Does the Left have an Ann Coulter?

[Ian_rd]

We must, but I can't think of who it might be. The bed-wetters would say it's Michael Moore, but that's horseshit. Mike never says anything as outrageous as that bleached nut. And when he is outrageous, it's clearly a joke. I saw Coulter with Matt Lauer, and she was serious when claiming the 9/11 widows seem to be enjoying their husbands' deaths.

Does the Left have people like her? Like Michael Savage, et al?

[Clark2008]

1. NO - but they think everything we say is worse.

Go figure.

[evlbstrd]

2. Lewis Black might be the closest.

But he tells the truth. So he can't be the one.

[Mojambo]

13. Yeah, and he's a comedian so I don't think he would count.

Coulter's not trying to make people laugh, at least not intentionally.

[evlbstrd]

16. Then I guess I'm stumped.

Too bad Zappa and Abby Hoffman afe dead.

[Clark2008]

17. Abby Hoffman...

and I have Pete Townshend dancing..

Well, I guess Pete could kick his butt off stage again. LOL.

(Sorry. Sometimes I live in my own world).

[evlbstrd]

19. Thanks for that memory!

[Clark2008]

31. I was there! I was a fetus!!

LOL!!

Seriously, my parents lived near Woodstock at the time and had TICKETS... imagine... there were TICKETS. It was my Mom's birthday and they went. Didn't stay too long, needless to say, because Mom was four months along with me (it was originally just billed as a festival). First time she felt me move was that morning The Who were on stage. I think it was the deep bass rhythms.

And... they're still my favorite band.

How odd is that?

BTW, they have new music and are currently on tour. Will be in the states in the fall. SIGH!

[evlbstrd]

34. A Who Woodstock baby!

Yeah, there were tickets, but it got overwelmed and the promotoers just opened it up. I couldn't get there, being just a little too young. But, man, I wanted to.

[Clark2008]

36. My parents were married hippies. And from the South, at that.

They honestly looked just like Meathead and Gloria. LOL. My Dad had the collar-long hair (he was studying to be an engineer) and Mom had the long blonde hair. They weren't so much into drugs - just pot, which Mom didn't want to be around at Woodstock because of her "condition" (me).

They hiked back to their Ford and went back home after the Who played, but, they did get to see a day or more of the concert. Hell, they were 20 and 22 - so young!

Mom's birthday is August 14, btw. :) I think the concert started on the 15th... anyway, it was a birthday present from Dad.

[evlbstrd]

39. They were a part of history.

They didn't know it, going in. We never do.
Just think what could happen if you went into the world with purpose.

[Clark2008]

42. BTW, I just wanted you to know I always thought Zappa was

brilliant.

Just so far ahead of his time that most people just never understood him.

And, he was a good man. I heard his wife ruled the roost and he wanted it that way. That always makes for a happy marriage. :)

[evlbstrd]

43. Absolutely right.

Did you know that his son, Dweezil, is touring with some of FZ's former band members? It's called Zappa Plays Zappa.
I only got to see Frank live once, but it was the tightest damned band I have ever heard.

http://www.zappa.com/cheezoid/whatsnew/zpz/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. There are a few who get a bit over the top sometimes, but

I can't think of any liberals who are just plain mean as rattlesnakes, like Coulter and Savage and a lot of the other right-wing hate radio gasbags. Liberalism by its nature tends to steer people away from that kind of bone-deep hate.

[Wells]

23. Mean enough? Rattlesnake-mean?

Between the 1910's and 1930's, Bush clan elders were prominent members of the American Eugenics Society, whose main ideology was race cleansing. In WWII, while JFK became a naval officer fighting japanese soldiers face-to-face, George HW Bush became a bomber pilot, a form of warfare that kills indiscriminately. The Japanese bombed Honolulu naval base - the USA aerial bombed Japan's Cleveland, Japan's Miami, Denver, Albequerque, St Paul, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and dozens of Japan's Milwaukies. During Vietnam, while John Kerry followed JFK's example of military service, George Bush Jr preferred dad's indiscriminate destruction, but was unsuccessful as 'Ace fighter pilot Big Dick'. In the 1960's George Sr was alarmist about the Population Explosion and advocated for nuclear bombardment of North Vietnam, views that indicate his concern for humanity was still aligned with Eugenics Society ideology.

So my point is, if Global Warming threatens future human populations and may destroy major coastal cities, do the Bush's care? On the contrary, the Bush's may go out of their way to accellerate global warming, adhering to their ideological practice of race cleansing. After all, they have their isolated estate mansions securely established and able to weather what the unwashed masses will call Armegeddon.

