Coulter

In Which a Newt Gingrich Apologist Transcends Self-Parody

Calvin Freiburger Coulter, dishonesty, Eagle Publishing, Erick Erickson, Gingrich, GOP, Harriet Miers, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Redstate, stupidity
Ann Coulter had it exactly right yesterday when she took aim at the way Gingrich’s apologists have, almost overnight, emptied the word “Establishment” of nearly all meaning. The most preposterous example to date has to come from noted hack Erick Erickson in this Twitter exchange. In response to someone else’s (manifestly false) claim that “all the GOP insider[s] who bash Newt chose Crist over Rubio,” Erickson replied, “And supported Harriet Miers.”
You can probably see the punchline coming from a mile away. Guess who else supported Harriet Miers?
If your answer was “Newt Gingrich,” give yourself a hand.
So we now live in a world where “true conservatives” must circle the wagons around Newt Gingrich to stand up to undefined “elites” who are evil because they do things like agree with Newt Gingrich on Supreme Court nominees.

It’s insanity like this that makes me question why I ever bothered to get a degree in Politics.
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Chris Christie and His Islamist Pals

Calvin Freiburger Chris Christie, conservatism, Coulter, GOP, Hamas, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Islam, Islamofascism, jihad, Mohammed Qatanani, national security, RINOs, terrorism, War on Terror
Here’s recent video New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie angrily denouncing the critics of one of his judicial nominees, Sohail Mohammed, as Islamophobes who are groundlessly smearing a good patriot based on his religious background.
Oh really? That’s not the impression I got from Jonathan Tobin’s January write-up on Mohammed:
Mohammed is mainly known for the fact that he was the defense attorney for Muslims who were arrested in the wake of 9/11 because of their ties to terror organizations. In one case, Mohammed fought the government’s effort to deport Mohammed Qatanani, the imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County and an influential member of the extremist — though well-connected — American Muslim Union. Though the New York Times praised him in 2008 during his deportation trial as a “revered imam” and portrayed the case as an overreaction to 9/11, Qatanani, a Palestinian, is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood​ and admitted to being a member of Hamas when he was arrested by Israeli authorities in 1993 before coming to the United States. Though he claimed to be an advocate of interfaith dialogue (and was accepted as such by some liberal Jews), Qatanani was no moderate on the Middle East. His ties to Hamas were well known, and just the year before his deportation trial, Qatanani endorsed Israel’s absorption into an Islamic “Greater Syria.” Qatanani clearly lied about his record as an Islamist on documents that he used to enter the country. But he was nevertheless able to evade justice in the immigration courts because the judge accepted his undocumented claim that the Israelis tortured him.
Qatanani also benefited from having some highly placed friends in the justice system as a result of the political pull of the American Muslim Union, which boasts Sohail Mohammed as one of its board members. The AMU was able to get former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine​, Democratic Congressman Bill Pascrell, and then U.S. attorney Chris Christie to intervene on Qatanani’s behalf during the trial. As far as Christie was concerned, this was not a matter of merely signing a letter or making a phone call. The day before the Immigration Court announced its decision, Christie actually spoke at Qatanani’s mosque (Qatanani’s predecessor had boasted of raising at the mosque $2 million for Hamas via the now banned Holy Land Foundation) at a Ramadan breakfast dinner, where he embraced the imam while praising him as “a man of great good will.”
Terror researcher Steve Emerson was quoted at the time as calling Christie’s involvement in the case “a disgrace and an act of pure political corruption,” especially since “I know for certain that Christie and the FBI had access to information about Qatanani’s background, involvement with and support of Hamas.”
Put aside all the other black marks against Christie; this alone is enough to disqualify him from any presidential consideration, serious or otherwise. Absolutely disgraceful.
Interestingly enough, I found the link for the top video on the sidebar of Ann Coulter’s website, with this confusing caption: “Our Next President Defends Slander about ‘Sharia Law’ Judge.” Coulter has been an obsessive Christie for President advocate, and I’ve been especially curious how the author of Treason would react to her hero’s coziness with Islamic radicals. Saying that Christie “defends slander” seems awfully damning, but she still calls him “our next president.” Here’s hoping Ann has reconsidered her support for Christie, and that she’ll clarify it soon.

