October 21, 2004 by s.z.

"The problem with women voting..."   -- and your Communists will back me up on this -- is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care." -- Ann Coulter, Politically Incorrect, Feb. 26, 2001 And speaking of Ann Coulter, here's a portion of her lastest column, "Inmates 'have a plan' to run the asylum": Speaking of which, where are the feminists on war with Iraq? Cameron Diaz' statement about Bush's policies – "if you think rape should be legal, then don't vote" – would have been perfectly true had she been speaking to an audience in Iraq. These people think it is constructive rape to have sex with your husband. America has just gone to war against a regime for which rape – not date rape, or pseudo-rape, or virtual rape, but real rape – was part of the official policy, and they're against regime-change. So, date rape isn't "real rape."  How nice, Ann.  I'm sure your words will be comforting to all of the women who were forcibly and violently violated by somebody they happened to know. And we have "just gone to war" with Saddam's regime?  Geez, where has Ann been for the past year-and-a-half?  ("An alcoholic stupor" is my guess, but "psych ward" is a possibility too.) Oh, and I thought the regime HAD been changed in Iraq -- so why would Cameron's statement about not voting for Bush to protect reproductive rights mean that she was in favor of keeping Saddam in power?  Or is Ann claiming that if we change the Bush regime, then we have to take back the Saddam regime as some sort of punishment?  But hey, don't worry about logic in an Ann Coulter piece: it's just about effect, and the effect you're supposed to get from the above paragraph is that Cameron Diaz and her crew (Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Osama bin Laden) don't care about Iraqi women, while Ann and her posse (George Bush, Dick Cheney, Joe McCarthy) care deeply about all women. So, courtesy of Media Matters, let's take a look at a bit from one of the "banned" articles which finally saw light in Ann's new book: Back in the prelapsarian fifties, women worked if they happened to fall into the .01 percent of the population who were able to have interesting jobs or they retired in their twenties to raise children and, incidentally, do what all serious people would like to do anyway -- be a dilettante in many subjects. As far as I'm concerned this was a division of labor nothing short of perfect. Men worked, women didn't. [...] To the extent one gender is oppressing the other, it's not women who should be complaining. [p. 327]    Yeah, women in the '50s only worked if they had interesting jobs.  You know, like assembly-line worker or babysitter.  And there was also work in the cotton fields, in the laundry, or as a waitress: all of it extremely interesting. And if women in the golden age of the 1950s didn't have one of those interesting jobs, they stayed home and were dilettantes, dabbling in art and music, with maybe a soupcon of child raising on the side, but only as a hobby.  Because men worked and women just amused themselves, leeching off the labor of the men. So, who did all the heavy-duty work that was required to run of a household in the '50s?  Oh, probably the maid, who was only working because it was so interesting.  But Lileks has something to say to Ann about her statement that raising children isn't "work": The big gaffe was the idea, standard to people of a certain age, that parenting is not a real job. Oh, wait, he was reprimanding Teresa Kerry for saying that Laura Bush never had a real job as an adult.  I'm sure Ann agrees with him that Laura's work was real work (well, I'm sure she'd SAY that Laura does real work, but in her heart she'd still despise Laura for, you know, being female). Anyway, here are some other Ann Coulter quips.  First, from her appearance a couple of weeks ago on Hannity & Other Guy: COLMES:  Ann Coulter. All right. "I'm often asked if I think we should invade their countries, kill their leaders, convert them to Christianity." Who do you want to kill besides — you want to kill Saddam Hussein? So what other leaders do you want to kill? COULTER: Leaders of Muslim fanatics. That would include Muslim clerics. It would include al-Sadr. COLMES: They all should be killed? COULTER: We already have wrapped up a lot of the top leaders. COLMES: Would you like the convert them all to Christianity? COULTER: Osama bin Laden is D-E-D dead. No one can convince me otherwise. COLMES: Would you like to convert these people all to Christianity? COULTER: The ones that we killed, yes. COLMES: So no one should be Muslim. They should all be Christian? COULTER: That would be a good start, yes. I especially like her plan to convert the terrorist leaders whom we've killed.  But this part is interesting too: COULTER: And this is, by the way, well, OK — this is, by the way, what America has done after World War II, after the Korean War. MacArthur put out a call for Christian missionaries to come, and missionaries poured into Japan. They poured into Korea. It didn't work as well, the conversion in Japan, but it certainly did in Korea. And I know that we haven't had any trouble from them for a while. COLMES: Korea? COLMES: From South Korea. Yeah, it was our Christianization of South Korea that has kept that country from joining the Axis of Evil.  But those damned heathen Japanese have been nothing but trouble! Also, a couple of readers (most recently David E.) have directed me Amazon's Ann interview.  And here's a highlight from it: Amazon.com: How important is this presidential election in the larger context of the Republic and its history? Ann Coulter: Insofar as the survival of the Republic is threatened by the election of John Kerry, I'd say 2004 is as big as it gets. I'd say this is just Ann being outrageous in order to sell books, except that Dick Cheney has been saying the same thing.  (We indeed live in interesting times.) And in conclusion, here's the final answer from Ann's Amazon "Significant Seven" quiz: Amazon.com: If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Coulter: The United States of America. Oh--that isn't what you mean? Then x-ray vision. That way I could become the first blond white female ever hired as an airport security checkpoint guard. So, I suggest we all chip in and buy Ann an x-ray machine so she can get her dream job at the airport, and maybe finally contribute something to the War on Terror except a lot of big talk.  But then, she doesn't need an x-ray machine, because she already knows who the bad people aren't: "I can tell which ones don't need to be looked at, I can tell you that. Old ladies, old black men, little children, blondes, blue eyed."  Yup.  No blue-eyed people could EVER be involved in terrorism! So, let's just get her that airport job and maybe she'll shut the hell up.  5:24:56 AM

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Vote For Bush: He Can Heal With His Touch! As I noted in my comments on John McCaslin's piece about George Bush praying with Bruce Vincent, I find it kind of distasteful and disturbing that George Bush's supporters seem to be trying to sell him as our nation's religious leader.  (Thanks to Kevin, who blogs at "The Sleepy Sage," for pointing out that Snopes is investigating the Vincent story.) While watching Fox News' "Scott Peterson Variety Hour" for about 20 minutes last night, I ended up seeing the new "Ashley" ad twice.  It gave me the same creeped-out feeling.  In case you haven't seen it yet, here's a description from The Guardian: In another commercial by a Republican interest group, Ohio teenager Ashley Faulkner recalls being comforted by Bush after her mother died in the attacks. The president is shown embracing her. "He's the most powerful man in the world, and all he wants to do is make sure I'm safe, that I'm OK,'' the girl says. [...] In the commercial, Faulkner's father, Lynn, says: "My wife Wendy was murdered by terrorists on Sept. 11.'' The ad says their daughter "closed up emotionally but when President George W. Bush came to Lebanon, Ohio, she went to see him as she had with her mother four years before.'' Hearing that the girl had lost her mother in the attacks, "he turned around and came back and he said, 'I know that's hard. Are you all right?''' the daughter recalls. "It was in that moment that we saw Ashley's eyes fill up with tears,'' remembers family friend Linda Prince. Adds Lynn Faulkner as Bush is shown with his arms around a firefighter: "What I saw was what I want to see in the heart and in the soul of the man who sits in the highest elected office in our country.'' Yes, Ashley, who had lost her mother on 9/11, had "closed down emotionally."  But after being hugged by President Bush, "her eyes filled up with tears," and she was able to start the healing process.   All it took was the touch of God's chosen President!  But that's not the only lesson of this ad: we also learn that besides being able to heal people, George Bush is also like Jesus in his reaching out to the least of these his brethren.  Yes, George, the most powerful man in the world, condescended to hug Ashley, the mere daughter of one of his big supporters in Ohio, a key state in the election.  