posted March 04, 2007 06:54 PM            

"Ann Coulter's use of an anti-gay slur yesterday was un-American and indefensible," Edwards said in a posting on his Web site, www.johnedwards.com.

"In America, we strive for equality and embrace diversity. The kind of hateful language she used has no place in political debate or our society at large.

"I believe it is our moral responsibility to speak out against that kind of bigotry and prejudice every time we encounter it."

Edwards' campaign posted the video on their Web site, and asked readers to help them "raise $100,000 in 'Coulter Cash' this week to keep this campaign charging ahead and fight back against the politics of bigotry."

Coulter made her comment in Washington during an address to the 34th annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, during which she gave her opinions about the Democrats' slate of presidential hopefuls.

"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions," said Coulter, whose comment was followed by applause.

CNN has reached out to Coulter's representative, and received no response.

But the New York Times reported that she responded, in an e-mail, "C'mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean."

A spokesman for Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential candidate, called Coulter's comments to the conservative group "wildly inappropriate."

In a written statement, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said, "Ann Coulter's words of hate have no place in the public sphere much less our political discourse. Not only should she apologize but those who participated in the conference with her should denounce her shameful and divisive actions."

"Ann Coulter's use of this anti-gay slur is vile and unacceptable," said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, "and the applause from her audience is an important reminder that Coulter's ugly brand of bigotry is at the root of the discriminatory policies being promoted at this gathering."

In a written statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on Republicans to denounce her remarks. "There is no place in political discourse for this kind of hate-filled and bigoted comments," he said.

During a question-and-answer session, Coulter referred back to the issue of gays by alluding to the bid for the Republican presidential nomination being made by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"I do want to point out one thing that has been driving me crazy with the media -- how they keep describing Mitt Romney's position as being pro-gays, and that's going to upset the right wingers," she said. "Well, you know, screw you! I'm not anti-gay. We're against gay marriage. I don't want gays to be discriminated against."

She added, "I don't know why all gays aren't Republican. I think we have the pro-gay positions, which is anti-crime and for tax cuts. Gays make a lot of money and they're victims of crime. No, they are! They should be with us."

posted March 04, 2007 09:37 PM              

but..

posted March 05, 2007 07:21 AM            

I agree that the word "f@ggot" is not acceptable in a political debate. But in our society at large? Give me a break. How many other words are going to be banned from society's delicate ears? We can always choose to censor ourselves and our children from things we consider inappropriate anyway. I don't use slurs like those but I'm not going to faint dead away if I hear someone else use them.

If people are offended with that word, and I'm sure many are, then they can and should complain all they want and even call her whatever ugly insults back if they want, too, as long as it's not on private or public property that explicitly forbids that kind of language (like someone's house where that is not allowed).

What's next? The mind police? Are we really heading towards a "Demolition Man" society with tickets for cursing or slurs? Should we also govern what opinions people can have as well in case other people get offended by them? Are we losing the right to think and speak for ourselves in this country just because other people don't like what we think or say? Let's just all be forced into becoming mindless cookie cutter drones by politicans so their standings in the polls improve.

IMO, it's all just a big political dog and pony show and it gets uglier every day.

posted March 05, 2007 10:38 AM            

Self appointed champions of "free speech", these twisted disciples of Marx spend most of their time trying to shut other people up.

Their Marxist orthodoxy is so riddled with irrationality, illogic and unreason that there's no possible defense to even the most casual examination of their views, programs and Marxist ideas. Ergo, "shut up" has become their mantra.

But, what do these Marxist twits practice in their own daily routines? To these morons, they have the unlimited right to say what ever they please...as the dumba$s Bill Maher makes clear. Wishing the Vice President had been assassinated is not in any way beyond the pale of acceptable speech..political or otherwise.

But, everyone else just needs to STFU...says they.

Of course Coulter did apologize. She said she didn't mean to insult the gay community by associating them with ("Breck Girl") John Edwards.

Sunday, March 4, 2007 9:21 p.m. EST
Bill Maher: Better If Cheney Is Dead

Bill Maher has stirred outrage once again, this time saying it would be better if Vice President Dick Cheney was dead.

On his HBO show "Real Time," Maher and his guests were discussing the assassination attempt on Cheney last week, and the fact that the Huffington Post web site removed comments regarding readers' disappointment that Cheney had not been killed.

