As the shock began to wear off this past week and Americans tried
to redefine normal life, every nut in the country rushed find a
microphone to weigh in with total insanity. The kindest thing
anyone can say about these "episodes" is that perhaps it was
brought on by the stress. Following are some examples:
"We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2000
miles away, that's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits
the building, say what you want about it, not cowardly." -
Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect, 09/17/2001
His apologies were almost as bad. Here is one of them:
"On my show, we talked about this and I do apologize to the
military who took it the wrong way. If anyone thought that I was
talking about the military being cowards, I certainly wasn't. " -
Maher by phone on The View, 09/21/2001
But Maher isn't the only looney loose in the streets.
"I do not believe the memory of the seven thousand plus people who
were killed in this most horrendous acts of terrorism are honored
by going out and killing other civilians. We went alone; we went
alone when we bombed Tripoli at night, a crowded city where old
people and children were sleeping. 1986, Reagan. We killed
Qaddafi's kid, and lots of other children. One person said,
well several people, 'well, he's adopted' they said of the kid.
And we got Pan Am 103, Lockerbie. Tell those loved ones, it was
December 21, my birthday." - Phil Donahue on FNC's The O'Reilly
Factor, 09/25/2001
Sounds like somebody's off their medication! But wait! It gets
worse.
"I know a lot of people who refuse to fly flags right now, because
they're un-American, not because they're not patriotic, and for
many, many people they're showing the flag in a show of unity, in
a show of strength, in a show of faith in American values and what
America stands for. But the problem is if I were to show that
flag now for those reasons, it can easily be confused with the
flag that's shown by people who show the flag for xenophobia, for
revenge, for violence against other people who will suffer in a
war." - Actor Paul Provenza on Politically Incorrect, 09/25/2001.
A few moments later, this exchange:
Provenza: "America is not about revenge. America is about
compassion."
Eric Braeden, actor: "But don't you think that most people feel
that way who have a flag?"
Provenza: "Not the ones who are, not the ones who are driving
trucks with flags off their antennas and pulling brown-skinned
people with foreign accents out of their cars and beating them
up. That's the problem. That's not the flag I want to fly."
Now that guy really needs to go home and lock the door. Hopefully
no pickup trucks with American flags will drive down his street.
Yet let us turn our attention to the truly bizarre: media darling
Granny D (aka Doris Haddock) of campaign finance reform fame. The
media turned her into a hero when it highlighted her cross-country
walk to promote her cause. Matt Lauer: "I love Granny D!" Katie
Couric proclaimed her a great role model and burbled, "She's great!"
Bob Dotson said she "has felt the nation hugging her shoulders."
How nice! BUT -
James Taranto in his 09/27/2001 column,
Best of the Web suggested that perhaps the D stands for
"demented". Check out this quote from a speech she gave in
Unity, Maine:
"This is not a time for all good Americans to forget their
political differences and rally behind the man in the White House.
The man in the White House should apologize for the most serious
breach of internal security in the nation's history, not disguise
his failure in calls for war. Can he hope that the fiery
explosions in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania will be
more acceptable to us if they are placed in a larger context of
explosions of our own making? I do not rally around that idea.
It is "wag the dog" taken to an extreme level, for he is not
covering up his failure with a fake war, but with a real one.
"He has taken every opportunity to make the world less safe, first
in North Korea and then in the mideast and in Russia and in China.
He needs a dangerous world to sell his military vision of the
future. He is getting it. We must not go along with him.
"The international community may soon have to rescue the Afghan
people from the Taliban just as we had to rescue Europe from the
Nazis, and rebuild it and let it find its way to self-government,
but that is not the same issue and that will not resolve
international terrorism at its roots. It is a diversion of our
attention from Bush's catastrophic failure at home and abroad."
Granny D's paranoid ramblings don't stop there:
"And four months ago the current Bush administration gave $43
million to the current Taliban Regime so that it would please kill
our enemies, the heroin dealers of Afghanistan. Or was it to
protect an oil pipeline? . . . Our subcontracting of death
has never done us much good. . . . The Coca-Cola Company has
been accused of financing the death squads in Columbia that kill
union activists among the plantation workers. This so that our
Coca-Cola is affordable to us. Wherever our large mining
companies extract the value from foreign lands, we have a CIA and
a military working to keep any leaders in power who will guarantee
us a cheap labor supply and cheap mining products, at the expense
of local people and their efforts toward democracy."
Wow! I can only shake my head. But what about her efforts on
behalf of campaign finance reform? On her
home page, this special
announcement:
"Special note: all of the progress made to move Congress toward
campaign finance reform has been derailed by the terrorist
incidents and response. The items below are for your information,
but please understand that any effort to persuade you[r]
Congressman to enact reforms will not result in action at this
time. We will be patient, waiting for the proper time to begin
anew. In the meantime, Doris Haddock will work for campaign
reform at the state and local level, and will try to be a voice
for peace and justice in these strange times."
Now just look what those mean, old terrorists went and did! They
messed up all Granny D's efforts to regulate free
speech and the worst part (or best, depending on your perspective)
is that IT WAS GEORGE W. BUSH'S FAULT. Thank you, Granny D! I
am so glad you are Katie Couric's role model and not mine! Good
luck getting the networks to invite you back as a credible guest!
- Peacerose, 09/28/2001
Read more here:
MRC CyberAlert, 09/24/2001 (Maher)
MRC CyberAlert, 09/27/2001 (Donahue)
MRC CyberAlert, 09/27/2001 (Provenza)
MRC CyberAlert, 09/28/2001 (Granny D)