See, Mr. Bush, likes Jesus, has lots of important things to do, but he still takes the time to look out for the safety of a young girl.  He is indeed a messiah for our time.  And Ashley's father, who can look into people's hears and souls (just like George Bush), looked into the President's heart and soul, and saw in there what "he wanted to see": the heart and soul of a guy who would hug a girl with a dead mother. So, a really creepy commerical -- and you'll probably be seeing a lot of it.  As we learn from the SF Chronicle story DONATIONS: GOP contributors use loophole -- just like Dems, it's going to get all the airings that $14 million can buy. Democratic operatives who were criticized for creating 527 groups see a double standard in the Republicans' new embrace of the tactic. "It's typical Republican do-anything-to-win hypocrisy," said Eli Pariser, the executive director of a political action committee formed by MoveOn.org, one of the first liberal groups to start a 527 fund. "When they were behind, they said it was illegal, and now that they figured out how to make it work for them, they're all for it." In just three months, the Progress for America Voter Fund, the largest Republican-oriented group, raised $28.3 million, its filing shows. The group has spent more than $25 million on air time in contested states and announced this week it will spend $14 million to air a TV ad called "Ashley's Story" featuring a 15-year-old Ohio girl who lost her mother in the World Trade Center attack. The ad shows Ashley hugging Bush at a campaign rally and saying, "All he wants to do is make sure I'm safe." And who are the millionaries who are subverting democracy by trying to illegally influence an election through the 527 group Moveon.org  . . . I mean, Progress for the America Voter Fund? Of the fund's $32 million, $10 million came from just two people: Dawn Arnall, the wife of Ameriquest Corp. chairman Roland Arnall, and Spanos [Stockton-area developer Alex Spanos, who owns the San Diego Chargers football team], who each gave $5 million. [Jerrold] Perenchio, the former Univision chief, was among the first donors to the fund, with a $2 million contribution earlier this year. Allegedly, the "Ashley" ad is supposed to appeal to undecided women voters.  Here's what the Moonie Times said about it: The ad, which features a melancholy piano score, shows a picture of Wendy Faulkner of Mason, Ohio, and follows with a shot of the president hugging young Ashley, his eyes filled with emotion.  "He's the most powerful man in the world, and all he wants to do is make sure I'm safe, that I'm OK," Ashley says to the camera. The ad ends with a freeze-frame of Bush, in profile, his head bowed. Both commercials [the Ashley one, and one for Kerry featuring Kristen Breitweiser], target women, who make up 53 percent of the electorate. The "Ashley" ad, sponsored by Progress For America Voter Fund, a 527 advocacy group, is airing in nine states — Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri — and often during programs traditionally watched by women.  Well, I don't live in any of those states, but maybe it's airing nationally on Fox.  Anyway, like I said, I saw in twice in 20 minutes (of course, "The Scott Peterson Variety Hour" is probably one of those shows traditionally watched by women). But why are there women who are STILL undecided? The Moonie Times gives us Lori Weigel, "a partner with Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm that conducts surveys for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal," with the answer.  In the closing days of the campaign, one unanswered question is why so many women lack enough information to choose a candidate. Miss Weigel offered an answer, quoting a woman from one of her focus groups.  "[I]f I got to come home from work every day, sit down on the couch and open the newspaper and watch the news every night while someone else fed my child, bathed my child, put my child to bed, I'd have a lot more information about politics, too." So, since these women don't have time to read the paper or watch the news, they are going to get their info about the candidates from ads aired during Greta's tabloid TV program, "On the Record."  Yes, they will get the facts about how George Bush cares about keeping girls safe, and can heal the families of 9/11 victims with a hug -- and really, that's all they need to  need to know, and then they can get back to bathing the children.   Thanks, Ms. Weigel, for helping these busy women to find Jesus . . .I mean, George. 12:55:59 AM