing court. How decrepit the Independent's warmongering rival the Observer now appears, with its pages of titillation and hand-wringing, having seen off a proud liberal tradition.

"Out there", the Iraqi dead and suffering are still unpeople, their latest death toll not worthy of the front page. Neither is the Amnesty report that former Iraqi prisoners of war have accused American and British troops of torturing them in custody, blindfolding them and kicking and beating them with weapons for long periods. Investigators from Amnesty have taken statements from 20 former prisoners. "In one case we are talking about electric shocks being used against a man . . . If you keep beating somebody for the whole night and somebody is bleeding and you are breaking teeth, it is more than beating," said Amnesty's researcher, "I think that's torture." The Americans hold more than 4,000 prisoners - a higher figure, it is estimated, than those incarcerated at any time by Saddam Hussein.

With Bush in London, Baroness Symons, a Foreign Office minister, postponed a long-planned meeting with families of British citizens held in the American concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She has made a habit of this. The families and their lawyers want to ask questions about the alleged use of torture, the deteriorating mental health of prisoners and the criminalising of the Muslim community in Britain. Held for two years without any due process, these British citizens have had their rights relegated to the convenience of the American warlord.

Blair's troubles are only beginning. There are signs that the Shia storm is gathering in southern Iraq, an area for which the British are responsible. A Shia underground army is said to be forming, quietly and patiently, as it did under the shah of Iran. If or when they rise, there will be a great deal more British blood on the Prime Minister's hands.

For 11 November, Remembrance Day, Hywel Williams wrote movingly in the Guardian about the exploitation of "the usable past - something that can be packaged into propaganda . . . [by those] with careers to build and their own causes to advance . . . We are now a country draped in the weeds of war . . . The remembrance we endure now is no longer a seasonal affair. It is a continuous festival of death as individual souls are press-ganged into the justification of all British-American wars. To this sorrow there seems no end."

Yes, but only if we allow it.

US keeps intelligence secret from British

2003-11-22T09:32:00.000-05:00

20/11/2003 The Americans are preventing the British and other key allies in the war on terrorism from seeing intelligence that could save lives, a US conference on military intelligence has been told.

British and Australian officers working in allied command centres during the war in Iraq were not allowed access to the intelligence they needed to do their job, one Australian complained. RAF and RAAF officers were asked to leave the room during briefings, though some of the information they were prevented from seeing had been provided by the British or Australian intelligence services.

"They gave us stuff and we labelled it secret and then they weren't allowed to see it," said Col Allen Roby, director of the US air force intelligence directorate, one of a number of speakers and delegates who complained about the issue. The US military's failure to share intelligence fully with its major allies dominated the conference after it was raised by Wing Commander Alex Gibbs, a member of the air attache's office at the Australian embassy in Washington.

It was easy to spot the British and Australian officers working in the allied combined air operations centre in Saudi Arabia during the Iraq war because they had to have an American sitting alongside them accessing the computer, he said. The British and Australian officers had to ask an American to search the databases and tell them what they were allowed to know, one USAF delegate confirmed. "You could look over his shoulder but you couldn't touch the keyboard."

Maj-Gen Tommy Crawford, commander of the US air force intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance centre, confirmed to the conference that the problem still existed, adding that it also affected other close US allies such as Canada. Responding to a series of questions from American delegates clearly unable to comprehend the policy, Gen Crawford insisted that it was not a problem dictated by the Pentagon and that Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, wanted it changed.

"It is a damn silly policy and there are two ways round it," he said. "We can get this policy changed or we can make Britain, Australia and Canada the 51st, 52nd and 53rd states. The way to do business is to get this policy changed." America's failure to share intelligence with its partners has caused extensive problems on a series of recent operations from the conflict in Bosnia to the current occupation of Iraq.

Dutch infantry patrolling the Iraqi-Saudi border twice threatened to withdraw this year after the Americans refused to give them imagery from Predator unmanned aerial vehicles because it was deemed too secret to be passed to a Nato ally. Paradoxically, away from the battlefield, such information is routinely shared among America's allies at Nato headquarters. There is no need to protect the source since the capabilities and existence of UAV's such as the Predator have been widely publicised.

The problems in Iraq are even more difficult to comprehend given that the CIA and MI6 freely shared information from top-secret sources within the Iraqi military when there were clear problems of source protection. The intelligence that was not being shared appeared to be largely aerial imagery from satellites, manned aircraft or UAVs.

The Americans have a history of sharing intelligence only when they have something to gain, leading the parliamentary intelligence and security committee to express concern over the lack of British involvement in the latest US spy satellite programme.

Around the League - On Top of their games this weekend
The Ma ha blog_ The cost of Fish & Chips with the Fundies
Natalie Davis All Facts and Opinions _ on Gay Marriage MJ
Ayn Clouter - Old Europe Cowers Again
Wilson's Blogmanac _ GPS for Spies Lincoln Kennedy parallels
Turquoise Waffle Irons in the Backyard - Candidate's Tech Survey and the Church Signs
Musings of a Philosophical Scrivner_ State's Rights and a More Expensive Future
Indigo Ocean _ Maui Tomorrow
Estim ated Prophet _The Greatest Story Never Told some contrasts
The Huck Upchuck _ Kingfishery and Kingcakery down in Louisianna
Speed kill_ Who is leading the Attacks? The Daily Howler? _ Hilarity Ensues
Bill Gates better watch out for The Poison Kitchen
Ink from the Squid on Medicare
Rick's American Cafe_ Bush fights negative fire with more negatives and CVS morality
Left is Right _ Abandoning the Drug Free America Myth and An Apology
Cup O' Joe _ What Happened Yesterday and Been Busy
Ham mer down _ Not the Sharpest Tool and Greatest Hypocrisy
Phar yn gula _ Glow in the Dark Fish and Krugman in Syracuse
T-Rex's Guide to Life_ Nader is a Sanctimonious Prick and Judicial Stats
The People's Republic of Seabrook_ Canadian Outdoor Hockey and Holiday in Dallas

Interior Department to Open Almost 9 Million Acres in Alaska's North Slope to Drilling

2003-11-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

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Another Chance for Exxon to Foul the Environment?

Nov 20, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration intends to open 8.8 million acres of Alaska's North Slope to oil and gas development, including areas considered environmentally sensitive.

The (rape the) Interior Department was to announce the oil and gas leasing plan Friday, the day the Senate was taking a critical vote on a massive energy bill endorsed by President Bush but denying him his top energy priority, opening an Alaskan wildlife refuge to drilling.

None of the 8.8 million acres are in the wildlife refuge, but they do include some sensitive areas in Alaska that are important for the protection of migratory birds, whales and wildlife.

A Place for Exxon to "invest" that $7.2 Billion Bonanza

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This site supports A MARINE GIRL in her 'battle' with the lying scumbag "Gunny" and so should you

New Blog Showcase contestant Anarchy Zero is the latest addition to the League. Another Cat Blogger is always welcome and keeping with the Open for Change full acceptance policy of the League an Anarchist will fit right in:
Britain Welcomes "President" Bush as Perle Tells Truth and the World Reacts in Shock as 1,000's Dance At the FTAA and 27 are Killed By Truck Bombs in Instanbul
Is it the End of The World or will the "Irrelevant" United Nations Rescue America from Bush the Madman who sent London into Literal Martial Law

IRAQ = DEATH is Anarchy Xero's entry in the New Blog Showcase and The League of Liberals has a new member in the race. Cast your votes and update your blogrolls accordingly.
Welcome Anarchy Xero.

FirstEnergy's Computer Malfunction Greatest Cause of August Blackout

2003-11-19T23:21:00.000-05:00

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FirstEnergy has Thousands of Dollars for the Bush/Cheney Campaign but put the entire Northeastern US and Canada in danger for an outmoded computer warning system

November 19, 2003 at 17:19:38 PST WASHINGTON (AP) - Of all the failures that occurred at Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. just before the nation's worst blackout on Aug. 14, a malfunction in a warning system appears to have had the greatest impact.

FirstEnergy employees failed to take steps that could have isolated its own system's problems after three power lines short-circuited because the utility's data-monitoring and alarm system wasn't working, according to a U.S.-Canadian task force that spent three months investigating the causes of the blackout.

Without a functioning emergency management system or the knowledge that it had failed, the company's system operators "remained unaware that their electrical system condition was beginning to degrade," the report said.

"Unknowingly," the report continued, "they used the outdated system condition information they did have to discount information from others about growing system problems."

Not only did the software that controls audible and visual alarms stop working at 2:14 p.m. EDT, but about a half hour later, two servers supporting the emergency system failed, too. More than an hour would pass after that before anyone in FirstEnergy's control room would realize that the software - General Electric's GE Harris XA21 system - wasn't working.

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Anarchy Xero: Winding the Iraq Deathwatch our choice in the new blog showcase

We Blew It Up - You Should Help Rebuild it Says Bush to Europe.

2003-11-19T23:06:00.000-05:00

Despite the Fact that We Blew up Iraq without your Agreement.......

Nov 19, 2003 at 19:59:35 PST LONDON (AP) President Bush urged Europe on Wednesday to put aside bitter war disagreements with the United States and work to build democracy in Iraq or risk turning the nation over to terrorists. Anti-war demonstrators mobilized for a march of tens of thousands on Thursday.

Bush conceded in a speech that deep differences remain over Iraq, even among staunch war allies, the United States and Britain. But, he asserted, "we did not charge hundred of miles into the heart of Iraq and pay a bitter cost of casualties and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins."

His speech followed an elegant welcoming ceremony with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, which included a 41-gun salute and a review of troops on foot and on horseback.

Meanwhile, anti-war protesters made preparations for huge demonstrations against Bush's 3 1/2-day state visit.

There were isolated, smaller demonstrations around the city on Wednesday. At one point, as the president's motorcade arrived at Banqueting House for his speech, noisy demonstrators could be seen and easily heard just two blocks away. The demonstrators, held back by police lines, could not be heard inside the hall where Bush spoke.

He Loved the Rush - William Bennett replaces Rush Rush is Back Rush is a Money Launderer Liar Liar Pants on Fire Liberal Radio Network Greatest Threat to Life on the Planet ? Bush or just Stupid and Incoherent?Natural Resource Giveaway GOP's Inhofe approves of torture Clap for the Pigboy's Money Laundry and Tennessee GOP Rep in a perp-walk.
Is Dawn Wierd? a Woman of Color or a Lawyer? have Pedro Martinez feelings? Well Hooray join the Conspiracy
Difficult Days during the Illegal Invasion and the Rape of the Earth where Protests and Whistleblowers are Patriots not Traitors
A Periodic Check of the League show better planning than the Military and certainly for "wirehead" BJ. Shades of the Solviets A Matrix Score No News Here hardly.
Just a Bump in the Beltway Too Sweet Yer Cadillac Pissed Off 1 and 2 Sick F#@K$ like Gunny and more at the Mudshark

Attacks will continue until day the Americans leave, says Devastating Report.

2003-11-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

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US Soldiers are dying because of the idealogical approach of the Adminitration.

19 November 2003 As George Bush arrived in London last night, an unprecedented and bleak assessment of the deteriorating military situation in Iraq was circulating among policymakers in Washington.

The report - contradicting many claims by the US administration - is based on briefings by Paul Bremer, the US de facto governor of Iraq; military commanders, unnamed intelligence officers and David Kay, the American who leads the hunt for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction. It says attacks on Americans by Sunni Iraqis will continue "until the day the US leaves".

US army commanders are also learning how Saddam Hussein forced his officers to read Black Hawk Down
- the account of the shooting down of US helicopters in Mogadishu during America's disastrous intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s - to convince them the US would leave if it suffered major casualties. The Iraqi resistance movement is believed to have a war chest of up to $1bn - with a further $3bn hidden in Syria - and it is paying between $25 and $500 for each attack on US forces.

It also says 95 per cent of the threat is from former regime loyalists and that suicide bombings are being carried out largely by foreigners.

The report, compiled by the prestigious Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is all the more devastating because of the unusual level of access provided to its author, Dr Anthony Cordesman, a specialist on Iraq. He concludes that US soldiers are dying because of the ideological approach of the administration, and "four years into office, the Bush national security team is not a team".

Mr Cordesman accuses the administration of preparing the ground for "a defeat by underplaying the risks, issuing provocative and jingoistic speeches, and minimising real-world costs and risks." Senior US officials were also deeply scornful of claims by administration officials that Saddam and his former aide Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri are orchestrating guerrilla attacks.

Mr Bremer is quoted as saying that Saddam is felt "to be isolated and on the run. Douri [is] felt to be dying".

US military officials said the leadership of the resistance is coming from former generals and colonels from the old Iraqi army, now disbanded, who see no future for themselves. This means that US successes in picking up the remaining 15 senior Baath party officials and military leaders pictured on the 55 playing cards will have no effect on the strength of the resistance.

The report makes clear that there is no long-term future for the US military in Iraq: "Some Sunnis and others will always treat the US as "antibody" and cannot even get intelligence up to the point where [it] will stop all attacks."

Dr Kay says that "Iraq was actively violating accords during later 1999 to 2003". But despite a prolonged and vastly expensive search for chemical weapons there was "no evidence of weapons production" though Iraq could have produced sarin in two years and mustard gas in two months.

Interviews with former Iraqi commanders show that while none of them had chemical weapons under their control they believed that other units did have chemical weapons.

Mr Bremer said that there was no evidence of a direct role by al-Qa'ida, though he felt that the devastating suicide bombs were carried out by non-Iraqis. But he made clear that he had "no hard intelligence to confirm that they were foreigners".

Mr Bremer told the CSIS that "the most critical problem is intelligence" on local guerrillas and possible foreign supporters. He said: "We do not have a reliable picture of who is organising attacks, and the size and structure of various elements." He suspected that there was local co-ordination and possibly greater co-ordination on a regional level. There were estimated to be at least eight resistance cells in Baghdad, each with some 25 members.

BUSH Economic BOOM - BANKRUPTCY at RECORD PACE - 98% Increase

2003-11-15T19:24:00.000-05:00

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The total number of bankruptcy filings, including both personal and business, has grown by 98 percent, to 1,661,996 in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, from 837,797 during the same period ending Sept. 30, 1994.

Nov 14, 2:46 PM WASHINGTON - The record-setting pace of new personal bankruptcies continued in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, with their number rising 7.8 percent, according to data released Friday. Personal bankruptcies jumped to 1,625,813 from 1,508,578 during the same period a year earlier, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts data show. The upward trend had been expected to continue despite signs of recovery in the economy .