What Is the Libertarian Position on Abortion? UPDATED

Calvin Freiburger abortion, conservatism, Coulter, evil, government, Hot Air, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, human rights, libertarianism, murder, Nazism, pro-life, Reason TV, Ron Paul
That is the question posed by Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey to Reason Magazine’s Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie for their “Ask A Libertarian” video series:

Ed reacts with appreciation for a “measured, thoughtful response.” As you might expect, I’m not so charitable.
No, Ed, this was not a thoughtful response. A thoughtful response would have asked what the scientific evidence reveals about the humanity of the unborn, and the discussed how the answer relates to the nature of liberty (you know, the root word of “libertarian”) and the libertarian purpose of government. Instead, all we got was platitudes about respecting differing views wrapped around, quite frankly, Naziesque talk of a “sliding scale of humanity” and how “definitions of life and death change with time.” Gillespie even admits that the sliding scale is an intuitive idea, rather than a logical argument.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that there are principled, consistent libertarians out there, like Libertarians for Life, who embrace the full implications of the statements “all men are created equal” and “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.” But in what might be the most disturbing part of the video, Welch claims that only about 30% of libertarians call themselves pro-life. If that number is accurate (and I don’t know if it is), then that confirms my worst suspicions about libertarianism being merely a form of liberalism that wants to keep its paycheck rather than a sincere, coherent liberty ethos.
But hey, that moral and intellectual confusion is one of the reasons I’m a conservative and not a libertarian. That’s their knot to untangle, and I hope for the sake of the Right as a broader coalition that pro-life libertarians are successful in untangling it.

UPDATE: Speaking of libertarians and social issues, Ann Coulter nukes Ron Paul and company along similar lines, in a column so good we’ll let slide her misguided infatuation with Chris Christie:

Most libertarians are cowering frauds too afraid to upset anyone to take a stand on some of the most important cultural issues of our time. So they dodge the tough questions when it suits their purposes by pretending to be Randian purists, but are perfectly comfortable issuing politically expedient answers when it comes to the taxpayers’ obligations under Medicare and Social Security.

If they could only resist sucking up to Rolling Stone-reading, status-obsessed losers, they’d probably be interesting to talk to.

In my book “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America,” I make the case that liberals, and never conservatives, appeal to irrational mobs to attain power. There is, I now recall, one group of people who look like conservatives, but also appeal to the mob. They’re called “libertarians.”

Around the Web

Calvin Freiburger blogosphere, books, conservatism, Coulter, crime, demagogues, Fond du Lac School District, Fondy High, Gary Sharpe, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Justice, liberalism, protest, Scott Walker, sex crimes, sex ed, vote fraud
Ann Coulter’s latest column gives a taste of her new book’s subject matter – the relationship between liberalism and mob/herd mentality. Sounds like a persuasive, insightful take on an urgent topic.
Speaking of irrational, hateful mobs, young punks in Madison, this time ticked off about voter ID, have reached a new low: protesting Gov. Scott Walker as he speaks to a Special Olympics group, blocking the kids’ view. I don’t know what’s more sickening – the behavior of these protestors, or the knowledge that so few of the “fine, upstanding citizens” our public schools have been churning out who agree with them will have the basic human decency to stand up and say, “not in my name.” But hey, the ends justify the means no matter what, right?
Outrage in Fond du Lac: Another slap on the wrist for a predatory teacher, thanks to DA Dan Kaminsky. This case also includes the added bonus of Judge Gary Sharpe, who should have recused himself, and then blocked pertinent evidence, thereby demonstrating why he should have been recused.

Perfect quote form the Other McCain: “[T]he fundmental falsehood of all sex-education efforts [is] the belief that most sexual problems are caused by a lack of knowledge, rather than a lack of virtue.” Too bad there’s always some scumbag around the corner to demonize truth-speaking.
Newt’s campaign is falling apart as we speak. Surprise!

When Victims Are Guilty (Updated)

Calvin Freiburger Coulter, crime, dishonesty, evil, extremism, hypocrisy, insanity, Left, liberalism, propaganda, Tucson

Aside from being contemptible for its sheer dishonesty, the Left’s blood libel campaign blaming conservatives for the shooting spree carried out by (anti-war, Christianity-hating) psychopath Jared Loughner is also a clear example/vindication of Ann Coulter’s most recent book, Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, which targets (if you’ll pardon the expression) the cherished leftist propaganda tactic of using real and perceived victims as props with which to browbeat critics of their policies into silence.

