Most outrageous statements of 2005

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Most outrageous statements of 2005

Here are the most outrageous statements Media Matters for America has documented this year. From attacks on women, Muslims, and African-Americans to a call for the assassination of a foreign leader to an open invitation for Al Qaeda to "blow up" San Francisco to a claim that gay marriage would lead to unions between "a man and his donkey," these statements acutely represent the extreme conservative speech we found in the news media in 2005. (We tried to limit the comments to a Top 10 list, but it was simply impossible.)

Former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." [Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America, 9/28/05]


Pat Robertson: "If [Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." [Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, 8/22/05]


Bill O'Reilly to San Francisco: "f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. ... You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead." [Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 12/8/05]


Bill O'Reilly, agreeing with caller that illegal immigrants are "biological weapon": "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon the 11 million illegals who are here." [Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 4/15/05]


Rush Limbaugh: "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 8/12/05]


Rush Limbaugh on the kidnapping of peace activists in Iraq: "I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/29/05]


Ann Coulter: Bill Clinton "was a very good rapist"; "I'm getting a little fed up with hearing about, oh, civilian casualties"; "I think we ought to nuke North Korea right now just to give the rest of the world a warning." [New York Observer, 1/10/05]


Ann Coulter: "Isn't it great to see Muslims celebrating something other than the slaughter of Americans?" [Syndicated column, 2/3/05]


Radio host Glenn Beck: "[Y]ou know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims' families? Took me about a year." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, 9/9/05]


Tucker Carlson: "Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada." [MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson, 12/15/05]


American Family Association president Tim Wildmon: Liberals "don't have the kind of family responsibilities most people have, and certainly not church responsibilities." [American Family Radio's Today's Issues, 5/11/05]


David Horowitz on Cindy Sheehan: "It's very hard to have respect for a woman who exploits the death of her own son and doesn't respect her own son's life. ... She portrays him as an idiot." [MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast, 8/16/05]


Radio host Neal Boortz on the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams: "[T]here will be riots in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere. ... The rioting, of course, will lead to wide scale looting. There are a lot of aspiring rappers and NBA superstars who could really use a nice flat-screen television right now." [Boortz.com, 12/12/05]


Pat Buchanan: "Our guys" in Iraq "have got every right to have good news put into the media and get to the people of Iraq, even if it's got to be planted or bought." [MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, 12/1/05]


National Review editor Rich Lowry: Given EPA-mandated "small-flush" toilets, "[h]ow is it possible to flush a Quran down the toilet?" [Young America's Foundation speech, 8/5/05]


Neal Boortz, suggesting that a victim of Hurricane Katrina housed in an Atlanta hotel consider prostitution: "I dare say she could walk out of that hotel and walk 100 yards in either direction on Fulton Industrial Boulevard here in Atlanta and have a job. What's that? Well, no, no, no. ... Well, you know what? [laughing] Now that you mention it ... f that's the only way she can take care of herself, it sure beats the hell out of sucking off the taxpayers." [Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal Boortz Show, 10/24/05]


Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson: Same-sex marriage would lead to "marriage between daddies and little girls ... between a man and his donkey." [Focus on the Family radio program, 10/6/05]


Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid: "Have you noticed that many news organizations, in honor of former ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, have embarked on a quit smoking campaign? So why don't our media launch a campaign advising people to quit engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual lifestyle? ... It appears that the homosexual lifestyle is as addictive as smoking." [Accuracy in Media column, 12/14/05]


http://mediamatters.org/items/200512230006
 
Pretty good. The only thing is, in my opinion, these two quotes were taken out of context to mean something they didn't (or something much worse than they did):

Former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." [Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America, 9/28/05]

Rush Limbaugh on the kidnapping of peace activists in Iraq: "I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/29/05]
Click to expand...

Not that I really care that those people got attacked though.
 
While the Bennett comment was taken out of context, he can certainly be derided for inserting race into the equation when none of the prior conversation he was having with (whomever was the dipshit who wrote Freakonomics) mentioned race at all.

What was the context for Limbaugh's faux pas?
 
[quote name='mykevermin']While the Bennett comment was taken out of context, he can certainly be derided for inserting race into the equation when none of the prior conversation he was having with (whomever was the dipshit who wrote Freakonomics) mentioned race at all.

What was the context for Limbaugh's faux pas?[/QUOTE]
How come you dislike Freakonomics? I admit I've not read it yet (it's sitting on my bookshelf next to wheel of time and asimov books), but my mom, who is a marketing researcher and has a Ph.D in economics absolutely loved it.
 
While I can't claim to have read it, I have a general disdain for economic theory. Perhaps it's laden in jealousy (that economists are more cited in the mainstream press than sociologists), perhaps it's in my general disgust with rational choice explanations (which, IMO, are tautalogical and thus entirely useless). I would like to read the book, but in the meantime, my slander is aimed at the author for being an economist, rather than the content of his book.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']What was the context for Limbaugh's faux pas?[/QUOTE]
http://mediamatters.org/items/200511300010

Apparently, it's in reference to the 4 Christians who were kidnapped by Muslim extremists in Iraq. Essentially, take PAD's argument nad make it a little more digestable, and that's his stance.