Pentagon Limits Funeral Coverage - Arlington to Keep Reporters Away

2003-11-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

MORE RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS TO HIDE DEATH TOLL IN IRAQ

Friday, November 14, 2003 The Army tightened rules yesterday on press coverage of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, directing that reporters be kept far enough away from the graveside that they would likely be unable to hear a chaplain's eulogy. Reporters will be restricted to a roped-in "bullpen" that is generally far enough away that words spoken at graveside cannot be heard, officials said.

The order to enforce the restriction came from Army officials at the Pentagon, Metzler said. He said the order came in response to a complaint, but he declined to provide details.

The change comes as the White House and the Pentagon are showing increased sensitivity to the portrayal of U.S. casualties from the war in Iraq. Officials have barred media coverage of the bodies of troops arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, in that case also insisting that a long-ignored rule be enforced.

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while we keep track of the Miserable Failure Project, snicker at Senator Bill Frist's Web Shenanagans, and marvel at the Damn Liberal Media thanks to the efforts of oour newest member, Turquoise Waffle Irons in the Back Yard. Remember to update your blogrolls
Study the Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq, travel around the world in 80 days with Nellie Bly, or learn how to shake hands with the president. While you're welcoming Pip and the Blogmanac to the League of Liberals, you'll be thinking universally and acting terrestrially. Just wait--it will all become clear!

The League of Liberals is ~~PROUD~~ dismayed to ~~WELCOME~~ tolerate the inclusion of AYN CLOUTER just to keep an eye on her. AYN is the infamous author of THE BLOGFATHER review and the shrill twisted diatribe "How I Came To Hate Liberals" Ayn's work like CANONIZE BUSH and RENAME THE DEMOCRATS has caused speculation about her possible membership in The Landover Baptist Church There should be no question now that The League of Liberals is unbearably Liberal. We are truly the "party of inclusion" and we may see applications from LITTLE BROWN POOHBALLS and the INSTYPOOHBAH.

NOTE: If any of the membership wishes to call into question the leadership that has allowed inclusion of Ayn Clouter and The Politburo Diktat to the League now is the time to speak your piece. Welcome to "The Big Tent"
9000 US Casulties in Iraq
Halliburton Employee admits to Illegal Warhead Sale
Rush Limbaugh back on the Air on Monday with Investigation still in progress
A History of Majority Leader Senator Frist
Rush Limbaughtomy has the 12 Step Program for Right Wing Radio Addicts
2 Tits Up Bush Brit Tabloid Growth Industry Here's shocking proof that US takes hostages and buys votes dying for Halliburton with the pilgrim Jihadist

The Gay Bashing Bush - Jeb

2003-11-13T14:37:00.000-05:00

Jeb Bush jokes people of San Francisco may be endangered

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush joked during a Florida Cabinet meeting Wednesday that the people of San Francisco may be endangered and, "That's probably good news for the country." The subject was environmental land and Bush was looking at a map showing locations with a lot of different wildlife.

"It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country." People in the room broke into laughter. "Did I just say that out loud?" the governor asked.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown wasn't too worried by the comment, according to spokesman P.J. Johnston."When he finally stopped laughing, he said, 'I'm sure this is a tongue-in-cheek comment. Johnston also said he didn't think residents of San Francisco would be much disturbed by what the governor said. "By and large San Franciscans have a good sense of humor and will not be dreadfully offended," Johnston said.

But the head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force didn't see anything funny in the governor's comment and believed it to be anti-gay because of San Francisco's large gay population. "It's extremely insulting," said Matt Foreman. "But of course I would say that gay people in Florida are far more endangered than gay people in California."

Oh. the Irony - Bush "welcoming" protests in Britain? He doesn't expect everybody in the world to agree with him except the US Senate on his reactionary Judges Next He'll nominate Judge NO Moore Accept Natalie's "birthday gift" to us "The Speech Bush Did Not Give" and wish Natalie "Happy Birthday" (a few hours late) while you are there.
Cast your vote for the latest plan cause you are either with us or against us Flashback on the stepped up strategy and stage the news one more time. SouthKnoxBubba has the plan.

Fristing offered in new blog showcase

2003-11-13T09:19:00.000-05:00

League of Liberals member And Then..'s entry in the New Blog Showcase is Late Night With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
And Then... takes on Tennessee Senator, the Shame of Rocky Top, Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Treason Online is proud to link to Rush Limbaughtomy's Bill Frist "Republican Role Model of the Day" in support of And Then.... and urges everyone to consider And Then...... and to vote by placing a link to "Late Night With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist" in their blogs.

216 Days have passed in the search is it Time to Evolve? The Sesquipedalian is no Incipient Ass
He is For God and Country and "pretty much a shot in the dark most days..."

We Alway's Knew They'd Come Around and make Bush fear for his re-selection with More Lost Heart's and Minds Losing Faith with the Occupation.
So enters Stageleft like the Freeway Blogger

Memes Forgiveness Bush threatened by Brits Larry Flint Dead Bush Rape Victim Nazi Tendencies Lynchings there is much Mud for the Mudshark
GOP Sleepover at the Crybaby Party where Mr. Smartass and Mr. High horse were seen begging a Cup O Joe at the LoL Roundup

Free Yourself from Right Wing Talk Radio: A 12 Step Recovery Program

2003-11-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

"I'll tell you everything you need to know. You never need read a newspaper again. I'll read them for you and tell you what to think." The root cause of the Rush Limbaughtomy
Rush Limbaughtomy = the Dittohead Recovery Zone is proud to share this new found 12 step program with our readers who are dependant on help in becoming un-Limbaughtomized. Please copy these 12 steps and follow them diligently. Make sure that you continue to attend daily meetings here on Rush Limbaughtomy. "Remember it works if you work it and keep coming back".

"I am Limbaughtomized lunatic free of Rush Radio for 22 days. I thank my Higher Power for the Dittohead Recovery Zone" Oliver North

Free Yourself from Right Wing Talk Radio: 12 Steps to Recovery

Step 1: Admit that you were under the sway of right-wing, anti-democracy radicals.
Visit Rush Limbaughtomy for a new 12 Step Recovery Program by Thom Hartmann And listen to the Tom Hartmann Radio Program

Somethings to do while you listen to Thom Hartmann on the Radio
Franken ponders a run for the Senate in his Native Minnesota at Speedkill
Is Gephart the tortoise gonna catch Dean the hare? BYTE BACK is excited.
Mad Kane has the humor round up and St. Reagan's song I am waiting for "Why Can't the American's Teach Their Leader How To Speak" and "All I Want is a War Somewhere", from the same musical.
The latest "Where will you be" picture is up at Hammerdown. There is a whole series of pained expressions.
Chinese food on the Moon - only from The Poison Kitchen
Origination of Denomination and Anti-American Asshats on Parade will Shock and Awe you.
It is Officially Unofficial - Celine Dion is destitute check your sitemeters
ACT now the Shrub is not welcome at this Coffee Break
Rick's response to the Truth Laid Bear has drawn 147 Responses _ some of them are worth the time _ As is Bush honoring the veternarians at Arlington National Cemetary
Bush tells the British what to do and Flint has Jessica in the nude
With us or Against Us Clear Skies and More Lies and they are Coming to take you away It is always a strong signal to noise ratio at SouthKnoxBubba

2003-11-11T15:42:00.000-05:00

BUSH RAPE ACCUSER FOUND DEAD OF GUNSHOT

Woman Who Filed Sex Suit Against Bush Dead

Woman who filed sexual assault lawsuit against bush confirmed dead, cause of death listed as "gunshot wound to head"...

I finally got some confirmation from an obit in the Houston Chronicle that Margie Schoedinger, the woman who filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bush last year, died in September.

I called the Harris County Medical Examiner's office, which lists her cause of death as a "gunshot wound to the head" and "suicide." Anyone versed in CIA/Mafia lingo knows that "suicide" sometimes means "murder" or at least carries with it some pressure to commit suicide by outside parties, such as those against whom that person has filed a lawsuit. I'm not yet saying this is a murder - you draw your own conclusion.

Schoedinger in July sounded in good health. She was only 38. It's another weird tragedy surrounding the Bush administration - and this one has received NO mention from the media.

Paper: Houston Chronicle Date: Saturday 09/27/03
SCHOEDINGER
MARGIE D. SCHOEDINGER expired Monday, 9/22/03 . Visitation: Friday, 9/26/03 , 7 to 9pm, McCoy & Harrison Chapel. Funeral Service: Saturday, 9/27/03 , 1:30pm, McCoy & Harrison Chapel. Interment, Houston Memorial Gardens.

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Dr. PZ Myers of pharyngula is new League of Liberals member 5 in the past 6 hours.
Appropriate since our embryonic League has possibly reached the pharyngula stage in it's rapid growth.
Godless Sunday, about pharyngula, Tim Berglund Still Doesn't Get It, FOOM!, and my favorite: The Crayola Strategy about Texas textbooks, make for great reading at pharyngula.
You will also find interesting pictures
Please offer an educated welcome to the insightful intelligent pharyngula
and update those blogrolls.
Haunting Bush from the Grave
The Rush Addiction Trifecta and Parsing Rush
School Boards & the Most Patronizing Deception Just a few of the offerings at The Huck Upchuck
Ask Me NO Questions, I'll Tell You NO Lies
A Squid Down in Texas' Pop Quiz
He's not "Changin Tactics"
These Cliff Notes are His
Get a Rope he'll help Bush with "good-byes"

Ornicus sez Left IS Right and it's true
Our "focus" is slightly askew
Praise be to George Soros Want to marry Kucinich?
Read GORE and there's more
Here that's NEW.

Please welcome these new members to the League of Liberals despite the bad poetry.
And don't forget to update those blogrolls.
If it aint broke, don't Frist it.
Shoshana Johnson is a Wonderful American
Bush can be insulting
Soilders, White House and Media Agree, Andrew of BYTE BACK is What Bush is Afraid Of
Please welcome BYTE BACK to the League of Liberals

2003-11-09T15:21:00.000-05:00

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter goes on trial

After three weeks and more than 200 reader e-mail, snail mail and phone responses, it's time to find out what this Ann Coulter business is all about. It's time to decide whether the controversial conservative syndicated columnist will become a regular on our op-ed page. Starting Saturday, Nov. 22 and continuing for four weeks, Coulter's column will appear in the Erie Times-News for readers to judge for themselves. In other words, Ann Coulter is on trial.

Little else in recent memory — changing comics and relocating the crossword puzzle come to mind — has generated more reader interest in terms of volume and intensity. Most who wrote were vehemently opposed to Coulter, some letters emotional, several filled with vitriolic threats and colorful expressions I haven't heard since serving aboard the USS Gyatt 40 years ago. Yet the majority who chimed in — 128 favored Coulter; 80 were opposed.

"In my opinion, she should not be published," wrote Mark Vendel of Conneautville. She is a proven liar and a nut case. Take a look at Al Franken's latest book and see for yourself. Ann Coulter is one major example of what is wrong with America."

"It is such a tough choice for me when I balance Coulter driving liberals nuts versus her shortcomings as a writer," said Doug Smith of Erie.

"You can count on me to cancel my subscription to your paper (after 40 years) if you have Ann Coulter as a columnist," said Martin Fitzgerald of Erie. "She has been fired by many larger newspapers including the National Review (which is right wing) as being too fanatical to the right in her opinions. A newspaper that would hire Ann Coulter's opinions should be ashamed of themselves. I am sure the unions in Erie would be happy to hear about her union-busting attorney father and how his opinions formed the thinking of this demented woman."

"Although an avowed liberal, I presently read all your columnists, regardless of persuasion," said M. Claire Kennedy, SSJ. "However, I doubt that I will read Coulter. How about Gigot or Safire or anyone who gets their facts straight?

"I vote for Robert Novak, definitely," wrote P. Johnson of Fairview. "I have seen Ms. Coulter many times on TV, and I just can't stand her. She has a certain smugness and a semi-sneer on her face at all times. ... "

When Coulter's test period begins Nov. 22, you can comment to a special e-mail address: conservativecolumnist@timesnews.com. Remember, although this might be just a trial — read her or not — you're judge and jury!

Write to the Erie Times e-mail and make your opinion of Coulter known.

Great Quote: "If Barbie mated with Rush Limbaugh, the offspring would probably look like the new Ann Coulter doll"

There is no 18 Minute Gap in the blog of the same name. It is all good.
A nice chart on campaign contributions The can't dance puppets of the Iraqi Council - another miserable failure of the Bush Admin.
Webster's introduces McJob The latest plug for the Freeway Blogger and committing crime for Healthcare
Class War you bet says The Estimated Prophet and sobering news in We're Watching You

2003-11-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

Ann Coulter Goes to the Movies Don't read this if you like Ann Coulter.

Don't read this if you want to believe Ann Coulter gets her facts straight.

The other night I was enlisted to appear on MSNBC's Hardball to discuss the controversy over the CBS miniseries on Ronald and Nancy Reagan. On the other side was Coulter, the over-the-top-and-over-the-edge conservative author whose latest book literally brands all liberals as treasonous. Conservatives and Republicans have howled that the Reagan movie was a travesty, complaining it portrays Reagan as out of it in the White House and callous toward AIDS victims. On air, I noted that since the movie, as far as I could tell, does not detail how Reagan had cozied up to the apartheid regime of South Africa, the murderous dictator of Chile, and the death-squad-enabling government of El Salvador, it indeed has a problem with accuracy. But the miniseries' true sin seems to be its schlockiness. The available clips make it look like Dynasty meets Mommie Dearest set in the White House.

Coulter started more restrained than usual, though she predictably bashed Hollywood liberals for trying to undermine the historical standing of a president they despised by resorting to trashy revisionism. Perhaps she even had a point. Who could tell what the producers were aiming at? But then she jumped the tracks. She claimed that the movie Patton was made by Holly-libs with "hatred in their hearts" for George S. Patton, the brilliant but erratic World War II general. These filmmakers "intended to make Patton look terrible," she maintained, but because they produced an accurate work, the movie ended up making "Patton look great and people loved him."

Was Patton a left-wing Hollywood conspiracy that backfired? Host Chris Matthews immediately challenged her in his subtle fashion: "You are dead wrong." He pushed her for proof, and she replied, "That is why George C. Scott turned down his Academy Award for playing Patton." Coulter was suggesting that Scott had spurned his Oscar because the filmmakers plan to destroy Patton's image by portraying the general "as negatively as possible" had gone awry.

Matthews wasn't buying. "Who told you that, who told you that?" he shouted. Her Oracle-like response: "It is well known." She added, "Why did you think he turned down the award, Chris? You never looked that up? It never occurred to you?"

