Hate speech of the week

I knew eventually Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh would join Hate Speech of the Week together. Imagine their love child. No, don't! Stick needles in my eyes.

First up, Rush stereotypes African-American males. Black men can't swim:

Limbaugh originally asserted that saying "blacks can't swim" "is not a racial or racist comment at all" while "handicap[ping]" the new season of Survivor. He also stated that Hispanics have "probably shown the most survival tactics," that they "have shown a remarkable ability to cross borders," and that they can "do it without water for a long time. They don't get apprehended, and they will do things other people won't do."

In the context of reporting on Limbaugh's remarks about African-Americans and swimming, Costello noted recent comments by Tramm Hudson, a Republican candidate for a Florida congressional seat, who stated that "blacks are not the greatest swimmers or may not even know how to swim." Hudson has apologized for his comments, calling them "stupid."

Denial, denial, denial is Rush's main calling card. His remarks about African-American quarterback Donovan McNab got him booted from ESPN, and now according to Rush, black men can't swim. On race, you can rely on Limbaugh to espouse what hooded klansmen would salute.

Not to be outdone, Ann Coulter turned the channel to V is for Violence by advocating murder:

Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter titled her August 30 syndicated column on the Rhode Island Senate race: "They Shot the Wrong Lincoln." The headline is a reference to Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), whom she excoriated throughout the piece -- calling him a "half-wit" and a "silver-spooned moron[] -- while expressing her support for his challenger in the September 12 Republican primary, Stephen Laffey.

This is not the first time Coulter has alluded to killing those she disagrees with:

• Commenting on radio host Melanie Morgan's assertion that if New York Times executive editor Bill Keller were convicted of treason she "would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber," Coulter said, "I prefer a firing squad, but I'm open to a debate on the method of execution." She later suggested that Times staff members should be "executed."
• Coulter said of the media: "Would that it were so! ... That the American military were targeting journalists."
• Coulter suggested that Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) is "the reason soldiers invented fragging," -- military slang meaning the intentional killing of a member of one's own unit.
• Coulter argued that the national debate during the Monica Lewinsky controversy should not have focused on whether former President Bill Clinton "did it," but rather "whether to impeach or assassinate" him.
• Coulter said of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: "We need somebody to put rat poison in Justice Stevens's créme brulée.''

You can count on Ann for the most outrageous hate speech next to, oh, I don't know, maybe the lunatic ravings of a terrorist madman. And America publishing and media reward Coulter with book deals and TV appearances for exactly why? How come she isn't in jail?

Spittle sightings courtesy Media Matters of America.