Here's my meanest Bush joke: Remember when President Chucklenuts was overturning furniture in the White House, jokingly looking for WMDs? He was looking for his stock portfolio. Badda boom! This is a joke George tells his cohorts who may casually answer with, "Oh Georgie, we do so love your clever little witticisms". Badda boom! This joke is inspired by my worst nightmares about Bush and the Neo-cons, so I guess it's not quite as bad as Ann Coulter's venom towards victims of 911.

[NoSheep]

4. I don't think it is possible. A bold liar? A brazen asshole who would say

anything for personal gain? It's an impossibility.

[sendero]

5. Can I apply...

.. for the job? :)

[tuvor]

6. If you have to ask, you know the answer.

[El Supremo]

10. I agree. What a stupid question! n/m

[opihimoimoi]

7. The Left has Reason and Sanity...including CLASS...

There is no room for peeps in our midsts who are Coulter Clones.

[Ksec]

8. I dont think we have liars and propagandists.

We have angry devisive folks within our own party that do more damage than any Ann Coulter could ever do.

[rasputin1952]

9. Most people on the Left arte looking for answers and use discourse

rather than hate filled screeds. We don't have anything like the screech-monkeys of the Right.

I have noticed a subtle change among some of them though. For one thing, quite a few of them are spacing themselves not just from bush, but from Coulter as well. Limbaugh, O'Reilly and FOX are all losing listeners and viewers. This is the kind of thing that happens when the message never changes.

It is all about refueling the fires, and people are just plain sick of the vitriol.

[Drum]

11. Blinders anyone? nt

[Robbien]

12. To have an Ann Coulter, the left has to have media access

The only reason there is an Ann Coulter is because there is a FauxNews, Moonie Times and RW hate radio.

[submerged99]

45. I agree.

If anyone on the left were to bloviate in the manner of Ann Coulter(on a consistent basis and in a high profile way), then they would find themselves under constant media attack. There is no Faux news of the left that could promote a coulter type so as to legitimize their rants.

[Llewlladdwr]

14. I think a reasonable case could be made for Ted Rall.

N/T

[Yollam]

18. He's about as close as it gets...

...but unlike Coulter, he doesn't call for killing republicans, and his occasionally offensive cartoons and columns are wild leaps of illogic based on his sometimes distorted view of the facts, whereas Coulter is just a bold-faced liar and attention whore who does it all as a money-making sideshow. Rall can be a bit extreme, but he is basically coming from sincere beliefs.

[Llewlladdwr]

22. Just to play Devil's advocate...

Can you really say for a surety that Coulter's beliefs aren't sincere? How do you tell the difference between "wild leaps of illogic based on his sometimes distorted view of the facts" and "bold-faced liar and attention whore who does it all as a money-making sideshow"?

A quick Dogpile search will show links to several sites selling "Kill Republicans" merchandise (most of which seems to no longer be available, I'll add)

The point I'm making here is that to assert that no one on your side can possibly be as bad as the people on the other side is to show oneself as being blind to reality. There are some people on the Left every bit as nasty and repugnant as some of the people on the Right. There are also people on the Right who are just as honorable and steadfast in their beliefs as those on the Left. Demonizing each other doesn't help.

Edit: Spelling

[Yollam]

24. We're talking about pundits, right?

There is no pundit quite on par with Coulter, sorry, but there isn't. Rall is as close as it gets, and even he's not in her league. I can only guess at Coulter's true motivations, but my subjective opinion of her is that she is a phony, in it for the money, and doesn't care about politics either way. Why else would her best friend be a gay man, and why would she live in South Beach, if her values were really so "conservative"?

"There are also people on the Right who are just as honorable and steadfast in their beliefs as those on the Left. Demonizing each other doesn't help. "

There may be people on the right who are essentially honorable people, but their beliefs are not honorable. Beliefs like "I get to dictate your behavior via my religion" or "I have no obligation to help the unfortunate in society, just gimme my tax cuts." are not honorable, and they are the very essence of the GOP today.

BTW< I haven't seen anyone here demonizing the right in the way Coulter demonizes the left. Call me "blind", but I just don't see it.


Also, I've NEVER seen t-shirts like the ones you reference. I have, however, seen the most depraved of sentiments on right-wing bumper-stickers. Go look at some of the right-wing sites. Check out their avatars. Half of them have machine guns and other violent images. They are infatuated with violence and weaponry.

[Llewlladdwr]

32. Pundits Only?

In that case then Rall might not be all that equivalent. There are those on the other side though that would say Moore or Franken would qualify. If you were on the receiving end of their schticks you might agree. :-)

And actually a case could be made that Coulter's friendship with a gay man is proof that the Right isn't intrinsically hostile to gays. The Left isn't as monolithic as it's made out to be either.