Matthews retorted, "Because he said he wasn't going to a meat parade, because he didn't believe in award ceremonies." And Matthews was right. Following the show, I took Coulter's advice and did look it up. I found a 1999 obituary of Scott that noted he had stunned Hollywood in 1971 for being the first person ever to refuse an Academy Award. He had explained his action by slamming such awards as "demeaning" and he had dismissed the Oscar ceremony as a "two-hour meat parade." (Matthews receives extra points for getting this quote correct.) Coulter had twisted this well-documented episode into yet more proof that liberals--especially those in Hollywood--are conspiratorial traitors.

After I described this exchange to someone who once worked with her, he said, "That's Ann. She lives in her own world and she just makes things up." This interlude concerned a small matter. (Who knew we would be debating one of my favorite movies?) But this minor dustup provided evidence to support a serious charge. As Matthews remarked while wrapping up the segment, "Facts mean nothing to you, Ann." If so, why continue to have her on?

Cruise the Cosmos with the League of Liberals
Harmonic Concordance tomorrow night. - Indigo Ocean _ does that mean we all will vote this week?
Veralynne at A-Changin' Times is in Concordance too but not with Bloodthirsty Christians.
Christmas a week after Halloween? our Philosophical Scrivner wants to be British
A TTLB cartoon at Gotham City and another take on Hillbilly Heroin Rush
The author of The People's Republic of Seabrook and I share more than the same white beards, cats, and politics _ we have the same sunsign
This job "creation" chart from the 18 1/2 Minute Gap will make you wish you could Hitchhike the Galaxy
Officially unofficial is in the poppy fields of OZ looking at the tollbooths on the information superhighway
More cyberspace travel will come later _ Enjoy your trip around our cosmos.
Please Welcome Kevin and The Gunther Concept to the League of Liberals. Like The People's Republic of Seabrook, The Gunther Concept is an isolated bastion of reason in the lost State of Texas soon to be the only home of the current pReznit. So update those blogrolls and give a Texas sized Howdy to The Gunther Concept _ the latest link to the League of Liberals.
Project Trinity
A new voting member The Mudshark gives us tales of Missions ~~Accomplished~~ Impossible, Der Gropenfurer Another Dittohead Recovery Program and other good stuff. Please offer a warm League of Liberals
Hammerdown has voted
Spongebob Squarepants has agreed.
No more Great Moments in Hypocrisy, Where's the Outrage, Bush Lied, Schweet - Hammerdown has joined the League of Liberals Please welcome the illustrious SPADEHAMMER to the League and read.
Blunted on Reality has a great post on the Dean Flag Flap and a good reason to vote in the showcase.
The high price of protest, family values, and a Govs Enron ties are amoung the GOP felonies of the week on the Felonious Elephant
Lying Liars, Wrong Answers and Reasons one and 60 FSU loses and T-Rex gets prolific.

2003-11-05T12:53:00.000-05:00

Gutless at CBS
The network’s decision to yank ‘The Reagans’ was just a craven—and short-sighted—bid to keep advertisers happy

Nov. 4 Hallelujah! The Gipper is safe and the hated liberal media humbled. It’s a big victory for the “Elephant Echo Chamber,” the unholy trinity of conservative talk radio, conservative Internet sites and the Republican National Committee. The decision by CBS late yesterday not to air “The Reagans” meant, Matt Drudge exulted, “a tremendous night” for his team.

BUT IF THIS IS, as Drudge says, “the beginning of a second media century, much more of a people-driven media” we should look a little harder at what that might entail. More gutless TV executives? Programming that caters to loud political partisans? Fictionalized treatment of historical figures that cannot be critical?
Look, I’m not defending “The Reagans.” I have neither read the script nor seen it. (No one outside CBS has). It may well be the hit job described in leaked reports or, at a minimum, another stupid docu-drama that distorts the historical truth. It’s a little tacky to be taking a lot of pot shots when the former president is ailing. More important, it is not “censorship” when people organize boycotts or public campaigns trying to keep something off the air. (Censorship, remember, is when the government controls what is published or broadcast). This was plain old free speech.

My problem isn’t with the whining critics, it’s with the CBS executives. In its press release, the network said the decision to cancel the docudrama, scheduled for Nov. 16 and 18 (and sell it to Showtime instead), was based “solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted over the draft of a script.” If you believe that, you think “Survivor” is a nature program. You think CBS is still the Tiffany of networks.
Clearly what happened here is that CBS caved to its advertisers, who feared a boycott orchestrated not just by Matt Drudge and talk radio but by Ed Gillespie of the Republican National Committee, who got into the act last week. This was not only craven of CBS but short-sighted. Docudramas depend on jucy personal material. No one wants to watch one about the brilliant successes of the Strategic Defense Initiative.
CBS’ whopper was exceeded only by Drudge, who told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC that “if they went and did a Clinton story [that was critical] there would be just as much outrage.” Yo, Matt. Spare us. If the Fox network wants to air a docudrama about how terrible Bill and Hillary were (and it’s only a matter of time), do you really think it would be pulled because of pressure from advertisers? Do you think the next time some sleazy producer tries to make a quick buck with the 5,834th docudrama about the sins of the Kennedys that some liberal talk radio establishment will immediately materialize to smite it?
The coup de grace, Drudge reports, was when it was leaked that the Ronald Reagan character, played by James Brolin, referred to himself as “the anti-Christ.” We have no idea of the context of this comment, but it sure sounds like “Reagan” taking rueful note of his critics’ frenzied attacks upon him—-in other words, a pro-Reagan indication of how insane some of criticism of the period turned out to be. Instead, it was deployed as red meat for evangelicals to feast on.

The other scenes that apparently stuck in the craw of the Reagan hero-worshippers and GOP political operatives who saw a way to rally their base were those that depicted tensions within the Reagan family and Nancy Reagan’s controlling personality. Imagine! A docu-drama that actually reflects the headlines from the era! Anyone who was alive in the 1980s knows that the Reagan First Family was close to dysfunctional (as in, not speaking to each other for long periods) and that the First Lady plotted her husband’s schedule with the help of an astrologer and fired his chief of staff. That’s not spin; it’s fact. As Yogi Berra said, you can look it up.
So now we’re in a new media century. I shed no tears for “The Reagans,” which will not make me rush out and subscribe to Showtime. Unless you count “The Missiles of October,” there was no golden age of TV docu-dramas, which have always been the cheesiest meal on the media food chain. Primetime television is uncorruptible, because there has never been anything left to corrupt in the first place.
But I’m glad for the artistic and historical advice now booming through the elephant echo chamber. It’s good to know that network docu-dramas are, forthwith, supposed to be “true,” unless, of course, the truth is somehow “offensive” to the myth, then we’ll take the myth, as long as the myth corresponds to the reigning politics of the moment.
One thing’s for sure: When they make “The Bush Dynasty” docudrama, that “Mission Accomplished” banner won’t be visible in the scene on the aircraft carrier.

A Trip through the Ecosystem mid-section was revealing. 3000 down to 2800 with only 14 liberal blogs. 30 to 40 of this 200 were dead ends. Old dates, switched to MT from blogger, or just dead links. The Ecosystem has lots of deadwood if this section is any indication
2801.Waremouse (6) details
2832.ddjangoWIrE (6) details
2836.Leftist Propaganda (6) details
2845.Loaded Mouth (6) details
2847.The Decembrist (6) details
2859.The Parks Department (6) details
2890.PoLiTicAl - - D i A b L o G (5) details
2894.Charen Watch (5) details
2895.Seize the Fish (5) details
2896.Dubya Chronicles (5) details
2919.Short Hope Unfiltered (5) details
2927.6040hindsight (5) details
2935.Constant Struggle (5) details
2949.Capitol Blog (5) details

AS promised the Liberal Linker is gonna slowly work the way up the Ecosystem seeing what kewl voices lurk in the muck of micro-organisms. Here are 28 of the bottom 150 with at least a bit of a liberal bent.
One obeservation: What's with the 50% Canadian Blogs at this level
These contestants are no-longer no-link wonders
Welcome new Slimy Mollusks.

4942.Turn That Shit Up (0) details
4945.Hypgnosis (0) details
4947.Gore4Dean (0) details
4950.Clark Truth Squad (0) details
4953.American Politics (0) details
4954.Economics and Other Random Stuff (0)
4955.Empty Wheel (0) details
4956.Weather Head (0) details
4957.Jeff Davis (0) details
4963.reagank.com (0) details
4964.Braganza (0) details
4966.Herb Bowlman (0) details
4967.Coprolites (0) details
4968.Fates Worse Than Death (0) details
4970.Unnamed Democrat (0) details
4973.This is not my .com (0) details
4975.The Chestnut Tree Cafe (0) details
4994.Random Thoughts (0) details
5001.canadiansfordean (0) details
5030.April Follies (0) details
5036.It's Craptastic (0) details*
5038.The Daily Travesty (0) details
5039.John McCrory (0) details
5040.Windmills of My Mind (0) details
5041.1 Florida Democrat (0) details
5085.The Ivy Bush (0) details
5086.No Right Turn (0) details*
5092.The Expat (0) details
ROCK THE CONFEDERACY
Welcome to the Future
Start your tour of the League of Liberals here:
The Democratic Veteran asks Where have all the Cowboys Gone? and offers a lesson on the Fish Dyslexicon
Anglican Aftermath and Cowardly Cave are the crux of the avuncular entries on All Facts and Opinions
What rhymes with witch-slapped? and other "horrors" are among the Halloween holdovers at WTF is it Now?
Seek or See different strings on Diebold problems in Va.
Bush Sucks Bush hates Blue Skies read Sick of Bush it is a Principal of Least Effort.
Futurballa voted for Whale Power
Speedkill supports the League of Liberals by vote and voice
Limbaughtomy revisited Escape and Diebold sued see Rush Limbaughtomy
Please welcome Blogs Canada: Officially Unofficial to the League of Liberals
Officially Unofficial has voted and is officially a member. Blogs Canada posts on everything from Farting Fish to Canadian Prescription Drugs and is among the TOP BLOGS of Canada. Welcome Blogs Canada: Officially Unofficial to the League of Liberals and update those blogrolls.
You gotta read this * *** from Happy Furry Puppy Story Time

2003-11-05T11:00:00.000-05:00

DIEBOLD Sued Over Threats

Free speech advocates sued a manufacturer of electronic voting machines Tuesday, demanding it stop sending legal threats to groups that publish company documents leaked by a hacker. Voting activists who have received the cease-and-desist orders, including students from at least 20 universities, claim the documents raise serious security concerns about Diebold Inc., which has more than 50,000 touchscreen voting terminals nationwide.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford University's Cyberlaw Clinic filed for a temporary restraining order in federal court. Diebold executives could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But spokesman Mike Jacobsen said in late October that the internal documents aren't necessarily authentic.

A hacker broke into Diebold's servers in March using an employee's ID, and copied thousands of company announcements and internal e-mails. Jacobsen said the documents might have been altered afterward. The hacker e-mailed the data to voting activists, some of whom published stories on their Web logs. A freelance journalist at Wired News also received data and wrote about it in an online story.

In one series of e-mails, a senior engineer dismisses concern from a lower-level programmer who questions why the company lacked certification for a customized operating system used in touch-screen voting machines. On Monday, a California advisory panel refused to certify new Diebold voting machines, saying it plans to investigate uncertified software and hardware that may have been used in a recent election.

2003-11-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

Choices present themselves for the League of Liberals
Here are a few for now.
A Legal Victory for Clarefied and Death by Invitation
Cosmic Iguana's Deadly Garage Sale
Gotham City 13 cites That ol Bush Admin and joins the League
Is the Philosophical Scrivner a Geek?
or a virgin?
What to do with the NASCAR DADS? asks Maha and Censoring for the Gipper
Linda Tripp on MTV that's an 18 Minute Gap that should get your attention
Rick has new diners at his Cafe Americain are you on the A list?
Relax go surf and see on the healing waters of the Indigo Ocean
Take the Oxy out of Oxymoron
Take the poll at SKBubba and remember Rabin the recipie at the Poison Kitchen
Welcome to the Future with a Cup O Joe
Return of Poison Rush has Churchill spinning in his grave _ the untold costs of war

2003-11-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

The Reagan Truth - WTF is it NOW?
The NRO is Pathetic - Dohiyi Mir
blunted on reality - The End of the World
Windfall - Hell for Halliburton
Disconnect? - Happy Furry Puppy Story Time
Crappy Porn? - Shock and Awe
All Fact's and Opinions on Left Wing Media?
Mad Kane has the Spinning Song and
Pen-Elayne is Spinnin
different strings - Bush is a NITHING
Futurballa has a new gallery
Meet the NeoCons on Cup O' Joe
Indigo is NaNo
SpeedKill from Bozeman has his own Roundup
A Byrd in the hand is worth 200 Bushes - Sick of Bush
Arms and the Man - Sabotage
Election Day - at Rick's Cafe
Chomsky Soundbites And Then
Art Spies? - the Estimated Prophet
Rebel War - A Changin' Times

2003-11-03T13:00:00.000-05:00

Around the web with the League of Liberals
Natalie Davis at ALL FACT'S AND OPINIONS covers Justice for HMO Members.
Oppose the parade of Right Wing Judges join ARMACT Alerts
Is Halliburton protected at the expense of injured workers? - see Arms and the Man
Do we only protect the white troops? asks Blunted on Reality
Clarified asks "What does a Lawyer look like?"
Iraq price tag to hit $200 Billion? - The Cosmic Iguana
Cup O' Joe says they want us LINED UP AND SHOT
Democratic Veteran covers yet more Republican whining.
Different Strings finds Wolfowitz Over the Line
Dohiyi Mir has a Quote from Cheney we all should read and take to heart.
Futurballa has his own take on Ecosystem fluctuations.
The Happy Furry Puppy runs down the Conservative Columnists.
Hell for Halliburton takes on the Mutual Fund Inside Traders
Indigo Ocean strings it all together
Mad Kane has the Spinning Song and The Felonious Elephants finds Lincoln spinning in his grave
That hissing sound is Dennis 'the menace' Miller's ego inflating on TPRS
Pen-Elayne covers the Strange Case of Stephen Kaye
The Philosophical Schrivner is all over the E-mail dilemma
163 Million Dollars for LASSER of Prudential and he could not resist stealing a million on top of that?
Should we baptise Patriots - see Shock and Awe
Sick of Bush on the STALKER T-Rex on the Party of Hatemongers The Mahablog on Bush's Down Day The Poison Kitchen offers and invitation to Canada
The difference between CEO's and CIA agents? check here: The Spy Game
Nobody should have to go a day without WTF is it NOW!?
Read Rush Limgbaughtomy for the latest on the growing Mutual Fund Scandal

2003-10-29T00:42:00.000-05:00

The Anti-Coulter - Michael Moore is SRO on his book tour.

