Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Who Wants Out of Iraq Now? | Christopher Frizzelle: Trendse... »

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Morning News

posted by on October 11 at 7:09 AM

War Stories: Two dead, 38 wounded, in attack on “Camp Victory,” a US base in Iraq. No wonder the U.S. Marines want out. And the Army is taking pretty much anyone these days.

Crackdown in Burma: Worse than anyone thought.

Judenfrei: Ann Coulter dreams of a Jew-free America.

Smoking Ban: California bans smoking in cars with kids.

Goremania: Al Gore “called ‘overseas’ for a trip related to his work on global warming,” which could mean he’s won the Nobel Prize. Draft Gore movement hopes the prize will propel Gore into race for the White House. But despite “Draft Gore” movement, Gore’s reps insist he’s not running.

Guns Nuts: Students claim they warned principal about threats from student that shot four kids before killing himself yesterday.

In Other Nobel News: Brit author Doris Lessing wins the Nobel for literature.

Sad Face: Richard McIver’s city council colleagues “saddened” by his arrest on domestic violence charge.

Here We Go Again: Anti-nightlift forces target Level 5 after shooting.

Sports Interview of the Week:

Via Towleroad.

RSS icon Comments

1

What did we learn from The Big Idea? Well, I already knew Ann Coulter was a nut-bar, but Donny also comes across as a douche.

Posted by Greg | October 11, 2007 7:54 AM
2

I am skeptical that Gore going overseas has anything to do with the Nobel announcement tomorrow. They normally announce it via a phone-call. The ceremony is at a later date. The winner won't know until tomorrow morning.

Posted by Gabriel | October 11, 2007 7:54 AM
3

Someone should do a statistical analysis of Coulter, I bet you could find a pattern to the level of her crazy in the weeks before and after one of her books come out.

P.S. Is there anyone out there that doesn't refer to her as that crazy bitch Ann Coulter?

Posted by Leeerker | October 11, 2007 7:56 AM
4

"No wonder the US Marines want out of Iraq"

Here's my comment from below:

Dan, this would just be a realignment. The proposal is that Marines would move from Iraq to Afghanistian, leaving mostly Army troops in Iraq, and allowing the Army to transfer troops from Afghanistan to Iraq. It's not like Marine leaders are calling for US forces to leave Iraq.

Posted by Gabriel | October 11, 2007 7:57 AM
5

Hooray for Doris Lessing!

Posted by It's Mark Mitchell | October 11, 2007 7:58 AM
6

That. Clip. Sucked.

Oooh! I won a Nobel Prize! What should I do next?! Run for President?! JJEEAH!! ManBearPig must be defeated.

Ladies, be serious here. After 33 years, would you charge your husband with domestic violence after one outburst that allegedly didn't even involve a single strike? If so, that says a lot about you.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 11, 2007 8:00 AM
7

@3

I don't. She makes me smile.

Posted by Michele Malkin, Rice Queen | October 11, 2007 8:01 AM
8

Keep your eye on the lower right hand corner of the screen during that interview, Mr. Poe. It doesn't suck. It waggles.

Posted by Du Du Dude | October 11, 2007 8:03 AM
9

Oh my.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 11, 2007 8:08 AM
10

The only thing that surprised me about Coulter's quote was her comparison of Christianity to Federal Express. So is Judaism...the Postal Service? UPS?

Posted by Gabriel | October 11, 2007 8:08 AM
11

Ann Coulter is nothing less than the devil incarnate. Can we have a witch trial? Just this once?

Posted by QuimbyMcF | October 11, 2007 8:13 AM
12

I know you're hung over, but could you fix your links a bit? Myanmar is 404 and the school shooting goes to the Iraq story.

Posted by flash gordon | October 11, 2007 8:13 AM
13

Leeerker @3,

You know, I'm usually pretty polite around women. I almost never ever call a woman a bitch. It is deeply ingrained in me. You just don't use that term.

But the one exception I will make is for that crazy bitch Ann Coulter.

Posted by SDA in SEA | October 11, 2007 8:14 AM
14

Ann Coulter is a fraud. The NY Post Page 6 mentioned that her Boyfriend is a Liberal Jew named Andrew (can not remember his last name)

Point is, Coulter is an act and she does it simply to get money from the freaks that belive in the shit that flows from her mouth.

