Generally speaking, I can and do ignore most of the trolls, including Ann Coulter. She is Exhibit A for everything that is wrong with the state of political discourse in this country. Rude, insensitive, hateful, mean-spirited, and self-righteous, Coulter seems to think that anyone or anything that she finds objectionable is evil and stupid. This, of course, makes her no different than your average, garden-variety ignoramus. The fact that she has a forum and gets paid handsomely to spew her bile is what I find so objectionable. Her latest column is so thoroughly putrid that not even US Today would run 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 W.W.F. caged matches. They're calling this the "protestor's area," although I suppose a better name would be the "truth-free zone."
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."....
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.
She is only one person, and yet she is one person with a national forum. Anyone with a conscience and a sense of decency would find a way to at least offer something constructive as an alternative. The problem with Coulter is that, while she is ready, willing, and able to degrade, insult, and tear down, she has nothing to offer as anything resembling an alternative.
Insults may gain you headlines and inflate your bank balance, but if that is all you are after, well, that's a pretty shallow existence. Then again, it seems very clear that Coulter cares for nothing except her own self-aggrandizement. Clearly, someone never learned how to play well with others. This more than qualifies her as a DUMB@$$. Personally, I'd like to see her stick her DUMB@$$ AWARD somewhere where it won't get a sunburn. If her intellectually bankrupt and morally repulsice arguments are the best that Conservatives have to offer, well, let's just say that the Democrats are looking pretty good.
A little background:
This piece was supposed to be a part of the USA today Editorial section. To be counterbalanced with Michael Moore. The Dynamic Duo was supposed to do the same thing in NYC.
I don't understand what elevated her status to the DumbA$$ but I think I might be classified as one of Gores Digital Brownshirts
Hmm...how about for being largely responsible for turning civil political discource into character assassination? Free speech doesn't have to mean degrading speech.
The alternative is for your kind to "shove it". Your repect for Carter and his evil ilk maks you as unqualified for citzenship as Willie Hortion. Stop voting and SHUT THE FUCK UP!
...and thus the point is so eloquently illustrated.
How about givin' her a dumbass award for not knowing it's not the WWF, it's now the WWE and has been for about 3 or 4 years.
Jack, I'm a little surprised that it took 127 dumbass awards before she got one from you... LOL!
Tangent: Shove it... Fuck off... Shove it.. Fuck off... Hmmmm... Which party has the values again?? I forget...
I'm a conservative. I also don't like Ann Coulter. I would never have hired her, nor would I have run her column. I even find it interesting that her replacement is the same guy who fired her at NR after her "forced conversion to Christianity" column.
That said, I want to know where all the liberal outrage over corporate censorship is. After all, this is still America, and corporate punishment of someone for their speech is a First Amendment violation and an attack on all our freedoms -- or at least that is what you folks said regarding Ronstadt, Godberg, and the Dixie Chicks. Or does that only apply if you are a liberal?
Greg,
Let's see if I remember how this works.
A business has a right to hire its employees, use their work, make a profit from their efforts, right?
Kinda like, o, say, the Miami Dolphins and Ricky Williams, eh?
When the employee doesn't measure up to standards or meet the philosophy of the business, the employer has the right to handle the work or even the employment of that individual differently, right?
Kinda like, o, say, the Dallas Cowboys and Emmitt Smith awhile ago?
Or, to put it crudely, rudely and in GOPerspective,
Ann Coulter's just like the Dixie Chicks.
She has a right to her opinion.
Management has a right not to play it on their airwaves or print it in their pages.
Once again, may I be permitted to state the obvious. Had Ann Coulter been born ugly, nobody would have given a rat's ass about her political views. But because she is gorgeous, cable news has made her famous. Al Franken calls her, as I recall, a lunatic. Having read some of her stuff, I'd say he is being overly polite. But she does represent the new generation of Republicans, I'm afraid, and our political discourse is worse off as a result.
I questioned, why Ann Coulter was elevated to a DumbA$$ Award, because although I agree she is gasoline on a fire, and I don't like her I find her inconsequecial and typical of the climate for the past couple of years. I find the personal rhetoric of folks such as Carvel and Atrios. Even Gore has gotten into the act calling some us "Digital Brownshirts" Maybe the Democrats will set a new tone their plea to turn down the rhetoric.
You missed my point entirely. You enuncuiated exactly my persona belief on the matter.
I keep hearing from liberals how folks are being "censored" big corporations for their political views. It is always a liberal being "violated". I just wanted to know why none of you are so outraged by the same being done to a conservative (admittedly one I don't like). Seems like a hypocritical double standard to me.
But then again, I expect nothing more of liberals.
And Dennis -- what do you mean "IF Ann COulter had been born ugly"?