Home > Bigotry on the loose

Bigotry on the loose

by Open-Publishing - Friday 17 February 2006
1 comment

Discriminations-Minorit. Parties Religions-Beliefs Comic strips-Drawings USA

By Carl Bloice

It wasn’t Copenhagen, it was Washington and something
that transpired there recently was ugly and more than a
little frightening. Bigotry was on the loose.

It wasn’t covered much by the country’s major media, and
those that did cover it seem to have missed a critical
piece of the story which was reported by slate.com and
the Financial Times.

Michael Scherer wrote that of the attendees at the
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the
Omni Shoreham Hotel February 10, "about half are
overdressed college kids in pearls, blue blazers or
striped ties, young Republicans who come to D.C. for the
chance to flirt with each other, watch Ann Coulter act
outrageous, and attempt to sneak cases of Bud Light into
their hotel rooms — the kind of students that collect
internships like Mardi Gras beads."

The young’ns were treated to a lot of free Chardonnay
and speeches by the likes of Vice Dick Cheney, Phyllis
Shlafly, Newt Gingrich, and Lt. Colonel Oliver North.
But their favorite was Coulter. FT said they made up
two-thirds of Coulter’s boisterous crowd. It was
standing room only. According to the religious
conservative website crosswalk.com, she received, "a
rock star welcome." Her comments were the most
enthusiastically received.

According to FT, "To a chorus of ’We love you, Ann’, she
launched into her trademark outrageous one-liners,
denouncing moderate Republicans as "rats" and
"Washington weenies."

"Libertarian Republicans fared little better," wrote
FT’s Caroline Daniel. "If you are going to be a
conservative in America, you can’t be a pussy," said
Coulter. Asked to describe her most difficult ethical
dilemma, she gave a loud sigh. "There was one time I had
a shot at [President Bill] Clinton."

Then, talking about Iran possibly acquiring the bomb,
she said, "Post-9/11 our philosophy should be: Raghead
talks tough? Raghead faces consequences."

During the question and answer period, a young Middle
Eastern man rose to explain that the Republican Party
was trying to recruit Muslim voters. (He may have been
one of those peopling the "Muslims for Bush" table in
the lobby.) "Please, please, please don’t say rag head,"
he pleaded. "Yeah, I made a few jokes at Muslims. They
killed 3,000 Americans," she retorted to applause.

"Ms Coulter’s positive reception was a reflection of the
audience," reported FT. "Unlike the snowy-haired
veterans at many European conservative party
conferences, the CPAC crowd gets younger every year."
It’s not just that "we are winning. We have all the
pretty girls on our side," said Ms Coulter, as she
surveyed the room. "She threw out a lot of red meat and
gets the kids fired up," Saul Anuzis, the chair of the
Michigan Republican Party, said later.

Another crowd pleaser apparently was anti-French jokes.
Gingrich dismissed the word détente as a "fancy French
word" and after Cheney spoke, the night’s emcee told a
joke about how French people screw in light bulbs.

"CPAC offers a chance to learn from other student
activists and attend workshops," wrote Scherer.
"Aspiring young politicians come to network and practice
their two-handed handshakes. Potential presidential
candidates come to cultivate their bases."

Max Blumenthal reported on the Huffington blog that
after Coulter’s rant he approached Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist in the CPAC exhibitors’ hall and asked
him what he thought of Coulter’s characterization 15
minutes earlier of Muslims as "rag heads," to which
Frist replied, "I wasn’t there so I better not comment."

Obviously they also come to practice being gross under
the tutelage of the leading lights of the Republican
right. The come wearing their insensitivity on their
sleeves, to do a Scandinavian cartoonist one better in
subjecting a whole people to verbal abuse and derision.
Loosen them up with a little Chardonnay they can be
quite brown-shirt-like.

Sure, Coulter herself is old news; not every nut case
thing out of her mouth need be spread around. But a
thousand or so supposedly educated young women and men,
dressed to the eight and a half and aspiring to lead the
nation some day cheering her racist garbage should be
quite alarming. Something very stinky is going on in
Washington and it was on full display that day at the
Omni Sheraton. Why the major media didn’t report on this
aspect of the meeting is a mystery. Maybe the reporters
don’t like white wine.

published by portside

Forum posts

  • When will the loser Muslims realize that the Crackers will never accept them?

    I’m not a Muslim but I feel ashamed that there was even one at this "conference"... Let alone had the balls to get up and counter the adrogenous "Ann".

    Her reply shows she has bigger balls than the loser Muslims in attendence.