Coulter Gets It Wrong, Again!
Ann Coulter has a unique ability to really tick me off because her rants, always in the negative, often lack sound judgment, sound knowledge of facts, and the ability to see beyond her biases.
In her recent e-mail article she goes off on Congressman John Murtha, for his positions on Iraq and the need to support our troops by getting them the hell out of situations that a) we should not be involved with ab inito, b) have not been managed or executed well, and c) proven to be a series of failures that have resulted in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries and disabilities.
What bothers me right from the gitgo is the disrespect for Murtha's status as not only a Marine, but a decorated Marine with actual combat experience. Questioning Murtha's status as a Marine, a decorated combat veteran or as a patriotic American is just plain wrong and outright offensive. But Coulter has proven time and again that she is not concerned with scholarship, class or courtesy, only with her entrenched views and the process of making money by spewing her swill in public in order to stir the loins of the ultra-conservatives that are so impotent that they can only get aroused through negative muckraking, false accusation, idiotic conclusions, revisionist historical accounts, corrupt reports of facts and perverted analyses based on lies, propaganda and misinformation.
The second thing that bothers me is that Coulter--and the whole of the moronic ultra-conservative crowd--are ignoring facts and testimony offered by the generals and officers leading the charge "over there." Even General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged that the proposed troop surge planned
for Iraq may not be effective and that expressions of dissent and opposition at home--even by members of congress--does not have the negative effect on troops and troop morale conjured up by the ultra-conservative pundits and crowd-pleasers (i.e. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Mancow, Imus, et al.).
The third thing that bothers me about Coulter, at least in this instance, is her insistence (and that of all the ultra-conservatives) that any opposition or dissident views regarding Iraq, including the conclusion that we are failing over there and the current revision of the "stay the course" argument will not work, equates to cowardice, impending doom for our nation's security and a lack of support for our troops. Despite the mounting evidence that we are indeed failing to accomplish anything of lasting value in Iraq by way of our occupation, which is illegal and immoral, Coulter and the whole of the entrenched ultra-conservative crowd, prompted by propaganda spewed forth by the Bush gang, continue to advocate for a "stay the course" approach.
Even the business gurus to which the GOP and ultra-conservatives worship would argue that it is necessary to evaluate when a management plan is failing and change direction. W. Edward Deming, the TQM guru of capitalism, would argue that when the process is not producing the desired quality outcome, it is time to shut the process down and re-design the process until quality results can be achieved. Tom Peters, who wrote several seminal works on management and planning, argued in his book, Thriving On Chaos, that managers and leaders need to "learn to fail quickly" so that a wrong-headed approach can be cut off effectively and efficiently, and replaced with a more effective strategy as soon as possible.
Certainly no one, not even Coulter, can argue that the strategic management occurring in Iraq has been successful. Certainly no one can argue that we can afford to leave the "stay the course" approach in effect... at least no one with a sense of reality.
Of course, when Coulter and the ultra-conservatives haven't a valid point to make, they resort to distracting us with irrelevant, but emotionally charged, matters that send us on a wild goose chase instead of dealing with the matters at hand. The ABSCAM scandal has nothing to do with the issues that Murtha--and the vast majority of Americans--is bringing to the forefront regarding our conduct in Iraq. While it is true that Murtha was involved in the ABSCAM video tapes, it is important to also note--and acknowledge--that Murtha was never charged with a crime or even censured by Congress.
Certainly there are ethical issues in Murtha's past conduct, and he has some political and business affiliations and conduct that can be called into question. But characterizing Murtha as "caving in to Arabs" is not only misleading in terms of his position on Iraq, but also misleading in its entirety. Anyone that has read Steven Emerson's "The American House of Saud" can attest that Murtha's involvement and possible kowtowing to the Arabs is not his claim to fame alone. Indeed, we find many political leaders, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, numerous ambassadors and political strategists (especially GOP strategists), and hundreds of folks with influence held over the heads of our political leaders have "caved in to the Arabs" with a complete disregard for the needs and concerns of the citizens of the United States.
But, again, these matters have little to do with the matters at hand regarding Iraq. That is the case unless Coulter and her ultra-conservative devotees are willing to admit that the entire series of affairs involving Iraq have been about oil and manipulation of matters involving oil, OPEC and those Arab nations having influence over American economics due to oil. But that has been vehemently denied by Bush, Rice, Cheney, Coulter, Limbaugh and others that are in that group of extremists.
