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Four GOP leaders will skip Ann Coulter's visit next week to Modesto Modesto Bee Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter has the right to speak her mind, four Republican leaders said at Monday night's town hall meeting in Turlock. And they all plan to be elsewhere when she visits the area April 28. The Coulter question came up during ...

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Four GOP leaders will skip Ann Coulter's visit next week to Modesto - Modesto Bee

She was one of the Iraq Wars loudest pundit proponents during the Bush administration. But a decade later, those pro-war cheers have turned to protest chants against any escalation in the Middle East.

Anyone old enough to remember the height of the Iraq-War carnage of the early Bush years can recall images and audio of Ann Coultera right-wing columnist and longtime cable-news fixtureappointing herself one of the countrys loudest, most flamboyant war defenders and cheerleaders in national media. Coulters 2003 bestselling book was, after all, titled, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, and in November 2005 bashed the Democrats as gutless traitors.

But just two short administrations later, Coulters Iraq-occupation fandom has melted into an America First aversion to further military meddling in the Middle East. Its a tone and posturing that would make her onetime neoconservative allies and fanboys wince and side-eye.

But only until fairly recently, she had yet to alter her tune on the war in Iraq.

I think Iraq was a crucial part of the war on terrorismif you had to choose between Iraq and Afghanistan, Id take Iraq over Afghanistan, Coulter said on a Fox Business panel, debating anti-war libertarians, in late 2011. PATRIOT Act, fantastic, Gitmo, fantastic, waterboarding, not bad, though [even harsher] torture wouldve been better.

Coulter went on to tell a bewildered John Stossel and Matt Welch that [Iraq] is a fantastic country for regime change, that torture works beautifully, and that position regarding potential blowback or unintended negative consequences to the war were merely a crazy ACLU argument.

Read a syndicated Coulter column from President George W. Bushs first term, you will more than likely find her chiding treasonous Democratic politicians and liberals for being soft on terror and dictatorshipDemocrats werent interested in liberating Afghanistan and Iraq from woman-hating Islamicist fanatics, she wrote, bashing John Kerry and boosting Bush, in July 2004 at the tail end of the Democratic National Convention.

As the war raged on into the closing years of the Bush presidency, Coulter was still calling for more bombing, bigger war, and much less regard for civilian life. Maybe we could fight the [Iraq] war a little harder, she said on MSNBC in June 2007. [We should be] a little less worried about civilian casualtiesId rather have their civilians die than our civilians die.

You stop [fanatics] by bombing their society, Coulter emphasizedindiscriminately, even.

Flash-forward a little over a decade later, and she couldnt be less enthused about overseas bombing. Coulter was one of the earliest and most vociferous supporters of Trumps insurgent presidential campaign, campaigning for him and regularly trying to drum up support for him, even in Hollywood. She sharply broke with the president specifically on his decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian-military airfield earlier this month.

Glad hes not sending troops! [Trump] should fire Nikki Haley and Gen. McMaster, Coulter told The Daily Beast in an email exchange on Tuesday. Constant war was not the platform he ran on. To the contrary, he promised no more disastrous and expensive Middle East wars. Having those two loons ranting and raving about Assad and Putin would be like hiring Luis Gutirrez to run his immigration office.

Asked about her past, big-league support for what she might now call constant war or disastrous and expensive incursions, and if she regrets past support for these wars, she hedged a bit and pointed to her track record of opposing other military interventions.

I am well on the record as opposing most recent wars, Coulter wrote back. I was against Bush 1s Gulf War (in law school so no one knew, other than my friends), against Clinton meddling in the Balkans, against Obamas intervention in Libya and Egypt, FOR Afghanistan, but against [Obama] escalating in Afghanistan (what the fuck is the point of that?). So it was only the Iraq War I staunchly supported and my only regret about that was that this country then elected Barack Obama, who gave our victory away.

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President Obama, while dropping support for Egypts former dictator Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 uprising, did not intervene militarily in Egypt.

These positions are all overI dont have time to look them up for you, Coulter said, before pointing to past columns and speeches. Im all over in 2002-2003 supporting the Iraq War, but NOT because of WMDsthat was just to taunt The New York Times.

The Daily Beast asked Ann if this all means she now agrees that the war in Iraqwhich not too long ago she was still touting as a crucial part of the war on terrorismshould never have been waged in the first place.

YES! But not for the reason liberals say, she emailed.

Its true that no one should mistake Coulters selective anti-intervention positions or motivations as a defection to the anti-war leftism that she has spent years railing against as a fifth column in American society. On Tuesday, for instance, Coulter (who has been very active on social media this month opposing Trumps anti-Assad missile strikes) retweeted a tweet from VDare asking Evan McMullin: why are you so eager to send Americans to fight in Syria?

VDare is a white-nationalist, anti-immigration websitenot exactly the stuff of lefty anti-war dreams.

Still, some of Coulters recent pieces can soundif you isolated certain sentenceslike the musings of an activist college kid who just picked up her first copy of Howard Zinn.

War is like crack for presidents, she wrote in her column, published at Breitbart and The Daily Caller, last week. It confers instant gravitas, catapulting them to respectability, bypassing all station stops. They get to make macho pronouncements on a topic where every utterance is seen as august Trumps Syrian misadventure is immoral, violates every promise he ran on, and could sink his presidency.

Our enemiesboth foreign and domesticwould be delighted to see our broken country further weaken itself with pointless wars, she continued, referring to at least one of the pointless wars to which she once devoted her praise and efforts. Was America strengthened by the Iraq War? The apparently never-ending Afghanistan War? Vietnam? This is how great powers die, which is exactly what the left wants.

Coulter isnt done making the media rounds just yet, with regards to railing against more war in Syria. On Tuesday morning, Fox News host Sean Hannity emailed The Daily Beast that I have her on [my radio show] tomorrow about this topic if you want to tune in.

For Coulter, itll just be another day fighting the good fight against those she dubs the generals straight out of Dr. Strangelove trying to manipulate Donald Trump into starting World War III and toppling brutal dictators.

Someone get Ann Coulter 2004 on the line.

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Ann Coulter Said Anti-War Dems Were Traitors. Now She Says War Is Like Crack for Trump - Daily Beast

Fresno Bee

Fresno mayor, Billy Graham's son, Ann Coulter, others react on Twitter to killing spree Fresno Bee On social media, reaction to Tuesday's fatal shooting of three men in Fresno was swift and emotional. People reached out to the community, the victims' families, and to law enforcement. Many questioned by motives of suspected gunman Kori Ali Muhammad, ... and more »

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Fresno mayor, Billy Graham's son, Ann Coulter, others react on Twitter to killing spree - Fresno Bee

The Berkeley College Republicans have no problem inviting the nations most provocative conservatives to speak on campus and the more outrageous the better, they say. Its good for business.

The Republican student group at famously lefty UC Berkeley says regular meeting attendance has roughly tripled from 20 to nearly 60 since Feb. 1. Thats when masked agitators infiltrated peaceful protesters and caused $100,000 of damage on campus smashing windows and setting police equipment ablaze to stop Milo Yiannopoulos, the self-described dangerous faggot, from giving his pro-Trump, anti-immigration speech. Yiannopoulos, a former columnist for the right-wing Breitbart News site, was escorted off campus for his safety.

Now the Republicans are hosting another columnist and provocateur: Ann Coulter, who labels herself a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative (but a Christian first).

Its only when we invite more provocative speakers that it generates a campus-wide dialogue, said Naweed Tahmas, 20, of the Berkeley College Republicans, noting that his group also invites mainstream conservatives to their weekly meetings: Republican National Committee leaders Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel, for example.

Hundreds of peaceful student demonstrators made clear their views of that strategy on Feb. 1, when they filled Sproul Plaza carrying signs expressing their opposition: Hate Speech is not Free Speech. Fascist-Free Zone. And I Stand for my Muslim Family.

Pranav Jandhyala, 19, co-founded BridgeCal, a group seeking to bridge the political/ideological divide on campus near student housing on Friday, April 7, 2017 in Berkeley, Calif.

Pranav Jandhyala, 19, co-founded BridgeCal, a group seeking to...

The strategy has also prompted a perilous backlash: After supporting Yiannopoulos, Tahmas was one of six in the Republican group whose faces were plastered around campus on a poster titled Know Your Local Baby Fascists. A young man in shorts and tank top was filmed destroying the Berkeley College Republicans sign. And students who signed a paper expressing interest in the group got harassing emails after someone stole the sheet the day following the Yiannopoulos event.

Republican students say they hope to avoid rioting and retaliation this time by co-hosting Coulter with a new moderate student group, BridgeCal, born from the riots ashes and the election years ideological war zone.

BridgeCal seeks to fix the political divide, said freshman Pranav Jandhyala, 19, who founded the UC Berkeley chapter of the national BridgeUSA after rioters beat him and gave him a concussion as he videoed the Yiannopoulos violence for the Tab, a campus news site. BridgeCal is a place where political adversaries can discuss issues in an environment that is respectful and solutions-based.