According to NewsBusters.org, the conversation went like this:

Maher: What about the people who got onto the Huffington Post – and these weren’t even the bloggers, these were just the comments section – who said they, they expressed regret that the attack on Dick Cheney failed.

Joe Scarborough: Right.

Maher: Now…

John Ridley: More than regret.

Maher: Well, what did they say?

Ridley: They said "We wish he would die.” I mean, it was hate language.

Barney Frank: They said the bomb was wasted. (laughter and applause)
Maher: That’s a funny joke. But, seriously, if this isn’t China, shouldn’t you be able to say that? Why did Arianna Huffington, my girlfriend, I love her, but why did she take that off right away?

Later, the panelists continued the discussion:

Ridley: It’s one thing to say you hate Dick Cheney, which applies to his politics. It’s another thing to say, "I’m sorry he didn’t die in an explosion." And I think, you know…

Maher: But you should be able to say it. And by the way...

Frank: Excuse me, Bill, but can I ask you a question? Do you decide what the topics are for this show?

Maher: Yeah, I decide the topics, they don’t go there.

Frank: But you exercise control over the show the way that she does over her blog.

Maher: But I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow. (applause)

Scarborough: If someone on this panel said that they wished that Dick Cheney had been blown up, and you didn’t say…

Frank: I think he did.

Scarborough: Okay. Did you say…

Maher: No, no. I quoted that.

Frank: You don’t believe that?

Maher: I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.

Despite Maher's outrageous comments, few in the media picked up the story -- although Ann Coulter's comment use of a gay slur in reference to former Sen. John Edwards received widespread attention.

Maher got in trouble once before with his televised comments. After the 9/11 attacks, Maher said on his ABC show "Politically Incorrect" that the hijackers were "warriors" and not "cowards."

Within months the show was canceled.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/3/4/213100.shtml?s=ic

posted March 05, 2007 02:14 PM            

quote:

---

But I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow.

---

quote:

---

I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live.

---

So someone making a hypothetical speculation is as bad as someone using an insult that lots of adults would consider a bit juvenile? There's a bit of twisted logic.

Let me see if I can be similarly insulting:

If Gary Condit wasn't in power Chaudra Levy might have lived.

If Bush weren't in office perhaps we'd have gotten a handle on this war by now.

posted March 05, 2007 02:29 PM            

The bonehead leftist Bill Maher agrees with them...and their right to say it.

I don't recall Coulter wishing someone would assassinate Hillery or Commander Corruption...or Algore for that matter.

posted March 05, 2007 06:09 PM            

quote:

---

I don't recall Coulter wishing someone would assassinate Hillery or Commander Corruption...or Algore for that matter.

---

posted March 09, 2007 04:06 PM            

Of Hate-Speech and Hypocrisy
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Commentary
March 09, 2007

(Contains language that may be offensive to some readers.)

(CNSNews.com) - The left-wing Daily Kos blog has been driving a campaign to have companies pull ads from Ann Coulter's website after the conservative author used a slur in a recent speech, but leftist websites -- including Daily Kos -- have themselves used the offending word in the past.

Daily Kos postings have included the word "faggot" at least three times in recent years, as have other liberal blogs -- without apology, and without generating a furor.

During a characteristically caustic speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last Friday, Coulter said, "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I ... can't really talk about Edwards."

The outcry was not long in coming, with the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for homosexual rights, issuing a statement calling her use of the term "vile and disgusting" and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) saying it was "vile and unacceptable."

It was soon reported that at least three companies had pulled advertising from Coulter's site, following postings on Daily Kos in which target companies were identified and their contact information provided.

"Ann Coulter's latest bigoted and hateful diatribe has justifiably evoked rage and disgust throughout the progressive community," a Daily Kos blogger going by the name of "VolvoDrivingLiberal" wrote two days after the speech.

"One of the best ways to communicate one's distaste for Coulter's repeated incidents of hate speech is to respectfully but firmly let her advertisers know you are deeply troubled by their indirect support of bigotry through their advertising on Coulter's website," the blogger wrote. "A list of Coulter's advertisers with contact information is detailed below."

(Posting again on Daily Kos on Thursday, "VolvoDrivingLiberal" boasted that "the progressive *(communist) community achieved significant success this week in persuading corporate and organizational advertisers to pull ads on anncoulter.com." The blogger urged readers to turn their attention to one last major target advertising on Coulter's site, Amazon.com.)