Posted by Just Me | October 11, 2007 8:18 AM
15

@5

Lessing's career begins with a novel which, set in Rhodesia, depicted a poor white farmer whose wife has a relationship with their African servant, who eventually kills her

Birth of a Nation much?

Posted by Deeply Depressed | October 11, 2007 8:39 AM
16

"And the Army is taking pretty much anyone these days."

Except fags. That would be immoral.

Posted by Mike in MO | October 11, 2007 8:48 AM
17

JustMe @14: Ann Coulter is a fraud. The NY Post Page 6 mentioned that her Boyfriend is a Liberal Jew named Andrew (can not remember his last name)

Y'know, a lot of charges of racism and anti-Semitism in our society today are just "boy who cried wolf" kinda stuff. It's just somebody playing the race card or the anti-Semitism card. It's true Ann Coulter is just a fraud and an act, but however much her comment was made "in jest," it's still offensive.

Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League is all too happy to play the anti-Semitism card with Jimmy Carter or anyone else who challenges AIPAC and Israel's self-destructive expansionist policies. Let's see now if he challenges some real anti-Semitism. That is, let's see if Abe Foxman is a fraud.

Posted by cressona | October 11, 2007 8:50 AM
18

Whats a goth white kid doing in an inner city Cleveland magnet high school? Whats next line dancing in East Saint Louis? When they showed his pic I thought I was going to start seeing white kids in abercrombie all shot up, but all his victims and most of the school seems to be majority black. I know it is a silly non relevant question, I was just wondering. Having gone to inner city schools my whole life, I never saw such kids. the report says he was bullied and fought with kids over god the day before the shooting. sounds like he had it rough, though it doesnt justify anything and the teachers were warned.

as if kids in inner city cleveland dont have enough to worry about, now they have to worry about alienated white shooters.

Posted by SeMe | October 11, 2007 8:56 AM
19

@14

I own every one of her books. I do not agree with practically anything she says, but I find her very entertaining. I've never understood how anyone could take her seriously.

There is something about a tall woman with her looks, wearing a white turtleneck, saying the things she says, that makes me smile. I like her. She isn't hurting anybody. If she is, I'm in no position to say they're stupid for letting her, but I will say that I simply don't understand why they let her.

When they do, they do something moronic and childish like throw a pie at her.

But that's me. I don't care if people like or dislike her. I can't take her seriously, and I especially can't take those who waste time arguing the radical things she spews seriously.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 11, 2007 9:07 AM
20

Ignore Ann Coulter - attention is what she craves. Don't give it to her! It's just too bad she's not a man. The ol' airport toilet trap won't work on her. If we can't find her drug stash, somebody's going to have to step up to the plate and make a sex video. Volunteers? C'mon it's for God and country!

Posted by Cat in Chicago | October 11, 2007 9:08 AM
21

@6: I am guessing you didn't see the guy shaking his noodle in the background with about 16 seconds left in the clip. It makes the clip much more, um, interesting.

Posted by duncan | October 11, 2007 9:15 AM
22

ann coulter has a new book coming out in a few weeks. she says a few stupid things on the teevee, she gets more attention, she sells more books. this is how it works, people.

i find it difficult to take anything she says seriously, but the scary thing is - people do. and they agree with her. she's not saying what she thinks so much as playing to a crowd.

i personally think she's of much greater value to the people who disagree with her. the fact that she not only exists, but also sells shitloads of books speaks volumes to the present state of the far right in america today. o'reilly calling the progressive movement the nazi party? girl, please. i believe this is what psychologists refer to as "cognitive dissonance".

Posted by brandon | October 11, 2007 9:18 AM
23

@22

It's already out.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 11, 2007 9:27 AM
24

Mr. Poe @19, Cat in Chicago @20, brandon @22, you've convinced me. I shoulda known better. The best response to Ann Coulter is simply not to respond. Ignore her.

This means Abe Foxman can go back to concentrating on calling people like Jimmy Carter anti-Semites.