One of Loughner’s victims, Eric Fuller, has disgraced himself by blaming Republicans for his injury:

“It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target,” Eric Fuller said in an interview with Democracy NOW.

“Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled — senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all — even 9-year-old girls,” he added, referring to the death of Christina Taylor Green.

Fuller, a 63-year-old veteran, had campaigned for Giffords during her reelection and was at the supermarket for her Congress on Your Corner event.

“I would put Sarah Palin in first place there. I think, really, she should be incarcerated for treason for advocating assassinating public officials,” Fuller said in an interview with Media Matters. “That map I saw that she published on the Internet had crosshairs on it and one of them was meant for Gabrielle Giffords.”

Fuller’s status as both a shooting victim and a veteran will probably scare many away from discussing this honestly, but it shouldn’t. The simple fact is, nothing justifies telling vicious lies to, or about, your countrymen.

In an ironic twist of fate, Fuller has made a toxic contribution of his own to the public discourse:

When Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries rose to suggest that any conversation about gun control should be put off until after the funerals for all the victims, witnesses say Fuller became agitated.  Two told KGUN9 News that finally, Fuller took a picture of Humphries, and said, “You’re dead.”

When State Rep. Terri Proud (R-Tucson) rose to explain and clarify current and proposed gun legislation in the state, several people groaned or booed her.  One of those booing, according to several witnesses, was Fuller.   Witnesses sitting near Fuller told KGUN9 News that Fuller was making them feel very uncomfortable.

The event wrapped up a short time later.  Deputies then escorted Fuller from the room.  As he was being led off, Fuller shouted loudly to the room at large.  Several witnesses said that what they thought they heard him shout was, “You’re all whores!”

A Pima County Sheriff’s spokesman told KGUN9 News that they charged Fuller with one count of threats and intimidation, and said they plan to charge him with at least one count of disorderly conduct.  Humphries told KGUN9 News that he does plan to press those charges.

Of course, because Eric Fuller’s hate is directed at the Right, there’s probably a root cause for it the rest of us to understand. There always is.

UPDATE: The Mental Recession has more – apparently it’s not really his fault; PTSD made him do it. Of course.

Around the Web

Calvin Freiburger abortion, atheism, blogosphere, Coulter, defense spending, gay marriage, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, New York Times, religion, Sarah Palin, violence, vote fraud

The New Hampshire GOP says “screw marriage.”

What’s the worst lie Ann Coulter has ever seen in the New York Times? It’s a doozy.

My NRB colleague Paul Cooper has a cool list of pro-life heroes.

How many “memorial services” can you think of with their own official logos and t-shirts?

Wisconsin Republicans plan to push voter ID. Now there’s change I can believe in!

In the wake of Tucson, Sarah Palin’s getting an “unprecedented” amount of death threats. But don’t hold the scumbags to their own standard and blame Paul Krugman, James Clyburn, or Chris Matthews, No sir.

Joe Carter contemplates atheist anger toward God. Why vent at someone you don’t think is there?

And check out the case against cutting defense spending.

Coulter vs. Stossel on Drug Legalization

Calvin Freiburger conservatism, Coulter, drug legalization, drugs, Fox Business, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, libertarianism, order, society, Stossel

Not everyone on the Right has jumped on the “legalize it!” bandwagon. Here’s Ann Coulter on John Stossel’s Fox Business show, articulating the flip side of libertarians’ rosy predictions:
http://www.popmodal.com/nvp/player/nvplayer.swf?config=http://www.popmodal.com/nvp/econfig.php?key=c30751156cea2d60aacb

Ann Coulter Speaks, Despicable People Lie About It. Film at Eleven.

