Most outrageous comments of 2009

Outrageous comments are nothing new to the conservative media -- one might even call them a defining characteristic. The Most Outrageous Comment of the 2009 came when Fox News host Glenn Beck asserted that Obama is a "racist" who has "exposed himself as a guy" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture," but right-wing media figures made plenty of other unhinged remarks throughout the year:

Racially charged remarks

The election of the first black U.S. president led to a slew of racially charged comments that were truly outrageous:

• Limbaugh on Obama: "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black"
• Jesse Lee Peterson: "I think we all agree that Barack Obama was elected by, mostly by black racists and white guilty people."
• Criticizing federal response in KY, Quinn claimed Obama "basically sees white people as kind of a you know, sort of an evil fact of life"
• Savage: Obama is "biggest liar in the history of the presidency," and he's "getting away with it... because he's a man of color"
• Limbaugh: "[I]n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering"
• Limbaugh: Obama is "the greatest living example of a reverse racist"
• Limbaugh: "Obama's entire economic program is reparations"
• Bay Buchanan on "quota queen" Sotomayor: "Her whole life was dedicated to demanding special privileges"
• Pat Buchanan: "This has been a country built, basically, by white folks"
• O'Reilly tease: "[S]hould white Americans be concerned about Judge Sotomayor?"
• Quinn to "race-baiting" African-American "ingrates": "get on your knees" and "kiss the American dirt" because slavery brought them to U.S.
• Savage declares: "The white Christian heterosexual married male is the epitome of everything right with America"

War on the poor

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, some right-wing media figures attacked the poor:

• Cunningham on the poor: "They're poor because they lack values, ethics, and morals"
• Cunningham on Section 8 housing: "I like keeping all those degenerates in one location so we can keep an eye on them"; residents "sit around and fornicate, defecate"
• Bill Cunningham claims stimulus "give[s] ACORN up to $4.2 trillion" and contains "$350 million to hand out condoms and birth control pills so the poor can fornicate like rabbits"
• Limbaugh fill-in Davis: Cash for Clunkers "helps your shiftless cousin buy more meth," lets you buy "carton of Luckys"
• Boortz: People living in Katrina trailers, Section 8 housing and on welfare shouldn't be allowed to vote
• Boortz welfare rant -- "human parasitic garbage lining up to get their applications to loot"

War on women

Right-wing media figures also engaged in sexism and downright misogyny:

• Quinn calls Pelosi "Bolshevik Bitch with a Mallet"
• Limbaugh: If Pelosi "wants fewer births, I have the way to do this and it won't require any contraception: You simply put pictures of Nancy Pelosi ... in every cheap motel room. ... That will keep birthrates down because that picture will keep a lot of things down"
• Limbaugh airs clip of Hillary Clinton, asks his listeners, "Doesn't that remind you of your first, and maybe your second, both, your ex-wives?"
• Limbaugh on Pelosi: "The third person in line for the presidency in this country is a complete airhead"
• Limbaugh: "[Granholm's] a ditz. Pelosi is a ditz. Obama is a menace and a danger."
• Savage claims that "as a result of women on Naval ships," they have become "floating brothels"
• Limbaugh: Hillary Clinton wasn't let into Marines because "they didn't have uniforms or boots big enough to fit that butt and those ankles"
• Post's Milbank, flashing Hillary Clinton photo: "We won't tell you who's getting a bottle of Mad Bitch" beer
• Quinn on Pelosi: "This bitch is trying to get us to lose the war!"
• Ingraham: "Nancy Pelosi basically did everything except sell her own body" to pass health care reform bill
• Beck on Landrieu: "We're with a high-class prostitute"
• Echoing Beck, Limbaugh claims Landrieu "may be the most expensive prostitute in the history of prostitution"

Attacks on GLBT community

In addition to a sustained assault on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, right-wingers made outrageous attacks based on sexual orientation:

