Posting will be on hiatus until after the holidays. We wish our readers and Ms. Coulter a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and the same for any holiday of their choice.
December 23rd, 2006
Posted by
Eric |
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Coulter continues to advocate torture of American prisoners. This is a viewpoint she has held previously, calling for its use a few weeks ago on the Jon Caldera Show. In her column this week, she criticizes Matt Lauer for questioning President Bush about waterboarding.
While normal people would be happy if we were using cattle prods on the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Lauer was testy about the possible use of waterboarding against him.
Apparently, not supporting the use of cattle prods against Guantanamo detainees is not "normal," according to Coulter.
Waterboarding is when a prisoner is tied to a board, inclined so his head is below the rest of the body, and water is poured into his mouth to mimic the sensation of drowning and to make the prisoner think he is about to die. According to Senator and former POW John McCain, waterboarding a person "is no different than holding a pistol to his head and firing a blank. I believe that it is torture, very exquisite torture."
Coulter trivializes this practice thusly:
…we strap people to wooden boards and make them feel like they're drowning all the time in this country. Mostly at theme parks like Six Flags.
Calling waterboarding the same as a log flume ride is like calling Jack the Ripper's killings a form of acupuncture.
In her column and in the radio show appearance, Coulter only focused on Khalid Shiek Mohammed, even though we know that a number of people – including American citizens – have been detained as being terrorists and later released when it has become clear they were not.
The true depths of the depravity of what Coulter proposes are seen in how she concludes this column:
I think waterboarding should be a reward for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: OK, you've been good, Mohammed, we're only going to waterboard you today. Let's get you out of those cold electrodes and onto a nice, warm waterboard, OK?
In her mind, torture isn't even an interrogation technique. It's a form of relentless, unending, merciless punishment.
Sources:
Coulter's column this week is a defense of racial profiling. She is, unfortunately, more concerned with justifying her own bigotry than providing constructive recommendations that would help protect citizens against terrorism.
Of the six Muslim religious leaders removed from an airline flight last week, Coulter says:
The clerics had been attending an imam conference in Minneapolis… But instead of investigating the conference, the government is now investigating [US Airways].
Coulter offers no reason why this conference should be investigated, other than the fact that it was attended by Muslims. Ironically, the conference of the North American Imams Federation that the men attended included a segment on how to improve Muslim-to-non-Muslim relations.
She continues:
One of the [imams] complained about being removed from the plane, saying: "Six scholars in handcuffs. It's terrible."
Yes, especially when there was a whole conference of them! Six out of 150 is called "poor law enforcement." How did the other 144 "scholars" get off so easy?
Coulter has abandoned profiling in favor of arresting anyone of Muslin descent, even though they have committed no crime. She even puts "scholars" in scare-quotes to imply that these men aren't what they appear to be.
There is little distinction between Coulter's suggestion of mass arrests based on race and religion and the shameful detention of 120,000 Japanese during World War II. Those people, like the Muslims Coulter has targeted, had committed no “crime†other than their ethnicity.
As early as September 20, 2001, Coulter was advocating racial profiling of "swarthy" (i.e. dark-skinned) people. In a 2003 interview, she acknowledged, "You'd be searching a lot of Italians, Greeks and Jews," though she fails to explain how that would be productive or practical.
Jose Padilla, the accused dirty bomber, is Latino. Richard Reed, the shoe bomber, is half-Jamaican, half-British. The vague racial profiling Coulter proposes could let these men pass by. The seventeen alleged terrorists arrested in Canada in June came from various countries , including Pakistan, African nations, and even Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.
The profiling Coulter advocates simply would not be effective. It isn't possible to identify a Muslim by sight, although Coulter often ignores the distinction between Muslim and Middle Eastern.
Sources:
December 1st, 2006
Posted by
Eric |
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Self-proclaimed pundits such as Ann Coulter bring nothing productive to the political table; accusations, distortions, and outright lies are not healthy for our country, our political system, or our soul as a nation. CounterCoulter.org is where we set the record straight and factually refute or correct the on-going stream of hypocritical mudslinging she calls "patriotism."