He goes on to say:
"[Y]ou've met the bad guys, and you tried your technique on them, and now you're blindfolded in a room with guns pointed at you and knives at your throat. I don't like that." He then added, "But any time a bunch of people that walk around with the head in the sand practicing a bunch of irresponsible, idiotic theory confront reality, I'm kind of happy about it, because I'm eager for people to see reality, change their minds, if necessary, and have things sized up."
Click to expand...
His stance being: "it's my way or the highway".
 
I agree bennets comment was in poor taste. The thing is I can imagine myself making a similar comment in an attempt to ridicule the idea. In fact I'm sure I have made similar comments before (though not about aborting black babies). I'll often use offensive things to make a point, and they are probably very easy to take out of context.

LIMBAUGH: [A]s warped as these people are, you know they're going to blame Bush for this. ... They wouldn't have been kidnapped because they wouldn't have been there in the first place if Bush hadn't gone and caused the war and created all these terrorists. I mean, these people are liberals, they're warped. Well, I mean, that's why there's -- I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this. Probably, even with this, though, you know, they're not going to see the light of day. They're not going to --

At that point, Limbaugh paused before saying, apparently to someone in his studio, "I know, let them take me out of context. I don't care anymore."
Click to expand...

and a little later:

Fine, they get kidnapped. They get kidnapped at gunpoint. If that version of this is true, then -- OK, you've met the bad guys, and you tried your technique on them, and now you're blindfolded in a room with guns pointed at you and knives at your throat. I don't like that. But any time a bunch of people that walk around with the head in the sand practicing a bunch of irresponsible, idiotic theory confront reality, I'm kind of happy about it, because I'm eager for people to see reality, change their minds if necessary, and have things sized up.
Click to expand...

See, to me that's like someone saying that a part of them would have loved to see "brownie" and bush sitting in the stadium in new orleans dying due to lack of food and water. Obviously you don't actually want to see them die like that, but that's not to say a part of you wouldn't find it morbidly humorous.

Its more about seeing your political enemies ideology fall apart and result in their destruction than actually wanting to see them die. That's how I took it anyway.
 
Tucker Carlson: "Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada." [MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson, 12/15/05]
Click to expand...

Well, if theres an easier way for me to hate you, I don't know it.
 
[quote name='Mike23']Well, if theres an easier way for me to hate you, I don't know it.[/QUOTE]
200506_tuckercarlson.jpg


Always with the bowties. ALWAYS. It's his gimmick.
 
You should change the topic title to "most outrageous conservative statements." And I thought there were some really good ones in there, although the Cindy Sheehan one should have in no way be included.
 
Here we have the the "unbiased" Media Matters listing the "outrageous" quotes of 2005 without one left leaning politician, celebrity or Democrat.

Yep, nothing but objectivity here.
 
So what have the right-wing websites assembled, PAD? I'm sure that one visit to the left wing lunacy blog or some similar tripe would lead you to help balance this thread. So quit bitching and do something about it, willya?
 
I think the Bill Bennet quote is very interesting in that it reveals that no matter how much someone claims to not be a racist, there is a subtlty to racism that is always just under the surface.
 
[quote name='RedvsBlue']I think the Bill Bennet quote is very interesting in that it reveals that no matter how much someone claims to not be a racist, there is a subtlty to racism that is always just under the surface.[/QUOTE]
I'm of the school of thought that considers everyone to be a racist; it's not if you are or are not, but what you do to recognize your biases (which is where racial assumptions exist) and try to destroy them. With that in mind, I get frustrated by *any* person who claims to not be racist. Bennett's comments remind me of that, too.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']While I can't claim to have read it, I have a general disdain for economic theory. Perhaps it's laden in jealousy (that economists are more cited in the mainstream press than sociologists), perhaps it's in my general disgust with rational choice explanations (which, IMO, are tautalogical and thus entirely useless). I would like to read the book, but in the meantime, my slander is aimed at the author for being an economist, rather than the content of his book.[/QUOTE]
Lol, most elegant way of saying "I hate economists" that I've ever read.:)
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I'm of the school of thought that considers everyone to be a racist; it's not if you are or are not, but what you do to recognize your biases (which is where racial assumptions exist) and try to destroy them. With that in mind, I get frustrated by *any* person who claims to not be racist. Bennett's comments remind me of that, too.[/QUOTE]

I agree that everyone has prejudices, though I probably wouldn't say everyone is actually racist. Though I simply don't see this as racist, though there's always the possibility it was. Poor choice of words to say on the radio yes, but not really racist. I've used very racist language and suggestions to ridicule ideas before, his suggestion seemed to be done in a similar way. I think I've even used nigger on this site. Bennet was using that suggestion as an example of ridiculous steps you could take, as the caller was talking about abortion being a reason for lost revenue (bennet, while pro life, didn't think this was a good reason to be pro life or even agree with the suggestion). There are a lot of things that theoretically would work but would be totally reprehensible to carry out. We could lower the crime rate somewhat by wiping out populations (such as blacks) that have higher crime rates. We could solve the israel/palestine issue by wiping out jews.

If I said those things on the radio I'd probably have people claiming I just called for the extermination of jews. He was stupid not to realize that, but if he had been speaking in a private atmosphere, on the assumption that people knew crime rate differences, I doubt anyone would have reacted given the context the statement was said in.
 
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