Companies pulling ads from Coulter's Web site

From CNN:

At least three major companies want their ads pulled from Ann Coulter's Web site, following customer complaints about the right-wing commentator referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."

The companies are Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank. (Hat tip, Perez Hilton) Read the rest of this post...

Stop inviting her

Just got back from CNN. I suspect I'll have more to add tomorrow, but the Hotline perhaps summed up best my feelings on Ann Coulter: If conservatives really think her hate doesn't represent them, then stop inviting her.

From Hotline:

The Blogometer has previously posted about our hesitancy to write about Ann Coulter, but conservative blogger outrage following her hijacking of media coverage of CPAC deserves further examination. A common theme running through conservative blogger thoughts on the incident is that her words were just typical of her act and no one should really be surprised. But if that's true, then why invite her to speak in the first place? Let alone after one of the GOP's big WH '08 three. Post-fracas condemnation of Coulter is good and all, but until Coulter starts getting shut out of events like CPAC, GOPers deserve to have Ann hung around their necks.

Read the rest of this post...

Coulter: Faggot "isn't offensive to gays" -- It's just a "schoolyard taunt."

Okay. I am actually watching Fox News right now. Coulter isn't backing down. It was just a joke. See, to her, this is just the "same people becoming hysterical" and she thinks that the lesson young right wingers "ought to draw is that it's not that scary to attack liberals." Yeah, fag jokes are so funny -- really attack them.

It's all a joke. And, we need to know is that Coulter now speaks for gays and lesbians across America. Verbatim quotes:

The word I used has nothing to do with sexual preference. It is a schoolyard taunt.

And:

It isn't offensive to gays. It has nothing to do with gays.

Huh? Apparently, Ann Coulter has never been on the receiving end of that schoolyard taunt -- but Ann Coulter, like so many in the GOP, has made it acceptable to use that taunt against kids all over America. Just a schoolyard taunt? Say that to some kid who's had his face bashed in.

Words matter. She thinks it was "an excellent joke." Read the rest of this post...

Aravosis is on CNN. Coulter isn't -- she's hiding out at FOX News, a network that should not host a Democratic debate

John is on Paula Zahn tonight. He'll be appearing throughout the hour. However, as John predicted, Coulter chickened out. Instead, she's appearing on the refuge of the right wing: Fox News. And, to top it off, she's going on Sean Hannity's show. Coulter will get some real tough questions over there, huh?

That Fox News where Ann Coulter feels so safe is also the Fox News that is hosting a Democratic candidates debate this summer in Nevada. Fox is a mouthpiece of the GOP and the right wing. And, if anyone had any doubt (not that anyone should), Ann Coulter's appearance there tonight confirms it. The network that gives comfort and cover to Ann Coulter doesn't deserve a Democratic debate. Matt Stoller explains more here. "Fox Attacks" and MoveOn have a petition here. Read the rest of this post...

Bob Hattoy

Bob Hattoy died this weekend. He was a very brave man. I remember watching his 1992 speech at the Democratic convention. It's easy to forget the context, but it was ground breaking. In stark contrast, a couple weeks later at the GOP convention, Pat Buchanan launched the culture war that many Republicans are still waging.

In January of 1993, I was very excited to meet Bob when he was working with my sister, Karen, on the Clinton-Gore transition. That was when I was just starting to come out and Bob had the courage to tell the world his story. For years after I moved to DC, he was my neighbor on Kalorama Road. I didn't know him well, but he did make a major impression on me. It's not often you meet people who actually made history.

One person can make a difference and Bob Hattoy was one of those people. The DNC posted the text of his 1992 speech:

Thank you. I love you. Thank you, California. Thank you, Gay and Lesbian community. Thank you, Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. Thank you, Aretha Franklin, God.

I am here tonight because of one man's courage and conviction, one man's dedication and daring and yes, one man's true kindness. He's my boss, Bill Clinton. (Applause)

You see, I have AIDS. I could be an African American woman, a Latino man, a 10-year old boy or girl. AIDS has many faces. And AIDS knows no class or gender, race or religion, or sexual orientation. AIDS does not discriminate, but George Bush's White House does. (Applause)

AIDS is a disease of the Reagan-Bush years. The first case was detected in 1981, but it took 40,000 deaths and seven years for Ronald Reagan to say the word "AIDS." It's five years later, 70,000 more dead and George Bush doesn't talk about AIDS, much less do anything about it.

