I got video of Ann and of the protesters outside Wednesday night.
Protesters Protesters Protesters New Videos
Mickey Kaus sat a few seats to my left during Ann’s talk. Andrew Breitbart stood in the back.
The auditorium at the Annenberg School of Communications sat about 300 people, almost all of them pro-Ann.
(About 100 people milled around upstairs watching Coulter on closed-circuit TV including the Surfing Rabbi Nachum Shifren.)
I sat next to a couple of Christian youth from Azusa Pacific University.
Half the crowd rose to give Ann a standing ovation when she walked in and 95% of the crowd rose to applaud her at the end.
Outside of the Annenberg complex, about 30 protesters held up placards and chanted: "Down with Coulter, stop the war!"
"Hey hey, ho ho, racist bitch has got to go!"
At times, there was a civil dialogue between Ann fans and the protesters. Nobody got nasty.
USC Hillel’s Reform Rabbi Susan Laemle hung out with the protesters, giving one of the leaders a big hug. He kept yelling, "Why are we bringing a hatemonger to a research institution?"
Three minutes into this video, a woman from Russia excoriates the protesters. "You have no idea what fascism is. You haven’t come from Russia or from Germany."
Her husband tugs her away.
A young white right-winger tells the protesters: "Save your voices for the pledge of allegiance tomorrow!"
They chant back: "Stop the war! Stop the hate!"
A man who says he served in Iraq tells the protesters: "The first medal of honor winner in Iraq was killed helping an Iraqi lady across the street."
The chants resume: "Stop the war!" "Stop the hate!"
"Fascists off campus! Fascists off campus!"
Rabbi Laemmle’s friend yells: "If anyone is interested in what true fascism is, the definition of fascism started by Mussolini in Italy is when the corporation merges with the state. The people you call Islamo-fascists are fighting for the people’s causes… There’s never been a more fascist threat than Bush’s America."
Protester tells the ex-soldier: "It’s not the soldiers fault. You were used."
I’m told the USC administration limited Coulter’s speech to the relatively small Annenberg auditorium because it was easier and less expensive to provide security there.
Kip Payne, Vice-Chair of USC College Republicans, says: "The USC College Republicans chose Annenberg Auditorium as the location and oversaw the security arrangements for Ms Coulter’s speech. The USC administration had no hand in any of the planning or funding of the event."
I kept expecting audience members to rise up in protest during Ann’s speech but nobody did.
I arrived at Annenberg at 4 p.m. Organizers were setting up tables. There was a feeling of excitement in the air that steadily increased in intensity as the place filled up.
An odd intense middle-aged man with a pot belly arrived early, carrying a cardboard sign that read: "Christians = Pagans = Heathens = Burn In Hell."
Sorry Brad Greenberg.
An acquaintance showed up with four Ann Coulter books for her to sign. This was his 40th birthday present to himself.
Michael Finch got me in to the speech.
The event was part of "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," a nationwide effort by the David Horowitz Freedom Center to "confront the two Big Lies of the political left; that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat," according to Horowitz’s Terrorism Awareness website. It was sponsored by the USC College Republicans and USC Objectivist Club and underwritten by both the Freedom Center and the Young America’s Foundation.
Coulter, self-admittedly notorious for making controversial and offensive remarks, addressed why she believes the Democratic Party enables Islamofascism, criticized liberal stances on both international and domestic policy, with a focus on foreign policy in the Middle East and the Iraq War, and addressed the threat of religious fundamentalism.
She said that 9/11 was "the greatest hate crime in world history" and that Guantanamo Bay looks more like a freshman dorm than a detention center, in response to a recent report that some detainees have gained 20 lbs.
…Perhaps the most notable part of the event was that Coulter encountered no interruptions. In 2005, she cut short her speech because of jeering at the University of Connecticut, and in 2004 she dodged a pie thrown at her at the University of Arizona.