P.S. to Mr. Poe @19. When you started: I own every one of her books. I do not agree with practically anything she says, but I find her very entertaining. I've never understood how anyone could take her seriously. -- When you wrote this, I thought you were writing about Doris Lessing. ???

Posted by cressona | October 11, 2007 9:38 AM
25

Just learn how to say it:

President Gore.

Now, I prefer Vice President Obama, myself, but there's also Richardson and Clinton to think of for that position.

Posted by Will in Fremont | October 11, 2007 9:49 AM
26

@24

No. I was talking about Ann.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 11, 2007 9:52 AM
27

Bullshit on all that trivializing of Ann Coulter.

"Just joking" and "just trolling" and "just trying to sell some books" are the new codes to cover racism today. It's the same old racism, the same old anti-semitism. Ann Coulter is there for a reason: The Republican party needs to loudly broadcast to their racist constituency that prejudice is still an unwritten part of the platform. The need a way to say that, in the center of the public square, in the main stream media. Enter good old reliable Ann Coulter.

This aspect of the Republican machine should never be ignored.

Posted by elenchos | October 11, 2007 9:54 AM
28

Yay for California banning smoking in cars with children! My dad used to open his wing window while he smoked his cigar, and would yell at us if we complained because the tiny window was OPEN, so all the smoke was CLEARLY going out the window. It really didn't matter that all the air rushing INTO the car was pushing the smoke back in.

Posted by Kat | October 11, 2007 9:59 AM
29

Mr. Poe @26: No. I was talking about Ann.

Yeah, I realized that by about your second paragraph: There is something about a tall woman with her looks, wearing a white turtleneck, saying the things she says, that makes me smile.

I was like, "Hey, wait a minute. He's not talking about Doris Lessing!" Not that I find Ann Coulter attractive at all...

Good thing I didn't inadvertently think Ann was up for a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Posted by cressona | October 11, 2007 10:06 AM
30

Not just that elenchos, but by allowing someone like Coulter to essentially spew the venom many in the Far Right are still too reticent to say publically themselves, they provide themselves with both a means of covering up their own prejudices by making light of her extremism ("Oh, that's just Anne; you have to know her, ha-ha!") or some similar BS, plus, it has the effect of making their own slightly less offensive BS sound almost reasonable.

This has been the tactic they've used for years: get a few public bloviators to skew the message so far to the ultra-right, that anything an actual Right-Wing pol says sounds like it's coming from the center in comparison, and which has the added effect of making anything a moderate Left Dem says sound Ultra-Left, because the spectrum has been stretched so wide - albeit only at one end, namely theirs.

Posted by COMTE | October 11, 2007 10:09 AM
31

What a meat shaker.

Posted by Deacon Seattle | October 11, 2007 10:13 AM
32

What the world needs is Ann Coulter in a co-starring film role with Mandingo and Lexington Steele. I'd watch her all damn day then. And ONLY then.

Posted by Al Goldstein | October 11, 2007 10:17 AM
33

This is the most breathtaking and retrograde part of Coulter's interview:

"You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it's like they have a chip on their shoulder. They're just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would."

Wow. She's got to be pretty unhappy about the future of the country, feeling or thinking that way (I agree with those who don't buy the idea that she's just a comic--nobody could just invent the stuff she says out of the air). It's not long before the majority of the population is multi-racial. Who but the most ill-at-ease and damaged people today react to something as commonplace as "a mixed-race couple in New York" with such bigotry and resentment? Coulter must have had some pretty crazy crap happen to her as a child to arrive at middle age so fearful, resentful and pathetic. Can we get some mental health professionals to weigh in here? Personality disorder, narcissistic? PTSD?

Posted by fixo | October 11, 2007 10:43 AM
34

@33,

That "as if anyone would" line pisses me off. Perhaps people have said things to them, or perhaps they've gotten more subtle judgments (dirty looks and the like). As if Ann Coulter hasn't seen racism before, as if she hasn't said racist shit before.

Posted by keshmeshi | October 11, 2007 10:54 AM
35

i agree coulter should be ignored. by ignored i mean: don't go on and on in your outrage, don't give/watch interviews. just snort dirisively and shake your head sadly and move on. it's the left's outrage at her that sparks interest in her, gets the right all salivating to read her books and gives her credibility in their eyes. we should not play into her hands. same with dr. laura. when we all pile on these skanks it just makes them look better to the right than they otherwise would. and of course they are themselves, personally, attention whores of the first order, so it's the worst torture for them to be ignored and dismissed.