• Savage: "One of the reasons America is suffering right now is because so many people who are gay have not had children. ... Some of the most wonderful genetic material is going to waste"
• Hannity and "Great American" panelists fearmonger about Jennings "indoctrinating" children, "promoting homosexuality"
• Limbaugh: "[W]e all know that Barney [Frank] patrols Uranus"
• Quinn:"[T]the last time I checked, two guys doing the bone dance with Mr. Sphincter was not going to produce the next generation of children"
• Robertson: Many "made homosexual because of a coach or a guidance counselor or some other male figure who has abused them"
• O'Reilly again claims that if gay marriage was legalized, "you could have married a duck"
• Pat Robertson suggests "ultimate conclusion" of legal same-sex marriage is legal polygamy, bestiality, child molestation, pedophilia

Revolutionary and paranoid rhetoric

Right-wingers frequently employed paranoid and revolutionary rhetoric and suggested that progressives, including Obama and Democrats in Congress, were betraying America.

• Morris: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case"
• Limbaugh: "Thank you President Obama. Thank you CNN. You are doing the job that everybody expects of you, taking every tradition and institution that defined this country's greatness and trying to rip it to shreds"
• Limbaugh claims White House is "[p]erfectly timed, perfectly programmed, perfectly educated to destroy capitalism ... and they're in the process of doing it"
• Fox's Charles Payne: "[O]ne day, I think that we are heading toward a one-world sort of government. I think Obama probably likes that"
• Limbaugh attacks state of Maine, says "saw the state off and let it float out to sea"
• Claiming Obama is "letting our troops literally bleed and die" in Afghanistan, Beck suggests he will "pay for it" in afterlife
• Savage: "[L]ikelihood is very high" that "martial law will be declared" after "equivalent of the Reichstag fire" occurs
• Savage: "There are internment camps being planned" and the National Guard is going to "run" them
• Limbaugh: "if we had any good luck, Honduras would send some people here and help us get our government back"
• Beck guest Scheuer: "The only chance we have as a country right now is" for bin Laden to "detonate a major weapon" in U.S.
• Beck: "[I]f we don't have some common sense, we're facing the destruction of our country... it's coming"
• Rodgers: A "few million dead Americans" will "wake up" public "to the fact that they have elected an anti-American President"
• CBS golf analyst Feherty: "[I]f you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it ... there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."
• Morris on Obama's foreign policy: "If you're an enemy of America... he's in bed with you... The way to get popular with this administration is to be an enemy of the United States"
• Beck: "You can't convince me that the founding fathers wouldn't allow you to secede"
• Beck imitates Obama pouring gasoline on "average American"; says: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ... We didn't vote to lose the Republic"
• Newsmax columnist: Military coup "to resolve the 'Obama problem' " is not "unrealistic"

Birthers

Conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate were conclusively debunked during the 2008 campaign, but that didn't stop several right-wing commentators from continuing to push the smear:

• Limbaugh: "Barack Obama has yet to have to prove he's a citizen. All he'd have to do is show a birth certificate"
• Dobbs asks: "[S]hould he produce his birth certificate -- the long form, the real deal? Should he be a little more forthcoming? ... What is the deal here? I'm starting to think we have a -- we have a document issue. Do you suppose he's un -- no, I won't even use the word undocumented. It wouldn't be right."
• Liddy claims Obama "born" in Kenya; warns guest to "to avoid the corpses of the illegal aliens" while passing through desert
• Limbaugh: "God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama."
• Hannity: Given his father's birthplace, what's wrong with asking if Obama has a "legitimate birth certificate?"

Nazis and fascists and communists, oh my!

There were far more attacks on Obama and other progressives as Nazis, fascists, communists, Marxists, socialists, and similar labels than we have space for, so here are some of the most ridiculous examples:

• Days after decrying those who say Democrats are "trying to turn us into communist Russia," Beck claimed Obama "has Marxist tendencies"
• Beck continues long history of invoking Nazis by comparing Fox to the Jews during the Holocaust
• Quinn agrees with caller that Democrats "took over the country without firing a shot," adds "so did Hitler"
• Savage: Obama "is a neo-marxist fascist dictator in the making"
• In CNBC host Cramer's "U.S.S.A.": "Comrade[]" Obama is a "Bolshevik" who is "taking cues from Lenin"
• Limbaugh: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate"
• Hannity suggests SCOTUS nominee will be "somebody extremely radical" since Obama's policies have been "radically left" and "socialist"
• Dick Morris' self-confessed conspiracy theory: Obama "wants his plan to fail...so that he can make the case for bank nationalization and vindicate his dream of a socialist economy"

