Ann Coulter at FSU last night 11/14

So last night Ann Coulter gave a speech at Florida State, entitled "Liberalism and Terrorism:Two Stages of the Same Disease." Needless to say, it was awesome! Any Tallahassee Freepers who attended were very lucky, as there was a disgusting lack of promotion of this event. Im on campus monday through thursday, and I heard nothing about it until I happened to see a flyer in the polisci building. There was nothing in the school paper, the College Republican website, or on the Institute for Conservative Studies website--and they were the ones putting it on! Had I not called the ICS office an hour beforehand, I would have missed the early booksigning. My girlfriend and I met Ann, she signed my copy of Slander, and I bought a copy for my girls grandfather, which she gladly signed "To a great patriot and grandfather" before we even told her about his extensive military service! Anyway, about 100 people showed, mostly students, which made me realise how little promotion was done--when Michael Moore spoke at FSU, the Ruby Diamond Auditorium was full-at least 1000! Im really mad at the lack of professionalism shown by the ICS. The speech was held in a gloomy physics classroom with horrible acoustics, which mad worse the fact that no one could get the microphone to work! Ann practically had to shout, and I know those in the back could hardly hear. Ann was obviously uncomfortable with the crummy accomidations, but that didn't stop her from shutting up the 30 or so members of the FSU lesbian/gay/whatever group who showed up, carrying their rainbow fag flag. A great speech,mostly about Iraq and racial profiling, followed by and entertaining Q/A session. Im embarassed at how things went though, and I'm sure she wont be back.

This reminds me of a time when I was in community college and for some reason our liberal sociology instructor helped arrange for some "scholar" (also a liberal sociology instructor) to visit the school on a weekday mid-morning. He apparently personally guaranteed the guy there would be a good turnout, and even booked two sessions for him (since they were sure the classroom would be full). Apparently so few people showed up for the first that the visitor just walked off and left the school.

Now, this is a community college near a military base -- half the students are either active duty military and people working full time who are taking classes on lunchbreaks and after work.

Unbelievably, our instructor was just livid the next time our class met, talking about how it reflected badly on the school and how we didn't appreciate the opportunity to get knowledge.

Just proves the liberal events aren't always well-promoted either...

Oh yeah and the postscript...I just remembered a funny story about that wacky sociology prof. You can use liberalism against people like him... Once I missed a question on an exam that was going to bring me from an A to a B. I didn't want to blow my GPA on a sociology class, and the instructor had said he would consider "legitimate challenges" to any test questions. So I mounted a challenge to a section about families by complaining that the textbook's author failed to include unmarried hetero and homosexual couples as family units. I kept a straight face.

The prof was so impressed he gave me an A AND suggested that I write up a short article to send to the author of the textbook! He then told me he wished all freshmen cared as much about sociology as I did.

I thought Moore bailed out on FSU...........

Central Florida Future - News
Issue: 11/14/02

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Moore no more for council event
By Jason Irsay

In an e-mail letter to members of the UCF Progressive Council, activist Michael Moore cancelled his controversial appearance at UCF, but the Progressive Council vowed its event would go on. Citing the death of his mother, Veronica Moore, on July 8 at the age of 81, Moore wrote, "I am in no mood or condition to give speeches anywhere."

Moore expressed support for Progressive Council's plans in the e-mail, and shock over the $20,000 that his agent, Lisa Bransdorf, charged UCF Progressive Council and SGA. He also wrote that he never agreed to speak at UCF this October.

"I have never in my life charged to speak at a political rally. I am shocked that this has happened with all your groups. I, like Ralph Nader and many others, have a lecture agent who sorts through the many requests for paid gigs sponsored by universities or town hall lecture series.

"But to come and help stop the re-election of Jeb Bush — I would never take a dime for such a thing, to imply such a thing is so far from the truth, and I am so sorry whatever has happened or has been done in my name by the lecture agency."

Moore defended his agent in his letter claiming that she accepted the $20,000 assuming it was an official school event. Bransdorf could not be reached for comment.

Moore's withdrawal from Progressive Council's "We the People" event on Oct. 22 angered Mike Tiner and Brian Cregger, the event's organizers. After securing $20,000 from SGA for Moore's appearance, they pleaded with him to make the trip to UCF.

Both Tiner and Cregger said that they blamed Moore's agent for the ordeal, although Tiner said Moore deserves blame as well.

"The first person throughout the process that I was mad with was Lisa Bransdorf," said Cregger. "I thought the amount was a little high. I was mad at her because we never got the straight information from her."

"My first reaction was anger and rage," said Tiner. "I was angry at him, his agent, the whole situation."

Said Cregger: "I apologize that this whole process was like this. I thought the numbers were high. I apologize for any mistakes I made in this process, but things will work out."

Despite the setback, the Progressive Council members said their event, "We the People," would still be a strong campus function.

"I think we've got an awesome event planned, despite all the monkey wrenches that have been thrown in," said Tiner. "There will be a lot of great speakers talking about a lot of important issues."

"We the People" will feature environmental, political and workers' rights groups in front of the Student Union all day on Oct. 22, before the gubernatorial debate inside the Student Union. "We All Count" and "Rock the Vote" will have a table, along with Florida Greens and Greenpeace. Union group AFL-CIO will also have a table, as will the American Civil Liberties Union.

Scheduled speakers include several drug policy speakers, Clarice Pollock of the Florida Chapter of the National Organiza-tion for Women and Greg Palast, an investigative reporter for the BBC and author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," a movie that details Florida's flawed presidential election in 2000.

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