Some good ones in 05---
http://www.mrc.org/notablequotables/bestof/2005/welcome.asp
a few personal favs
Good Morning Morons Award
Matt Lauer in Baghdad: "Talk to me...about morale here. We?ve heard so much about the insurgent attacks, so much about the uncertainty as to when you folks are going to get to go home. How would you describe morale?"
Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss: "In my unit morale is pretty good. Every day we go out and do our missions and people are ready to execute their missions. They?re excited to be here."
Lauer: "How much does that uncertainty of [not] knowing how long you?re going to be here impact morale?"|
Specialist Steven Chitterer: "Morale is always high. Soldiers know they have a mission. They like taking on new objectives and taking on the new challenges...."
Lauer: "Don?t get me wrong here, I think you are probably telling me the truth, but a lot of people at home are wondering how that could be possible with the conditions you?re facing and with the attacks you?re facing. What would you say to those people who are doubtful that morale can be that high?"
Captain Sherman Powell: "Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I?d be pretty depressed as well."
? Exchange on NBC?s Today, August 17
"God Save This Court from Extremists" Award
"An Advocate for the Right."
? Headline over a New York Times "news analysis" of Judge John Roberts? judicial philosophy, July 28.
vs.
"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle."
? Headline over a June 27, 1993 New York Times story on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Media Millionaires for Smaller Paychecks Award
Nina Totenberg: "I was very happy to see him [Bush] take responsibility and to not pretend that the buck stops someplace else. But it would have been a great opportunity to say, ?Look, I?m for tax cuts, but we need a Katrina tax, we need to really pay, to do this and to pay for it.?"
Moderator Gordon Peterson: "You want more taxes."
Totenberg: "I want more taxes, yes."
? Inside Washington, September 17.
Slam Uncle Sam Award
Andrea Mitchell: "It is an iconic picture: American hostages, hands bound and blindfolded, being paraded outside the U.S. embassy in Tehran by their captors. But has one of those student radicals now become Iran?s newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?...Tonight, U.S. intelligence officials say that they will continue to study this, but may never have definitive proof of what the role was of Iran?s new president, Brian."Brian Williams: "Andrea, what would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today the first several U.S. Presidents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called terrorists at the time by the British Crown, after all."
Mitchell: "Indeed, Brian."
? NBC Nightly News, June 30.
"I just want to say: Who are we? We are people who have always been for inspections of prisons, for some degree of human rights, and now we?re defending neither.... We have now violated everything that we stand for. It is the first time in my life I have been ashamed of my country."
? NPR?s Nina Totenberg, commenting on a front-page Washington Post report that captured terrorists are being held at undisclosed sites, Inside Washington, Nov. 4.
For many of this country?s citizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect, also, a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to ?08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government, our government: New Orleans. For him, it is a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette."
? MSNBC?s Keith Olbermann, Sept. 5 Countdown. [54]
Crazy Chris Award for Chris Matthews? Left-Wing Lunacy
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan: "We?re not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and good will in the Middle East by killing innocent people or ? I?m not even saying our bullets and bombs are killing them. The occupation ? they don?t have food, they don?t have clean water, they don?t have electricity. They don?t have medicine, they don?t have doctors. We need to get our military presence out of there, and that?s what?s gonna start building good will....I see Iraq as the base for spreading imperialism...."
Host Chris Matthews: "Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?"
Sheehan: "No, not this time...."
Matthews: "Okay. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run."
? Exchange on MSNBC?s Hardball, August 15.
more from Chris
Actress Jane Fonda: "From an historical point of view, they were defending their country. If we had been invaded and an invading force came into this country and divided us in half at the Mississippi River...we would understand why people were fighting....We should never have been there [in Vietnam]."
Chris Matthews: "There were a lot of people, Jane, who....can?t imagine slipping out of their American skin, their American soul and becoming so objective, as you just were a minute ago....How do you step out of being an American to make such an objective judgment?"