Fortunately for Coulter, Murtha is a public figure in the news and in the political arena, so her slanderous and libelous statements cannot be the subject of legal action against her. While it is certainly true that Murtha is guilty of poor judgment in the ABSCAM affair, and may lack some ethical fortitude in other affairs, it is not true that Murtha is, or can be, associated with the same type of criminal guilt that we all associate with O.J. Simpson's conduct in the matters pertaining to his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. This statement only goes to show that Coulter, for all her holier-than-thou posturing, is nothing less than a practitioner of sensationalism that we often see associated with the basest of reporting in the so-called tabloids.
Look who is now calling the kettle black. Murtha's accusations about Marines--and incidentally other troops--killing innocents is borne out by the facts and the trial of several Marines, as well as the entire culture of abuse that has been supported and promoted by the Bush administration under the tenure of Donald Rumsfeld as our Secretary of Defense. Calling Murtha a low-down scandalous skunk that lacks a sense of ethics due to past behaviors doesn't change the facts regarding the rape, killing and abuse of innocents in Iraq. But once again we are still not discussing the matters at hand and Coulter is continuing to mislead and distract us from the real issues.
Congressman Murtha may be immoral and unethical in the execution of his office based on the ABSCAM and other matters. But like the contract hit man testifying about the mobster that ordered the killing of someone, the unethical behavior of the hit man does not change the guilt of those in charge.
Coulter has once again demonstrated her passion for being ignorant of the facts, entrenched in her ideology, and unwillingness to see the matters at hand. I wish she would shut the hell up, or at least get educated about the first principles that are our mainstay of liberty, before she opened up her yap-trap.
In her recent e-mail article she goes off on Congressman John Murtha, for his positions on Iraq and the need to support our troops by getting them the hell out of situations that a) we should not be involved with ab inito, b) have not been managed or executed well, and c) proven to be a series of failures that have resulted in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries and disabilities.
Rumored ex-Marine John Murtha, Democrat congressman from Pennsylvania, has become the darling of the cut-and-run crowd for trying to place absurd restrictions on our troops, amounting to withdrawal from Iraq. Were Arab sheiks whispering into his ear?
What bothers me right from the gitgo is the disrespect for Murtha's status as not only a Marine, but a decorated Marine with actual combat experience. Questioning Murtha's status as a Marine, a decorated combat veteran or as a patriotic American is just plain wrong and outright offensive. But Coulter has proven time and again that she is not concerned with scholarship, class or courtesy, only with her entrenched views and the process of making money by spewing her swill in public in order to stir the loins of the ultra-conservatives that are so impotent that they can only get aroused through negative muckraking, false accusation, idiotic conclusions, revisionist historical accounts, corrupt reports of facts and perverted analyses based on lies, propaganda and misinformation.
The second thing that bothers me is that Coulter--and the whole of the moronic ultra-conservative crowd--are ignoring facts and testimony offered by the generals and officers leading the charge "over there." Even General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged that the proposed troop surge planned
for Iraq may not be effective and that expressions of dissent and opposition at home--even by members of congress--does not have the negative effect on troops and troop morale conjured up by the ultra-conservative pundits and crowd-pleasers (i.e. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Mancow, Imus, et al.).
The third thing that bothers me about Coulter, at least in this instance, is her insistence (and that of all the ultra-conservatives) that any opposition or dissident views regarding Iraq, including the conclusion that we are failing over there and the current revision of the "stay the course" argument will not work, equates to cowardice, impending doom for our nation's security and a lack of support for our troops. Despite the mounting evidence that we are indeed failing to accomplish anything of lasting value in Iraq by way of our occupation, which is illegal and immoral, Coulter and the whole of the entrenched ultra-conservative crowd, prompted by propaganda spewed forth by the Bush gang, continue to advocate for a "stay the course" approach.
