# Dang, Alan Keyes makes Michelle Bachman look like Little Miss Sunshine! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 21, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821 "2009-02-21T05:31:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/21 "2009-02-21T18:38:38Z")
I don’t see Blago or Roland Roland Roland getting elected any time soon, either. Illinois–Land of Unelectablity. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/22 "2009-02-21T20:58:24Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Al Sharpton comes pretty close. Bullshit. Fucking bullshit. Al Sharpton has been wrong about some things in the past, but that doesn’t make him batshit crazy, not like Keyes. You watch the video in the OP. Then please take a bit of time to [watch this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SBFREiCkf8&feature=related) of an Al Sharpton speech, IMO the 2nd best speech at the 2004 Democratic convention (after Obama’s). Then tell me that bullshit again. Provide cites please, so I can judge for myself that Alan Keyes is even on the same planet as Al Sharpton. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/23 "2009-02-21T21:06:09Z")
> [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](#): > > My question in all this is why does a raver like Keyes continue to get even a second of air time? What’s that about? Its pretty simple, really: He’s good for ratings. People will either stop to point and laugh at him, or they’ll nod their head in agreement. > [@](#): > > Is there a left wing equivalent? Someone who keeps getting face time on the news who claims all sorts of nutsy crap the way Keyes did (not to mention the cottage industry of Clintons-are-muderers folks that used to parade around) Take your pick, really. There’s a number of Follywood celebs who manage to get air time to say some of the most absolutely batshit crazy things. > [@](#): > > For all those who moan about the “left-leaning” press, why is that there is no right wing nut case that is deemed too crazy to get on TV, while on the other side not liking torture is too much to bear. There are. Most of your neo-Nazi nutters don’t get air time on the major networks. They might be _talked_ about, might occassionally have clips of them speaking shown, but rarely, if ever, are brought in for a “serious” interview. You didn’t see any of the major networks calling up David Duke and asking for _his_ reaction on the whole dead chimp cartoon story. Those guys generally are regulated to “expose” pieces (say on a long form program like _60 Minutes_, where a significant portion of the interview can be devoted to debunking them) or tabloid talkshows. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/24 "2009-02-21T21:14:23Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Provide cites please, so I can judge for myself that Alan Keyes is even on the same planet as Al Sharpton. [Start](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Controversy) with [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Activism). Some reminders: > [@](#): > > ``` > o 2.1 Bernhard Goetz > o 2.2 Howard Beach > o 2.3 Tawana Brawley controversy > o 2.4 Bensonhurst > o 2.5 National Action Network > o 2.6 Crown Heights Riot > o 2.7 Freddie's Fashion Mart > o 2.8 Amadou Diallo > o 2.9 Vieques > o 2.10 Ousmane Zongo > o 2.11 Sean Bell > o 2.12 Dunbar Village > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/25 "2009-02-21T21:29:28Z")
And none of those things are even close to as ridiculous as what Keynes has spewed. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/26 "2009-02-21T21:39:36Z")
So where is batshit crazy in these Sharpton issues? > [@](#): > > [Amadou Bailo Diallo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_Diallo) (September 2, 1975 – February 4, 1999) was a 23-year-old immigrant to the United States from Guinea, who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999, by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Brendan Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The four men fired a total of 41 rounds. Diallo was unarmed at the time of the shooting, and a firestorm of controversy erupted subsequent to the event as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both within and outside New York City. > [@](#): > > [Ousmane Zongo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Zongo) (died May 22, 2003) was a Burkinabè arts trader living in New York City. He was shot and killed by New York City Police Department officers while unarmed in a chance run-in with police during a warehouse raid on May 22, 2003. > [@](#): > > The [Sean Bell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Bell) shooting incident took place in the New York City borough of Queens on November 25, 2006, in which one Latino and two African-American men were shot at a total of fifty times by a team of both plainclothes and undercover NYPD officers (two of whom were themselves African-American), killing one of the men, Sean Bell, on the morning of his wedding day, and severely wounding two of his friends. Seems like you are padding your arguement, hoping nobody notices. Busted. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/27 "2009-02-21T21:58:24Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > So where is batshit crazy in these Sharpton issues?Seems like you are padding your arguement, hoping nobody notices. > > Busted. In addition, where’s the comparability? Sharpton may sometimes (since his mistake with Tawana Brawley) exaggerate things to prove a larger point about conditions and events that actually do exist in society, he doesn’t seem to regularly make up things out of whole cloth, like Obama is a terrorist, Muslim, non-Citizen, non-President or non-Commander-in-Chief. And that’s just the short list of attempts at demogoguing the left and Democrats. Simply including a list of topics discussed on wiki doesn’t do it. What exactly is batshit crazy in each instance, as are Alan Keyes, Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh (if he wasn’t just pimpin’ his show), et al? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/28 "2009-02-21T22:20:18Z")