The concept will soon be tested. Coulter is scheduled to speak about immigration on April 27.

A sampling of her thoughts on that subject:

Illegal aliens have killed, raped and maimed thousands of Americans in America, she opined in a column in 2015. If you dont want to be killed, raped or maimed by illegal immigrants in your own country, I have no tips for you. Theres nothing you can do. Youre on your own. Good luck.

And from a 2013 column: The problem isnt just illegal immigration. I would rather have doctors and engineers sneaking into the country illegally than have legally arriving ditch-diggers.

Coulter has had numerous books on the New York Times best-seller list, including last years In Trump We Trust (No. 17, four spots below the counterpoint Trump Revealed), and her 2006 Godless, which spawned rival best-sellers Soulless and Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter.

All of which leaves college students wrestling with how to deal with the free flow of ideas and their accompanying emotions in an era of extremism.

After the collapse of the Yiannopoulos talk, for example, the Berkeley College Republicans declared that the Free Speech Movement is dead on campus.

Ms. Coulters visit is a crucial second test of whether or not UC Berkeley really is the home of the Free Speech Movement, said the Republican groups Tahmas.

To facilitate that experiment, BridgeCal has invited another speaker on immigration for April 17: Maria Echaveste, former adviser to President Bill Clinton and deputy White House chief of staff.

Echaveste questions whether any serious campus-wide dialogue is actually intended around immigration when Coulter and Yiannopoulos are asked to address it. In January, for example, campus administrators felt it necessary to warn students that Yiannopoulos, known for singling out individuals for humiliation, might use his talk to make immigrant students human targets to serve a political agenda.

I dont believe either of those speakers have a solid grounding in how we develop immigration policies, or the complexities of developing solutions, said Echaveste, who managed immigration reform in the Clinton administration. A former corporate lawyer and administrator in the U.S. Department of Labor, Echaveste graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law and lectures there now. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

What people miss in the debate about immigration is, they ignore the human spirit, she said. Weve been migrating since the dawn of time people worldwide are willing to risk their lives to better themselves and flee war and terror. Were never going to quench that spirit. But managing it requires lots of intervention.

Echaveste is speaking for free.

Photo: Paul Kuroda, Special To The Chronicle

Naweed Tahmas, 20, is a member of the Berkeley College Republicans, pose in front of an American flag on Friday, April 7, 2017 in Berkeley, Calif.

Naweed Tahmas, 20, is a member of the Berkeley College Republicans, pose in front of an American flag on Friday, April 7, 2017 in Berkeley, Calif.

UC Berkeley Republicans test limits again with Ann Coulter speech

Coulter is charging $20,000. BridgeCal will kick in $3,000 of the fee, while the rest will come from Young Americans for Freedom, part of a national lobbying group that operates a conservative speakers bureau for college campuses. The Berkeley College Republicans expect to pay whatever security fee campus police require.

Despite Coulters lack of immigration expertise, Tahmas and Jandhyala say their intention is very much to get students talking with each other in civil tones.

Toward that end, BridgeCal is inviting students who are in the country without documentation to attend Coulters talk to create a dialogue between her and the UC Berkeley community a community who disagrees with her so vehemently, Jandhyala said.

Tahmas said: The invitation is to pose questions to Ann Coulter and challenge her beliefs. We believe this is crucial so we understand each other better.

One freshman who expects to attend both events asked to be identified by her first name, Kimberly, because she and her family have no immigration papers. They arrived from Mexico when Kimberly was 6.

Unless youre Native American, youre an immigrant. And thats the reality of it, said Kimberly, who hasnt yet decided what question shell ask Coulter. But in response to Coulters emphasis on violent crimes committed by some in the country illegally, she plans to say that just because one person does something inappropriate does not mean that you should assume that of everyone in that culture.

She said she might use her own family as an example, pointing out that they ran away from a country that will never give us what we deserve as human beings.

Meanwhile, Tahmas said the biggest disagreement now is between the Republicans and the administration, which wants to push the Coulter talk to a remote property, while the students want it on the main campus.

The Republican group just canceled a talk by another right-wing speaker, David Horowitz, after the campus gave it a 1 p.m. time slot at its Clark Kerr campus 10 blocks away. Sophomore Pieter Sittler, a vice president with the group, told campus officials that the event wasnt worth the expense because too few students would show up at that time and place.

