Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2011

John Hawkins of Right Wing News has assembled the 50 Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2011, including:
49) Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers -- ThinkProgress Headline

45) Do you think this Constitution-loving is getting out of hand? -- Joy Behar

42) The Republican Party is saying that the President of the United States has bosses, that the union bosses this President around, the unions boss him around. Does that sound to you like they are trying to consciously or subconsciously deliver the racist message that, of course, of course a black man can’t be the real boss? -- Lawrence O’Donnell

40) We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money. -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu on banning incandescent lightbulbs

24) What happened after 9/11 -- and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not -- was deeply shameful. [The] atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neo-cons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons . . .The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it. -- Paul Krugman

21) The issue here is not gonna be a list of accomplishments. As you said yourself, Steve, you know, I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln. -- Barack Obama
Read the whole thing.

3 comments:

A_Nonny_Mouse said...

Regarding #24 - the Paul Krugman quote cited comes really close to Ron Paul's statement that the Bush White House reacted "with glee" after 9-11 because they "wanted to declare war on Iraq".

I would *HATE* to live in the bizarro mental universe that these two nasty, ugly men have apparently chosen to occupy.

I don't understand how people who nourish their pet "evil-America" conspiracy theories with tender loving care (yet refuse to acknowledge real, demonstrably-hostile actions perpetrated against our nation, as well as against the precepts of Western Civilization in general) can spend their lives in the foulest of mind-slime without even noticing how sickening their beliefs have become.

Yuck. It must REALLY suck to be them.

Warren said...

Nonny,

It's odd that a Nobel Prize winning economist has such a bad memory.

Democrats voted for the war, some claiming later that Bush tricked them.

And many Dems made statements and speeches advocating an invasion.

I especially like Harry Reid's justification for the war, which happens to be mine:

"We stopped the fighting [in 1991] on an agreement that Iraq would take steps to assure the world that it would not engage in further aggression and that it would destroy its weapons of mass destruction. It has refused to take those steps. That refusal constitutes a breach of the armistice which renders it void and justifies resumption of the armed conflict."

Senator Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada)
Addressing the US Senate
October 9, 2002
Congressional Record, p. S10145

You can find a compilation of quotes here.

Another one of my favorites is from Bill Clinton, four months after the war started -- when the war was still considered a good idea.

"People can quarrel with whether we should have more troops in Afghanistan or internationalize Iraq or whatever, but it is incontestable that on the day I left office, there were unaccounted for stocks of biological and chemical weapons."

Former President Clinton
During an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live"
July 22, 2003

Oh, and there's this:

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members...

It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well, effects American security.

This is a very difficult vote, this is probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make. Any vote that might lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction."

Senator Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York)
Addressing the US Senate
October 10, 2002

Gringo said...

Obnoxious?

Yes indeed.