Taking flak from liberals, and from many fellow conservatives, Coulter argued that she had been aiming at political correctness, not slurring homosexuals. (Last January, Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington used the derogatory word at the Golden Globe awards. Amid an ensuing fuss, he released a statement saying he was seeking counseling.)

"It's a schoolyard taunt," an unapologetic Coulter told broadcaster Sean Hannity on Tuesday. "It means ... wussy."

However the term may be interpreted, Coulter is not alone in using it.

Daily Kos itself has not shied away from the word. Nor has it removed postings that use it. Examples include:

a headline reading: "Democrats and the faggot problem."

a headline asking: "Who invited the little faggot?"

a headline reading: "When is a faggot just a bundle of sticks?" (That posting goes on to ask, "What's up with the little sly gay jokes? Hmm? As I read the comments in discussions on DKos, there are times when I almost have to check and see if I accidentally stumbled into a Wingnut [right-wing] blog.")

Other left-wing websites have also seen usage of what's being called the new f-word:

Pam Spaulding of the blog Pam's House Blend wrote a headline including the phrase "caving to the faggot juggernaut" -- in reference to a comment by Fred Phelps, the controversial leader of a small religious group that uses the epithet frequently in its campaigning.

Indymedia, a left-wing activist site, carried an Oct. 2006 rant under the headline, "Bush is a closet faggot."

A posting on the Firedoglake blog that pokes fun at Christian leaders found to have been involved in homosexual relationships: "I have been spending my time since the election attempting to hone my knowledge of the Radical Gay Agenda in hopes of infiltrating the Christianist chuch [sic] and bringing it down from within. But it looks like the sad, sick, repressed faggots that run the place are saving me the trouble."

Blogger Melissa McEwan, on her site Shakespeare's Sister, used the line -- in reference to Leonardo da Vinci -- "I'm not so sure it's such a good idea for students to be studying that faggot anyway."

Another contributor to the Shakespeare's Sister site, "Paul the Spud," wrote in a Dec. 2006 posting, "We can't make it work, so why should you be allowed to, faggot? Quit getting so uppity!" (He was putting words into the mouth of an advocate against same-sex marriage.)

Ironically, McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister is one of two bloggers who worked briefly for the Edwards 2008 campaign but resigned last month amid criticism of provocative postings about Christianity on their sites.

The other erstwhile Edwards blogger, Amanda Marcotte, carried a posting ( warning: vile content ) by another blogger -- Spaulding, again -- on her Pandagon site, using the word "faggoty" in reference to Jesus.

Bloggers aren't the only liberals to use the slur.

In 2003, Howard Dean's campaign manager was reported to have written a letter to the presidential campaign of fellow Democrat and rival Dick Gephardt, complaining that a member of the Gephardt team had called a Dean staffer a "faggot."

Homosexual-rights groups employ a double standard too, it appears.

In its response to Coulter's remarks last Friday, GLAAD not only slammed the author but accused CPAC itself of promoting "discriminatory policies," and GLAAD president Neil Giuliano called on media organizations -- NBC News in particular -- to stop offering Coulter a platform.

Three years ago, however, GLAAD took a rather different approach when rapper 50 Cent told Playboy magazine, "I ain't into faggots ... We refer to gay people as faggots, as homos. It could be disrespectful, but that's the facts."

In that instance, GLAAD responded with a polite -- almost respectful -- press release expressing "concern" about the comments, and inviting 50 Cent to attend GLAAD's annual media awards.

posted March 09, 2007 07:47 PM            

I not only read your article, but I also looked at most of the links. There weren't a lot of similarities is the usage of the term "faggot" between the links and Ann Coulter. We can denounce them all as wrong, but most of these instances are not equal. For instance, can you compare Ann Coulter's implying that John Edwards is a "faggot" with a somewhat deranged article on the DailyKos where the person who is invited "little faggot" isn't even specified? I don't think you can.

Reaction to Coulter's slur hints at shift in view of gays
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, March 9, 2007

When conservative commentator Ann Coulter called former Vice President Al Gore a "total fag" on national television nearly a year ago, it barely caused a stir.

Coulter's recent labeling of presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot," however, has triggered a huge response, including a campaign initiated today by a gay rights group and media watchdog to persuade mainstream media outlets to dump her for good.

At least four newspapers have dropped Coulter's syndicated column, and 40,000 people signed an online petition to Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes her column, demanding that it release her. Three corporations, including Verizon, stopped advertising on Coulter's Web site after she made the comment.