Posted by ellarosa | October 11, 2007 10:59 AM
36

re: lower recruiting standards

"About 18.5 percent of the recruits needed some kind of waiver, including those for medical problems and drug and alcohol issues."

What does THAT mean? They're recruiting crackheads now?

Posted by chi type | October 11, 2007 11:00 AM
37

New army recuits have criminal records--I firmly believe in rehabiliation and that people can change and that having a criminal record for something stupid like disorderly conduct does not necessarily require "rehabilitation." So, the rest of the federal government should take the lead from the army and not disqualify people with criminal records from jobs. It is pretty fucked up, someone with a record can go risk his or her life in Iraq but s/he would have a really difficult time working at the post office. Fucked...

Posted by Papayas | October 11, 2007 11:26 AM
38

I see no problem allowing some people with criminal records to enlist. Especially with the crazy drug laws, how unfit are most of the convicts in this country? Like arlo guthrie being too immoral for his littering.
The war is fucked, and soldiers can get killed, but I honestly think that some people really benefit from the discipline of the army.

Posted by ams | October 11, 2007 11:31 AM
39

#27: i completely agree. but rather than shreik in horror whenever she says something stupid, liberals need to point to the NYT bestseller list and say, "who's 'the nazi party' again? o'reilly? malkin? anyone?"

just saying she's an obnoxious douche is not enough - even people who like her will acknowledge that. but we need to take it one step further and teather the entire right wing of this country to every single one of her words and hold them accountable. she's one of - if not the - most popular figures in conservative politics right now, and she says more obscene racist, homophobic, and [oddly enough] sexist things than any other contemporary public figure i can think of. and she's not saying them because she believes them, but because lots and lots of americans do; a lot of them buy books, and all of them vote republican.

Posted by Bubba BaBoom | October 11, 2007 12:22 PM
40

McIver's arrest report is online over at the PI - "No visible injuries, Medics declined"

Posted by whatever | October 11, 2007 12:46 PM
41

@6 Mr. Poe writes "Ladies, be serious here. After 33 years, would you charge your husband with domestic violence after one outburst that allegedly didn't even involve a single strike? If so, that says a lot about you."

This statement says a lot more about you.

Posted by C in C | October 11, 2007 1:11 PM
42

@41

I should hope so. I have this astonishing ability to reason. I know, crazy.

We don't know what happened. What we do know is that the only thing that has been reported is a 'grip'. No actual strike has been disclosed. So, after 33 years, he's a little too drunk, a fight (obviously) started, and he made a poor decision, but from what we've heard it wasn't anything excessive.

I feel for both of them. We've all been in those 'situations' before in our life. All I'm saying is, it doesn't sound like this was a violent attack. It sounds like it was a fight that got slightly out of hand.

We'll see.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 11, 2007 2:53 PM
43

Re sports interview: Delightful.

Posted by Gloria | October 11, 2007 3:47 PM
44

@Goremania & #2: clearly it's unrelated. Not only are there no events to attend until early December, but the vote on the winner won't even be taken until sometime this morning (Euro time). Maybe it will be him, but _nobody_ knows yet, not even the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Posted by JPF | October 12, 2007 12:19 AM
45

@42 Mr. Poe:

You are correct in that neither of us really knows what happened but since we are commenting on the article I am going to quote the article that he "repeatedly grabbed his wife by the throat". Abuse isn't just about punches. It doesn't matter if it never happened before, it doesn't matter if "maybe" it will never happen again. It should be made quite clear to him that this is unacceptable and quite frankly unlawful behaviour. Try it with your coworker you have been working with for 20 years at a drunken Christmas party or someone on the street coming home from a club. It would be assault. Just because she is his wife doesn't mean her safety is valued less.

Posted by C in C | October 12, 2007 6:22 AM
46

this just in from radio ireland: al gore wins nobel peace prize along with a climate change group. wait for nasty response from white house.

Posted by scary tyler moore | October 12, 2007 6:27 AM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).