Conservative bloggers with Heat Street and Breitbart News reported that Horowitz accused the campus of taking a page out of Orwell, censoring him.

But Sittler said his group hadnt given the campus enough time to plan. The university is understandably trying to avoid another Milo Yiannopoulos fiasco. (And campus police) strongly recommended that the event take place during the day.

Tahmas said he has agreed to hold the Coulter event at 5 p.m., instead of 7:30 p.m.

Campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said, This university remains committed to the constitutional guarantee of free speech. But because its on campus, the university cant abdicate its responsibility for safety.

Evidence of a significant Coulter protest hasnt yet surfaced. By contrast, weeks before the Yiannopoulos event, UC Berkeley administrators were bombarded with demands to cancel the talk which the First Amendment prevented them from doing and warnings of trouble if they did not.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov

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UC Berkeley Republicans test limits again with Ann Coulter speech - San Francisco Chronicle

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On the other hand, Trumps Syrian misadventure is immoral, violates every promise he ran on, and could sink his presidency.

Left to his own devices, uncontaminated by Washington group-think, Trump gets it right.

Back in 2013, when President Obama was being egged on to attack Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack far more sweeping than this latest one, Trump tweeted:

Aug. 29, 2013:

What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long term conflict? Obama needs Congressional approval.

Aug. 31, 2013:

Be prepared, there is a small chance that our horrendous leadership could unknowingly lead us into World War III.

Sept. 1, 2013:

If the U.S. attacks Syria and hits the wrong targets, killing civilians, there will be worldwide hell to pay. Stay away and fix broken U.S.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly stated that he had no interest in starting World War III over Syria, saying, We have bigger problems than Assad. His policy position was: Let Syria and ISIS fight. I look at Assad and Assad looks better than the other side.

Trump was right on every point.

Assad is one of the least bad leaders in the entire Middle East. Hes not a murderous thug like Saddam, has no rape rooms, isnt into jihad, protects Christians, and is fighting ISIS. He provided us with intelligence on al-Qaida after 9/11. He does not have crazy Islamic police slapping women around or throwing gays off buildings. (That would be our beloved ally, Saudi Arabia.)

Trump was also correct about Assads opponents being far worse, containing large helpings of both ISIS and al-Qaida.

As awful as it was to see those dead children, Trump knew that Americas first duty is to our own children.

We have never succeeded at turning a Third World dictatorship into a paradise. The history of these things is that removing a Middle Eastern strongman always makes things worse for example, in Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Egypt.

We leap in, thinking were helping the poor devils under the thumb of a dictator and then the new tribe takes over and oppresses everyone else, usually much more brutally, while hating us even more than the old tribe did.

If voters wanted more Middle Eastern wars, there were plenty of other candidates offering that: Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina, and Hillary Clinton, for example. And we must never forget Jeb! though it proved surprisingly easy to do so in 2016.

But we picked Trump.

While most of the left wailed about the return of Nazi Germany under Trump, savvier liberals saw his vulnerability: flattery. All we have to do is praise him! Youll be shocked at how easy it is.

And, boy, did they lay it on thick with the Syrian misadventure. No suckers bait was left on the floor. Cable news hosts gushed, Trump became president of the United States tonight! On MSNBC, Brian Williams called the bombing beautiful three times in less than a minute. Sen. Lindsey Graham (one of the women of the Senate, according to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) compared Trump to Reagan. The New York Times headlined an article, On Syria Attack, Trumps Heart Came First.

My nightmare scenario: Trump and Jared watching TV together and high-fiving: DID YOU SEE THE NEWS! THEY LOVE YOU! All Trump had to do was pointlessly bomb another country, and it was as if a genie had granted his every wish.

Looking for some upside to this fiasco, desperate Trump supporters bleated that bombing Assad had sent a message to North Korea. Yes, the message is: The Washington establishment is determined to manipulate the president into launching counterproductive military strikes. Our enemies both foreign and domestic would be delighted to see our broken country further weaken itself with pointless wars.

Was America strengthened by the Iraq War? The apparently never-ending Afghanistan War? Vietnam? This is how great powers die, which is exactly what the left wants.

Administration policy was heading in the wrong direction at 90 mph, but thank God, Trump seems to have grabbed the steering wheel and hit the brakes. Notwithstanding the hopes and dreams of Clausewitzian military strategist Nikki Haley, we will not be engaging in regime change in Syria or starting World War III with Russia today.

We want the president of America back not the president of the world.

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Ann Coulter: Lassie, Come Home - Breitbart News