Coulter wannabe highlights speaker series

Here’s no surprise; Cleary University’s Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series has brought in more right-wingers.

As I have said numerous times, the stated mission of the series is to “enrich the Livingston County community by hosting speakers who can share a broad spectrum of social, political, intellectual and cultural experiences,” but they continue to bring in some of the most inflammatory right-wingers you can imagine, such as Anne Coulter, Dick Morris, Steve Emerson and Michael Reagan. This time they are doubling down on the hate for the 2011 series, and bringing in Coulter waannabe Michelle Malkin and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R- Tennessee.

The good news is they are bringing in a semi-Democrat in Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards. She has been in the news lately because her husband was involved in a sex scandal, and I’m sure every mention of her appearance will also mention that.

The series is actually bringing in some non-right-wingers like Olympic swimmer Peter VanderKaay and sports agent David Arluck. But the fact remains that the school brings in the most vile and partisan right-wingers it can find.

Columnist and blogger Malkin isn’t as racist as Coulter, but she is just as hateful. It seems like the most disgusting and outrageous things people like Malkin and Coulter say, the fatter their bank account gets. Coulter’s star seems to be in decline, so she needs to produce more outrageous and hateful sound bites to get back on faux “news” more.

During the 2004 Presidential election, Malkin said Democratic Presidential nominee and decorated Vietnam War hero John Kerry shot himself to earn his Purple Hearts, insulting Kerry and every single veteran who ever won a medal or decoration. She shouldn’t be very popular in Michigan after saying those people who are unemployed want to be out of a job and are lazy.

During an appearance on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos last year, Malkin suggested that extending unemployment benefits was a cause of the high unemployment rates of 2009. She said she opposed another 13-week extension of unemployment benefits because "if you put enough government cheese in front of people they are going to just keep eating it and kicking the can down the road.”

We must have a lot of government cheese eaters in Michigan.

Frist, a physician, served two terms as a Republican U.S. Senator representing Tennessee, and his most highly publicized action was during the Terri Schiavo fiasco in 2005. After just reviewing videotapes of Schiavo, he floated the diagnosis that Schiavo was not someone who is in persistent vegetative state. After she passed away later in the year the autopsy confirmed she had indeed suffered devastating brain damage and was in a persistent vegetative state.

Michael Reagan is the latest racist rightwing hatemonger to speak in Livingston County

Cleary University’s Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series has brought in some of the most vile, racist rightwing tools to speak, and they did not disappoint with hatemonger Michael Reagan set to speak next month for a cool 20 grand plus expenses.

The stated mission of the series is to “enrich the Livingston County community by hosting speakers who can share a broad spectrum of social, political, intellectual and cultural experiences,” but the bigots they have brought in do nothing but bring the political discussion to the gutter. They are also almost all right-wingers. We have seen the likes of Ann Coulter, Steve Emerson and Dick Morris. Non-right-wingers have been few and far between.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards, will be a speaker on Oct. 7, but her appearance was timed more to embarrass her husband after the news of his infidelity broke.

Like Emerson - who is a self-proclaimed “terrorism expert” simply for narrating a Richard Mellon Scaife-funded documentary called “Jihad in America” - Reagan is making a name for himself and getting rich for his racist, anti-Arab views, and he is following the Coulter business model of the more outrageous things you say the more you are in demand in right wing circles and the more money you make.

We can expect that lack of diversity and divisiveness to continue at Cleary. The speakers the steering committee is seeking to appear in 2011 include former Republican Arkansas Governor and Faux “news“ host Mike Huckabee; conservative hatemonger and Ann Coulter wannabe Michelle Malkin and former Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. The balance? U.S. Winter Olympians Apolo Ohno, Julia Mancuso and Hannah Kearney. Please.

Reagan has called one of Michigan’s most successful cites, Dearborn, “Dearbornistan.” The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus took the easy way out and called Reagan “a recognized conservative firebrand” instead of the bigot that he is.

Reagan told the paper that “ the highly Muslim-populated city of Dearborn is home to many people connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, as well as actual terrorists.” He went on to say that he has no proof, but that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.

What is even funnier - but not as funny as Reagan’s take on Gov. Jennifer Granholm - is the comments of Cleary University President Tom Sullivan, who has to be the most misinformed person in the county. He claims, “he's never heard Reagan speak.” His comments were similar to what he said when the controversy over Coulter broke when he blamed bloggers for the community being upset and a board member resiging over the decision to pay her $30,000 to spread hate.

Sullivan said “he's not "particularly bothered" by Reagan's comments because the speaker series strives to attract diverse voices that engage thought on social, political and economic issues.” Aghain, what diversity?

Reagan’s take on the Michigan economy shows he is as misinformed as Sullivan. Reagan said the “country's economic downfall started in Michigan, and that the other 49 states followed suit and "became Michigan."
"You people elected the wrong governor. It's like, 'Why don't we get the captain of the Titanic to come back and sail ships across the ocean?' " Reagan said.

So, it was the Governor who stopped buying U.S. autos and sent two of the Big 3 into bankruptcy, and it was the Governor who caused the subprime mortgage crisis that almost killed the U.S. economic system and caused the worst recession since the Great Depression? Give me a break.

Not only is Reagan a bigot, he’s an idiot.

Reagan, 65, is the adopted son of conservative hero Ronald Reagan and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman. Reagan claims “his anti-tax message is rooted in his childhood, when his father told him he couldn't get a raise in his allowance until the former president got a cut in taxes.”

Wow. What a skin flint. That was when saint Ronnie was a liberal Democrat and the head of a labor union, and it was also the year he divorced his wife.

Newspaper gives itself a pat on the back for promoting racist hatemonger

Only in the office of the general manager of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus would you give someone a pat on the back for bringing in rightwing hatemonger Ann Coulter to speak.

But that’s the case, and the Press & Argus editorialized on Friday that Clearly University “deserves applause” for bringing in Coulter to speak back in October of 2007 - sponsored, coincidently by the paper - for its annul Livingston Economic Club speakers series. The business college paid the queen of hate $30,000 plus expenses for a 90-minuytge hate, filled tirade, and it touched of months of protests in conservative Livingston County.

The Livingston 2001 Diversity Council denounced her appearance, and a Cleary board member even resigned in protest.

The mission of the economic club is “to enrich the Livingston County community by hosting speakers who can share a broad spectrum of social, political, intellectual and cultural experiences.” But they continue to bring in right-wingers, with a few actual business people and a journalist. Not much of a “broad spectrum.”

Past speakers have included Clinton-hater Dick Morris, Faux “news” commentator John Stossel and alleged terrorist expert Steve Emerson. Basically, the Faux “news” lineup.

The editorial is really a promo for the 2010 speaker series, and the rightwing parade continues. Plans are to bring in another rightwing hatemonger, rightwing radio host Michael Reagan. Among the many vile and hate-filled rants from Reagan include calling for the murder of supporters of the 9/11 Truth Movement. He seems to follow the rightwing career path of the more hateful and disgusting things you say, the more money you make.

I don’t know if they’re paying $30,000 in this kind of economy like they paid Coulter, or does Reagan have to say more hateful things to reach the income bracket Coulter has reached?

To blunt criticism of bloggers like me, they are bringing in Elizabeth Edwards, wife of two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. In fact, she has written a book about her fight against cancer and her husband’s betrayal and infidelity. I have a lot of respect for her, but if I were cynical and with all the news about Edwards fathering a child and alleged spousal abuse, I might think her appearance is timed just to embarrass Democrats.

But knowing how fair and balanced Cleary and the newspaper are, that’s impossible.