Other

Plenty of other remarks defied categorization but certainly merited mention among the Most Outrageous Comments of 2009:

• Limbaugh likens Democrats to murderers, rapists, and "this Muslim guy" that "offed his wife's head"
• Limbaugh on EFCA: "One day Tony Soprano will walk in with a lead pipe and he will start beating people upside the head to vote to unionize"
• Ingraham guest host Bruce on the Obamas: "We've got trash in the White House"
• Beck portrays Obama, Democrats as vampires "going after the blood of our businesses," suggests "driv[ing] a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers"
• Beck: "Nobel Peace Prize should be turned down by Barack Obama and given ... to the Tea Party goers and the 9-12 Project"
• Perino: "We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term"
• Fox's Wallace on ACORN booking: I wish we "were going to have the prostitute [Giles] because she's pretty cute"
• Beck encourages "day of Fast and Prayer for the Republic" on Yom Kippur
• Dobbs on Howard Dean: "[H]e's a bloodsucking leftist -- I mean, you gotta put a stake through his heart to stop this guy"
• Beck jokes about "put[ting] poison" in Nancy Pelosi's wine
• Brandishing bat, Beck declares, "Anyone not on board, look out, because you too could be the next victim of the killing spree"

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Senate Health Care Bill Built on Obamas Broken
Promises

[Ed. Note: Marcy also has a great take on Ezra's rewriting of history, and Obama's reneging on his promises. In case the news of the day prevents me from bringing it up to the front later, please go have a look.]Ezra Klein is trying to make the absurd[...]

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http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/21/senate-health-care-bill-is-built-on-o
bamas-broken-promises/

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What About the Troops

Did you know senate Republicans voted against filibustered the new defense appropriations bill (aka funding for the troops) to help slow down health care reform? [...]

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troops_1.php

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Perino's "convoluted" attack on health care bill
is all fuzzy math

On Fox & Friends, Dana Perino used an apples-to-oranges comparison to raise doubts about reports that the Senate health care bill would reduce the number of uninsured people by 31 million. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated that under current law, 54 million people will be uninsured by the end of 2019 and that under the Senate bill, 23 million people would be uninsured -- a difference of 31 million people.

Perino asks, "How did we suddenly get to 54 million uninsured?"

Perino usedapples-to-oranges comparison to cast doubt on whether bill will reduceuninsured by 31 million. On the December 21 edition of Fox & Friends,Perino said, "[T]hey keep saying that 31 million people are going to be insuredunder this bill. But in the CBO report, it says 23 million will remainuninsured." She added, "So, I don't know, how did we suddenly get to 54 millionuninsured? I thought we were at 30 million uninsured. It's just so convoluted,and it's the reason that Americahas very little confidence in this bill."

CBO confirms: Uninsured wouldincrease to 54 million by 2019 under do-nothing scenario

CBO indeedestimated that under current law, 54 million would be uninsured by 2019. In a chart included in a December19 analysis of the manager's amendment to the Senate healthcare bill, CBO said that under current law, 54 million nonelderlypeople would be uninsured by 2019:

Perino's "30 million"uninsured figure is for 2008 and excludes undocumented immigrantsand others with access to public insurance. By saying, "I thought wewere at 30 million uninsured," Perino falsely suggested that the "30 million"figure contradicted CBO's estimate that under current law, there would be 54million uninsured people in 2019 -- a comparison she used to cast doubt onreports that the Senate legislation would reduce the number of uninsured by 31million people. But this is an apples-to-oranges comparison. The 30 millionfigure that Perino cited refers to the number of uninsured in 2008 aftersubtracting undocumented immigrants,as well those already eligible for but not enrolled in public insuranceprograms.Following Obama'sSeptember 9 address to a joint session of Congress -- during which Obamasaid that "[t]here are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannotget coverage" -- Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag wrote ina September 10 blog post:

Today, the Bureau of the Census released the most recentdata on the number of uninsured Americans. The report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage inthe United States:2008, reveals that 46 million people were uninsured in 2008, the last year forwhich there are data. These data are based on the Current Population Survey.With two different numbers, there has been some confusion as to which isaccurate. Well, both are -- and the President's version is more focused on therelevant target population for health reform since it excludes unauthorizedimmigrants.

