Calling bullshit, sight unseen.

A challenge for my readers: Over at Daimnation, Damian Penny apparently wants to show that we're all equally repulsive in terms of bloggery hate speech, or something like that (DO NOT FOLLOW THAT LINK YET):

The Coulters of the left

Patterico compiles a long list of repulsive rhetoric by left-wing commentators - and he doesn't even include Ted Rall or Michael Moore.

The point of this list is not to argue that leftists are more hateful than conservatives. There are many documented examples of hate speech on the right; Ann Coulter provides many examples, but she is not the only one. I publish this list simply to rebut the Greenwald-spawned canard that leftist hate speech is exclusively the province of anonymous trolls on the Internet. On the contrary, prominent leftists have said some pretty awful things.

There are more examples, and a vigorous debate, in his comment section. Surely we can all agree that there are plenty of wingnuts on both sides, right?

So, apparently we on the Left are just as guilty of racist, sexist, homophobic hate speech as Ann Coulter. That would come as a bit of a surprise to me but let's take Damian's indirect claim at face value.

Now, without actually following that link above (which I haven't since it seems to be unavailable at the moment so I finally gave up), I want my readers to suggest who they think Patterico might have in mind that could possibly compete with the right-wing stardom of Ann Coulter. See, I'm going to guess that the vast majority of Patterico's examples don't even remotely rise to Coulter's level of right-wing infamy and adoration. Rather, I'm betting Patterico is going to be giving us strictly third-tier "liberals" and claiming that this somehow evens everything out.

As I said, I haven't followed the link yet, and you shouldn't either until you make a guess or two. Personally, I'm going to toss out the names of Ward Churchill and Deb Frisch since, as we all know, those two are exactly equivalent to folks like Coulter in terms of importance.

And now, your guesses. No cheating.

OH, LORD ... TALK ABOUT LAME. So I finally decided to pop over to Patterico's and ... what utter, unadulterated rubbish. Let's look at a few examples of Patterico's leftist hate speech, shall we?

First, from the Washington Post's Richard Cohen:

"For hypocrisy, for sheer gall, [Newt] Gingrich should be hanged."

OK, then, hands up, everyone who thinks Cohen was seriously suggesting Gingrich should be hanged. Come on, now -- let's see those hands. Yeah, I thought as much. It's called "hyperbole," but it's even funnier when you read the quote in full:

"But being a loathsome figure in this affair is not a crime and not cause for prosecution. If it were, we would have to do something about Starr himself, not to mention the gaggle of political figures who waxed indignant about Clinton's affair while they, as it turned out, did not exactly have a clean slate themselves. In this regard, justice and history itself demand that I mention Newt Gingrich, who unfailingly denounced the President for moral and legal transgressions while carrying on his own extramarital affair. For hypocrisy, for sheer gall, Gingrich should be hanged."

Yes, it really does read differently when you get the full paragraph, doesn't it? But let's not stop here.

Here's Chris Rock:

If President Clinton would pardon me I would whip Starr’s ass right now. I will get a crew from Brooklyn and we will stomp him like, like, we’re Savion Glover. We’ll stomp him like it’s bringing da noise.

Yeah ... comedian Chris Rock. That one's not even worth the pixels to refute. Movin' on, here's crazed, lunatic Howard Dean:

I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for ...

And your problem with that is? Oh, and this one's just precious, from Daily Kos' Markos Zuniga:

I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

It's going to pretty tough for me to take exception with that sentiment since, well, I said much the same thing a couple years ago:

No, Gary, they weren't patriots or heroes over which we should shed any tears. They were, according to your own newsletter, a bunch of trigger-happy play soldiers who were encouraged to get their jollies shooting Iraqis. And now they're dead. Fuck 'em.

The rest of Patterico's list is similarly pathetically lame. Jesus, is this the best they can do?

WHY DAMIAN PENNY IS SUCH A DICKWAD: You know, I wouldn't be so upset if Penny had titled his post, "People not on the Right who say unpleasant and offensive things," or something like that. Instead, he had the dumbass temerity to call it "The Coulters of the Left," as if the Left has anyone who even remotely competes with Coulter in terms of sheer fame, adoration, production and all-out seething ideological hatred.

So, just for the entertainment value, I'm going to throw it out as a challenge to identify a "liberal" who compares with Coulter on that score. Let's go, wankers, I want a name.