"There may be people on the right who are essentially honorable people, but their beliefs are not honorable. Beliefs like "I get to dictate your behavior via my religion" or "I have no obligation to help the unfortunate in society, just gimme my tax cuts." are not honorable, and they are the very essence of the GOP today."

But those beliefs aren't held by all those on the Right. Probably not even by a majority of those identifying as such. And we could have the insistance of some that decades-old monuments be removed from public land because they happen to include a religious symbol or statements like "No one should be allowed to keep more than $500,000 dollars in annual earnings" tossed back at us as examples of Left-wing extremism.

And yes, I think you're not being honest with yourself if you say no one here at DU demonizes the Right the way Coulter does the Left. You post here frequently. You really have never seen a hateful or untoward comment directed at our friends across the aisle? I only hang out occasionally but I've seen some pretty low stuff in my day. I particularly recall some horrible comments drifting around when Brit Hume's son committed suicide.

Anyway, there's haters on all sides and no group has a monopoly on the good. Reasonable people have to find a way to keep things moving forward. Prentending your side can do no wrong and the other no right doesn't accomplish that.

I have to bug out for the night but thank you for an interesting and civil conversation.

[Canuckistanian]

41. Franken?

The most controversial thing he's done is to call Limpbutt a big, fat idiot. And he had volumes of proof to back that statement up.

[hfojvt]

37. there's plenty of demonizing and vitriol hurled by left wing bloggers

although who can say which of those are really left wingers and which are trolls? In fact, Ted Rall had a challenge for conservatives to find vitriol in the left wing blogosphere and sadly had to admit that the point was proven with some post on Kos and DU. I think Auntie Pinko linked to it maybe six months ago.

Also I agree that it is hard to know if Coulter is sincere or not. I think her rhetoric is far more hate filled than anything Rall has done, and far more untrue than the things Rall writes. Is Rall fisked as much as Coulter? I would be surprised. As Franken wrote: "In a way, this one little dumb-a$$ editorial is a microcosm of the Journal's editorial page. How much is stupidity? How much is dishonesty, and how much is the Journal's just trusting that its readers' rabid ideological convictions will blind them to gaping holes in their reasoning? Hard to say." (P. 175 of "Lies, and the lying liars who tell them")

Whatever her motivations, or Rall's, I would say that Coulter is wrong far more often.

[hfojvt]

27. except that he is not nearly as well known

The local group of Republican women donated a copy of "Treason" to the local public library. The local group of Democratic women have not donated any books by Ted Rall, although George McGovern wrote a forward to "wake up, you're liberal". Although he can be a little bit crass and crude sometimes (as in, many people would be shocked by the phrase "be fu$%ing relentless" on page 263) but I do not think he writes (or draws) with near the vitriol or inaccuracy or dishonesty of Coulter. Like McGovern, I think he mostly "tells it like it is".

[KyuzoGator]

15. I'd like to know also. Who from the Left openly says, "Kill Republicans"?

I can't think of any.

[sam sarrha]

20. that is just abusing and taking advantage of the mentally ill

[Gato Moteado]

21. it's me!

too bad ann coulter wasn't sitting next to her best friend, barbara olsen, on september 11.

too bad the terrorists didn't blow up the fox news building (while o'reilly, hannity, hume, gibson, coulter, and the rest of the neo-nazis were in it).

freepers are all human garbage. we should invade them, kill their leaders and convert them to democrats.

republicans enjoy the deathtoll in the iraq war.

how to talk to a republican if you must: use a baseball bat.

can somebody please slip some arsenic in rush limbaugh's oxycontin.

[sam sarrha]

25. maybe if we got Mistress Randi drunk enough and pissed her off..

:hide:

[Jaundice James]

26. Yeah... ME!

[PerfectSage]

35. me too

:toast:

[BuyingThyme]

28. Absolutely not. An equivalent Lefty would advocate

state-owned news media, state-owned and run communications media, state-owned and run health care (no, they don't), an official, state-run political party, etc.

There's nothing close.

ON EDIT: The equivalent Lefty would also advocate torturing and killing anybody who advocated differently.

[otherlander]

40. Sounds like Stalin.

[Monk06]

29. The last thing the left needs is an Ann Coulter !!!!!!!!

[KitchenWitch]

30. Malloy can be very caustic at times

But again, he stops way short of what the Coultergeist spews.

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. He also doesn't get the TV airtime that wench gets.

I can't believe networks are still letting her on after her hateful remark about the 911 widows. Can you imagine if a DEMOCRAT had said something like that? OMG...the world would have ended.

[KitchenWitch]

38. I know!

Corporate media sucks ass.

[blues90]

44. pick any democrat

That sits there and votes against our better interest .