The Census report indicates that of the 46 million uninsuredindividuals, 34 million were native born and 2.8 million were naturalizedcitizens. The report thus shows that there were 36.8 million uninsured U.S. citizens(native born and naturalized) in 2008. An alternative calculation includeslegal immigrants, which based on a figure from the Pew Hispanic Center would bring thetotal to something like 39 million.

Some ambiguity surrounds how to treat individuals who arealready eligible for public insurance programs like Medicaid and S-CHIP but donot enroll in those programs, which estimates from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and theUninsured suggest may amount to millions of individuals. Theseindividuals are uninsured but some interpretations would suggest they shouldnot be counted among those who "cannot get" coverage. Subtractingthem from the total would produce a number closer to 30 million.

To be conservative, the President thus stated that "morethan 30 million American citizens" cannot get coverage.

CBO confirms: Senate bill would reduce number of uninsured by 31 millionby end of 2019

Elmendorf: Number of uninsured"would be reduced by about 31 million" by 2019 under Senate health care bill. CBO director Douglas Elmendorfwrote in the December 19 analysis that under the Senate health care bill, "[b]y 2019,CBO and [the Joint Committee on Taxation] estimate, the number of nonelderlypeople who are uninsured would be reduced by about 31 million, leaving about 23million nonelderly residents uninsured (about one-third of whom would beunauthorized immigrants)."

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Dick Durbin Calls Out Tom Coburn for Asking
Americans to Pray a US Senator Not Make 1am Vote

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Dick Durbin takes Tom Coburn to task for his remarks earlier on the Senate floor where he said the American people should pray that somebody can't make the vote tonight.

Durbin: This statement troubles me, and I?m trying to reach him come back to the floor and explain exactly what he meant about a senator being unable to make the vote tonight.

Durbin also went after Coburn and his cohorts and their PrayerCast where they were praying for the health care bill to fail and said that's their right, but asking Americans to pray for something to happen to another member of the Senate was going to far. Of course cowardly Coburn did not respond to Durbin.

Here are Coburn's earlier remarks and Dick Durbin initially asking Coburn to return to the Senate floor to respond.

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Simple Facts

The divide between progressives on whether to support the health care bill is one of the most[...]

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Holiday Party May Be Starting:
Citigroup (NYSE:C), Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)

The markets are moving higher today on the back of solid moves from Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM). Volume has started to trail off and is expected to starting around 10:30am ET each day this week.  This is due to traders leaving early for the holidays and the lack of news after the morning session on Wall Street.  This week we will see quite a bit of economic news, but it is all pushed into the pre market session or the 10am ET time frame.  Once 10:30am comes around, traders will be essentially done…

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DC police learn a lesson about new media

We've had a teachable moment here in D.C. Our police force learned about this new thing called the new media. Better late than never:

The call went out on a Web site and over Twitter, and hundreds of 20- and 30-somethings, tired of being cooped up, gathered at 14th and U streets NW on Saturday for a little restless indulgence.

Snowball fight!

People squealed as they hurled balls of snow across the largely deserted road. Then, a snowball or two slammed into a Hummer. The driver, a plainclothes detective whom D.C. police refused to identify, got out, drew his gun and exchanged angry words with revelers, according to video footage and witnesses.

Police said initially that the detective had not flashed his weapon. On Sunday, the officer was placed on desk duty after Twitter, blogs and YouTube appeared to show otherwise.

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Fox doesn't disclose health care opponent
Donatelli's consulting conflict of interest

Continuing its pattern of failure to disclose the conflicts of interest of health care reform opponents who appear on its programs, Fox News hosted Frank Donatelli -- identified only as chairman of the "Republican advocacy organization" GOPAC - who claimed that Democrats "don't really want the American people to see what's in" the Senate health reform bill "because it's so bad." Donatelli also serves as executive vice president of a public affairs consulting firm whose clients include firms in the health insurance, health care provider, and pharmaceutical industries.