Sharpton is perfectly sane. Greedy, possibly evil, but sane. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/29 "2009-02-21T23:13:49Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > The scary part of “Palin/Keyes 2012!” is that the results will almost certainly be that they will win something–certainly lots of electoral districts, and maybe a state or three. Doesn’t it scare you to realize this is a country where millions of your fellow citizens will cheerfully pull the lever that reads “Totally Batshit” rather than the one that reads “Sincere, Pretty Good President, Even If you Disagree with a Lot of What He Says”? It bothers me just a little more than knowing that the majority of voters in my state were willing to return a [confessed ethics violator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Hevesi#Controversy_regarding_a_chauffeur_for_Hevesi.27s_wife) to the one office in State gov’t which is supposed to police all other branches of the government. But only a little more. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/30 "2009-02-22T00:02:19Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [Start](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Controversy) with [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_sharpton#Activism). Some reminders: > > o 2.1 Bernhard Goetz > o 2.2 Howard Beach > o 2.3 Tawana Brawley controversy > o 2.4 Bensonhurst > o 2.5 National Action Network > o 2.6 Crown Heights Riot > o 2.7 Freddie’s Fashion Mart > o 2.8 Amadou Diallo > o 2.9 Vieques > o 2.10 Ousmane Zongo > o 2.11 Sean Bell > o 2.12 Dunbar Village Are you kidding me? Fear Itself already did a few. > [@](#): > > **Bernhard Goetz** - shot four African-American men on a New York subway train on December 22, 1984, when they approached him and allegedly tried to rob him. At his trial Goetz was cleared of all charges except criminal possession of a weapon. Sharpton led several marches protesing what he saw as the weak prosecution of the case. What’s so batshit crazy about protesting the dropped charges and weak prosecution? Oh, so they were trying to rob him, so shooting all 4 is ok? I think one shot would have deterred the others. Even in those Death Wish days, Goetz was cracked and deserved more than a slap on the wrist. > [@](#): > > **Howard Beach** - On December 20, 1986, three African-American men were assaulted in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens by a mob of white men. The three men were chased by their attackers onto the Belt Parkway, where one of them, Michael Griffith, was struck and killed by a passing motorist.[33] > > A week later, on December 27, Sharpton led 1,200 demonstrators on a march through the streets of Howard Beach. Residents of the neighborhood, who were overwhelmingly white, screamed racial epithets at the protesters, who were largely black. And Sharpton is the bad guy here…why? > [@](#): > > **Bensonhurst** - On August 23, 1989, four African-American teenagers were beaten by a group of 10 to 30 white youths in Bensonhurst, a Brooklyn neighborhood. One Bensonhurst resident, armed with a handgun, shot and killed sixteen-year-old Yusef Hawkins. > > In the weeks following the assault and murder, Sharpton led several marches through Bensonhurst. The first protest, just days after the incident, was greeted by neighborhood residents shouting “Niggers go home” and holding watermelons to mock the demonstrators. That one almost got him killed, when a racist stabbed him. > [@](#): > > **National Action Network** - Al Sharpton at National Action Network’s headquarters. > > In 1991, Sharpton founded the National Action Network to increase voter education, poverty services, and support small community businesses. Holy shit! Lock the man up, he’s obviously unhinged! **Crown Heights Riot** - That one’s complicated and I need to read more about it to try to figure it all out. Violence happened, but there’s no evidence that Sharpton encouraged people to be violent. Still, remarks made could point to Anti-semitism on Sharpton’s part, which while disgusting, isn’t batshit insane. > [@](#): > > **Freddie’s Fashion Mart** - In 1995, a black Pentecostal Church, the United House of Prayer, which owned a retail property on 125th Street, asked Fred Harari, a Jewish tenant who operated Freddie’s Fashion Mart, to evict his longtime subtenant, a black-owned record store called The Record Shack. Sharpton led a protest in Harlem against the planned eviction of The Record Shack.[46][47][48] Sharpton told the protesters, “We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.”[49] > > On 1995-12-08, Roland J. Smith Jr., one of the protesters, entered Harari’s store with a gun and flammable liquid, shot several customers and set the store on fire. The gunman fatally shot himself, and seven store employees died of smoke inhalation.[50][51] Fire Department officials discovered that the store’s sprinkler had been shut down, in violation of the local fire code.