Earlier this month, the new gay conservative group GOProud vowed to put the “fun” back in politics at next month’s inaugural Homocon Conference by featuring special guest, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. In an apparent lack of imagination, GOProud Board Chairman Christopher Barron said he “could not think of any conservative more fun” than the “the right-wing Judy Garland,” a nickname Coulter suggested herself.

Fellow right-wing groups have rebuked her decision. Rick Scarborough of right-wing Christian group Vision America said Coulter “can’t hold herself forth as a defender of traditional values while playing footsie with homosexual groups.” Scarborough called on conservatives to boycott her books to show “this betrayal to our values is not without cost.” Americans For Truth About Homosexuality President Peter LaBarbera asked Coulter to reconsider speaking to the “phony homosexual ‘conservatives.’” To him, it is akin to speaking before “Republicans for Responsible Porn Use” and sends a “dangerous message to young Americans that homosexuality is OK. (It’s actually a sin.)”

But the right-wing publication World Net Daily landed the biggest blow to its “superstar” contributor yesterday when it dumped her as a keynote speaker for its Taking America Back National Conference next month. In a “gut-wrenching” decision, WND CEO Joseph Farah said he had to drop Coulter for abetting GOProud’s “infiltration of the conservative movement” with its “twisted and dangerous ideas” and validating its “coup” by helping GOProud raise money. Coulter fired back, saying she speaks for groups all the time that she does not endorse, including WND, who is “nuts on the birther thing”:

“Asked by Farah why she was speaking to GOProud, Coulter said: “They hired me to give a speech, so I’m giving a speech. I do it all the time.”

Farah then asked: “Do you not understand you are legitimizing a group that is fighting for same-sex marriage and open homosexuality in the military – not to mention the idea that sodomy is just an alternate lifestyle?”

Coulter responded: “That’s silly, I speak to a lot of groups and do not endorse them. I speak at Harvard and I certainly don’t endorse their views. I’ve spoken to Democratic groups and liberal Republican groups that loooove abortion. The main thing I do is speak on college campuses, which is about the equivalent of speaking at an al-Qaida conference. I’m sure I agree with GOProud more than I do with at least half of my college audiences. But in any event, giving a speech is not an endorsement of every position held by the people I’m speaking to. I was going to speak for you guys, I think you’re nuts on the birther thing (though I like you otherwise!).”

In response to LaBarbera’s censure, GOProud Board Chairman Christopher Barron scoffed, “If Mr. LaBarbera spent less time obsessing about gay sex and hanging out at gay Pride events,” then maybe he would not be so “completely clueless” about “what Ann has actually written and said about gay people and gay conservatives.”

Indeed, Coulter is loud and proud in her gay-bashing. At this year’s CPAC, Coulter denounced “liberal elites” by launching a bigoted attack against Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools Kevin Jennings. She is also comfortable throwing anti-gay slurs at her political enemies, calling Al Gore a “total fag” in 2006 and then-presidential candidate John Edwards (D) a “faggot” in 2007. Such open hostility begs the question of why GOProud would want to provide her a platform. Unless, of course, this is the group’s idea of “fun.”

Ann Coulter was supposed to speak at the University of Ottawa yesterday, but she had to cancel after “organizers said security could not guarantee her safety from protesters outside.” Security officials advised that she not appear after 2,000 “threatening” student protesters showed up:

“Ann Coulter should go back to where she came from because we don’t want her back here,” shouted Ellen Ocran, a University of Ottawa student in a shouting match with a Coulter backer.

A protest organizer, international studies student Mike Fancie, said he was happy they were able to stop Coulter from speaking.

“What Ann Coulter is practising is not free speech, it’s hate speech,” he said. “She’s targeted the Jews, she’s targeted the Muslims, she’s targeted Canadians, homosexuals, women, almost everybody you could image.”

Coulter has had many run-ins with student protesters, including two men at the University of Arizona who threw a pie at her during one of her speeches.

Students were reportedly “emboldened” to protest Coulter after Francois Houle, the university’s vice-president academic and provost, sent the right-wing pundit a stern letter telling her to use “restraint, respect and consideration” in her remarks and to review the country’s hate speech and defamation laws. However, they were also spurred by her comment on Monday at the University of Western Ontario when she told a Muslim student to “take a camel” instead of flying.