Even the business gurus to which the GOP and ultra-conservatives worship would argue that it is necessary to evaluate when a management plan is failing and change direction. W. Edward Deming, the TQM guru of capitalism, would argue that when the process is not producing the desired quality outcome, it is time to shut the process down and re-design the process until quality results can be achieved. Tom Peters, who wrote several seminal works on management and planning, argued in his book, Thriving On Chaos, that managers and leaders need to "learn to fail quickly" so that a wrong-headed approach can be cut off effectively and efficiently, and replaced with a more effective strategy as soon as possible.
Certainly no one, not even Coulter, can argue that the strategic management occurring in Iraq has been successful. Certainly no one can argue that we can afford to leave the "stay the course" approach in effect... at least no one with a sense of reality.
In case you missed the video on "I Love the '80s," Rep. Murtha was caught on tape negotiating bribes with Arab sheiks during the FBI's Abscam investigation in 1980. The Abscam investigation was conducted by Jimmy Carter's Justice Department, not right-wing Republicans.
Of course, when Coulter and the ultra-conservatives haven't a valid point to make, they resort to distracting us with irrelevant, but emotionally charged, matters that send us on a wild goose chase instead of dealing with the matters at hand. The ABSCAM scandal has nothing to do with the issues that Murtha--and the vast majority of Americans--is bringing to the forefront regarding our conduct in Iraq. While it is true that Murtha was involved in the ABSCAM video tapes, it is important to also note--and acknowledge--that Murtha was never charged with a crime or even censured by Congress.
Certainly there are ethical issues in Murtha's past conduct, and he has some political and business affiliations and conduct that can be called into question. But characterizing Murtha as "caving in to Arabs" is not only misleading in terms of his position on Iraq, but also misleading in its entirety. Anyone that has read Steven Emerson's "The American House of Saud" can attest that Murtha's involvement and possible kowtowing to the Arabs is not his claim to fame alone. Indeed, we find many political leaders, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, numerous ambassadors and political strategists (especially GOP strategists), and hundreds of folks with influence held over the heads of our political leaders have "caved in to the Arabs" with a complete disregard for the needs and concerns of the citizens of the United States.
But, again, these matters have little to do with the matters at hand regarding Iraq. That is the case unless Coulter and her ultra-conservative devotees are willing to admit that the entire series of affairs involving Iraq have been about oil and manipulation of matters involving oil, OPEC and those Arab nations having influence over American economics due to oil. But that has been vehemently denied by Bush, Rice, Cheney, Coulter, Limbaugh and others that are in that group of extremists.
As an attorney, let me give you the technical legal description of what occurred: John Murtha was as guilty as O.J. Simpson.
Fortunately for Coulter, Murtha is a public figure in the news and in the political arena, so her slanderous and libelous statements cannot be the subject of legal action against her. While it is certainly true that Murtha is guilty of poor judgment in the ABSCAM affair, and may lack some ethical fortitude in other affairs, it is not true that Murtha is, or can be, associated with the same type of criminal guilt that we all associate with O.J. Simpson's conduct in the matters pertaining to his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. This statement only goes to show that Coulter, for all her holier-than-thou posturing, is nothing less than a practitioner of sensationalism that we often see associated with the basest of reporting in the so-called tabloids.
Murtha accuses Marines of killing "innocent civilians in cold blood" during an ongoing investigation. Semper Fi, Mr. Dirty Congressman.
Look who is now calling the kettle black. Murtha's accusations about Marines--and incidentally other troops--killing innocents is borne out by the facts and the trial of several Marines, as well as the entire culture of abuse that has been supported and promoted by the Bush administration under the tenure of Donald Rumsfeld as our Secretary of Defense. Calling Murtha a low-down scandalous skunk that lacks a sense of ethics due to past behaviors doesn't change the facts regarding the rape, killing and abuse of innocents in Iraq. But once again we are still not discussing the matters at hand and Coulter is continuing to mislead and distract us from the real issues.
Congressman Murtha may be immoral and unethical in the execution of his office based on the ABSCAM and other matters. But like the contract hit man testifying about the mobster that ordered the killing of someone, the unethical behavior of the hit man does not change the guilt of those in charge.
Coulter has once again demonstrated her passion for being ignorant of the facts, entrenched in her ideology, and unwillingness to see the matters at hand. I wish she would shut the hell up, or at least get educated about the first principles that are our mainstay of liberty, before she opened up her yap-trap.
posted by Jim Downey at 5:01 PM
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