[52] Sharpton claimed that the perpetrator was an open critic of himself and his nonviolent tactics. Sharpton later expressed regret for making the racial remark, “white interloper,” and denied responsibility for inflaming or provoking the violence. I don’t see that Sharpton himself did anything wrong here. > [@](#): > > **Vieques** - In 2001, Sharpton was jailed for 90 days for protesting near a United States Navy bombing site in Puerto Rico. This is listed because Sharpton protested in the wrong spot? **Dunbar Village** , I’ll have to look into closer. He wasn’t saying the men were innocent or that their violence was ok or that they should be let go, it looks as if he was protesting how blacks were treated harsher than whites. I’ll give you **Tawana Brawley** , but even then, the _grand jury_ ruled that she lied. Maybe she did, or maybe she didn’t, I don’t know enough to say. Sharpton believed her, as did a lot of people, and with all the problems and racism among NYC police, how can you blame them? If Sharpton still believes that Tawana didn’t lie, that doesn’t make him batshit insane. Hell, as he mentions, a jury found OJ Simpson not guilty. Does that mean he didn’t kill his wife and Ron Goldman? So, how again do any of these things even begin to compare to the lies and assholishness of Alan Keyes? When has Alan Keyes done ANYTHING to help his community? When has Alan Keyes protested against police violence or racism? When has Alan Keyes helped anyone else? Basically, Al Sharpton is demonized because he’s a black man who stands up for his community. He’s wrong sometimes, as are we all, but he fights for what he believes in. I don’t always agree with him, but I admire him. ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/31 "2009-02-22T01:16:03Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > No, they endorsed him as someone willing to fund his campaign but who wasn’t Jim Oberweis. If the best someone could say about me was, “Well, he’s not Jim Oberweis,” I would kill myself. Slowly and painfully. Because I wouldn’t deserve to live. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/32 "2009-02-22T01:18:50Z")
Yes, Sharpton’s act is, at least in large part, calculated and even calibrated. But you know Keyes, by comparison, is sincerely batshit because, well, why exactly? :dubious: (And look, defending Sharpton in any way only gives the RW haters and _tu quoquists_ some solid basis for their own statements, okay? Best let him go, for the greater good) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/33 "2009-02-22T01:47:21Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Yes, Sharpton’s act is, at least in large part, calculated and even calibrated. But you know Keyes, by comparison, is sincerely batshit because, well, why exactly? :dubious: Because I read the OP. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > (And look, defending Sharpton in any way only gives the RW haters and _tu quoquists_ some solid basis for their own statements, okay? Best let him go, for the greater good) No. Sharpton may not always be right, but he’s done more good than bad. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/34 "2009-02-22T02:15:46Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Yes, Sharpton’s act is, at least in large part, calculated and even calibrated. But you know Keyes, by comparison, is sincerely batshit because, well, why exactly? :dubious: Did you _watch_ that video in the OP?? > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > (And look, defending Sharpton in any way only gives the RW haters and _tu quoquists_ some solid basis for their own statements, okay? Best let him go, for the greater good) Oh HELL NO! FUCK the RW haters in the ass with a razor blade. They shouldn’t be allowed to dictate the terms of who’s worthy of admiration or not. Fuck them! They made a joke out of Al Gore, one that even lefties perpetuate to this day (the internet thing). They demonized Michael Moore even though Moore was right about just about everything, to the point that even lefties shy away from and distance themselves from Moore. On and on. Now you’re telling me that I should not defend Sharpton in any way because any defense gives the RW a…what the fuck? “solid basis for their own statements”? What does that even mean? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/35 "2009-02-22T02:25:19Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I don’t see that Sharpton himself did anything wrong here. There was nothing wrong with the “white interloper” comment? Really? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/36 "2009-02-22T03:14:46Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > There was nothing wrong with the “white interloper” comment? Really? And he apologized for it. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/37 "2009-02-22T03:54:47Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > And he apologized for it. Yes, he did. And yet, you say: > [@](#): > > I don’t see that Sharpton himself did anything wrong here. Why do you say that? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/38 "2009-02-22T04:01:21Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > Why do you say that? Clearly, if you apologize for statements you realize were inappropriate, you are not batshit crazy. Now, you can still disagree with Sharpton, but that doesn’t put him in the same category of head-trauma crazy as Alan Keyes. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/39 "2009-02-22T04:18:46Z")
Just think. A shift of a few million votes in the 2004 US Senate race in Illinois and Alan Keyes might well now be our first black president. How about them apples? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821/40 "2009-02-22T04:20:34Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Clearly, if you apologize for statements you realize were inappropriate, you are not batshit crazy. Now, you can still disagree with Sharpton, but that doesn’t put him in the same category of head-trauma crazy as Alan Keyes. That’s not what **Equipoise** said. She said Sharpton didn’t anything wrong. Which is it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dang-alan-keyes-makes-michelle-bachman-look-like-little-miss-sunshine/486821.md?page=3)