Michael Moore Speaks to Overflow Crowd

He is outside, addressing those members of the audience who are unable to enter the packed auditorium.
"I can only hope that my book will make a small contribution toward that day when we'll see one long perp walk of administration officials in handcuffs being led out of the White House and into a waiting paddy wagon. Like I said, I'm not asking for much. 'Dude, Where's My Country?' is also my humble attempt to violate the Patriot Act on every single page of the book."

Asked about the mood on college campuses and now it compares to the '60s era of radicalism, where Moore came of age, he replies, "There is no difference. I think it's a baby boomer myth that colleges are necessarily bastions of progressive thinking. Back then, just like now, there was a small group of people who were working towards change, and they got all the attention."

"Maybe it's a sick fantasy of mine, but I am really looking forward to a debate between a general and a deserter. (President Bush served in a reserve national guard unit during the Vietnam War, and his attendance has been called in to question more than once.) Plus, I really want to hear President Bush have to say, "Yes, General, No, General," he laughs. Moore explains, "I just think it's pretty unique that we have a United States general who is pro-choice, supports the environment, and is against what we are doing in Iraq."

"I think what was so significant about the recall elections was that for the first time ever, the Republicans had to move to the left in order to get elected! Republicans don't want another Democrat acting like a Republican, they have their own wack jobs for that. "Actually, Californians don't want a conservative Republican leading their country, which is why they elected someone like Gray Davis. Even he is better than an extreme right-wing Republican!

The American political populace has shifted to the left. "The fact is that most Americans are pro-choice, they want the environment protected, they want health care," he explains. "They just don't want the government taking their money."

He bristles visibly when a campus reporter asks him about a story in the Wall Street Journal which criticized his research and fact checking. "That is not a critic that is the Wall Street Journal and someone who writes for a conservative think tank, who is writing for a right wing newspaper, on their editorial page." "I have a team of fact checkers who work for me and do research. When they are done, another team of fact-checkers checks their work. I have probably spent about $60,000 through my last four books on research alone. And do you know how many lawsuits have been initiated against me for libel or slander? Zero." "You should understand the difference between a critic and someone who just disagrees with me," he continues. "A critic can offer his take on something I've said and offer his own response. But most of them don't want to argue the facts, they would rather spread slander and libel."

Americans are easily duped by the media, who are guilty of imposing an "enforced ignorance" on a "population that is so easily manipulated by lies and fear." "Lies and fear," says Moore, "And here is a good example: 'There is no terrorist threat.'" The audience roars. "There may be someone out there planning something, but we are not living under the current threat of a terrorist act taking place in Los Angeles tonight."

In fact, Moore saves much if his lighthearted venom for recently admitted drug addict/political commentator Rush Limbaugh. "Here is a guy who has spent the last ten years just spewing hate, and much of that hate has been directed at drug addicts." He gets wound up again. "There are two million people in jail in America, and 1 million are in there for drugs, and I say let them out!" The auditorium shakes. "I can't find one iota of sympathy for Rush Limbaugh... One (illegal use) of OxyContin is a felony. And 100 is 100 felonies!" The friendly audience roars with laughter and approval. Limbaugh is a miserable failure.

Moore makes the natural connection from Limbaugh to the power of the American media and the conservative stronghold on talk radio and television. "Here's what I don't understand. They have every talk radio station, they have two major cable networks. What are the Republicans so mad about? They own EVERYTHING!"

Please welcome differentstrings to the League of Liberals. and update your blogrolls naturally!

Futurballa has joined the League of Liberals

Cup O' Joe
Want to take action to make a better world? ARMACT alerts
Vote in the TTLB Showcase:
From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:
ink from the squid: investing in the future

MORE GREATEST HITS AROUND THE WEB
SouthKnoxBubba has a rant worth reading

Shock and Awe is in the League of Liberals

WTF is it Now? is in the League of Liberals

Maybe you should read the Democratic Veteran

The Poison Kitchen is in the League of Liberals - maybe you should check it out and join too.

T-Rex
Does
Please welcome Major Barbara of Arms and the Man to the League of Liberals
Please welcome and continue to be Sick of Bush

Please welcome The Felonious Elephant to the growing League of Liberals. An Elephant never forgets to blogroll

Please welcome member number 30 Speed kill and remember those blogrolls.

The BRIDAL PARTY

It was a PERFECT Wedding Day - as the Backdrop and the Setting show

Read Rush Limgbaughtomy for the latest on the growing Mutual Fund Scandal

2003-10-27T09:21:00.000-05:00

.
THE LEAGUE OF LIBERALS BANNER IS DISPLAYED

The League of Liberals comes roaring out of the gate in their first official week in the contest to deliver a staggering 100% (yes, 100%) participation rate among their 27 members. Full results are:

League of Liberals: 27 of 27 = 100.0 % participation
Blogger Alliance: 40 of 89 = 44.9 % participation
Axis of Naughty: 6 of 24 = 25.0 % participation

"I am therefore declaring the League the winners for this week effective immediately, and their logo now hangs in the place of honor atop the Showcase. Congratulations to the League for their victory!" NZ BEAR

CONGRATULATIONS FELLOW LIBERAL LEAGUERS

New Blog Showcase Winner Patrick Taylor and the Poison Kitchen become the first Canadian Charter Members of The League of Liberals Please welcome The Poison Kitchen and update those blogrolls for Patrick who blogs from beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia.

INDIGO OCEAN is a former New blog showcase winner we have heard from on the League of Liberals comments. Read Mindfullness V. Concentration and Leave No Corporation Behind on her beautiful blog with exquisite photos from Hawaii. We encourage Indigo Ocean to join our League of Liberals

This prodigious pachyderm ponders the crimes of Republican Politicians
Please welcome The Felonious Elephant to the growing League of Liberals.
An Elephant never forgets to blogroll

Smart Solid and Stim ul ating SPEED KILL slips into the League of Liberals.
Please welcome member number 30 Speed kill and remember those blogrolls.

Natalie Davis at All Facts and Opinions has an excellent Sunday Sermon on Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse
Is Kynn at Shock and Awe a "Spongite" (if you know what that is) or are the folks at The Boar's Head hypocrites? Make up your own mind

Democratic Veteran has the good news from Illinois. The slide continues and gathers momentum

Follow Eric Idle on his Greedy Bastard Tour with Pen-Elayne on the Web

Susan Madrak over at Sub urb an Gue rril la has something in common with Cher. Is it the wardrobe?

Earl Dunovant says Black Con serv atives make his head hurt. Check it out at Prometheus 6

Maru at WTF is it NOW has the scoop on Faux News threat to sue The Simpsons for a parody news crawl: POINTLESS NEWS CRAWLS UP 37 PERCENT ... DO DEMOCRATS CAUSE CANCER? FIND OUT AT FOXNEWS.COM ... RUPERT MURDOCH: TERRIFIC DANCER ... DOW DOWN 5000 POINTS ... STUDY: 92 PERCENT OF DEMOCRATS ARE GAY ... JFK POSTHUMOUSLY JOINS REPUBLICAN PARTY ... OIL SLICKS FOUND TO KEEP SEALS YOUNG, SUPPLE ... DAN QUALYE: AWESOME ... ASHCROFT DECLARES BREAST OF CHICKEN SANDWICH "OBSCENE" ... HILLARY CLINTON EMBARRASSES SELF, NATION ... BIBLE SAYS JESUS FAVORED CAPITAL-GAINS CUT ... STAY TUNED FOR HANNITY AND IDIOT ... ONLY DORKS WATCH CNN ... JIMMY CARTER: OLD, WRINKLY, USELESS ... BRAD PITT + ALBERT EINSTEIN = DICK CHENEY ...
"Fox News has told the Simpsons creators that it might confuse the viewers." NO KIDDING It looks like a FAUX NEWS FEED to me.
My good friend Jack of The Peoples Republic of Seabrook posted this picture withcomments about extremists on the Left who are doing damage to Liberals by these anti-American flag burinings

Kevin Hayden at Reach Em High Cowboy Noose Network has an excellent post on Censoring the Dead about the ban on pictures of returning coffins from IRAQ.

Barbara at The Maha blog remembers the Berlin Airlift and touches on these same Anti-war movement demonstrations and A.N.S.I.R.
What's Wrong with America - try this from Musings of a Philosophical Scri vner

N. Todd at Dohiyi Mir solves the crime - Mr. Green did it in New Hampshire with the Ballot Box

The Manis 2s ociety or Cosmic Ig uana sees Turkey on a sawed off limb
The Valerie Plame coverup seems to be holding - just another day in The Spy Game

2003-10-24T12:42:00.000-04:00

Annthrax Coulter Wet Doll
Wets her pants when she hears Sean Hannity,
Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage

Accepting Pre-Orders Now! Orders will ship first week of November, 2003.

Listen To Her speak! Below are only a few of the 14 different phrases that the Ann Coulter Action figure says when you press her buttons. Sample Phrases:

1)"In the past twenty years, one-hundred percent of terrorist attacks against this country have been by Muslim extremists"
2)"There is a one-hundred percent chance that the next terrorist attack will be made by a Muslim extremist, it's no longer a profile, it's a description of the suspect."
3)"Timothy McVeigh, The Unibomber, and Eric Rudolph were muslim extremists"
4)"We should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity"
5)"Joseph McCarthy was the greatest Senator in US History"
6)"Anybody who doesn't agree with me is a traitor"
7)"Paula Jones is poor white trailor trash"
8)"Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots."
9)"Liberals demand that the nation treat enemies like friends and friends like enemies."
10)Ã¢â‚¬Å“..no one is allowed to call liberals unpatriotic. Liberals relentlessly attack their own country, but we canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t call them traitors, which they manifestly are..Ã¢â‚¬?
11) "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
12)"The good part of being a Democrat is that you can commit crimes, sell out your base, bomb foreigners, and rape women, and the Democratic faithful will still think you're the greatest."

Visit The People's Republic of Seabrook for the Rummy version
blunted on reality has a great Ann Coulter Doll Post too.

Annthrax or Adam - you be the judge

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has two pieces of lowered pie from the "prosperity is just around the far distant almost visible corner squatters" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Kynn at Shock and Awe has posted an awesome and colorful tribute to The League of Liberals.
Thank you Kynn for you link to our entry in the Ecosystem new blog showcase
Everybody should check it out.
visit Rush Limbaughtomy for a breaking story on Halliburton and Cheney

2003-10-22T13:06:00.000-04:00

Contact The League of Liberals through the comment section for information if you want to join The League of Liberals - A Fearless Force for Truth and Justice in Cyberspace.

The game is afoot and the League of Liberals has been challenged to do battle against the larger Blogger Alliance (83 members) and Axis of Naughty (24 members). If you have friends who blog and who will vote ask them to join. We need to strengthen our numbers.

Liberal League Launches
Current vote, links, and visits information

Hell for Halliburton: entry Halliburton Again - and again - and again has been entered in the TTLB New Web Log Showcase.

We need to get as close to 100% participation from The League of Liberals as possible to become the reigning sponsors of the New Weblog Showcase next week. Be sure to use the URL Link as indicated above somewhere on your blog this week.
Multiple links appear to count.

This link TTLB Hell for Halliburton votes will display the current votes from our membership.

Welcome Sam from Blunted on Reality and Kynn from Shock and Awe to The League of Liberals
Welcome Natalie Davis of All Facts and Opinions To the League of Liberals.
Please Welcome the Dememted Delirious Drivel of Dubya's Daily Diary and Please Welcome the Magnificent Marvelous Magical Madeleine Begun Kane and Please Welcome the Penetrating Pensive and Perceptive Pen-Elayne to the League of Liberals!!!

Check the Democratic Veteran for Rush'N Odds and register your take in the comments.
Things to do around the web.
1) The Marvelous Mad Kane has Fox News declaring the 2004 Election results very early and her regrets at being left off the NRA Blacklist 2) Read Mark A. R. Kleiman on the Ministry of Truth 3) South Knox Bubba has an interesting debate on violent computer games 4) The Daily Howler is as always a must read for me and this one is among the best.

2003-10-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

THE LATEST STUPID QUOTE FROM ANN COULTER

From an appearence in Johns Hopkins University Oct. 9 in an attempt to defend racial profiling:

"In the past twenty years, one-hundred percent of terrorist attacks against this country have been by Muslim extremists, Naturally, the democrats won't let us look for Muslim extremists. When there is a one-hundred percent chance that the next terrorist attack will be made by a Muslim extremist, it's no longer a profile, it's a description of the suspect."

Timothy McVeigh, The Unabomber, Eric Rudolph - Muslim extremists Ann? You are a stupid racists moron aren't you Ann.

The "Third Kind" wants to establish a self-regulating classless society on planet earth. I have had radio encounters with two Republican members of the "Third Kind," Ann Coulter (author of the best seller Slander) and David Horowitz (author of Empire and Revolution and How to Beat the Democrats and Other Subversive Ideas).

People such as Coulter and Horowitz do not want to talk about the very real existence of the "Third Kind" nor do they want you to know what is really taking place in this Republic and the world.

The "Third Kind" is actually the Radical Capitalist Class (RCC). The
Radical Capitalist Class is a group of people that are trying desperately to spread a very specific American/British Capitalism based on Fabian Socialism to encompass the globe.

2003-10-19T12:46:00.000-04:00

Are Republicans Becoming the “Hypocrisy Party”
Exclusive commentary by Daniel Borchers Oct 16, 2003

Some conservatives have shed scruples and jettisoned principles to rush to Limbaugh’s defense. The wagons circling around one of our own only serve as targets for legitimate charges of hypocrisy and double-standards. Conservative credibility – already damaged by conservative support for liberal Arnold Schwarzenegger – can only further erode in the unscrupulous defense of admittedly illegal behavior by their premiere talk radio guru (“a great spokesman for conservatives” – Cal Thomas).

Moral and Legal Irrelevancies?

