[Cael]

Forgive me if I don't immediately believe that McCarthyism was a completely noble time for our country...In her book, does she give specific examples of people who, according to liberal history accounts, were wrongly targeted by McCarthyism...but were in actuality (from her opinion) *rightly* targeted? She seems kind of vague in the excerpt...

[TheBigB]

She gives many, many concrete examples of such.

[JRandomFreeper]

Welcome to Free Republic. I see that you joined today.

/john

[whereasandsoforth]

.In her book, does she give specific examples of people who, according to liberal history accounts, were wrongly targeted by McCarthyism...but were in actuality (from her opinion) *rightly* targeted? She seems kind of vague in the excerpt...


She doesn't need to. Those stories are a dime a dozen. Read A Book (title) by Desi Arnaz for a good example.

[Just mythoughts]

You don't have to read Ann's book to find out that everything McCarhty said and claimed, was released out of the deep dark storage of the Soviet's vaults.

This country was over run with communists and there are just as many today as there was then.

Their favorite hate word is to call someone a Hitler like or Nazi, racists, homophobe, right wing extremists. Half the freaking congress is full of them.

[backhoe]

Tailgunner Joe--Patriot Whistleblower or Right-Wing Witch-hunter?

[an amused spectator]

Forgive me if I don't immediately believe that McCarthyism was a completely noble time for our country...

Of course McCarthyism wasn't "a completely noble time for our country". That's because "McCarthyism" is a liberal myth, which is Coulter's entire point.

Senator Joe McCarthy, on the other hand, was a real person, with a real history. Apparently, Ann's saying that the Venona data needs to be interpolated into the historical record on McCarthy in order to cast the cold spotlight of truth on the "McCarthyism" bogeyman of the Left.

Interestingly, Joe McCarthy may be a good example of a '50s attac with the Alinsky method, which has been used in recent years to great effect by his Leftist disciple Hillary (Hilla the Dread).

[Godebert]

"Forgive me if I don't immediately believe that McCarthyism was a completely noble time for our country..."

I smell a rat. Hmmm...signed up today, eh?

[Zipporah]

You should search the Verona Project.. pretty much vindicated McCarthy.

[anncoulteriscool]

I think the major point trying to be made (by Mona Charon sp? as well) is that McCarthyism has basically become a restraining oder against conservatives ever criticizing liberals opinions regarding foreign policy issues.

[VOA]

Forgive me if I don't immediately believe that McCarthyism was a completely
noble time for our country...

That is what I used to think. In my extended family there was a "crazy aunt" who
kept telling people that there actually was a Communist conspiracy, including
infiltration of the US government by numerous Communist agents/sympathizers.

Even though we were deep in the heart of the Bible Belt and the conservative South,
as well probably voting Republican about 80% of the time, we all kind of smiled and said
"Yes, Auntie, it's a shame there are a bunch of gawd-less Communists in our guvmint..."
In other words, we humored the venerable loved one.


Imagine my SHOCK to have Auntie's paranoia confirmed by the most unlikely source...
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

After watching their special airing of NOVA titled "Secret, Lies and Atomic
Spies"...with the report that there had been HUNDREDS of Communist agents/sympathizers in the
US guvmint during the Cold War...
AND...
that while McCarthy had been wrong in the people he'd pointed the finger at for the most
part...he was 200% correct about the infiltration of the US government by the Communists.

To hear this from PBS momentarily made me think about calling an ambulance for
a ride to the hospital to see if I'd had a stroke or my Coca-Cola had been spiked with LSD.
You can check out the website for that episode at:


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/

Another important point of the show was that McCarthy was hamstrung because the
FBI and other guvmint agencies knew about the problem...but wouldn't share
information with Senators or others because they didn't want to jeopordize future prosecutions.

Perhaps the really chilling part of the PBS special?
The unrepentant confessions of an American who spied for the Soviets for
atomic secrets.
Watch that @$$hole and his wife and see two old, evil animals.

Whoops, there I go again...being judgemental about people who'd like to have
nuked us in the name of their "workers paradise".

Cael, as for the vagueness of some of Coulter's claims, here is my take from
having her on yesterday's Michael Medved Show. She begged for ANYONE to name
someone who was falsely accused by McCarthy and whose life was ruined by McCarthy.

Now, that's my best recollection of her challenge. Thus, as soon as you hear someone
on the evening news or one of the "news magazine" shows on TV showing that they or someone
they knew was:
1. Not a member/sympathizer of The Communist Party (of whatever country)
AND
2. Suffered professional/financially because they'd been named by McCarthy...
then you'll know that Ms. Coulter (despite all her brains) has maybe
"gone a bridge too far" in her claims.

Stay tuned...this could get REALLY interesting.

[AndyTheBear]

Forgive me if I don't immediately believe that McCarthyism was a completely noble time for our country...

Like most folks, I have been conditioned to accept that McCarthy was some kind of maniacal bigot--with only a few samples of incomplete antidotal evidence. Now as someone who knows little about the facts--except the only conclusion I am supposed to have, I hear there is another view from someone who I have found to be very has ostensivly done a lot of research, and whom has earned a good deal of credibility as a leading conservative commentator.

Should I read further and seek the facts that Ann presents in her book, or should I just go on accepting the prejudice that I was indoctrinated into while I was growing up?

[Publius6961]

Forgive me if I don't immediately believe that McCarthyism was a completely noble time for our country...In her book, does she give specific examples of people who, according to liberal history accounts, were wrongly targeted by McCarthyism...but were in actuality (from her opinion) *rightly* targeted? She seems kind of vague in the excerpt...

What a useless post!

Are you dyslexic?

Have daddy buy you the book, then have mommy read it to you.

Then, unless you are retarded and have a profound comprehension problem, you can answer the question all by yourself!.

yes, I did notice that you just joined FR... have a nice trip...

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Welcome to the FR. =]

I understand it can come as a shock that McCarthy might actually have had some truth to back him up. At the same time, there is a dispute that he might have used the wrong number of communists in his first announcement-- beaurocrats who also belonged to the Communist Party. Naturally, being a member of the Communist Party made someone a security risk, but Truman, and even FDR in some cases, gave hundreds if not thousands of card carrying communists security clearance. There was a specific instance mentioened by Coulter regarding both former DNC presidents who were actually warned that 'so-and-so' was a Soviet spy, and they got promoted anyway!

But, McCarthy had some problems of his own. His last head advisor really messed him up-- permanently. It was ugly. Ike turned against him in the end.

While it's good to set the record straight about McCarthy, it would be foolish to go overboard about it. McCarthy made himself an easy target. It's really sad because he cared about the USA, and he sacrificed a lot in this private war against Soviet infiltration. If he had won more victories, we would be much better off today.

On the other side of the coin, his last advisor was a scheming creep who tried to bully the military into promoting and transferring his homosexual partner. That really made things difficult for McCarthy, you could imagine.

FReegards....

[sakic]

Don't disturb the animals in the middle of a feeding frenzy.

Just repeat:

McCarthy was a good and misunderstood man. We must identify anyone we don't like, accuse them of treason, drive them underground, and then finally kill them.

Refer to Mein Kampf for some pointers.

[Vaduz]

If she she did state who she was talking about the hollywood hacks would be at her neck in 24hours.