Shock and awe campaign routs liberals (Liberals are no longer a threat to the nation) ANN COULTER

Liberals are no longer a threat to the nation. The new media have defeated them with free speech – the very freedom these fifth columnists hide behind whenever their speech gets them in hot water with the American people. Today, the truth is instantly available on the Internet, talk radio and Fox News Channel. No wonder liberals accuse Matt Drudge of absurd sodomic acts, call Rush Limbaugh a "big fat idiot," and say "really stupid people" watch Fox News Channel – as anti-war actress Janeane Garofalo said between assuring us that Saddam Hussein has no weapons of mass destruction.

After the Dixie Chicks' lead singer, Natalie Maines, informed a concert hall on foreign soil that "just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," the New York Times reported that for several days there was not "a ripple about the remark."

Then Matt Drudge posted it on his website. The Drudge Report has been getting 11 million hits a day recently. In response to the instant uproar, including radio boycotts and public CD burnings, Maines was forced to issue a written apology for the remark. Then Maines explained it was a "joke," which is only slightly less enraging than being told to "chill out." At the Country Music Television awards last Monday, the very mention of the Dixie Chicks prompted booing.

Weeks after the Dixie Chicks imploded, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder showed he's still got a way with words by repeatedly smashing a George W. Bush mask against the stage during a concert. Predictable heckling and booing broke out – robust even by Pearl Jam concert standards. Vedder asked in astonishment: "You're booing the story, right? You're not booing me?" Published claims that dozens of fans walked out at this point seem dubious, since that would require Pearl Jam's fan base to still number in the dozens.

Vedder continued with a rambling diatribe against the free speech of his audience, during which he announced – in a worldwide exclusive – that next year Americans will no longer be allowed to speak. When someone yelled at him to shut up, Vedder shouted down the dissenters with a microphone and 50,000 amps, saying, "I don't know if you heard about this thing called freedom of speech, man." This qualified as one of the most profound public statements ever punctuated with the term "man."

Soon, Vedder was backpedaling faster than a Dixie Chick: "Just to clarify ... we support the troops." To prove it, he cited his short haircut: "How could we not be for the military? I mean, look at this [expletive] haircut." Vedder said his remarks had been "misconstrued." The band issued a statement saying Vedder was just talking about "freedom of speech."

Also celebrating "free speech" recently was Columbia University professor Nicholas De Genova. Speaking at a "teach-in" a few weeks ago, he said patriots were white supremacists and that the "only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military." Most charmingly, De Genova said: "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus," referring to the dismembered bodies of American servicemen being dragged through the streets of Somalia in 1993. De Genova was given rousing applause from the college audience when he said: "If we really [believe] that this war is criminal ... then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine."

The speech by this esteemed member of our nation's higher education system was followed by other Columbia professors, such as Eric Foner, who tepidly took exception only to De Genova's description of patriots as white supremacists. (Has anything good ever come of a "teach-in"? Even the promisingly titled "die-ins" always fail to deliver.)

The university initially responded to complaints about De Genova by issuing the usual traitors' dodge: free speech! But the uproar continued, eventually propelling the president of the university, Lee Bollinger, to say that De Genova's "million Mogadishus" comment "crosses the line."

Most auspiciously, Peter Arnett was fired from NBC for pinch-hitting for Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's minister of information. Consider that Arnett has retailed propaganda for the Iraqi regime about a "milk factory" being bombed by the Americans in 1991 – and that didn't get him fired. He has bragged that he would allow American servicemen to die rather than reveal enemy war plans he had acquired as a journalist – that didn't get him fired. Arnett once falsely reported that the U.S. military used poison gas on American defectors – and then hid behind his producers' skirts when CNN was forced to retract the report and fire the producers. That didn't get him fired.

Like Columbia University, NBC initially tried to stand by Tokyo Pete this time, issuing a statement that called his reporting "outstanding" and saying simply that his interview with Iraqi TV "was done as a professional courtesy." By 7 o'clock the next morning, deluged with thousands of e-mails demanding Arnett's head, NBC fired him.

Freedom of speech isn't working out so well for liberals now that they aren't the only ones with a microphone. It's not so much fun when the rabbit's got the gun.

Hollywood anti-war set needs some new lines

April 8, 2003

BY RICHARD ROEPER

TO: Jennifer Aniston, George Clooney, Sheryl Crow, David Duchovny, Janeane Garofalo, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Woody Harrelson, Jessica Lange, Michael Moore, Edward Norton, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, Eddie Vedder, et al.

RE: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Dear Celebrity Anti-War Activist: Over the last several weeks and months, you have used your status as a person of fame to tell the world you're against the war with Iraq, which you believe to be unwarranted, unethical, unconstitutional and un-American. Some of you have said you "hate" President George W. Bush (hello, Jessica Lange!), while others have expressed mere contempt for the president and his policies.

Even though you are among the luckiest and best-rewarded human beings in the history of civilization, you have moaned long and loud about life in the oppressive United States of America. And you have complained that free speech is practically an endangered species--though it's not as if you've been kidnapped, bound and gagged for expressing your views.

You have talked about how ashamed you are to be an American. You have said you believe this is a war for oil conducted by a power-hungry simpleton in the White House.

You have given speeches at awards ceremonies. You've marched in the streets and held forth at anti-war rallies. You've gone on talk shows and you've written op-ed pieces and you've signed letters and you've flashed the peace sign every time you've gone out in public.

Even after the fighting began and U.S. troops started risking their lives to fight for the very freedoms you've been enjoying--including the right to speak out against government policies--you refused to let the drumbeats of war drown out your voices of dissent.

Fine. You've made your point. And if you want to keep on with the the marching and the protesting and the grandstanding and the speech-making, well God bless America, that's your right.

But I'm just wondering: If you're such a crusader for kindness and decency and the rules of fair play, when are you going to say something about the atrocities committed by Iraqis since this war broke out?

Stop right there. I can already hear you launching into your well-practiced diatribe about how none of these things would be happening in the first place if not for that warmonger Bush--but that doesn't answer my question. My question is, why are you not condemning the unconscionable acts of terrorism committed by Iraqis?

Since the fighting began, American troops have conducted themselves with much honor and courage and have engaged in the traditional rules of war. We've seen story after story about U.S. troops coming to the aid of wounded enemy soldiers, image after image of Americans comforting Iraqi children, quote after quote from American troops expressing deep regret after killing soldiers and civilians who would not surrender or kept charging, even after repeated warnings.

On the other side, some Iraqi soldiers have posed as civilians and faked surrender in order to ambush allied forces. Then there are the suicide terrorists, like the noncommissioned Iraqi officer in civilian clothes who pretended to be a taxi driver and waved to U.S. soldiers for help--only to blow himself up and take four American soldiers with him. We've also seen American POWs mistreated on Iraq TV.

The Fedayeen have been known to use civilians, even children, as human shields. They stage military operations from hospitals. In one incident, Iraqi soldiers fired at a U.S. helicopter that was evacuating wounded Iraqis.

Even if you believe we have no business being in Iraq, you can't possibly endorse any of the tactics used by a significant percentage of Iraqis. They are cowards and they are scum and they are war criminals.

So, Ms. Garofalo and Mr. Sheen and Mr. Moore and Mr. Robbins: Why not hold a press conference to condemn these acts? How about taking out ads in USA Today and the New York Times so you can sign your names to a petition expressing your outrage at this behavior? How about donating your talents to a fund-raiser for the families of fallen American soldiers? At the very least you can update your anti-war speeches to include words of praise for the likes of Jessica Lynch, and words of protest against the Iraqi thugs.

I'm not asking you to march in the streets of Baghdad to protest these atrocities. You can make your point from the comfort and safety of your home turf--the same launching point for all your verbal missiles against the American government.

It won't mean you're against the war. It'll just mean you have a sense of perspective and honor, and that your hatred and contempt isn't reserved exclusively for the president of the United States.

War criminals need loathing, too. Don't be afraid to say it.

Sincerely,

Richard Roeper
http://www.suntimes.com/output/roeper/cst-nws-roep08.html

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