I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for helping me prove my point. Thank you, Brutus. You’ve been most helpful.
Oh, I don’t take Franken seriously. But Coulter and Franken are two different fish. Coulter is a demagogue, peddling hate to everyone who reads her columns and everyone who watches her on TV. And that hate is directed not just at celebrities like the Dixie Chicks or politicians like Max Cleland, but at everyone who disagrees with her. Any liberal, anyone who believe in religous tolerance, anyone who doesn’t salute Our Glorious Leader. Me, in other words.
You may not take Coulter seriously, but there are plenty of people who agree with her who do. Every single member of Coulter’s audience has her voice in their ear telling them that I’m evil, that I’m a traitor, that I hate America, that my opinion is to be automatically dismissed not on its merits but because of who I am, and that the best way to talk to me is with a baseball bat. That’s why I take her seriously.
Does that make me a Libertarian, too?
I think it’s fair to say that Michael Moore is the Rush Limbaugh of the Left.
As for the Ann Coulter of the Left, I really can’t think of anyone. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone on the left who acts like her, just that I’m not aware of them.
Socialists rarely get air time. Coulter is as far from the hypothetical center as a socialist. Socialism is to the left of the hypothetical center. By simple logic we see that the leftist version of Coulter simply isn’t getting frequent airtime.
If we are talking simple anger and willingness to make outrageous and offensive statements I’d say that Bill Mahr is the closest you are going to get.
If you are talking about relative offensive exhibited by the opposing side to the speaker I’d say that everybody to the left of Colmes counts as offensive to the pundits of the right. Conversely everybody to the right of Colmes counts as offensive to the pundits of the left. In both cases out past the Rush/Moore lines offense reaches a critical level making subdivisions meaningless. Froth has formed already.
He’s certainly the first person who comes to mind when I think of who laps up her vomitous dreck.
Betcha he’s got all her centerfolds in the bathroom, too.
I’m curious. Do you see any irony, any at all, in the way you’ve characterized these two men, especially in light of the statement that preceded the characterization? I’m just asking because my irony meter just exploded. You castigate the Republicans for not playing fair while at the same time vilifying Bush in terms not supported by facts. (i.e. you can scream A.W.O.L. all you want, but that’s nothing more than a 35 years after the fact spin put on unclear circumstances, Bush was never charged with being A.W.O.L. back then, while at the same time, I’m not sure where you got “draft dodger”, was Bush in Europe not inhaling with Clinton or something?
Weirdave, do you or do you not think that Kerry and Bush had Vietnam war service that is equivalent on any sensible level?
Anyway, Michael Moores portrayal of Iraqi resistance as ‘freedom fighters’ comparable to the forefathers of the United States is as ludicrous as any statement make by Ann Coulter.
Yes, I take Franken quite seriously. His book “Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them” is a very strong piece of journalism, leavened well with humor, but he does a great job of documenting a lot of flat-out lies by right-wing commentators, including the sick harpy under discussion, as well as Bush Admin. figure. Just because someone has wit doesn’t mean he’s wrong on the facts. Really, have you READ any of Franken’s stuff?
Short answer: what Prichester said. Long answer: The circumstances of Bush’s AWOL are unclear only if you make a REAL effort to buy Pubbie spin on the matter. IIRC, nobody from Bush’s unit can remember him serving during the AWOL period. Several people have come forth to say positively that he did not. Bush has never been able to produce any evidence that he did. A reasonable person must conclude he was AWOL.
And his service in the Texas Air National Guard was just a rich kid’s way of dodging the draft, back in those days.
Fact is, John Kerry was in Vietnam dodging bullets, running TOWARD the gunfire to help his boatmates. Dubya was a well-connected drunken rich kid on a toot. There is NO equivalence there. None. Zip. Nada.
I have only heard the esteemed Ms. Coulter rarely, and each time thought she was a comedian attempting a hijack of a chat show or news discussion programme.
Indeed, the only leftist Americans I can think of who would come anywhere close to her equivalent are comedians like the late Bill Hicks. (“I found myself in the weird position of being for the war, but against the troops. Saddam said he wanted to see Bush’s head blown off kicked down the street like a football. I thought, wow, me and Saddam, we’re like that…”)
Leftist Ann Coulter? Practically any randomly chosen feminazi can give Ann a run for her money.
I own Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations. His chapter in the former about Coulter and lying via endnotes was very interesting. That doesn’t mean I have to take his commentary – and that’s what we’re talking about here, commentary-- seriously. Al Franken is an ass. Funny, but an ass nonetheless. What he calls ‘good natured ribbing’ (e.g. fucking with Barbara Bush, fucking with the Bob Jones University people and using Harvard letterhead to do so) I call being an ass.
I’ve never read any of Coulter’s books and don’t plan to do so, either. I’ve read her weekly columns and that’s more than enough for me.
Well, I OWN a copy of Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them, too! And my copy is BIGGER than your copy!!! 
Just a second there, rjung! When the Hair Apparent was but a wee tyke, I kept oil of ipecac in the bathroom, in case a medical emergency (ie, inadvernent poisoning) required immediate, violent projectile vomiting.
Friend Brutus might simply be a cautious sort, keeping such images at hand for a similar emergency.
You (and Evil Captor) both spectacularly miss the point. It’s not about their service during Vietnam, it’s about using glowing verbage when you’re talking about your guy and slinging mud when talking about the other guy, yet continuing to whine that the Republicans are fighting dirty. It boggles the mind that you can’t see pot, kettle, black here.
Oh, I see. We’ve got ourselves an old-fashioned book measuring contest, huh? Hold on while I whip mine out. Does anyone have a ruler? On second though, make that a yardstick.
Oh yeah, it’s like that.
So therefore he didn’t do it? Albert DiSalvo was never charged with being the Boston Strangler, either.
No, in Texas getting drunk.
And buzzed on coke.