Calvin Freiburger conservatism, Coulter, dishonesty, GOProud, homosexuality, Left

Remember that speech to gay conservatives Ann Coulter was going to give? Well, it happened the other day, and just as I expected, Ann proved her critics full of it, as usual. I’ll have a more thorough follow-up on NewsReal a little later (UPDATE: here it is), but for now, let’s look at one example of the shamelessly-dishonest reactions the gay Left has dished out in response. At some worthless magazine called Instinct, some degenerate called Jonathan Higbee writes:

As expected, the “Judy Garland of the conservative base,” Ann Coulter, displayed nothing short of offensive anti-gay rhetoric at GOProud’s Homocon event over the weekend. What hundreds of wealthy GLBT paid GOProud (and therefore paid Coulter) to hear? That “gay marriage” is wrong, that gay babies should be aborted and that parents don’t want their children learning about the GLBT community in school. Where else could the $150,000 speaking fee GOProud paid Coulter have gone?

Jonathan Higbee, you are as contemptible a liar as they come. For one thing, believing that civil marriage has a societal purpose connected to procreation isn’t anti-gay, and if you had a conscience, you’d admit it. But we know you don’t have a conscience, because your next lie – accusing Coulter of saying “gay babies should be aborted” – is even more foul. I know you know it’s a lie, because you posted her actual words just a few inches lower. And given your obvious hatred of truth and independent thought, I’m sure a conversation with you about a parent’s right to decide when his or her child is ready for sexual subject matter would be another exercise in futility.

Jonathan Higbee, it’s not your sexual orientation that makes you an individual society should look upon with shock and revulsion. It’s your utter lack of integrity. The same goes for whatever publication so devoid of ethics that they’d give your filth a platform.

Some Thoughts on Farah vs. Coulter

Calvin Freiburger conservatism, Coulter, GOProud, homosexuality, Joseph Farah, World Net Daily
Regardless of where you stand on religion and homosexuality, Joseph Farah and World Net Daily have been peddling conspiratorial nonsense like Birtherism and the North American Union too long to be taken seriously by any conservative. Which is a pity, because he’s actually got a point about the Right’s current drift toward “materialistic libertarianism.” The American Founding was neither materialistic nor libertarian.

To be sure, there are a small handful of voices here and there that would make America into a theocracy if they could, but those who want to push the Right too far in the other direction (pro-abortion, anti-marriage, etc.) are more numerous and influential – making excessive secularism a more potent and immediate threat than excessive religion.

It also may be that Ann Coulter is too trusting of GOProud and their motives – at CPAC, GOProud executive director Jimmy LaSalvia whined in front of the cameras about how the National Organization for Marriage people at CPAC treated GOProud nicely in person, but the next day issued a press release promising to oppose GOProud on pro-gay-marriage candidates. We didn’t already know the two groups disagreed? We’re supposed to assume that whoever was manning NOM’s booth was the same person responsible for their press releases, and they were deliberately trying to mislead GOProud? Please. GOProud’s not above attacking other members of the conservative coalition for the sake of grabbing headlines.

Further, LaSalvia calls redefining marriage a conservative position, when it’s anything but. Whatever else the group may be, they’re almost certainly trying to redefine conservatism to better fit their own agenda – a danger we shouldn’t ignore.

That said, it’s more than a little ridiculous to say that someone who has spent her entire career fighting for God, life, marriage, and family is suddenly a traitor to Christianity and social conservatism because of a single speech nobody’s even heard yet. Don’t those of you condemning Coulter think it’s just a little premature to do so when you don’t even know what she’s going to say? For all we know, her speech might be about the relationship between conservatism and gay issues. And if there’s anything we know about Ann Coulter, it’s that she’s not afraid to tell audiences things they don’t want to hear.

The Right’s Leading Ladies

Calvin Freiburger 2008, conservatism, Coulter, Democrats, dishonesty, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, hypocrisy, McCain, media, moonbats, MSM, Palin, scandal
Not since Ann Coulter has the Left hated a conservative woman as much as they hate Sarah Palin. So it’s only fitting that Ann throw in her two cents on the GOP’s newest rising star:
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John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate finally gave Republicans a reason to vote for him — a reason, that is, other than B. Hussein Obama.
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The media are hopping mad about McCain’s vice presidential selection, but they’re really furious over at MSNBC. After drawing “Keith + Obama” hearts on their denim notebooks, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews stayed up all night last Thursday, writing jokes about Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the presumed vice presidential pick. Now they can’t use any of them.
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So the media are taking it out on our brave Sarah and her 17-year-old daughter.
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They claimed Palin was chosen only because she’s a woman. In fact, Palin was chosen because she’s pro-life, pro-gun, pro-drilling and pro-tax cuts. She’s fought both Republicans and Democrats on public corruption and does not have hair plugs like some other vice presidential candidate I could mention. In other words, she’s a “Republican.”
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As a right-winger, Palin will appeal to the narrow 59 percent of Americans who voted for another former small-market sportscaster: Ronald Reagan. Our motto: Sarah Palin is only a heartbeat away!
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If you’re going to say Palin was chosen because she’s a woman, you’re going to have to demonstrate that the runners-up were more qualified. Gov. Tim Pawlenty seems like a terrific fellow and fine governor, but he is not obviously more qualified than Palin.
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As for former governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge and Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, the other also-rans, I can think of at least 40 million unborn reasons she’s better than either of them.
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Within the first few hours after Palin’s name was announced, McCain raised $4 million in campaign donations online, reaching $10 million within the next two days. Which shortlist vice presidential pick could have beaten that?
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The media hysterically denounced Palin as “inexperienced.” But then people started to notice that she has more executive experience than B. Hussein Obama — the guy at the top of the Democrats’ ticket.
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They tried to create a “Troopergate” for Palin, indignantly demanding to know why she wanted to get her ex-brother-in-law removed as a state trooper. Again, public corruption is not a good issue for someone like Obama, Chicago pol and noted friend of Syrian National/convicted felon Antonin Rezko.
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For the cherry on top, then we found out Palin’s ex-brother-in-law had Tasered his own 10-year-old stepson. Defend that, Democrats.
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The bien-pensant criticized Palin, saying it’s irresponsible for a woman with five children to run for vice president. Liberals’ new talking point: Sarah Palin: Only five abortions away from the presidency.
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They claimed her newborn wasn’t her child, but the child of her 17-year-old daughter. That turned out to be a lie.
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Then they attacked her daughter, who actually is pregnant now, for being unmarried. When liberals start acting like they’re opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain’s vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels.
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But at least liberal reporters had finally found someone their own size to pick on: a 17-year-old girl.
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Speaking of Democrats with newborn children, the media weren’t particularly concerned about John Edwards running for president despite his having a mistress with a newborn child.
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While the difficult circumstances of Palin’s pregnant daughter are being covered like a terrorist attack on the nation, with leering accounts of the 18-year-old father, the media remain resolutely uninterested in the parentage of Edwards’ mistress’s love child. Except, that is, the hardworking reporters at the National Enquirer, who say Edwards is the father.
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As this goes to press, the latest media-invented scandal about Palin is that McCain didn’t know her well before choosing her as his running mate. He knew her well enough, though admittedly, not as well as Obama knows William Ayers.
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John F. Kennedy, who was — from what the media tell me — America’s most beloved president, detested his vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
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Until Clinton interviewed Al Gore one time before choosing him as his vice presidential candidate, he had met Gore only one other time: when Gore was running for president in 1988 and flew to Little Rock seeking Clinton’s endorsement. Clinton turned him down.
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To this day, there’s no proof that Bill Clinton ever met one-on-one with his CIA director, James Woolsey, other than a brief chat after midnight the night before Woolsey’s nomination was announced.
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Barring some all-new, trivial and probably false story about Palin — her former hairdresser got a parking ticket in 1978! — the media apparently intend to keep being hysterical about McCain’s alleged failure to “vet” Palin properly. The problem with this argument is that it presupposes that everyone is asking: “HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?”
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No one’s saying that.
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Attacks on McCain’s “vetting” process require the media to keep claiming that Palin has a lot of problems. But she doesn’t have any problems. Remember? Those were all blind alleys.
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Unfortunately, for the ordinary TV viewer hearing nonstop hysteria about nonspecific “problems,” it takes a lot of effort to figure out that every attack liberals have launched against Palin turned out to be a lie.
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It’s as if a basketball player made the winning shot in the last three seconds of the game and liberals demand that we have a week-long discussion about whether the player should have taken that shot. WHAT IF HE MISSED?
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With Palin, McCain didn’t miss.