? Exchange on MSNBC?s Hardball on April 15. Fonda was promoting her new book, My Life So Far.
Quote of the Year
Reporter Brian Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather?s 60 Minutes report on President Bush?s National Guard service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing...."
Ross to Mapes: "Do you still think that story was true?"
Ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes: "The story? Absolutely."
Ross: "This seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards."
Mapes: "I?m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there?s proof that I haven?t seen."
Ross: "But isn?t it the other way around? Don?t you have to prove they?re authentic?"
Mapes: "Well, I think that?s what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet."
Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn?t that really what journalists do?"
Mapes: "No, I don?t think that?s the standard."
? ABC?s Good Morning America, November 9
Ted Turner: "I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There?s really no reason for them to cheat [on nukes]....I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth. You know, just because somebody?s done something wrong in the past doesn?t mean they can?t do right in the future or the present. That happens all the, all the time."
Wolf Blitzer: "But this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong-Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn?t that a fair assessment?"
Turner: "Well, I didn?t get to meet him, but he didn?t look ? in the pictures that I?ve seen of him on CNN, he didn?t look too much different than most other people."
Blitzer: "But, look at the way, look at the way he?s, look at the way he?s treating his own people."
Turner: "Well, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but?"
Blitzer: "A lot of those people are starving."
Turner: "I didn?t see any, I didn?t see any brutality...."
? Exchange on CNN?s The Situation Room, Sept. 19.
Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity
"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they?re looting. See a white family, it says they?re looking for food....A lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they?ve given them permission to go down and shoot us....George Bush doesn?t care about black people."
? Rapper Kanye West during NBC?s Concert for Hurricane Relief, September 2.
The President is a moron! I?m saying it. I don?t care. He?s an idiot. Cheney is evil. I?m sick of, impeach them, get them out! I hate them! I hate them. Get them out. They got to go!...What is it going to take for you people? Get Bush out! Impeach. Out! Out! Out!"
? Actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin on Comedy Central?s Weekends at the DL, September 10
http://www.mrc.org/notablequotables/bestof/2005/welcome.asp
a few personal favs
Good Morning Morons Award
Matt Lauer in Baghdad: "Talk to me...about morale here. We?ve heard so much about the insurgent attacks, so much about the uncertainty as to when you folks are going to get to go home. How would you describe morale?"
Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss: "In my unit morale is pretty good. Every day we go out and do our missions and people are ready to execute their missions. They?re excited to be here."
Lauer: "How much does that uncertainty of [not] knowing how long you?re going to be here impact morale?"|
Specialist Steven Chitterer: "Morale is always high. Soldiers know they have a mission. They like taking on new objectives and taking on the new challenges...."
Lauer: "Don?t get me wrong here, I think you are probably telling me the truth, but a lot of people at home are wondering how that could be possible with the conditions you?re facing and with the attacks you?re facing. What would you say to those people who are doubtful that morale can be that high?"
Captain Sherman Powell: "Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I?d be pretty depressed as well."
? Exchange on NBC?s Today, August 17
"God Save This Court from Extremists" Award
"An Advocate for the Right."
? Headline over a New York Times "news analysis" of Judge John Roberts? judicial philosophy, July 28.
vs.
"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle."
? Headline over a June 27, 1993 New York Times story on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Media Millionaires for Smaller Paychecks Award
Nina Totenberg: "I was very happy to see him [Bush] take responsibility and to not pretend that the buck stops someplace else. But it would have been a great opportunity to say, ?Look, I?m for tax cuts, but we need a Katrina tax, we need to really pay, to do this and to pay for it.?"
Moderator Gordon Peterson: "You want more taxes."
Totenberg: "I want more taxes, yes."
? Inside Washington, September 17.