Eight years from now there will be 2 million cases in America. If George Bush wins, we're all at risk in America. It's that simple. It's that serious. It's that terrible. (Applause)

(Chants of "No second term!")

This is hard. I'm a Gay man with AIDS and if there's any honor in having this disease it's because it's an honor being part of the Gay and Lesbian community in America. (Applause)

We have watched our friends and lovers die, but we have not given up hope. Gay men and Lesbians created community health clinics, provided educational materials, opened food kitchens, and held the hands of the dying in hospices. The Gay and Lesbian community is an American family in the best sense of the word. (Applause)

President Bush, we are a million points of light; you are just too morally blind to see us. Mr. President, you don't see AIDS for what it is - it's a crisis in public health that demands medical experts, not moral judges - and it's time to move beyond your politics of denial, division and death. It's time to move George Bush out of the White House. (Applause)

We need a President who will take action, a President strong enough to take on the insurance companies that drop people with the HIV virus, a President courageous enough to take on the drug companies who drive AIDS patients into poverty and deny them lifesaving medicine. And we need a President who isn't terrified of the word "condom." (Applause)

Every single person with AIDS is someone worthy of caring for. After all, we are your sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. We are doctors and lawyers, folks in the military, ministers and priests and rabbis. We are Democrats, and yes, Mr. President, Republicans. We are part of the American family and, Mr. President, your family has AIDS and we're dying and you're doing nothing about it. (Applause)

Listen. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. But I don't want to live in an America where the President sees me as the enemy. I can face dying because of a disease, but not because of politics.

So I stand here tonight in support of Bill Clinton, a man who sees the value in each and every member of the American family. And although I am a person with AIDS, I am a person with hope, because I know how different my life and all our lives could be if I could call my boss Mr. President.

Martin Luther King once said that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Fifty thousands people took to the streets in New York today because they will no longer be silent about AIDS. (Applause)

Their actions give me hope. All of you came here tonight; millions more are watching in America. Obviously, we have hope and hope gives me the chance of life. I think it's really important to understand that this year, more than any other year, we must vote as if our life depends on it. Mine does; your could - and we all have so much to live for. Thank you.

(Standing ovation)

Act Up. Fight Back. Fight AIDS. Thank you.

Read the rest of this post...

Christian Conservative ethics

From DCRTV.com:

Rebuffed By XM, Ashcroft Jumps To Rival NAB - 3/5 - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who recently sent a letter to his successor Alberto Gonzales blasting the proposed merger of Sirius and XM satellite radio firms, approached DC-based XM in the days after the merger was announced offering the firm his consulting services, a spokesman for XM said Saturday. The spokesman said XM declined Ashcroft's offer to work as a lobbyist for the company. Ashcroft was subsequently hired by the DC-based National Association Of Broadcasters, which is fiercely opposed to the merger.

More from Engadget. Read the rest of this post...

Romney and Coulter yuk it up at CPAC

Mitt told Coulter that it would "never happen" that he'd say something that would cause her to viciously attack him. Has Coulter said anything that would cause Mitt to attack her? Or is Mitt afraid of Ann, and more importantly, afraid of putting his own supposed convictions into action.



That other woman whose head keeps popping in is right wing spinmeister Barbara Comstock. Read the rest of this post...

Coulter says Edwards campaign is a front for Arab terrorists

Seriously, why is this woman one of the top Republican commentators in this country, and one of the most-desired public speakers and writers in the Republican party? More from E&P;. Read the rest of this post...

FOX News devoted 12 times more coverage to Anna Nicole than Walter Reed

They hate the troops, love the war. Read the rest of this post...

Walter Reed Hearings broadcast live

CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN are covering the hearings over at Walter Reed. Fox is even giving some coverage. We're getting some real testimony about just how much the Bush Administration "supports the troops" -- or doesn't.

This is intense. Read the rest of this post...

Watch "CPAC: The Unauthorized Documentary"

Max Blumenthal went to the Conservative Political Action Conference. And, he made a video that features a lot of the "stars" of the right wing. Definitely worth a watch:
Read the rest of this post...

