Dave Congalton on News Talk 920 KVEC

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Most Outrageous Right Wing Comments of 2006

Sorry to Jerry and Rich, but this list, compiled by Media Matters for America, is just too good to pass up.

"How extreme were conservative commentators in their remarks this year? How about calls to nuke the Middle East and an allegation that a "gay … mafia" used the congressional page program as its own "personal preserve." Right-wing rhetoric documented by Media Matters for America included the nonsensical (including Rush Limbaugh's claim that America's "obesity crisis" is caused by, among other things, our failure to "teach [the poor] how to butcher a -- slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter"), the offensive (such as right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel's question about "Barack Hussein Obama": Is he "a man we want as president when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?"), and the simply bizarre (such as William A. Donohue's claim that some Hollywood stars would "sodomize their own mother in a movie"). The top 11 (in chronological order):

William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights: "Well, look, there are people in Hollywood, not all of them, but there are some people who are nothing more than harlots. They will do anything for the buck. They wouldn't care. If you asked them to sodomize their own mother in a movie, they would do so, and they would do it with a smile on their face." [2/9/06 ]

Fox News host John Gibson: "Do your duty. Make more babies. That's a lesson drawn out of two interesting stories over the last couple of days. First, a story yesterday that half of the kids in this country under five years old are minorities. By far, the greatest number are Hispanic. You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic. Why is that? Well, Hispanics are having more kids than others. Notably, the ones Hispanics call 'gabachos' -- white people -- are having fewer." [5/11/06 ]

Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on the New York Times' decision to report on the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program and a Treasury Department financial transaction tracking program: The Times had done "something that could have gotten them executed, certainly did get the Rosenbergs (Julius and Ethel) executed." [7/12/06]

Coulter responding to Hardball host Chris Matthews' question, "How do you know that [former President] Bill Clinton's gay?": "I don't know if he's gay. But [former Vice President] Al Gore -- total fag." [7/27/06]

Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage: "That's why the department store dummy named Wolf Blitzer, a Jew who was born in Israel, will do the astonishing act of being the type that would stick Jewish children into a gas chamber to stay alive another day. He's probably the most despicable man in the media next to Larry King, who takes a close runner-up by the hair of a nose. The two of them together look like the type that would have pushed Jewish children into the oven to stay alive one more day to entertain the Nazis." [8/7/06 ]

Coulter on Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., an African-American: "Congresswoman Maxine Waters had parachuted into Connecticut earlier in the week to campaign against [Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman because he once expressed reservations about affirmative action, without which she would not have a job that didn't involve wearing a paper hat. Waters also considers Joe 'soft' on the issue of the CIA inventing crack cocaine and AIDS to kill all the black people in America." [8/9/06 ]

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh, blaming America's "obesity crisis" on "the left," "liberal government," and "food stamps": "Because we are sympathetic, we are compassionate people, we have responded by letting our government literally feed these people to the point of obesity. At least here in America, didn't teach them how to fish, we gave them the fish. Didn't teach them how to butcher a -- slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter. The real bloat here, as we know, is in -- is in government." [8/29/06 ]

Coulter on Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I.: "They Shot the Wrong Lincoln." [8/30/06]

Conservative pundit and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan: "Look, [Rep. Jim] Kolbe [R-Ariz.] is gay. He is an out-of-the-closet gay. [Rep. Mark] Foley [R-Fla.] was gay. The House clerk who was in charge of the pages [Jeff Trandahl] was gay. Foley's administrative assistant, Mr. [Kirk] Fordham, the New York Times tells us, was gay. You hear about a lot of others. What's going on here, Joe [Scarborough, MSNBC host], is basically these, this little mafia in there looked upon the pages, I guess, as their -- sort of their personal preserve. And it stinks to high heaven what was done. And it stinks to high heaven that it was not exposed and these types of people, thrown out by the Republican Party." [10/9/06 ]

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck to Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn.: "OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. … With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " [11/14/06]

Right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel on Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.: So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian … is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as president when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?" [12/18/06]"

By the way, segments added for Thursday include Del Franklin and Stacey Warde, the boys from The Rogue Voice, plus Janet Allenspach explaining the controversial Liberty Tattoo Removal Program, plus Lance Parker weighs in on the defacement of a tank at the Vets Center in SLO.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe celebration last night. Charlotte and I stayed home, popped open a bottle of bubbly and snuggled up in front of the TV and watched Marx Brothers movies on TCM. Heading back to the radio Tuesday. No more days off until the Big Adventure on the 19th.

Meanwhile, I would just like to echo my closing monologue from Friday and once again point out what a great year 2006 was for KVEC and Hometown Radio.

2006 was the year we finally started streaming on the Internet and began podcasting. There is a complete inventory of our shows dating back to August 1 available at http://www.920kvec.com. I think it's fantastic to finally have that 21st century technology available in such a small radio market. Obviously another big plus for me was the addition of this blog, allowing us to continue the debate 24/7. I look forward to making this blog even better this year.

Tom and I remain thrilled to have King Harris back in the KVEC family. He and Ben are doing a bang-up job in the mornings from 6 to 9 with First News. Speaking of news directors, Suzan Vaughn, a KVEC stalwart from the '90s just emailed me to announce that she and her hubby hope to move back to the Central Coast from Washington in about six months. Looking forward to having Suzan back in the guest pool.

Looking back, I'm very pleased with how our show did this last year -- we spotlighted important community events and nonprofit organizations, found homes for needy dogs and cats and gave voice to people like Marilyn Farhat about Lebanon and Carrie Burton, the housewife trying to build a fence in Morro Bay to protect school children. We tried to provide in-depth election coverage and I thought we played a role in the defeat of those "good old boy" candidates up in Atascadero. Al Brill, the Consumer Guy, did a great job in showcasing shoddy housing developments in the county and we held Cuesta's feet to the fire in trying to figure out the msytery behind their bond measure. I'm very proud of all those segments, and more.

So on to a new year, new voices and new topics. On Tuesday, Bob Sachs discusses the growing anti-American sentiment he finds in Europe. On Wednesday, Guy Murray and Mike Eisner address incorporation for Nipomo and Frank Kassak proposed an alcohol tax to pay for cops in SLO. And Friday is the big 15th anniversary broadcast with John Lindsey from PG&E, a visit from Miss Etiquette and live music from Bob and Wendy.

Happy 2007 to us all!