Author and columnist Steve Chapman is one of the few conservative voices critical of Arnold’s Republican candidacy, one of the few to hold conservatives accountable for unprincipled positions:
“At best, the evidence indicates that Schwarzenegger has a habit of sexual battery. This goes beyond the behavior that unleashed a scandal on Bill Clinton. So consider their double standard. When Clinton did with Monica, conservatives thought it was morally repugnant. They also thought it disqualified him from remaining in office. Yet they’re happy to have as governor of California someone who, by his own admission, has forced himself on unwilling women. Their new darling is a more aggressive sexual predator than the president they tried to remove from office. Morality? Law? They’ll leave it to liberals to fret about such irrelevancies. But if the charges persist and multiply, I predict conservatives will find a way to address Arnold’s behavior: They’ll blame it on Clinton.” – Steve Chapman, “Double Standards,” 10/9/03
Now this latest Limbaugh scandal – not connected with a faux Republican like Arnold but involving a genuine conservative and cultural icon – has conservatives scrambling for excuses, spinning the truth.

Before continuing, let’s talk turkey – cold turkey. Rush Limbaugh is addicted to narcotics and allegedly illegally obtained those narcotics for many years. Conservative radio talk show host Ken Hamblin and liberal television host Geraldo Rivera find agreement on this issue: Limbaugh is a “junkie.”

Some liberals do delight in Limbaugh’s moral failings while some conservatives refuse to even acknowledge the immorality of Limbaugh’s misconduct. Conservative skepticism of liberal criticism is natural, but in a very real sense it does not matter what the critics’ motives are – truth is truth. Rush Limbaugh has admitted long-term prescription drug abuse. Of greater concern than those who use morality for partisan convenience are those who “know better” but only pay lip service to their purported principles. When it matters, where do you stand?

Parsing Principle and the Law

Conservatives rightly ridiculed Bill Clinton’s infamous parsing of the English language, with his assertions that he “never inhaled” or that it depends on the meaning of “is.” Now conservatives emulate that Clintonian paradigm, shamelessly, without even paying homage to their own principles.

With Rush Limbaugh’s admission of prescription drug abuse, some conservatives unabashedly defend him. Rationalizations ran rampant tonight on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country (10/10/03), that discussion being emblematic of the debate within the larger conservative community. Guests included Court TV co-anchor Lisa Bloom, conservative author Ann Coulter, and conservative talk radio host Neal Boortz.

Those rationalizations for absolving Limbaugh of guilt included:
Rush Limbaugh is a brilliant commentator. “I listen to Rush Limbaugh not because, hey, it’s time for my daily dose of morality. I listen to Rush Limbaugh because of his brilliance and his, what I believe to be, just cutting-edge, insightful commentary on what’s going on in politics today.” (Boortz)

Rush Limbaugh is the beloved father of talk radio. “Look at what Rush Limbaugh has accomplished. We just take talk radio for granted now. … Rush Limbaugh pioneered something that was entirely new.” (Coulter)

Rush Limbaugh is a conservative. “I want to talk a little bit about Rush Limbaugh as an institution. … When I first got this job on MSNBC [when asked] what’s the epicenter of the American conservative movement? I said Rush Limbaugh … he’s the bedrock of American conservatism right now.” (Scarborough)

Rush Limbaugh was experiencing back pain. “acting like this guy was shooting up heroin or even, you know, smoking pot, smoking crack, drinking vodka for kicks, I mean, he had back pain the pain medication he was taking is incredibly addictive. … The pain medication he was taking is incredibly addictive. They spent $100 million a year fighting off addiction charges.” (Coulter)

Rush Limbaugh’s remarks about jailing drug offenders is ancient history. “Lisa Bloom, just to put it in proper perspective, what year did Rush Limbaugh make that comment? … When Rush Limbaugh made that statement, it was back in 1995, near the end of the crack epidemic that was ravaging American neighborhood.” (Scarborough)

No one is perfect like Jesus. “Conservatives aren’t claiming to be Jesus Christ. We do have flaws. … unless you are Jesus Christ and you have no flaws, then you can support punishing drug addicts while simultaneously having a flaw of being a drug addict.” (Coulter)

It was just prescription drugs. “There’s a big difference between prescription drug abuse like this and an addiction to heroin.” (Boortz)

Rush Limbaugh should be praised for doing so well while on drugs. “If this is what he’s like on painkillers, imagine when he’s off them. … Like I say, it is amazing that he can be as entertaining, as funny as he is, and all of this while addicted to painkillers. Whoa. Set him loose once he’s gone through detox.” (Coulter)
The host of Country, Joe Scarborough, soft-pedaled the narcotics abuse by repeatedly saying that he’s “addicted to prescription drugs.” Neal Boortz even attacked and maligned Lisa Bloom, claiming she delighted in Rush’s addiction (check the tape – no delight is evident) merely because she addressed the reality of drug laws and their applicability to Limbaugh.

Ann Coulter, notorious for her condemnation of liberal compassion and liberal support for rehabilitation programs, was indignant and apoplectic that anyone could see anything wrong with Rush’s behavior. Strikingly, Coulter has a history of stentorian opposition to the legalization of marijuana and its use for medicinal (pain-killing) purposes.

Coulter’s final, strongest defense of Limbaugh was “Look, if my mother committed murder, I wouldn’t want her to go to jail. … I don’t want murder laws applied to my friends.” By Coulter’s logic and using her criteria no one would ever go to jail for anything! (A novel budget balancing concept.)

Conservatism Abandoned by “Conservatives” What a spectacle!

Rule of law, law-and-order, tough-on-drugs conservatives now plead for leniency – no, for pardon – for one of their own. They want to absolve Rush Limbaugh of any responsibility for behavior he himself assumes full responsibility for. The criteria is now identity, not behavior.

In defending Limbaugh – for purely partisan purposes (they even admit their partisanship) – they besmirch and belie the nobility, dignity and courage which their putative hero, Rush Limbaugh, exhibits.These “conservatives” are no friends of Conservatism.

Lucas Doolin's Deer Camp has been added to the blogroll. Welcome Lucas
Matthew Langer at Untelevised a long time addition to the RL blogroll has an interesting concept about improving blog traffic and impact.

2003-10-19T03:51:00.000-04:00

JOIN THE LEAGUE OF LIBERALS - the alliance of liberal bloggers
If you have a progressive liberal blog apply to join the League of Liberals
e-mail aurabass at hotmail dot com or leave a link and e-mail address in the comment section
Visit the League of Liberals for details.

The purpose of this blog is to form an alliance of Liberal Bloggers to counter the impact of the Blogger Alliance and the Axis of Naughty e-mail aurabass at hotmail dot com for application if you are a progressive liberal blogger.

Charter Members of the League of Liberals

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WTF is it NOW?

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Savage Cruel Bigots

Dohiyi Mir

blunted on reality

Hell for Halliburton has the undisclosed location of Richard Cheney

2003-10-17T07:46:00.000-04:00

You gotta love Ugga Buggas deconstruction of Annthrax on Limbaugh complete with pie charts
see the sample below shamelessly appropriated from Ugga Bugga - then go there for the whole thing.

Visit The Spy Game and vote in the TTLB New Weblog Showcase

The Thousand Yard Glare comments on the rise of the Citizen Blogger and mentions Open Source Politics

The Gunther Concept has the e-mail detail in bold audacity from Texas redistricting.

The NRO has fired the first shot in the 9/11 blame game and Tapped fires back citing Franken's Operation Ignore.

The Talking Dog takes a bite out of the People's Republic of China despite their manned space flight. Why doesn't the dog blogroll Rush Limbaughtomy Seb?

Suicides now account for 10% of the non-combatant deaths in IRAQ - via talk left

The Spoons Experience has come up with a defender of Rush Limbaugh. With supporters like Jimmie 'Dyn-O-Mite' Walker of Good Times who needs detractors. Of couse Rush will not be impressed since Jimmie is a member of the 12% minority "so who cares" said Rush.

Yikes - here is a grim view of Americans from Surfing the Tsunami
Double Yikes or Yikes Yikes - Get on the list to receive Rapture notification e-mails so you will know when your disappeared friends have been raptured into heaven. Just one question? Would it not be heaven on earth if everyone who believe in the rapture (Robertson, Falwell, Bakker, Swaggert, Reed & the pseudo-Christian coalition) suddenly disappeared? from the Stout Dem Blog.
Spilled Ink and more bad news on Diebold here.
A Speedkill of Bill O'Reilly is available here

2003-10-16T16:31:00.000-04:00

Brainless Blond Bimbo Blasts Big Limbo Mumbo Jumbo Detractors
Annthrax predictably blames Clinton and Ted Kennedy for double standard.

After years of the mainstream media assuring us that Rush was a has-been, a nobody, yesterday's news -- the Rush painkiller story was front-page news last week. The airwaves and print media were on red alert with Rush's admission that, after an unsuccessful spinal operation a few years ago, he became addicted to powerful prescription painkillers.

The nasty gash starts with a lie "mainstream media assuring us that Rush was a has-been, a nobody, yesterday's news " revealed by the fact that Limbo was on ESPN and had a 285million dollar radio contract, and the fascist slut dissembles from there into a nearly incoherent rant about Kennedy and Clinton including the lame excuse that Mumbo Jumbo required drug for his golfing pain. Recommended reading after 10 Oxycontins and a bottle of grain alcohol.

Ann Coulter, notorious for her condemnation of liberal compassion and liberal support for rehabilitation programs, was indignant and apoplectic that anyone could see anything wrong with Rush’s behavior. Strikingly, Coulter has a history of stentorian opposition to the legalization of marijuana and its use for medicinal (pain-killing) purposes.

Coulter’s final, strongest defense of Limbaugh was “Look, if my mother committed murder, I wouldn’t want her to go to jail. … I don’t want murder laws applied to my friends.” By Coulter’s logic and using her criteria no one would ever go to jail for anything! (A novel budget balancing concept.)

Conservatism Abandoned by “Conservatives” What a spectacle!

Rule of law, law-and-order, tough-on-drugs conservatives now plead for leniency – no, for pardon – for one of their own. They want to absolve Rush Limbaugh of any responsibility for behavior he himself assumes full responsibility for. The criteria is now identity, not behavior.

In defending Limbaugh – for purely partisan purposes (they even admit their partisanship) – they besmirch and belie the nobility, dignity and courage which their putative hero, Rush Limbaugh, exhibits.

These “conservatives” are no friends of Conservatism.

2003-10-16T00:48:00.000-04:00

In a recent interview with Al Franken conducted by Edward Nawotka for Publisher's Weekly, after suggesting that some readers might want Franken to run for president, the interviewer proceeded to ask Franken hardball questions such as:

— "It's got to be a little grating to see your book on the same New York Times best-seller list as the Ann Coulter book."

— "You fact-checked Ann Coulter's book and found a lot of inconsistencies, outright lies and quotes that are taken out of context. Who is responsible for those kinds of errors, the author or the editors?"

— "How should booksellers deal with this?"

In a later interview with me, the same interviewer asked me questions like these:

— "(W)ho is ultimately responsible for the errors (in your book), you, the publisher, or both?"

— "What gives — was this an honest mistake or malfeasance as he suggests?"

— "Why all the name calling?"

Apparently it never occurred to Publisher's Weekly that Franken's allegations of errors in my book — or "outright lies," as the interviewer put it — were false. ANNTHRAX goes on with a laughable explanation. Read it here if you have the patience for it

Around the web on the Recall:
The Cheeseweasle adds err subtracts err crunches the numbers for Ahnuld, and leads us to George Wills Conservative Travesty
The Cosmic Iguana hits on potential Gropenator lawsuit number one - this one from the UK and Thars gold in them thar wars.
Emphasis Added covers winner take all aspects of the Recall
From the Swamp has Greg's take on the Recall
The Gutless Pacifist gives us Conan the Governor and Comics for Swartzengroper
The Liberal Oasis has Four Lessons from the Recall but they do not mention the one(s) just below.
Mark A. R. Kleiman has a short take on the Recall results
Plucky Punk's Happy Land thinks Californians my be fleeing to Santa Fe to escape the Terminator
Meanwhile Nurse Ratched's Happy Valley Asylum Notebook has patients from California lining up for immigration status to Canada

Kenneth Quinnell of T Rex has Right Wing Zombies classified (Like the Rush Limbaughmicus) at Open Source Politics
The Blow torch Monkey Armada's Palmer Hass has his first post up at Open Source Politics
Guy Andrew Hall of Rook's Rant also has a post up at OSP.

Stephen at To the Barr icades turns 50: I am fashionably late in wishing him a happy 'it's not ALL downhill from here' day. We welcome Chris Grubner of American Dissent to OSP and agree that Republicans are out of their Gorditas
Natalie Davis at All Facts and Opinions is right _ we should be outraged until they Free Tommy Chong
I wonder if the Limbo Mumbo Jumbo druggie has looked into getting one of these yet _ read about the whizzinator at The People's Republic of Seabrook
Nurse Ratched over at the Happy Valley Asylum is gonna wash the foul mouthed administrations mouth out with soap. Meanwhile The Mad Prophet Blog's C. Bryan Lavinge explains his long absence. Does Ahnuld need practice? asks the Mod ulator Will computer woes stifle The Funny Farm? stay tuned for clues.
Speed kill has moved to a very nice new address. Update and blogroll progressive bloggers. The Cosmic Iguana of manis2society has another CIA outing for us to consider: Think Valerie Plame times two.

The father of slain CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann said Thursday he believes an independent counsel should investigate allegations that someone in the Bush administration exposed a CIA officer's identity -- an act he called treasonous.

Spann, the first American killed in Afghanistan, died in a prison uprising. His father, also named Johnny Spann, said he is still angry because he feels his son's identity and hometown were disclosed before his son's family could be adequately protected. see the links at the Cosmic Iguana
The top 10 things on Rush Limbaugh's to do list are up at Rush Limbaughtomy

2003-10-12T15:13:00.000-04:00

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY AFTER THE FALL OF RUSH LIMBAUGH is the Sunday offering at Rush Limbaughtomy

Max over at MaxSpeak You Listen posts on traffic stats. The differences in the various sitemeters, webalizers, blogpatrol, eXTREME trackers, One Stats, Blogstreet, BlogMatrix etc. has fascinated me since starting this blog in May. Max has been very successful in term of the rank of MaxSpeak you listen. 36.MaxSpeak (485) details is the current position on the TTLB Ecosystem. The relationship between these various logging and metering systems is strange to say the least. At least this post will increase MaxSpeak's links on the Ecosystem and the more liberal progressive bloggers who ascend those rankings the better for our collective impact on the internet.

Blue Streak posts about group blogs The tip is from Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

South Knox Bubba has a lively comments section on the Drug Rush

Kevin Hayden returns to blogging at The Reach Em High Cowboy Noose Network with this entry about electoral politics and his decision to leave the group blog that he started and made so successful.

