Conservative Violence

Earlier this week, Tim Profitt, who was at the time the Bourbon County campaign coordinator for KeEntucky GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul, stomped on a female MoveOn.org activist's head outside a debate between Paul and his Democratic opponent Jack Conway. Profitt threw the activist, Lauren Valle, to the ground and then smashed her head to the pavement with his foot. Valle was taken to the hospital where she was treated for a concussion and a sprained arm. Conway supporter Michael Grossman said a Paul supporter also assaulted him at the same event. Despite recently touting Profitt's endorsement, Paul distanced himself from the incident but refused to return Profitt's $2,000 campaign donation. Just two weeks prior, private security guards for Alaska GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller physically restrained a local blogger who was trying to ask Miller questions during a campaign event. While this incident did not mirror the brutality of Profitt's attack, it -- along with the incident outside the Paul-Conway debate -- is emblematic of a wider pattern of violence coming from the right wing, or threats of violence, scattered throughout the past two years. Indeed, as progressive blogger Digby noted on Daily Kos, "The average American is frightened and confused while the rightwing is excited and overstimulated. The toxic combination of Bircerism, big money, xenophobia and social conservatism that defines the Tea Party is happening at a moment of maximum danger."


(the guy is an idiot)

Ode to conservatives

Ann Coulter To Headline 'Homocon' Event For Gay Conservatives

One of the more ridiculous things I have read:

Conservative pundit and unlikely gay ally Ann Coulter is set to headline the first annual Homocon, "a party to celebrate gay conservatives" put on by GOProud, the "only national organization representing gay conservatives." The festivities are scheduled to take place in New York City on September 25.

"The gay left has done their best to take all the fun out of politics, with their endless list of boycotts and protests. Homocon is going to be our annual effort to counter the 'no fun police' on the left," said Christopher Barron, Chairman of the Board of GOProud, in a statement. "I can't think of any conservative more fun to headline our inaugural party then the self-professed 'right-wing Judy Garland' - Ann Coulter."

"I can promise you, Homocon 2010 will be a hell of a lot more fun than chaining yourself to the White House fence," Baron pledged, making light of an incident earlier this year where gay soldiers protesting the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy chained themselves to the gates of the White House.

In choosing Coulter, the organizers of GOProud appear willing to ignore her past transgressions against the gay community. The conservative pundit was condemned by gay-rights groups in 2007 when shenotoriously called then-Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot."

And earlier this year, Coulter railed against "irritating lesbian" Constance McMillen for challenging the sanctimony of heterosexual-only proms.

But Coulter's selection probably won't be surprising to many gay rights groups who have pointed out that GOProud sometimes exhibits self-destructive behavior. Earlier this year, the gay conservative group planned a fundraiser with Doug Manchester, a California businessman and hotelier who donated $125,000 to anti-gay marriage Proposition 8.

That fundraiser was held earlier this month in an event that GOProud called an effort by Manchester to "make financial amends with the gay community," which had mounted a boycott of Manchester's hotels and accused him of treating his gay employees poorly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/06/ann-coulter-to-headline-a_n_673313.html