This follows recent controversies over the use of the new "f-word" -- as some call it -- by actor Isaiah Washington and an antigay rant by NBA player Tim Hardaway. Washington apologized and announced he would go to "rehab," and Hardaway lost endorsements and was penalized by the league.

Coulter wondered on the "Hannity & Colmes" show on the Fox News Channel on Monday about the difference between the reactions this year and last.

Dan Savage, editor of the Stranger, a Seattle alternative news weekly, and author of several books on his life as a gay man, said the reaction to Coulter could indicate a change in how people view gays.

"I always thought we would be reaching a tipping point with anti-gay hate where it will no longer be acceptable, and maybe we are reaching that tipping point now," said Savage.

Neil Giuliano, the president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the rights group starting a campaign to get Coulter's voice out of mainstream media, said public opinion about anti-gay slurs is changing because gay and lesbian people are more visible than ever.

"As this happens, those in the overall culture who don't like that are going to raise their voices and become even louder, and that's why I think a lot of this is going on," Giuliano said.

Ronald Butters, a Duke University professor who studies the changing meaning of taboo words in American English, said he doesn't think "faggot" has become more or less offensive.

"Words mean what the public takes them to mean," he said. "The very reason that there is a furor is a pretty good indication of how insulting that term was."

Leaders in the gay community said the Coulter fallout could become the prototype for how the public will respond to the use of the term "faggot."

"People are actually realizing this word hurts and defames an entire group of people, and having people other than ourselves standing with us is very significant," said Giuliano, whose organization is known as GLAAD.

GLAAD is issuing a "call to action" today to its 40,000 constituents, asking them to contact the heads of cable news organizations and NBC and "call on them publicly to state that they will no longer feature Ann Coulter as an on-air commentator."

The Human Rights Campaign, another gay and lesbian civil rights organization, started a campaign earlier this week to pressure the Universal Press Syndicate and newspapers that publish Coulter's words to drop her. So far, people have sent about 40,000 e-mails through the organization's Web site.

"It just seems to me the conventional wisdom around Ann Coulter till now has been that the most important thing for anyone to do is ignore her, but I think we have a more serious problem here that we are addressing," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "This word ought to be seen as offensive and dangerous as any hate-based word."

Conservative gay scholar Andrew Sullivan, who heard Coulter's comments live, said she uttered it with "malice aforethought." But equating it to other slurs is a difficult comparison, Sullivan said.

"Nothing has the power of the n-word," he said.

Coulter made the offending utterance last Friday at a major gathering of conservatives, where she shared the stage with several Republican candidates for president.

During her speech, a series of jokes about Democrats, Coulter said, "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.' So ... I can't really talk about Edwards."

Coulter has defended her use of the term as a "schoolyard taunt."

"The word I used has nothing to do with sexual preference ... and unless you're going to announce here on national TV that John Edwards, married father of many children, is gay, it clearly had nothing to do with that," Coulter said in an interview this week on "Hannity & Colmes."

The explanation has not satisfied her critics, including three Republican presidential candidates, Rudolph Giuliani of New York, John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Edwards and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean also criticized Coulter.

And the Shreveport (La.) Times on Thursday became at least the fourth newspaper to drop her column out of 35 publications that carried it.

"Today, we move past the rhetoric and unproductive dialogue offered by Ann Coulter," the newspaper's executive editor, Alan English, wrote in an announcement on the newspaper's Web site.

Butters, the Duke professor, called Coulter's explanation of her use of the word "simply ridiculous and untrue."

"It is always intended, I think, as a derogatory term of one of the most pernicious sorts," he said.

Thom Lynch, who leads San Francisco's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center, said he does not hear the word used often among gay men.

"It's not a word people have reclaimed in any sense. If straight people use it in the same way Ann Coulter did, people will get really angry about it," he said.

Still, some gay people are skeptical of the condemnation of Coulter.

"I don't have a problem with people using the word 'faggot.' I use the word 'faggot' all the time," said Seattle's Savage. He started a public humiliation campaign against former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican, after Santorum made derogatory statements about gay men. But he does not think there should be a campaign to silence Coulter.

"When we start acting like the thought police, it plays into the right-wing paranoia that we are going to force them all to say only nice things about us in public," Savage said. "I think we would gain ground faster in the gay and lesbian civil rights movement if we drop the Sally Field act of, 'You like me! You really like me!' "
Link

Editors Who Are Keeping Coulter's Column Explain Why

By Dave Astor

Published: March 09, 2007 5:45 PM ET

NEW YORK At least seven of Ann Coulter's approximately 100 clients dropped her column this week, meaning more than 90 are keeping the feature -- at least for now.

E&P called some newspapers to find out why they've opted to continue publishing her in the wake of Coulter's March 2 "faggot" reference about former Sen. John Edwards (and her previous incendiary comments).

"She didn't use that language in her column," said Michael P. Clark, editorial page editor of The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. If she had used the F-word slur in her Universal Press Syndicate feature, he added, "we would have edited it out."

Clark declined further comment, except to conclude: "We plan to keep her column."

The Casper Star-Tribune also plans to continue publishing Coulter. "I don't like Ann Coulter, but many of my readers do," said Clark Walworth, editor of the Wyoming daily. "And I resent being lectured to by people who don't even subscribe to my paper."

Walworth was referring to the liberal MediaMatters.org site posting the names of Coulter's clients and suggesting that people contact those papers. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a gay-rights group, has also urged people to contact some of the conservative Coulter's clients.

David Hampton, editorial director of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., reported that his newspaper received about 3,000 e-mails since last night due to the MediaMatters.org listing. "It's the most mail I've ever gotten on anything," he told E&P, adding that he has also received some calls from local readers criticizing Coulter.

Like Walworth, Hampton is not a Coulter fan. "I've never agreed with anything that woman has uttered or written," he said. But Hampton is keeping Coulter, at least for now, because he wants a wide variety of commentary in The Clarion-Ledger. "She's loved and hated by many people in our region," Hampton added.

Hampton did emphasize that Coulter's use of the word "faggot" was "terrible, offensive, and out of line" -- and that her column is "really on the edge" of what his paper accepts. "We do monitor her column closely -- more than our other columns," he said, resulting in some of her past pieces either being spiked or edited.

"I think her popularity will continue to wane," concluded Hampton. "I believe ideas rise and fall on their merits, and I haven't seen much depth in hers."

The Associated Press reported that another Coulter client, the Elko (Nev.) Daily Free Press, decided Friday to keep the columnist after soliciting the opinions of readers.

On Thursday, the Free Press had posted a note reporting that it received thousands of e-mails generated by the HRC campaign, but said none of the e-mails were local. So the paper asked local readers to weigh in.

"As of this morning we had received nearly 60 phone calls or faxes, and about nine out of 10 wanted us to keep running Ann Coulter," said Free Press Managing Editor Jeff Mullins, as quoted in a Friday story in his paper.

Mullins added: "Many callers said they thought Ann Coulter had a right to express herself, and they did not want us to be swayed by those seeking her removal."
Link

posted March 09, 2007 08:05 PM            

Only in the fantasyland of leftists is situational ethics practiced.

In leftist land, ethical standards are always subject to who did it or who said it. When leftists do or say most anything at all, it's really OK and they get a pass. The same hypocrites screech, scream, howl and shriek if a conservative does or says the exact same thing.

Are you suggesting Ann Coulter outed John Edwards?

posted March 09, 2007 09:30 PM            

If the situations being compared aren't comparable, then why is the comparison happening?

Pam Spaulding quotes Fred Phelps who states in this pdf that James Dobson is "caving in further to the faggot juggernaut," and gets included in your article about the hypocrisy of the Left. She isn't calling a person a name, she's quoting someone else. This is not at all similar to what Ann Coulter said, nor is it close to the circumstances under which Ann Coulter said it.

posted March 09, 2007 10:09 PM            

The tactics used against conservatives for the last 40 years are going to be returned in spades.

Coulter said what she said. She's responsible for that.

Leftists better start understanding they're going to be held accountable for what they've both done and said.

posted March 12, 2007 03:31 PM            

It's only natural they intensely dislike anyone who rubs their noses in their lies and hypocrisy.

posted March 13, 2007 12:11 AM            

Oh Brother! That's a good one Jwhop! You, who have trouble citing sources, sent me to websites to find an opinion? What kind of fantasyland are you living in there? You, who posts article after article from conservative "news" sites, want to attempt to paint those to the Left of you as conformists? Good luck!

posted March 13, 2007 02:32 AM              

I think..therefore I am not a democrat

or

I think...therefore I am not a republican

I think...therefore I am not Green (party)

I think....there for there is a chance I am Libertarian though I probably don't think either.