Earl at Prometheus 6 covers a frightening incident that happened to a friend. This is a story you need to read. And P6 is a Titans Fan

The Hampster covers the new Newsweek Poll with some good news for Democrats

Susie Madrak of the Suburban Guerrilla watched Joe Klein take down Peggy Noonan. Go there for the blow by blow - links to the Daily Howler

The Democratic Veteran tells us that Guvnor Enrongroper has already started with the Enron Agenda

2003-10-12T12:49:00.000-04:00

YOU GOTTA LOVE THIS FROM MARGARET CHO'S BLOG: ON ANN COULTER

I dove into Ann's writing, which was a cross between bizarre accusations about liberal politicians and psycho babble hyperbolic lies that make no sense. The conservative men love her, because she is a loyal slave to the status quo. She is Cunta Kinte. As well as betraying her gender, as a notoriously anti-feminist woman hater, she is also racist, homophobic, without compassion, inhumane, arrogant, dishonest, contradictory, not funny, has an arguing technique that compares closely to "I know you are, but what am I?", wears red leather miniskirts and is just plain fucking wrong. I cannot even quote her because everything she says is too awful for me to write. All this and she isn't even hot. If you are going to be wrong, at least be hot.

via the fabulous Suburban Guerrilla Susie Madrak where you will find more of Margaret Cho ripping Ann Coulter.

Len over at Musings of a Philosophical Scrivner has an interesting interview with Molly Ivins about the "de eadukashun" pReznit when he was in Texas
TBogg reminded us that: "In 1994 Rush married Marta Fitzgerald, a woman he met online (which explains so much). Again, we don't hear the pitter pat of little Limbaugh cloven hooves. " This by way of Lilith at A Rational Animal
Blah blah blah 3 quotes Munford on Limbaugh ""The part about the pus being blue is patently false," the noted hunka hunka burnin' homophobia did not say. Catch the whole thing at Blah 3
Busted: vile, hypocritical gasbag and deluded dittomonkeys is the subject of W T F is it Now from the magnificent Maru the Crankpot today. Read it now.

The Ma ha blog makes Condi into a block of sushi Rice in two posts today. Read them with 2 week old hamachi for an accurate taste of the pReznit's ~~new, newer~~, newest PR campaign for his personal little vendetta against Saddam (is he caught yet after 7 months) Hussein.
You gotta love the H. L Mencken quote on Musings of a Philosophical Scrivner today:

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.
--H.L. Mencken

Although I disagree with his characterization of my friend Al (and I do call him Al) Gore; the Septic Tank may be on to something with his open letter to Al Gore

Hurricane Juan is the subject of Patrick Taylor at the Poison Kitchen in Halifax Nova Scotia. It is amazing how little we were aware of the true extent of the damage. N. Todd covers the latest Gallup Poll on Dohiyi Mir T Rex (Kenneth Quinnell) is a Margaret Cho fan and so is Howard Dean Major Barbara of Arms and the Man considers the difference in Russian and American corruption. Jeremy Puma of Fantastic Planet reports on two fantastic sightings Apathy Incorporated's Joe F is concerned about Bush's spectacular fiscal incompetence

2003-10-08T11:56:00.000-04:00

THE DAY AFTER THE CALIFORNIA DISASTER AROUND THE WEBLOGOSPHERE:
The Troglodytes that elected Schwartzengroper are the concern of Maru the Crankpot at WTF is it Now
Da Gropenguvnor is gonna need a lota luck sez Jack at The People's Republic of Seabrook
A Rational Animal has Herr Rumsfeld left out of the Loop
High on the list of Halliburton information sources: is Arms and the Man
NPR interviews AEI NeoCon by rant a vation
Arnold's Ode is up at the The Incomparable Mad Kane
GOPZILLA is the subject over at the Dem ocratic Under ground
Rum inate This move by GWB "lowering expectations" in leaky DC.
It's pathetic over at South Knox Bubba

LIBERAL LINKS UPDATE on the Recall (mostly):
Fan tastic Plan et has a great link to the Gropenguvnor's Japanese TeeVee ads. (Quicktime movies) heheheheheh.
The Mod ulator links to some Recall Positives.
There are signs of the Apocalypse in California according to The Peoples Republic of Seabrook
South Knox Bubba has his own take on the new Super Hero of California, and
Kevin at Lean Left offers more notes on the Wierd Election in the Golden State.
Go wish The Funny Farm a happy first birthday of blogging - you also get to see Tom via digital photography.
The Demo cratic Veteran hopes that Gray Davis has a nice retirement, and the SteroidFuhrer has a wake-up call that the job involved more than just showing up...like he does for movies.

2003-10-05T17:06:00.000-04:00

Administration begins Homeland Security investigation into possible ties between Wilson and Al Qaeda

The Bush administration today announced the department of Homeland Security would begin an immediate investigation into those promoting the so called "Wilson Affair" after recieving credible evidence Wilson was most likely an Al Qaeda plant plotting to overthrow freedom and the american way of life. Officials wouldnt comment on specific information leading to the investigation other than to say "It is obvious anyone who would attack the US government so openly is very likely to have ties to Al Qaeda and possibly Saddam himself". When asked what evidence initiated the investigation spokesmen for Rumsfeld stated they could not disclose the specifics due to national security concerns.

Comment of the day:

Last spring, driving with my Dad, who likes the limbo-man, I actually heard Rush say something agreeable! I almost ran off the road when he said something like "The thing is with liberals is that they take too much time looking at all sides of an issue." Right you are, Rush - proud to be among those who don't rush to judgement with their knee-jerk, shoot-from-the-hip conservative sound bites

Jeff Alworth’s Cheney LiedSusie Madrak’s Self-defense for Voters
George Will’s context by John Williams Jeremy Puma’s Republican’s are just mean
The Pot Calling the Kettle Pious by Earl Dunovant Colin Powell is Done by Kenneth Quinnell

LIBERAL LINK-A-THON: moving progressive blogs up through the blogosphere Half the Sins of Mankind -- Sadly No ! -- rant a vation -- The Mad Prophet Blog -- Mouse Mus ings -- A Rational Animal -- The Funny Farm -- Arms and the Man -- The Mod ulator -- WTF is it Now -- Out to Lunch -- Nit pick er -- To the Barricades -- Folkbum’s Rambles and Rants please consider these fine progressive bloggers for your blogrolls and links.

More good progressive blogs that deserve your attention:
Notes on the Atrocities - The Right Christians-- Sub urban Guerrilla -- US Democratic Veteran -- Shock and Awe -- Pro metheus 6 -- The People's Republic of Seabrook -- Lean Left -- Body and Soul -- South Knox Bubba -- Seeing the Forest -- The Incomparable Mad Kane -- blah blah blah 3 -- Rum inate This -- Dem ocratic Under ground -- The Lefty Directory -- Bart Cop -- The Smirking Chimp -- Busy Busy Busy -- Scoobie Davis

2003-10-05T10:35:00.000-04:00

Ann Coulter Spontaneously Combusts - Pundit keeps talking while fully ablaze

Aug. 29 — Conservative pundit Ann Coulter spontaneously combusted today during an appearance on the Fox News Channel, sources at the cable network confirmed.
ACCORDING TO THOSE who witnessed the bizarre incident, Coulter was in the middle of an extended rant about liberal comedian Al Franken when her face became beet-red and smoke began to shoot out of both of her ears.
Then, almost without warning, Ms. Coulter appeared to burst into flames, sources said. The New York Fire Department immediately rushed to the scene to extinguish Coulter, who continued to talk even while fully ablaze. “We were dousing her with three fire hoses, but she just kept on yapping,” said Hal Reuss, a fireman who helped put out Ms. Coulter. “It was freaky.”
Meanwhile, outside the Fox News Channel’s New York headquarters, thousands of publicity-starved authors congregated, begging Fox to sue them.

Jeremy Puma as someone wicked is forced to leave Lilith Devlin's

Stephen Charast
Natalie Davis Mike Golby's

Fred Henning Tom Geveart Jay Bullock's

Allen Brill Guy Andrew Hall. Kenneth Quinnell

2003-08-28T15:57:00.000-04:00

I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE REALLY SAID THAT DEPARTMENT!!!

PATRIOT ANNTHRAX CALLS FOR VETS DEATH VIA FRIENDLY FIRE

"Both were veterans, after a fashion, of Vietnam, which would make a Gore-Davis presidential ticket the only compelling argument yet in favor of friendly fire."

Being tried for TREASON was the worst fate Ann thrax Coulter could wish on Democrats, but it seems political defeat and imprisonment are not enough to satisfy her insatiable hatred. Annthrax now advocates 'friendly fire' as a final solution for those with whom she disagrees. When does her vitriol become an actual physical threat?
PASTY SKANK ANNTHRAX CHANNELS HER MENTOR

On a positive note this led to Lying in Ponds an interesting place to get political bearings.

2003-08-22T01:19:00.000-04:00

ANN dREW sULLLLLIVAN gets his panties in a wad over Annthrax. poor sully.

But by making huge and sweeping generalizations about all liberals, Coulter undermines her own arguments and comes close to making them meaningless. If you condemn good and bad liberals alike, how can you be trusted to make any moral distinctions of any kind? And by defending the tactics of Joe McCarthy, she actually plays directly into the hands of the left. What she won't concede is that it is possible to be clear-headed about the role that some liberals and Democrats played in supporting the Soviet Union, while reviling the kind of tactics McCarthy used. In fact, when liberals taunt conservatives with being McCarthyites, conservatives now have to concede that some of their allies, namely Coulter, obviously are McCarthyites - and proud of it.

One of the most reputable scholars who has studied the McCarthy era in great detail, Ron Radosh, is appalled at the damage Coulter has done to the work he and many others have painstakingly done over the years. "I am furious and upset about her book," he told me last week. "I am reading it - she uses my stuff, Harvey Klehr and John Haynes, Allen Weinstein etc. to distort what we actually say and to make ludicrous and historically incorrect arguments. You might recall my lengthy and negative review in The New Republic a few years ago of Herman's book on McCarthy; well, she is ten times worse than Herman. At least he tried to use bona fide historical methods of research and argument." Now Radosh has endured ostracism and abuse for insisting that many of McCarthy's victims were indeed Communist spies or agents. But he draws the line at Coulter's crude and inflammatory defense of McCarthy. "I think it is important that those who are considered critics of left/liberalism don't stop using our critical faculties when self-proclaimed conservatives start producing crap."

Amen. American politics has been badly damaged by the scruple-free tactics of those like Michael Moore and Ann Coulter. In some ways, of course, these shameless hucksters of ideological hate deserve each other. But America surely deserves better.

2003-08-20T04:53:00.000-04:00

ANNTHRAX COULTERGEIST is engaged in Satanic Cult intent on the Resurrection of Joseph R. McCarthy.

Sources close to the author of Treason and Libel say McCarthy's remains have been exhumed. Coulter is said to have practiced necrophilia with her mentor in a bizarre Satanic rite attempting post-mortem pregnancy. "Nothing would please me more than to be the mother of Joe's child who will be the savior of the Republican Party and certain death to all liberals and Democrats" Coulter said.

2003-08-17T08:48:00.000-04:00

PATRIOT ANNTHRAX

CALLS FOR VETS DEATH VIA FRIENDLY FIRE

Both were veterans, after a fashion, of Vietnam, which would make a Gore-Davis presidential ticket the only compelling argument yet in favor of friendly fire.

2003-08-15T02:56:00.000-04:00

Fall Reading Coming this fall to a quality bookseller near you:

“Motherfuckers – The Liberal Plot to Sodomize Your Mom” by Ann Coulter
The irrepressible Ms. Coulter is back, and she’s swingin’ a hard right at the lefties! Find out how forces in the Democratic Party successfully rewrote history to make Richard Nixon’s retirement look like a resignation. Read how liberal institutions (like universities and the print media) have made it impossible for people to get their points across without being forced to use so-called “logic,” reason,” and “proof.” Also, some compelling evidence that the real liberal agenda involves performing unspeakable sexual acts on your mother. Read more new books at Fanatical Apathy

ANN COULTER ON AH NULD, usually so shy it's hard to get an entire 10,000 words out of her, on this California chop suey: "Schwarzenegger can't pronounce the name of the state but Gray Davis can - and so what?" And, "Gary Coleman will get more votes than Arianna Huffington." And, "I think we should give California back to New Mexico." And, "No matter how bad Schwarzenegger is, he can never be president because he wasn't born here, so there's no problem. He can't hurt us." And, "I've seen photos of Arnold naked. Trust me, it's true what they say about steroids. Matt Drudge has them. I think he'll release them just before the election."

2003-08-14T13:57:00.000-04:00

Fox News has filed a lawsuit against Al Franken saying that Franken's book is an attempt to "blur and tarnish" the image of Fox News as a Fair and Balanced news source.
TREASON ONLINE urges readers to click on the logo above - you decide.

2003-08-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

What rough beast is this?
Ann Coulter, that's what. Following in the admirably large footsteps of Carl Skutsch, BJ at SESQUIPEDALIAN goes where few (or at least, few who wish to keep their dinner down) will tread. This is a great long rant on Annthrax to keep the most discriminating AC hater amused.

a VOTE for ZOTA in the TTLB SHOWCASE

2003-08-01T01:40:00.000-04:00

2003-07-30T14:18:00.000-04:00

WEAPONS OF MASS STUPIDITY

_____
FAUX NEWS - ANNTHRAX ENRAGE ___ __ TYPICAL FAUX NEWS VIEWER

FAUX NEWS & the rise of contagious stupidity and insanity.
The wondrous blessing God bestowed on America's own great chroniclers of contagious stupidity, Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken -- is that they lived and died without imagining a thing like Fox News. It's easy to laugh at Rupert Murdoch's outrageous mongrel, the impossible offspring of supermarket tabloids, sitcom news spoofs, police-state propaganda mills and the World Wrestling Federation.

Fox News is an oxymoron and Cheech and Chong would have made a more credible team of war correspondents than Geraldo Rivera and Ollie North. Neither Saturday Night Live nor the 1973 film Network, Paddy Chayefsky's corrosive satire of TV news, could even approach the comic impact of Geraldo embedded, or of Fox's pariah parade, its mothball fleet of experts who always turn out to be disgraced or indicted Republican refugees. If Ed Meese, Newt Gingrich and Elliott Abrams couldn't fill your sails with mirth, you could count on the recently deposed Viceroy of Virtue and High Regent of Rectitude, my old schoolmate Blackjack Bill Bennett.