Coulter has responded to the incident with her typical class, bashing the school, all non-Ivy League schools, Canada, and Muslims:

“The University of Ottawa is really easy to get into, isn’t it?” she said in an interview after the cancelled event. “I never get any trouble at the Ivy League schools. It’s always the bush league schools.”

Coulter said she has been speaking regularly at university campuses for a decade. While she has certainly been heckled, she said this is the first time an engagement has been cancelled because of protesters.

“This has never, ever, ever happened before — even at the stupidest American university,” she said. [...]

“I would like to know when this sort of violence, this sort of protest, has been inflicted upon a Muslim — who appear to be, from what I’ve read of the human rights complaints, the only protected group in Canada. I think I’ll give my speech tomorrow night in a burka. That will protect me.”

In the past, Coulter has bashed Canada, saying, “They’d better hope the United States doesn’t roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.” Coulter is in the middle of “a three-city tour of Canada.” She was also recently denounced in the House of Commons by New Democrat MP Olivia Chow, who accused Conservatives of being hypocritical in allowing Coulter into the country, but not British MP George Galloway.

Far-right pundit Ann Coulter will be in Canada this week for “a trio of speaking engagements,” including one at the University of Ottawa. In advance of her visit, a senior official at the school sent Coulter a letter warning her to use “restraint, respect and consideration” in her remarks and telling her to review the country’s hate speech and defamation laws. From the letter:

I would, however, like to inform you, or perhaps remind you, that our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or “free speech”) in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here.

You will realize that Canadian law puts reasonable limits on the freedom of expression. For example, promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges. Outside of the criminal realm, Canadian defamation laws also limit freedom of expression and may differ somewhat from those to which you are accustomed. I therefore ask you, while you are a guest on our campus, to weigh your words with respect and civility in mind.

In the past, Coulter has bashed Canada, saying, “They’d better hope the United States doesn’t roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.” In response to the letter, Coulter writes, “I was hoping for a fruit basket, not a threat to prosecute.”

Following Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner over Detroit, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter has dedicated the last few days to reviving the myth that Obama attended a radical Islamic madrassa as a child in Indonesia. According to Coulter, that puts his administration in a unique position to institute racial profiling to prevent future attacks.

Coulter began the week on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor deceptively insisting that since Obama attended madrassas and has brown skin, that means that “if anyone can say we’re going to look for radical Islamists, it ought to be President Obama.” On the December 30 edition of Fox News’ Glenn Beck, Coulter once again promoted the madrassa lie as a way to justify and encourage racial profiling by the Obama administration:

…If anything, I mean — I mean, they kept using it as a selling point that Obama would throw Islamic radicals on their hind legs when they look up and they see someone who studies with [sic: studied at] madrassas and they see the “Great Satan” has a president with a brown face and the world is going to love us. [...]

And like I say, Obama can be doing more than Bush. He is specially situated that way, as having gone to madrassas as a child, not being a white male, which is, you know, the height of political incorrectness, but just the contrary, we’re moving in exactly doing the — making — repeating the worst mistakes of the Bush administration.

Watch it:

Media Matters points out that the madrassa lie, which was initially reported as truth in Insight Magazine and then promoted on Fox & Friends, was debunked back in 2007 by CNN. Though Fox News was forced to “clarify” its report two years ago, no one from Fox jumped in to correct or challenge Coulter’s claims this week.

Back in 2006, Coulter argued that profiling Muslims is justified because it’s just like “profiling the Klan.” Despite the growing chorus of right-wingers exploiting last week’s failed terrorist attack to renew their call for racial and ethnic profiling, data shows such tactics represent “a flawed law enforcement tactic that diverts precious anti-terrorism resources, alienates potential allies in the anti-terrorism struggle, and is inconsistent with cherished notions of freedom and equality.”

Last night on CNN Headline News, Joy Behar discussed the antics of Glenn Beck with right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. “The thing with him is he’s become the face of the Republican party,” Behar said. “I love Glenn Beck!” Coulter pronounced, leading to this exchange:

BEHAR: Do you really? Really?

COULTER: Yeah.

BEHAR: Because people hate him more than they used to hate you. Are you jealous?

COULTER: A little bit jealous. And I think you get that with many conservatives attacking him.

But Coulter said Beck “isn’t our leader,” adding, “We don’t have a leader.” Watch it: