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America Makes Us Sick Award
Winner
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“Through every
Abu aib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American
public has indulged those in uniform....We pay the soldiers a decent
wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical
care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the
war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their
attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to
the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up
our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above
society?...[T]he recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price
we pay for a mercenary — oops sorry, volunteer — force that thinks it is
doing the dirty work.”
— WashingtonPost.com military columnist William Arkin in a January 30
column reacting to a report by NBC reporter Richard Engel. Arkin later
apologized for using the word “mercenary.” [107 points] |
Runners-up:
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“I think a draft produces a better Army than the one we would have with
all volunteers, because I think you get average Americans if you have a
draft. And if it’s an all-volunteer Army, you get people who join up
because of some problem in their own lives. They don’t have anything
else to do, they don’t have a job, or they can’t find what they want to
do, so they join the Army. And it doesn’t produce the best Army.”
— CBS’s Andy Rooney on MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning, March 14.
[71]
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“Governor Romney, Daniel Duchovnik [ph] from Walnut Creek, California
wants to know, ‘What do you dislike most about America?’”
— Online question selected by The Politico’s Jim VandeHei to
pose to the Republican presidential candidates at their May 3 MSNBC
debate. [55]
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“There is something tragic about Edwards’s failure to break through.
Today, 37 million Americans live below the poverty line, 12 million more
than at the time of [Sen. Robert F.] Kennedy’s death. And yet Edwards’s
call of conscience has not resonated. By all rights, Edwards, the son of
a millworker, should have an easier time talking about poverty than did
Kennedy, the son of a millionaire. His difficulty speaks to the
candidate’s inability to connect. It also speaks to the nation’s
inability to be moved.”
— Newsweek’s Jonathan Darman reporting on Democratic candidate
John Edwards’s anti-poverty push, July 30 issue. [55]
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