With its red-faced, hyperventilating reactionaries and slapstick abuse of lame "liberal" foils who serve them as crash dummies, Fox News could easily be taken as pure entertainment, even as inspired burlesque of the rightwing menagerie. But the problem -- in fact, the serious problem - is that Fox isn't kidding, and brownshirts aren't funny.

2003-07-28T09:59:00.000-04:00

Another ANNTHRAX attack - this time on Slate

A Vast Right-Wing Cry of Treason
In her new book, Ann Coulter gets McCarthy right—and makes conservatives mad.

How David Horowitz (her editor), Andrew Sullivan, and Dorothy Rabinowitz, among others, have been sternly giving Coulter history lessons, dredging up (once more) the anti-Communist credentials of Cold War liberals like Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey.

SEE THE REAL DIFFERENCE IN LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES HERE

2003-07-27T10:17:00.000-04:00

ANNTHRAX LOVES TO ENRAGE______The Typical Annthrax reader

THE BEST ATTACK ON TREASON IS TO USE ANNTHRAX WORDS PROPERLY.

ANNTHRAX: While undermining victory in the Cold War, liberals dedicated themselves to mainstreaming Communist ideals at home... Betraying the manifest national defense objectives of the country is only part of the left's treasonous scheme. They aim to destroy America from the inside with their relentless attacks on morality and the truth. (p. 289)
TRUTH BE TOLD: While undermining victory in the Cold War, Conservatives dedicated themselves to mainlining capital in Defense contracts at home. Betraying the true national defense objectives of the country is only part of the right’s treasonous scheme. They aim to destroy America from within with their relentless immoral theft of the nation’s wealth.

ANNTHRAX: As a rule of thumb, Democrats opposed anything opposed by their cherished Soviet Union. The Soviet Union did not like the idea of a militarily strong America. Neither did the Democrats! (p. 171)
TRUTH BE TOLD: As a rule of thumb, Republicans opposed everything proposed by their cherished Soviet Union. The Republicans did not like the idea of a weak Soviet Union so they overstated Soviet military capability at every turn. It was not until the Soviets impaled themselves on Afghanistan and broke their own bank that Republicans finally had to let go of the Soviets as a threat worthy of the horrendous spending on unnecessary defense.

ANNTHRAX: Democrats always had mysterious objections and secret "better" ways, which they would never tell us. Then they would vote whichever way would best advance Communist interests. (p. 177)
TRUTH BE TOLD: Republicans always had National Security and secret "Intelligence", which they would never tell us. Then they would vote whichever way would best advance their financial interests.

ANNTHRAX: Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn't slowed them down. (p. 16)
TRUTH BE TOLD: Whether they are overstating the capability of the Soviet Union or bleating against Saddam Hussein, Conservatives are always against America’s best interest in favor of their own financial interests. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn't slowed them down.

ANNTHRAX: By screaming about "McCarthyism," liberals would force the nation to "move on" from the subject of their own treachery. (p. 30)
TRUTH BE TOLD: By screaming about "Communism," Conservatives would force the nation to "move on" from the subject of their own treachery

ANNTHRAX: McCarthy's fundamental thesis was absolutely correct: The Democratic Party had fallen to the allures of totalitarianism. It was as if the Republicans had been caught in bed with Hitler. (p. 71)
TRUTH BE TOLD: McCarthy's fundamental thesis was absolutely incorrect: The Republican Party had fallen to the allures of greed and unlimited wealth. It was as if the Republicans had been caught in bed with Hitler.

ANNTHRAX: Stalinist spies were passing secret government files to Soviet agents, and the Treason Party sprang to action by vigorously investigating the precise words McCarthy had used in a speech to a women's Republican club in West Virginia. (p. 103)
TRUTH BE TOLD: If Stalinist spies were passing secret government files to Soviet agents, the Treason Party sprang to action by vigorously investigating Hollywood screenwriters who had attended meetings of socialist study groups one time in college to write a report.

ANNTHRAX: Liberals mock Americans who love their country, calling them cowboys, warmongers, religious zealots, and jingoists.
TRUTH BE TOLD: Rightwingnuts mock Americans who love their country, calling them tree-huggers, environmentalists, intellectuals, hippies, athiests, and peacenicks.

ANNTHRAX: Liberals demand that the nation treat enemies like friends and friends like enemies. We must lift sanctions, cancel embargoes, pull out our troops, reason with our adversaries, and absolutely never wage war--unless the French say it’s OK.
TRUTH BE TOLD: Rightwingnuts demand that the nation treat anyone who disagrees with them as enemies. We must sanction, embargo, send in the troops, forget negotiation, and always wage war -- especially if the French oppose it.

ANNTHRAX: One year after Osama bin Laden staged a massive assault on America, a Democratic senator was praising bin Laden for his good work in building ‘dare care centers.
TRUTH BE TOLD: Rightwingnuts attack a Democratic Senator for suggesting that Osama Bin Lauden had popularity with poor countries by building day care centers and schools.

ANNTHRAX: If liberals were half as indignant about Osama bin Laden as they were about President Bush, their objections might rate more with real Americans.
TRUTH BE TOLD: If Rightwingnuts were half as indignant about Corporate cheats who steal billions as they are about welfare cheats who steal hundreds they might rate more with real Americans.

ANNTHRAX, who calls liberals unpatriotic, says, “..no one is allowed to call liberals unpatriotic. Liberals relentlessly attack their own country, but we can’t call them traitors, which they manifestly are..” Didn’t she just call them traitors? “...because that would be ‘McCarthyism’, which never existed. Conservative pundit David Horowitz reminds readers in one of his columns that of course it existed; it’s the title of McCarthy’s own book!
TRUTH BE TOLD: No one is allowed to call Rightwingnuts unAmerican. Rightwingnuts relentlessly attack freedom in their own country, but we do not call them traitors, which those who are unAmerican may well be. They would call us traitors and communists and that would be McCarthyism.

ANNTHRAX: "When Clinton first showed his fat oleaginous mug to the nation, the Republicans screamed he was a draft-dodging, pot-smoking flim-flam artist. Had the Republicans turned out to be right again, it would have sounded the death knell for the Democratic Party. So the Democrats lied. Through their infernal politics of personal destruction, liberals stayed in the game for a few more years. And liberals will continue unabashedly invoking a lie in order to shield their ongoing traitorous behavior."
TRUTH BE TOLD. “When Coulter first showed her anorexic horse faced mug to the nation, the liberals screamed she was a vicious privileged self-promoting bitch. Had the Democrats turned out to be right again, it would have sounded the death knell for a whole host of Republican talking heads and pundits. So the Republicans lied. Through their unlimited supply of ill gotten gains they stayed in the game until now. Republicans will continue unabashedly invoking a lie in order to shield their ongoing gluttony and greed until they bankrupt America.”

ANNTHRAX on dealing with terrorism: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
TRUTH BE TOLD on dealing with lying vituperative authors “ We should invade their publishers and convert them to fact-checking and wholesale retractions”

ANNTHRAX: "The Democratic Party needs to have a lot more anti-war rallies in which Jesse Jackson embraces Ramsey Clark and liberals go around calling one another "comrade." The public cries out for the opinions of doddering old Stalinists in berets."
TRUTH BE TOLD. “The Republican Party needs to have a lot more pro war rallies in which Chickenhawks Bush and Cheney embrace anal cyst sufferer Rush Limbaugh and they go around in flight suits saluting one another and calling each other Sir.”

ANNTHRAX: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
TRUTH BE TOLD: “Another regret with Tim McVeigh is that he might have chosen Crown Random House while Ann Coulter was in a meeting with her publisher”

ANNTHRAX: "The good part of being a Democrat is that you can commit crimes, sell out your base, bomb foreigners, and rape women, and the Democratic faithful will still think you're the greatest."
TRUTH BE TOLD. “The good part about being Ann Coulter is that you can falsely accuse people, sell out the truth for big bucks, trash democratic discourse, and rape any balance and exchange of ideas and opinions and the Republican faithful will still think you are the greatest.”

A CONSERVATIVE DEBUNKS ANNTHRAX
COULTER WATCH
This story drives Annthrax up the wall

Black Mini Slut ____Can't hold her beer

2003-07-26T11:23:00.000-04:00

July 25, 2003 | Liberals see Ann Coulter as a Republican she-devil with skirts so short you can see her brains. Others view her as the blonde babe savior promised to the American right in the pages of fundamentalist scripture. Ann Coulter is defiantly the last woman in this country still carrying the torch for the long-dead Red baiter Joseph McCarthy. Look at the full moon above Washington, D.C., and see Ann wearing McCarthy's spurs as she rides her broomstick through the hot night.

But that's Coulter as a political creature. What about Coulter as a woman? For years this 40-something woman has worked so hard to become the she-god of the Republican zeitgeist that she's forsaken any personal life. She has no marriage or long-time partner -- her social life consists of sporadic dating. We should worry that she is dooming herself to spinsterhood, rather than assume Coulter practices free love or is still in the closet. Such speculations would be cruel.

And the truth is, Coulter seems sweetly frivolous when she isn't spouting off right wing clichés. Who would have guessed that she doesn't have a clue about American culture? She is under the impression that "Forrest Gump" is a recent flick. She only first saw Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" last year. Like a perpetual grad student, Coulter's favorite books are the pages of pre-Commie Russians. She also follows the Grateful Dead. I'm sure you heard the rumors that Strom Thurmond read Ralph Ellison and dug Miles Davis, so maybe it's true -- members of the right wing have soul.
Ann Coulter, woman
The right's she-devil talks about why she loves the Grateful Dead, what Tolstoy and Dostoevsky taught her about life, and how she meets men.

Coulter spoke to Salon by phone from New York.

I'm looking at the gorgeous photo of you on the cover of your new book "Treason." Is there a difference between Republican beauty and Democratic beauty?

I don't know. I'm not really good at questions like that. I'm much better in the world of ideas. No. I'm sorry. [Pause.] This is something I do have expertise in: I give a lot of college speeches, and half the room is usually angry protesters with placards. Scattered throughout the audience are a few pretty girls here and there, and at the end of the speech it's always the pretty girls that come up to me. Always. In college, any woman is beautiful, and to see these women that don't bathe, don't take care of themselves, don't dress in a way that is vaguely flattering, is like walking into a mining camp. And that seems to be intentional.

Do you look back at yourself when you were that age and wince, or were you attractive?

I don't look back and wince at anything, except there were a few times I could have been tougher on the Democrats.

With Treason, Ann Coulter once again defines a new low in America's political debate

2003-07-25T23:53:00.000-04:00

From South Knox Bubba:

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE
Get O’Rei(led)lly and Scar(red)borough at ham Han(ded)nity remarks or a Co(ld)ulter fury and crest Fal(len)well at Rush Limb(o)augh mumbo jumbo?
Don’t get mad get even. Turn those words around.

The standard bearers of "fair and balanced" right wing GOP truth, liberty, and justice for all, set a shining example for all Americans:
So I take it upon myself to offer irrational unbalanced responses to these shining examples of Conservative restraint.

Bill O'Reilly (at a benefit for underprivileged inner-city school children, commenting on an African-American boy’s group made up of sixth to eighth grade kids): "Does anyone know where the Best Men are? I hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps."

Barry B. (At a Halliburton KBR benefit for wealthy corporate executives, commenting on the hosts) “"Does anyone know where the Best Men are? I hope they are not in the boardroom inflating invoices to steal from the government.”

Bill O'Reilly (on deploying the U.S. military to patrol our borders): "We'd save lives because Mexican wetbacks, whatever you want to call them, the coyotes -- they're not going to do what they're doing now, so people aren't going to die in the desert."

Barry B. (on deploying more U.S. military to police IRAQ): “We lose lives because our guys are just targets for the Iraqi’s. The more troops the more targets and the more of our boys who will die in the desert.”

Bill O'Reilly (to the son of a man killed at the WTC who objects to Bush's foreign policies): You are mouthing a far left position that is a marginal position in this society, which you're entitled to... You're entitled to it, all right, but... I don't want to debate world politics with you... Because, No. 1, I don't really care what you think... So you keep your mouth shut when you sit here exploiting those people... Shut up! Shut up! Cut his mic."

Barry B. (to Bill O’Reilly after the previous statement) “Need a Xanax Bill?”

Jerry Falwell on the 9/11 terrorist attacks: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way—all of them who tried to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say you helped this happen."

Barry B on Falwell’s remarks above: “I really believe that the Angels, the Heavenly hosts in Heaven and the demons and devils in Hell will all point their fingers in your face at the Pearly Gates and give St. Peter the Big two thumbs down”

Pat Robertson: "Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history."

Barry B on Pat Robertson:” If the job of anti-Christ has not already been filled is this your application? I think you have a good shot at it. Heck I would vote for you even without that 7 million in Liberian gold mine stock.”

Pat Robertson: "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

Barry B. “The 700 Club is not about Christian teaching or values it is about lining the pockets of the richest televangelist in history and promoting his twisted political agenda.”

Ann Coulter: "When Clinton first showed his fat oleaginous mug to the nation, the Republicans screamed he was a draft-dodging, pot-smoking flim-flam artist. Had the Republicans turned out to be right again, it would have sounded the death knell for the Democratic Party. So the Democrats lied. Through their infernal politics of personal destruction, liberals stayed in the game for a few more years. And liberals will continue unabashedly invoking a lie in order to shield their ongoing traitorous behavior."

Barry B. “When Coulter first showed her anorexic horse faced mug to the nation, the liberals screamed she was a vicious privileged self-promoting bitch. Had the Democrats turned out to be right again, it would have sounded the death knell for a whole host of Republican talking heads and pundits. So the Republicans lied. Through their unlimited supply of ill gotten gains they stayed in the game until now. Republicans will continue unabashedly invoking a lie in order to shield their ongoing gluttony and greed until they bankrupt America.”

Ann Coulter on dealing with terrorism: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Barry B on dealing with lying vituperative authors “ We should invade their publishers and convert them to fact-checking and wholesale retractions”

Ann Coulter: "The Democratic Party needs to have a lot more anti-war rallies in which Jesse Jackson embraces Ramsey Clark and liberals go around calling one another "comrade." The public cries out for the opinions of doddering old Stalinists in berets."

Barry B. “The Republican Party needs to have a lot more pro war rallies in which Chickenhawks Bush and Cheney embrace anal cyst sufferer Rush Limbaugh and they go around in flight suits saluting one another and calling each other Sir.”

Ann Coulter: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

Barry B. “Another regret with Tim McVeigh is that he might have chosen Crown Random House while Ann Coulter was in a meeting with her publisher”

Ann Coulter: "The good part of being a Democrat is that you can commit crimes, sell out your base, bomb foreigners, and rape women, and the Democratic faithful will still think you're the greatest."