Fox News allows Donatelli to attack health care bill without disclosing his conflict of interest

Donatelli identified only as GOPAC chair. During his appearance on the December 21 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott identified Donatelli as "the GOPAC chairman, that's a Republican advocacy organization."

Donatelli uses Fox News platform to attack health care reform legislation. During his appearance, Donatelli stated: "If this bill was so good, why isn't it that the Democrats wouldn't go to the country and say, 'This is the bill that we are campaigning on, vote for us because this is such a good bill.' The fact of the matter is they don't really want the American people to see what is in this bill because it is so bad."

Donatelli is executive vice president of public affairs shop McGuireWoods Consulting. Donatelli is "Executive Vice President and Director of Federal Public Affairs for McGuireWoods Consulting," which is "a full-service public affairs firm offering infrastructure and economic development, strategic communications & grassroots, and government relations services."

McGuireWoods Consulting clients include health insurance, health care provider, pharmaceutical firms. According to its website, a "partial list" of McGuireWoods Consulting's clients include the health insurance provider association BlueCross/BlueShield, the pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Purdue Pharma, Sherman Hospital, and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

Fox News repeatedly ignores the conflicts of interest of health care reform opponents

America's Newsroom failed to identify Healthcare Leadership Council as advocacy group for health insurance, health care provider, and pharmaceutical industries. On the December 14 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, guest host Juliet Huddy hosted Mary Grealy, identified as "the president of the Healthcare Leadership Council," who attacked a proposal to include allowing people aged 55 to 65 to buy in to Medicare as a "nonstarter," complaining about the current "cost-shift" from government programs to private insurers and underpayments to hospitals, and advocating instead for subsidies to purchase private health insurance. At no point did either Huddy or Grealy note that the Healthcare Leadership Council is an advocacy group composed of "a coalition of chief executives from all disciplines within American healthcare" whose members include "hospitals, health plans, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, biotech firms, health product distributors, pharmacies and academic health centers."

Special Report ignored Breaux's lobbying for PhRMA. On the November 10 edition of Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Carl Cameron failed to disclose that former Sen. John Breaux (D-LA), who Cameron said "warns Democratic leaders now that trying too much too fast could backfire and undermine achievable [health care] reforms," has lobbied Congress this year about health reform for the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Fox repeatedly provided Gingrich cover to attack health care reform without disclosing conflict of interest. Fox News has repeatedly provided contributor Newt Gingrich a forum to discuss his opposition to the inclusion of a public option and increased insurance regulations in health care reform legislation. During those appearances, Fox News has not noted that that his Center for Health Transformation -- a for-profit entity that Gingrich founded and reportedly profits from -- receives annual membership fees from several major health insurance companies, which have a financial interest in preventing the implementation of those policies.

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FOX Keeps on Frightening the Health Care Debate,
Criticizing Franken's and White House's Civility

BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Jeffrey Joseph

After a summer with intimations of violence such as a representative hanged in effigy, FOX News refused to cool down for the winter.

Taking direction from Sen. John McCain, Fox & Friends attempted to make an issue out of Franken's refusal to allow Lieberman extra time on the floor last week. Steve Doocy commented that Franken's actions were "not very polite" while Gretchen Carlson wondered aloud if Franken's actions illustrated a trend of "newbie politicians that don't know exactly the protocol." Carlson probably came to that hypothesis since veteran politician McCain kept saying things such as, "I've been around here twenty-some years. First time I've ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks."

Franken, however, maintained that he only followed orders from Sen. Harry Reid not to allow any extra time to senators on either side of the aisle. Sen. Mark Begich had, just earlier that very day, objected to Sen. John Cornyn's similar request for extra time. Begich eventually rescinded his objection, but McCain did not need to search far into the memory of his "twenty-some years" in office to see a member at least initially denied extra time.

Doocy also sarcastically told Franken to "stay classy" at the end of the FOX & Friends discussion of the issue. At the same time, Doocy did nothing to muzzle Brian Kilmeade for his less-than-flattering characterization of Franken as "an angry clown."

So much for the criticism on how to be "polite."

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