Basra raid reveals tortured prisoners . . . and the debacle of Iraqi governance

This story on a raid made by British and Iraqi forces on the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency is fascinating and instructive. First there's the obvious point that official Iraqi government security/intelligence forces are doing Bad Things like holding detainees without due process and torturing them (and yes, while our current administration has embraced -- and codified! -- such tactics, they're still Bad). It's important to recognize that while the north (huge Kurdish majority) and south (huge Shia majority) are much more stable than mixed Baghdad and the Sunni west, that reflects homogeneity more than some kind of general benevolence. In Iraq, where there's little open fighting, that relative calm probably masks abuse of minority groups, authoritarian tactics, corrupt governance, and intra-sectarian squabbles. In the north, the two major Kurdish parties went to war as recently as the mid-1990s, and in the south, Shia parties (Virtue, SCIRI, and, increasingly, Sadrists) jostle for political supremacy and the huge oil revenues that come with it. The local controls that have developed are hardly beneficent, but we don't hear much about the problems unless Coalition forces happen to stumble upon them.

Which they apparently did in this case, with British troops and Iraqi special forces working together on the raid. If the story wasn't interesting enough already, however, it seems that the Iraqi government was not aware of the operation . . . and is now incensed about it. For a government to be unaware of the actions of its special forces is, to put it mildly, unusual and worrisome. Prime Minister Maliki issued a furious statement condemning the raid, stressing "the need to punish those who have carried out this illegal and irresponsible act." The detainees reportedly included a woman and two children, making the claim that these were hardened insurgents even more dubious. For the Iraqi government to be in conflict with Coalition forces is problematic, but to rail against a joint Iraqi operation is pretty unbelievable.

The article also talks about the ongoing operations in Baghdad, hinting at -- though not saying outright -- the fact that Sadrists were warned far in advance, are putting up no fight, and are largely staying out of the way until the operation is over and they can go back. We don't have the troops (or the desire) to police Sadr City forever, so they'll just wait it out. In the meantime, while the goal of the escalation was ostensibly to buy time for the Iraqi government to do some good, the ruling coalition is on the verge of splintering rather than moving ahead. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Hearings start today at Walter Reed. Based on today's Washington Post article, there will need to be hearings at a lot of other facilities treating soldiers and veterans. Dana Priest and Anne Hull, who have been writing this series, deserve a Pulitzer. George Bush deserves our scorn. Never, ever again should any Republican claim to support the troops. Ever. Not after this scandal.

Bush uses that "support the troops" mantra as a line at GOP fund-raisers like he just did on Friday. That would be the same day his Secretary of the Army "resigned" over Walter Reed. It's beyond hypocrisy. It's fraud.

Ok, it's Monday. Get the week started. Read the rest of this post...

Afghans protest against US troops after killings

With the alleged indiscriminate shooting by US troops of civilians leaving dead and wounded plus other reports of AP photographers having their film and video deleted by US troops, it sounds like frustration is very high in Afghanistan. None of this is good for Afghanistan or the US but with the heavy weight of Iraq, this comes as no surprise.

Thousands of angry demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan yesterday after US forces were involved in a panicked shooting which left 16 civilians dead and 23 injured.

Local people as well as a number of Afghan officials accused the American marines of opening fire indiscriminately following a suicide bomb attack on their convoy in Nangarhar province.

With protests continuing to grow, and the police coming under attack from stone- throwing crowds, the US military maintained that the casualties were the victims of a "complex ambush" in which gunmen had carried out a synchronised attack following the blast in which a marine was injured.

But Mohammad Khan Katawazi, the district chief of Shinwar district, where the deaths took place, insisted that they "treated every car and person along the highway as a potential attacker" as they attempted to speed away from the scene of the explosion.

Read the rest of this post...

Asian markets continue to decline

Tokyo gets clobbered with 3.34% decline. What a great idea it was to send the US debt to China and hand out tax cuts so everyone could just pretend as though war is easy, cheap and pain free. Heck, sacrifice during war time is so last century, until it all comes crumbling down, at least. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

In NYC. Below is the view flying in. It's an okay picture - not perfect, since I was stitching 4 photos together and the plane was obviously moving. Anyway, I do love this city. And it appears that I'm now going to be on Paula Zahn's show tomorrow night as well as Tuesday night. Monday night they want to discuss our lovely Ms. Ann, the foul-mouthed bigot. She's supposed to be on, had already scheduled it before the blow-up. I have a feeling our little angel is a big fat chicken and won't show. To think that last week I got to meet Bill "The Christian-hating Jews Control Hollwyood" Donohue and now there's a chance Coulter might be there. Come to think of it, I never have seen Coulter and Donohue in the same room...

Anyway, here's New York.

Read the rest of this post...