Barry B. “The good part about being Ann Coulter is that you can falsely accuse people, sell out the truth for big bucks, trash democratic discourse, and rape any balance and exchange of ideas and opinions and the Republican faithful will still think you are the greatest.”

Rush Limbaugh: "Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream."

Barry B. “Excellence in Broadcasting was established to allow big fat idiots to preach to mindless dittoheads”

Rush Limbaugh: "The difference between Los Angeles and yogurt is that yogurt comes with less fruit."

Barry B. “ the difference between Rush Limbaugh and a single portapotty at a $2,000 per hotdog & beans Republican picnic attended by 5,000 people is that the portapotty is less full of shit.”

Rush Limbaugh: "If an economic recovery happens, the Democrats are S.O.L., politically. Now, what does that tell about you their politics and their economics?"

Barry B. “If the comment above makes any sense you need more help than I can offer.”

Rush Limbaugh: "Feminism is one of those issues which has established itself in the political correctness hall of fame. As such, it is not fashionable to take issue with or poke fun at the philosophy which underlies the movement. Those who have the courage to do so are quickly impugned as women-haters, bigots, chauvinists, sexists, and a host of other epithets. Name-calling becomes a substitute for meaningful debate of the issues."

Barry B. “I simply cannot help myself. Rush Limbaugh is a women-hater, bigot, chauvinist, sexist, and a host of other epithets.”

Rush Limbaugh: "Given the National Organization for Women’s membership and proclivities, it’s no wonder that people now view the NOW gang as being obsessed with only two issues: abortion rights and lesbian rights. I prefer to call the most obnoxious feminists what they really are: feminazis."

Barry B. " Rush is just a Nazi"

Rush Limbaugh: "Modern-day liberalism is like a disease or an addiction that literally has the power to destroy the character of the person who falls under its spell. Liberalism is seductive and insidious. It can take hold of you before you realize it. Do you know why? Because it doesn’t take any guts to become a liberal. All you have to do to be a good liberal is to say yes to everything except cutting spending and downsizing government."

Barry B. “Limbaughtomization is a disease and an addiction that literally destroys the character of the person that falls under its spell. Limbaughtomization is seductive and insidious. It can take hold of you before you realize it. Do you know why? Because it doesn’t take any brains to become limbaughtomized. All you have to do to be Limbaughtomized is to listen to Rush Limbaugh."

Michael Savage: "We're being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives"

Barry B. “I couldn’t agree more – we have been taken over by Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, and Bill O’Reilly - the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives"

Michael Savage: "Are you a soddomite? You should get AIDS and die."

Barry B. “Are you a vituperative lying Republican pundit? You should be given a rifle and sent to Iraq”

2003-07-16T02:49:00.000-04:00

2003-07-14T20:32:00.000-04:00

The Poison Kitchen and Sadly No
top choices in the TTLB New Weblog Showcase

2003-07-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

Father for Dean gets my vote for weblog showcase

MORE VOTES IN THE NEW WEBLOG SHOWCASE
T3 in 2003: Rise of the Political Machine

Welcome to the Blogroll
Apathy Inc.
A Rational Animal
Arms and the Man
Atrocities
Blah 3
Blowtorch Monkey Armada
Blunted on Reality
Democratic Veteran
Folkburn
Frog N Blog
Genfoods
Heller Mountain
High Water
Ignatz
In a Dark Time
Jesus's General
Life as if it's Real
Mark A. R. Kleiman
Nurse Ratched
Out 2 Lunch
Pandagon
Prometheus 6
Rantavation
Veiled 4 Allah
Reach Em High
Rook's Rant
Sadly No
Suburban Guerrilla
T Rex's Guide
The Funny Farm
The Poison Kitchen
Totalitarianism Today

2003-07-10T02:53:00.000-04:00

2003-07-07T03:49:00.000-04:00

Resonance has a complete text of the Chris Matthews roasting of the Coultergeist

2003-07-06T03:27:00.000-04:00

Rush Limbaughtomy has posted the latest standings on the Ecosystem this morning

2003-07-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD ICON WEIGHS IN ON THE COULTERGEIST.
ANN COULTER IS TOAST.

SPINSANITY has the most definitive article yet on TREASON

"With her new book Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, syndicated pundit Ann Coulter has driven the national discourse to a new low. No longer content to merely smear liberals and the media with sweeping generalizations and fraudulent evidence, she has now upped the ante, accusing the entire Democratic Party as well as liberals and leftists nationwide of treason, a crime of disloyalty against the United States. But, as in her syndicated columns (many of which are adapted in the book) and her previous book Slander: Liberal Lies Against the American Right, Coulter's case relies in large part on irrational rhetoric and pervasive factual errors and deceptions. Regardless of your opinions about Democrats, liberals or the left, her work should not be taken at face value." This article is quite long and detailed but well worth the time.

2003-07-02T22:17:00.000-04:00

ANN "Media Whore" COULTERgeist with two leading men.
What is the stain on that blue dress Ann?

"But, Ann, you're mean -- vicious, really -- which is why we do not believe that you in any way serve the public good. "Ann Coultergeist loves God's other son George Visit the Truth Laid Bear for details

2003-07-02T22:13:00.000-04:00

Notice the Blogspot Advertisment at the top of this page
Taken out by the "Savagely Cruel Bigot " herself Ann Coulter
Ann is reduced to giving away her book for a magazine subscription
and reducing the price by 30% without.
Anything to top Hillery eh Ann? Thanks to Savage Cruel Bigot

2003-07-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

Ann Coultergeist loves God's other son George

2003-06-28T10:04:00.000-04:00

Ann Coulter's Treason tries to revise McCarthy history. We will show the truth
SENATOR JOSEPH McCARTHY After World War II McCarthy ran against Robert La Follette to become Republican candidate for the senate. Campaign posters pictured him in "full fighting gear, with an aviator's cap, and belt upon belt of machine gun ammunition wrapped around his bulky torso." He claimed he had completed thirty-two missions when in fact he had a desk job and only flew in training exercises. Sound familiar?
McCarthy attacked La Follette who was forty-six when Pearl Harbor had been bombed, and was too old to join the armed services for not enlisting. On his first day in the Senate, he proposed a solution to a coal-strike that was taking place. McCarthy called for John L. Lewis and the striking miners to be drafted into the Army. If the men still refused to mine the coal, McCarthy suggested they should be court-martialed for insubordination and shot.
McCarthy's first years in the Senate were unimpressive. People also started coming forward claiming that he had lied about his war record. he was being investigated for tax offences and for taking bribes from the Pepsi-Cola Company. In May, 1950, afraid that he would be defeated in the next election. Edmund Walsh, a Roman Catholics priest, came up with the idea that he should begin a campaign against communist subversives working in the Democratic administration.
McCarthy an alcoholic and Roy Cohen savaged witnesses and misused the investigative power of the Senate until censured by the Senate in 1955. He died of alcoholism shortly thereafter. Thanks to Rush Limbaughtomy

2003-06-28T07:10:00.000-04:00

HATE SPEECH 1

Ann Coulter & Peter Fenn, Crossfire, CNN, November 23, 2001
FENN: Let me ask you one very simple question. You have written, and I quote, “We should
invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.”
COULTER: Yeah, that was a good one.
FENN: Now, I just have one very simple question. Who is “they”?
COULTER: The sentence before that sentence says who they are. And that is the terrorists, the people
cheering and dancing in the street.
FIEGER: Convert them to Christianity?
COULTER: The ones we happen to be killing right now. Thank God for the Green Berets.
FIEGER: What’s the difference between you and bin Laden

2003-06-28T07:07:00.000-04:00

HATE SPEECH TWO

“Even fanatical Muslim terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do.”
“When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn into outright traitors.”

2003-06-28T07:05:00.000-04:00

HATE SPEECH THREE

“This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. … We don’t need long investigations of the forensic evidence to determine with scientific accuracy the person or persons who ordered this specific attack. … 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.” “We oughta be discussing whether they should be tortured.”
“That’s the whole point here, to kill them. And we will kill them. … Our objective is to kill him and we kill him. … So we need to kill them and we are killing them. … kill all these other fanatics who are running over there. … These are precisely the people we want to kill.”

2003-06-28T05:41:00.000-04:00

Ann Coulter’s Treason against Paula Jones

Ann Coulter styles herself as the consummate champion of the weak and voiceless, citing her clandestine aid to Paula Jones as evidence. As it turns out, Coulter’s service was self-serving, not selfless, and the beneficiary of her help became impoverished, not enriched.
Secret Advisor to Paula Jones
Jones claimed her reputation had been damaged and she sought an out-of-court settlement to escape the limelight. (Jones: “I wanted this case settled. I always wanted this case settled.”) At a critical juncture, Ann Coulter entered the fray, providing clandestine behind-the-scenes legal services for Jones. The secrecy, apparently, was for Coulter’s sake because she reportedly feared the disapproval of her law firm, the Center for Individual Rights.
Sabotaged Negotiations
As it turned out, Coulter’s goal was not to represent her client but to “get the president.” Consequently, after Coulter gained possession of attorney-client-privileged information – namely, the specific nature of Clinton’s “distinguishing characteristics” which Jones claimed to be able to identify – Coulter vigorously leaked those details (By the way, the leaked rumor proved false.) to the press for the express purpose of sabotaging Jones’ delicate settlement negotiations. (Coulter:“We were terrified that Jones would settle. It was contrary to our purpose of bringing down the president.”)
Media Hell
As a result of the sabotaged negotiations, Jones reluctantly went to court, the Lewinsky scandal erupted, and Jones’ life was radically altered. Rather than receiving the settlement she so desperately desired, Jones entered media hell and gained a fractured family. Coulter, however, benefited, later boasting that she “got a bestseller out of it.”
Taking Credit
After impeachment, Coulter then took credit for vindicating Jones’ reputation (Coulter: “The reason we were doing it for Paula – well, was for Paula. She had been defamed and I think we can say we got her reputation back.”). Jones still endured media hell. Nevertheless, Coulter had the gall to say, “I think Linda Tripp is a hero, too, and Paula Jones, to face those sorts of attacks I wouldn’t have wanted to.” The reason Jones had “to face those attacks of attacks” that Coulter wouldn’t have wanted to face was, in part, due to Coulter’s betrayal of Jones.
“Trailer Park Trash”
“Had she settled the case in September 97,” observes author Joe Conason, Jones “would have had three times as much money, we never would have heard of Monica Lewinsky, and it probably would have been much better for her and her family.” As it was, due to marital breakup, legal fees, back taxes, and a defense fund fiasco, Jones thought the only way out of her family meltdown and financial chaos was to pose for Penthouse. Ironically, after abandoning Jones – without ever offering her any post-impeachment aid – Coulter denounced her as “trailer park trash,” doing precisely what she had previously condemned Clinton supporters for doing. ‘‘I totally believed she was the good Christian girl she made herself out to be,’’ Coulter says. ‘‘I was doing this for her, not just to expose Clinton ... (but) now it turns out she’s a fraud – at least to the extent of pretending to be an honorable and moral person.’’ Naturally, Paula Jones views things a little differently:
“I haven’t been out doing anything and trying to make a lot of money. I haven’t been offered a book deal like everybody else in this huge thing has done. Ann Coulter’s done books. I haven’t seen her call me up and say: ‘Paula, would you like for me to help you write a book, a really nice, decent?’ I haven’t had any help from anybody whatsoever.”

2003-06-28T02:50:00.000-04:00

Posted on Sun, Sep. 01, 2002

Editor's File | A letter to Coulter

Dear Ann Coulter:
You're fired.
It's not that extreme viewpoints are unwelcome on the opinion pages of the Centre Daily Times. All political viewpoints, from Cal Thomas on the right to Molly Ivins on the left, are welcome here.

But, we don't welcome haters, Ann, and that's what you are.

Well, you are either a hater or a hypocrite who calls names and spews enmity because you believe it will get your pretty face on television more or sell more copies of your best-selling books.

In either case, we won't be publishing your Friday column anymore. We decided not to publish a piece of yours a few weeks back because it was nothing more than a sexual history of some of your enemies -- i.e., private citizens who dared to give money to the Democrats.

I wrote a column about why we held the piece and told readers then that if you continued to cross the line, we'd can you.

Your Friday column, in which you declared that liberals are "no good," then trashed the entire Kennedy clan as a collection of "heroin addicts, convicted killers, cheaters, bottleggers and dissolute drunks," crossed that line. I'm not going to defend the Kennedy family or liberals; either group can argue with you if they'd like.

But, Ann, you're mean -- vicious, really -- which is why we do not believe that you in any way serve the public good.

On a late summer morning almost a year ago, all of us -- Republicans, Democrats and everyone else -- witnessed what hate is capable of.

Since that day, Americans have tried to remember that they are on the same side, regardless of differences in skin color, nation of origin, religion or political viewpoint. It has not always been easy because, more than ever, those who are different can seem more threatening. But we're trying because what we have in America is worth keeping.

And, Ann, you're not helping. You do nothing to elevate our spirits, to celebrate the great bond that holds us this unruly people together and makes us a nation.

Hate is easy; love is hard.

Our great nation gives you the freedom to hate all you want and even to make a buck off it if you can. But, even better, it gives us the right not to have to listen.

So, Ann, you're fired. I expect some of our readers are going to be mad at us over this, but we hope they'll understand that while we joyfully publish a wide spectrum of political and social viewpoints, we condemn hate where we find it.

You won't miss us much, Ann. Heck, you're rolling in money. And your fans can find your column on the Internet anyway.

We'll start looking for someone to replace you. It won't be easy because you sure are flashy and a lot of folks like flashy. But political conservatism has produced other columnists of merit whose ideas will provide subjects fit for public consumption and debate -- writers who do not believe those who disagree with them are traitors, or worse.

Sincerely,

Bob Unger, executive editor

2003-06-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

Ann Coulter's Treason
Scoobie on Ann Coulter's Treason

This blog is dedicated to TAKE BACK THE MEDIA
and the fight against the Michael Savage lawsuit.

It borrows from Ann Coulter's final words in SLANDER
“Except for occasional forays to the Wal-Mart,” she says, “liberals do not know any conservatives.” But conservatives “already know” liberals, she says. Conservatives know liberals as “savagely cruel bigots who hate America and lie for sport.” Incredibly, that is Coulter’s final phrase. It closes her strange, disturbed book. Thanks to Rush Limbaughtomy

From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:

Rush Limbaughtomy: GOD's other Son George

THERE IS A CLEAR DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY ANNTHRAX AND I VIEW THE WORLD.