Slam Uncle Sam Award
Andrea Mitchell: "It is an iconic picture: American hostages, hands bound and blindfolded, being paraded outside the U.S. embassy in Tehran by their captors. But has one of those student radicals now become Iran?s newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?...Tonight, U.S. intelligence officials say that they will continue to study this, but may never have definitive proof of what the role was of Iran?s new president, Brian."Brian Williams: "Andrea, what would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today the first several U.S. Presidents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called terrorists at the time by the British Crown, after all."
Mitchell: "Indeed, Brian."
? NBC Nightly News, June 30.
"I just want to say: Who are we? We are people who have always been for inspections of prisons, for some degree of human rights, and now we?re defending neither.... We have now violated everything that we stand for. It is the first time in my life I have been ashamed of my country."
? NPR?s Nina Totenberg, commenting on a front-page Washington Post report that captured terrorists are being held at undisclosed sites, Inside Washington, Nov. 4.
For many of this country?s citizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect, also, a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to ?08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government, our government: New Orleans. For him, it is a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette."
? MSNBC?s Keith Olbermann, Sept. 5 Countdown. [54]
Crazy Chris Award for Chris Matthews? Left-Wing Lunacy
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan: "We?re not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and good will in the Middle East by killing innocent people or ? I?m not even saying our bullets and bombs are killing them. The occupation ? they don?t have food, they don?t have clean water, they don?t have electricity. They don?t have medicine, they don?t have doctors. We need to get our military presence out of there, and that?s what?s gonna start building good will....I see Iraq as the base for spreading imperialism...."
Host Chris Matthews: "Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?"
Sheehan: "No, not this time...."
Matthews: "Okay. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run."
? Exchange on MSNBC?s Hardball, August 15.
more from Chris
Actress Jane Fonda: "From an historical point of view, they were defending their country. If we had been invaded and an invading force came into this country and divided us in half at the Mississippi River...we would understand why people were fighting....We should never have been there [in Vietnam]."
Chris Matthews: "There were a lot of people, Jane, who....can?t imagine slipping out of their American skin, their American soul and becoming so objective, as you just were a minute ago....How do you step out of being an American to make such an objective judgment?"
? Exchange on MSNBC?s Hardball on April 15. Fonda was promoting her new book, My Life So Far.
Quote of the Year
Reporter Brian Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather?s 60 Minutes report on President Bush?s National Guard service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing...."
Ross to Mapes: "Do you still think that story was true?"
Ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes: "The story? Absolutely."
Ross: "This seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards."
Mapes: "I?m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there?s proof that I haven?t seen."
Ross: "But isn?t it the other way around? Don?t you have to prove they?re authentic?"
Mapes: "Well, I think that?s what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet."
Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn?t that really what journalists do?"
Mapes: "No, I don?t think that?s the standard."
? ABC?s Good Morning America, November 9
Ted Turner: "I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There?s really no reason for them to cheat [on nukes]....I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth. You know, just because somebody?s done something wrong in the past doesn?t mean they can?t do right in the future or the present. That happens all the, all the time."
Wolf Blitzer: "But this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong-Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn?t that a fair assessment?"
Turner: "Well, I didn?t get to meet him, but he didn?t look ? in the pictures that I?ve seen of him on CNN, he didn?t look too much different than most other people."
Blitzer: "But, look at the way, look at the way he?s, look at the way he?s treating his own people."
Turner: "Well, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but?"
Blitzer: "A lot of those people are starving."
Turner: "I didn?t see any, I didn?t see any brutality...."
? Exchange on CNN?s The Situation Room, Sept. 19.
Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity
"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they?re looting. See a white family, it says they?re looking for food....A lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they?ve given them permission to go down and shoot us....George Bush doesn?t care about black people."
? Rapper Kanye West during NBC?s Concert for Hurricane Relief, September 2.
The President is a moron! I?m saying it. I don?t care. He?s an idiot. Cheney is evil. I?m sick of, impeach them, get them out! I hate them! I hate them. Get them out. They got to go!...What is it going to take for you people? Get Bush out! Impeach. Out! Out! Out!"
? Actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin on Comedy Central?s Weekends at the DL, September 10
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